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Andrew Westbrook

@awestbrook.bsky.social
963 followers 1.2K following 17 posts

Asst. Prof. Brain Modulation & Control Lab (bmclab.org) Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research Rutgers University Interested in: Cognitive control / working memory Motivation Neuromodulation Brain criticality

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Reposted by Andrew Westbrook
Carrisa V. Cocuzza, PhD (she/her) @carrisacocuzza.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
So excited to share that our study is out now in @natcomms.nature.com! 🧠🚨 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Big shout out to coauthors @sidchop.bsky.social @ashleasegal.bsky.social @loiclabache.bsky.social Rowena Chin Kaley Joss & @avramholmes.bsky.social
nature.com
Brain network dynamics reflect psychiatric illness status and transdiagnostic symptom profiles across health and disease - Nature Communications
Cocuzza et al. show that brain network dynamics are less flexible in psychiatric illness, and these patterns predict individual symptom profiles better than diagnoses, highlighting brain dynamics as a...
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Ahmad Beyh @ahmadbeyh.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
⚠️ Preprint alert ⚠️ How does the brain's fixed anatomy support flexible function? We explore this using recurrent neural networks with increasing levels of brain-like constraints, comparing them to empirical fMRI activity. (1/8) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Geometric constraints and cognitive inputs jointly shape emergent brain dynamics and topology
How the brain's physical geometry gives rise to its flexible functional repertoire remains a central question in neuroscience. Here, we trained three classes of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) on a w...
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Rutgers Brain Health Institute @rutgersbhi.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
📢Register Now! The Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR) at Rutgers University, in partnership with the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI), is hosting a three-day in-person training workshop on using MRI methods for human imaging brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu/2026/08/07/2...
brainhealthinstitute.rutgers.edu
A 3-Day Training Workshop at the Rutgers Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research - BHI
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Earl K. Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
News alert: New paper! Electric fields help guide neural activity, even from moment to moment “The brain is a rollicking sea of electrical influences” picower.mit.edu/news/electri... work by @pinotsislab.bsky.social #neuroscience
picower.mit.edu
Electric fields help guide neural activity, even from moment to moment
A new study adds evidence that electric fields in the brain help to organize and shape underlying neural activity via “ephaptic coupling.”
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Meghan Gallo @meghangallo.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
And we have a fantastic lineup of speakers: @brunoaverbeck.bsky.social , @noraharhen.bsky.social @lauraaberner.bsky.social , @angelaradulescu.bsky.social, @meghangallo.bsky.social, @awestbrook.bsky.social l, @KaushikLakshminarasimhan, @pf-hitchcock.bsky.social docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Forks in the Road - CCN 2026 Satellite Registration
Registration for Forks in the Road: Developmental Trajectories and Symptom Dynamics in Psychopathology, a mini-symposium in New York on Saturday, August 2, 2026, held alongside CCN 2026. You do not ne...
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Shervin Safavi @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
1/11 Happy to share our TICS paper on using the flexibility of one of the most basic cognitive functions, perception, to understand one of the most complex cognitive dysfunctions, psychiatric conditions (also my first formal work in computational psychiatry 🎉) 📄: www.cell.com/trends/cogni... 🧵 : 👇
cell.com
Perceptual multistability: a multifaceted window into brain dysfunctions
Perceptual multistability, observed across species and sensory modalities, offers valuable insights into numerous cognitive functions and dysfunctions. For instance, differences in temporal dynamics a...
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Carsen Stringer @computingnature.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
🚨🧠 Our paper is out! We introduce a simple computational model that generates macroscopic, long-timescale dynamics as seen in large-scale neural recordings. #neuroscience #dynamics @marius10p.bsky.social @zhong-lin.bsky.social @hhmijanelia.bsky.social Link: go.nature.com/4tRNjIu
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Amrita Lamba @amritalamba.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Recent preprint with Oriel FeldmanHall and Matt Nassar, showing clear neural evidence that adolescent (13-15 yrs) social media and smartphones use are associated with blunted reward signaling in the ventral striatum, the brain's reward processing hub, and worse mental health. osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Gagan Wig @gaganwig.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
We're hiring! FT research assistant @ UT Dallas Join our team to work on a longitudinal neuroimaging study of midlife brain aging. Strong opportunity for those interested in brain networks, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease risk. App. deadline May 6. Details: jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/31680
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Johannes Algermissen @johalgermissen.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Very happy our first paper using ultrasound stimulation (TUS) to stimulate the human amygdala (BLA) got out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social today! 🎉🥳🔊Great FUN with co-first authors @mirunmigyu.bsky.social @lilweb.bsky.social in @mkflugge.bsky.social 's lab! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Low-intensity focused ultrasound to human amygdala reveals a causal role in ambiguous emotion processing and alters local and network activity
The amygdala shows abnormal metabolism in depression, a disorder marked by altered emotion, motivation, and learning. Yet its causal role in these pro…
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 22/03/2026
And it’s well-known now too that research on-campus at NIH is being slowly choked to death. Scientists are leaving and not being replaced, lecture visits blocked, people are spending more and more time not on science but on fruitless paperwork seemingly created to stop progress.
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Arturo Dominguez @extremearturo.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
It is being reported on the ground in Cuba that everyone on a ventilator at this hospital died overnight. As a Cuban, I'm devastated.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Working on a NIH multiyear funding tracker... This looks at the amount of multiyear funding (grants having a budget period 366 days or longer) for new and competitive renewal awards divided by the total amount of new and competitive renewal award funding over the same period. 1/5
A line graph of the fraction of multiyear funding. The line for FY2025 increased in the last third of the year and the level in FY2026 is already high.
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
I have literally watched something like 5 hours of this DOGE bro testimony. I'm completely obsessed, it's weirdly captivating. The circular arguments, the disdain from everyone involved, a true pleasure to watch Follow 404 Media on Instagram (www.instagram.com/404mediaco/) for more like this
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Sam Wang @samwang.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Rutgers scientists and academics! Come out to meet-and-greet with me at Destination Dogs, New Brunswick. Who can say no to Destination Dogs? There will be food and drink! Wednesday March 11, 5-7pm RSVP: forms.gle/6AykuoTq23XW... (truthfully just show up...but RSVP helps us choose how many dogs!)
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 07/03/2026
got inspired by some questions from phd students the other day — and also really irritated by senior academics who seem to refuse to get the issues and continue to blame students; hope useful for you! 🩷 olivia.science/cheating
olivia.science
Why does cheating matter?
A personal anecdote and an appeal to junior colleagues.
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grimmrad 🧬🎼🖼️🏛️ @grimmrad.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
@standupforscience.bsky.social www.youtube.com/live/DEagenL... Live stream of the DC rally!! Given this here - Stand Up for Science!!
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Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇
nature.com
White House stalls release of approved US science budgets
The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.
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Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
"Private money cannot replace public funding of science" Thank you @naomioreskes.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪 🌊 ⚒️ #scipol
science.org
Private money cannot replace public funding of science
Who should pay for American science? In the current political climate, many are looking to the private sector to compensate for cuts in public funding. At the Harvard School of Public Health—particula...
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Jan R. Wessel @janw.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
If you know anyone that has made a similar experience and is willing to talk on the record to a reporter about this, please get in touch. Thanks :)
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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Please stop saying the bill allows "no more multi-year funding" - or at least be clear the 'more' is in reference to disastrous FY25 levels. The bill allows 39% MYF, same as in FY25, which contributed substantially to a 24% drop in new research. The bill has some wins. MYF is not one of them.
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Sam Wang @samwang.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
News from central Jersey: I'm running to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come! samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
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Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
The final LHHS bill with funding for Health and Human Services is out this morning! At first glance, it looks similar to the Senate bill with a roughly 1% increase in total funding for the NIH. While it doesn't match inflation, it avoids many of the problems in the presidential budget request. 1/n
NIH biomedical research funding.
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
A new PNAS paper finds that polarization increased immediately after the invention of smartphones and the advent of social media, which both appeared around the same year, 2008. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Martha W. Alibali @marthaalibali.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
New job opening in social psychology at UW-Madison! at the associate prof level. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/associa...
jobs.wisc.edu
Associate Professor - Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...
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Arne Ekstrom @adekstreme.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
We are hiring an assistant professor in cognitive neural systems in the department of psychology at the university of arizona. please use this link to check out the requirements and apply! arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...
arizona.csod.com
Assistant Professor, Psychology (T/TE)
Duties & Responsibilities:Publishing peer-reviewed scholarly works.Maintaining an active research program.Obtaining extramural funding.Teaching un...
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Harrison Ritz @hritz.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Another nail in the coffin for PCA? - doesn’t linearize, distorting similarity metrics - is biased by temporal jitter across epochs - may miss important dimensions for transient amplification If you think there is a state space, use a state space model!
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David Hsu @dhsu.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Day Zero arrives for Tehran, a city of TEN million people.
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Ross Otto @arossotto.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
New pontification piece with @awestbrook.bsky.social and Jean Daunizeau, just out in TICS: Why is cognitive effort experienced as costly? (or why does it hurt to think) never written a review paper before in my life, that was a new and unusual experience
cell.com
Why is cognitive effort experienced as costly?
A widespread observation is that people avoid mentally effortful courses of action, and much recent work examining cognitive effort has explained subjective effort evaluation – and, consequently, pref...
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annecollins.bsky.social @annecollins.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
My paper is out! Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets. rdcu.be/eQjLN
rdcu.be
A habit and working memory model as an alternative account of human reward-based learning
Nature Human Behaviour - In this study, Collins proposes an alternative dual-process (working memory and habit) model of reinforcement learning in humans.
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Xi Chen @xichen.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
🚨Please join us today (Monday 11/17) at 4pm in Room 4 to #AskAnything to Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Neuroscience @sfnjournals.bsky.social Dr. Sabine Kastner about scientific publishing and our board! Early career researchers are especially welcome! @sfn.org #Sfn2025 #SfN25
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Rutgers Brain Health Institute @rutgersbhi.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
🎉 Dr. Linden Parkes, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at @rwjms.bsky.social and Core Faculty Member of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute, has been named one of The Transmitter’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025! @thetransmitter.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...
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Andrew Westbrook @awestbrook.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
What does brain criticality have to do with cognitive effort and cognitive flexibility? Come check out work by Dr. Li Xin Lim - postdoc in the lab - on Monday from 8 to 12 at (Board OO6) to find out. Here we come #SfN2025!
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Another new policy from the geniuses in NIH leadership. Apparently, ~70% of grant applications for most mechanisms will not be "triaged", i.e. not discussed at study section. This is an increase from the ~50% level that has been in place for many years. I don't know the rationale for this 1/13
media.tenor.com
a man with a beard is looking at the camera with the words priorities written on the bottom
ALT: a man with a beard is looking at the camera with the words priorities written on the bottom
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Harrison Ritz @hritz.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Come check out my SFN nano talk @ 4:15 on Sunday, especially if you’re interested in: - spicy debates in task switching - using control theory to compare latent dynamical systems fit to RNNs and EEG eppro02.ativ.me/appinfo.php?... Stay for the whole ‘Adaptive Choice’ symposium!
eppro02.ativ.me
Neuroscience 2025
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Andrew Westbrook @awestbrook.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Going to SfN this year? Come share your science journey with @investnscience.bsky.social — from the questions that drive your work to the breakthroughs that inspire you. We are a group of scientists highlighting how science benefits everyone. DM me to sign up or with any questions!
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investNscience @investnscience.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Don’t you hate when you buy something from a vending machine and it gets stuck? Dopamine tells your brain that the outcome wasn’t what you expected. You've probably heard about dopamine as the "feel-good hormone", but it does so much more!
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
This piece is as good as people say it is. Read it to appreciate that writing isn't just about content, but style. AI can't do this.
lithub.com
Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani
It’s remarkable, the people you’ll hear from. Teach for even a little while at an expensive institution—the term they tend to prefer is “elite”—and odds are that eventually someone who was a studen…
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Allen Tien, MD, MHS mdlogix.com 94,698 田一彦 @allentien.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
#MeaslesIsADangerousVirus www.linkedin.com/posts/christ...
linkedin.com
The CDC just confirmed what pediatricians have been dreading: Measles is surging across America. A disease we eliminated in 2000 is back because vaccination rates have fallen below the threshold… | C...
The CDC just confirmed what pediatricians have been dreading: Measles is surging across America. A disease we eliminated in 2000 is back because vaccination rates have fallen below the threshold that...
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investNscience @investnscience.bsky.social · 02/11/2025
How does drinking alcohol shape the aging brain? @neuronikki.bsky.social studies how heavy drinking impacts neurons as we age. Research has shown that alcohol use disorder (AUD) in middle age increases the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia - but how?
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Vanessa Brown (she/her) @vanessabrown.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
I am recruiting a postdoc for a new NIMH-funded R01 using neural and behavioral models to understand anxious avoidance. Please share with anyone who may be interested! Link: faculty-emory.icims.com/jobs/155929/...
Screenshot with text: 
The Computational Mechanisms of Psychopathology Lab (COMPLab; PI: Vanessa Brown, PhD) is recruiting for a postdoctoral fellow to join the lab. Research in the lab uses behavioral tasks (administered in-lab and remotely), functional and structural imaging, computational modeling, and mechanistic interventions (brief psychotherapy, neuromodulation) to investigate learning alterations in
anxiety and related disorders. In particular, this position will support research funded by a new NIH R01 using predictive and generative modeling of threat imminence to understand and manipulate avoidance in anxiety.

 

This position is ideal for someone with a background in some combination of behavior/learning theory approaches to anxiety, computational modeling of behavior, and fMRI analysis; and who wishes to gain or deepen expertise in these areas. The postdoctoral fellow will be expected to design experiments, analyze data, present and publish findings, apply for external funding, and assist with
training other lab members and with lab management. Dr. Brown and the COMP Lab are strongly committed to mentorship, and support will be provided to assist the postdoctoral fellow to prepare for an independent research career.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
An earlier piece by @teorth.bsky.social about the US scientific ecosystem.
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Joshua Goodman @joshua-goodman.com · 17/10/2025
Wow. This is the paper I have been waiting for. Mobile apps are brain rot, with meaningfully bad economic consequences for those who overuse them.
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Mattia Chini @mattiachini.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
jneurosci.org
Functional connectivity is dominated by aperiodic, rather than oscillatory, coupling
Functional connectivity (FC) has attracted significant interest in the identification of specific circuits underlying brain (dys-)function. Classical analyses to estimate FC ( i.e ., filtering electro...
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 04/10/2025
Sometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.
sites.stat.columbia.edu
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2025
Proud to talk about defending the Constitution in front of the Capitol this week. We are seeing the greatest assault on our freedoms of our lifetimes. The shredding of the Constitution must stop. The lawlessness must stop. And Congress can and must stop it.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
The fiscal year is over. So how was the NIH appropriation committed? A long thread with institute by institute results about where the money went.
media.tenor.com
a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .
ALT: a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .
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Lucina Uddin @lucinauddin.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...
thetransmitter.org
NIH awarded 37 percent fewer neuroscience-related grants in 2025 than in past years
But the agency has spent nearly its entire budget for this fiscal year, which ends tomorrow.
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