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Heidi Jacobs

@heidijacobslab.bsky.social
1.3K followers 639 following 419 posts

Associate Prof @MGH @HarvardMed @MaastrichtUni | Locus coeruleus & other neuromodulators in early detection and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease | 3T MRI, 7T MRI, PET, tVNS, pharmacological manipulations www.heidijacobs.org

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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
*** Postdoc Position*** We have a unique opportunity for a postdoc with expertise in MRS/fMRS to investigate neurochemical changes in aging and Alzheimer's disease at MGH in Boston!! (Deadline extended)
Postdoc position in fMRS in Boston
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Imaging Brainstem Health | COST Action 24118 @ca24118.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Many of our members extended their stay in Innsbruck after our General Meeting to attend the Locus Coeruleus Meeting @lcmeeting.bsky.social Great showcase of our community’s work across talks & posters 📊, plus an intro to our COST Action! Many thanks to the organizers!
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Omer Sharon @omersharon.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Another postdoc piece out today in @natneuro.nature.com! 🧠💤 In unimpaired older adults, frontal tau pathology tracked with lonely NREM slow waves that fail to travel — and these waves predicted worse overnight memory. full-text: rdcu.be/jDcgH2sK8VZa @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social 🧵👇
nature.com
Human tau pathology is associated with lonely, nontraveling slow waves linked to memory impairment - Nature Neuroscience
Frontal cortical tau pathology in aging humans is associated with reduced slow-wave travel during sleep. This reduced propagation is associated with poorer overnight memory retention, supporting a lin...
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Bernie Mulvey @berniejmulvey.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Excited to share work with cryostat wizard @heenadivecha.bsky.social looking at gene expression in my favorite brain region (LC) in adult postmortem brain! (Long URL to spare the trouble of identifying cars, buses, beds in 5x5 pixel imgs). (1/x) link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007...
link.springer.com
Molecular programs in human locus coeruleus link APOE and neuromelanin to Alzheimer’s vulnerability
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Simon Schultz @simonschultz.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Our latest paper is now online at Advanced Science. Li et al, Early spatial and contextual coding deficits in hippocampal CA1 precede performance decline in an Alzheimer’s disease model. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Early Spatial and Contextual Coding Deficits in Hippocampal CA1 Precede Performance Decline in an Alzheimer's Disease Model
Two-photon calcium imaging in behaving 5xFAD mice reveals early CA1 coding deficits before behavioral decline. Task-related place cell activity and splitter cell trajectory coding are impaired, with ....
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Bryan Roth @zenbrainest.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Astrocytes mediate the dopaminergic modulation of tonic GABAergic signaling in substantia nigra | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Astrocytes mediate the dopaminergic modulation of tonic GABAergic signaling in substantia nigra
Recent studies have implicated dopaminergic signaling within the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) in the emergence of Parkinsonian motor deficits. To better understand the mechanisms underlying ...
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Imaging Brainstem Health | COST Action 24118 @ca24118.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
That's a wrap on our COST Action General Meeting in Innsbruck! ⛰️ Two days of high-impact discussions advancing brainstem research, clinical applications, and international collaboration. Key highlights from the meeting below 👇
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The Lancet Medical Imaging & Theranostics @lancetimaging.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
📢 We’ve published our first issue! Read and download our inaugural issue here ➡️ www.thelancet.com/issue/S3117-... Thank you to our authors and reviewers for their valuable contributions ✨ As a gold open access journal, our content is free to read by everyone, always. #OA #MedSky #RadSky
Image ALT text: Representative images of individuals with different NMN BBB scores. The left column shows contrast enhanced MRI brain scans and the right column shows the fusion of the MRI scans and PET scans of these same individuals.  The top row corresponds to an individual with a NMN BBB score of 2 as minor parts of PET-positive volume show contrast enhancement on MRI. The bottom row corresponds to an individual with a NMN BBB score of 5 as the PET positive volume shows complete contrast enhancement on MRI. 
Copyright: The authors, Nathalie Albert and colleagues. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
🚨Now out in Science Advances @science.org: #Parkinson's patients off dopamine medication (PD-) explore too much and exploit too little. Modeling shows they overvalue uncertainty, not that they choose randomly. On levodopa (PD+) they become comparable to controls www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧵👇
science.org
Dopamine depletion in Parkinson’s increases directed but not random exploration
Levodopa restores the balance between exploration and exploitation in Parkinson’s disease.
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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Excited to share our latest work: Inspired by animal work, we demonstrate that astrocyte reactivity amplifies the effect of lower #locuscoeruleus function on higher ptau, and these processes together are associated with steeper cognitive decline. alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Astrocyte reactivity modifies the effects of locus coeruleus norepinephrine‐related dysfunction on tau and its impact on cognition
INTRODUCTION Animal models demonstrated that pharmacologically-induced lesioning of the locus coeruleus (LC), the brain's primary source of norepinephrine, triggered astrocyte reactivity, exacerbati...
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Earl K. Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The primate claustrum as a hub for precision weighting of prediction errors across the cortical hierarchy. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... #neuroscience
journals.plos.org
The primate claustrum as a hub for precision weighting of prediction errors across the cortical hierarchy
Understanding how signals are exchanged across the cerebral cortex is a central challenge for theories of perception and cognition. This Essay puts forward a roadmap for investigating cortical network...
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Emre Yaksi @emreyaksi.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
🧠 A new paper from our lab is out! In this study, we explore how dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) circuits modulate forebrain activity and behavior. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Topographically organized dorsal raphe activity modulates forebrain sensory-motor representations and contributes to defensive behaviors - Nature Communications
Functional heterogeneity of dorsal raphe nucleus is not fully understood. Here authors show topographically organized sensory and locomotor responses from the zebrafish dorsal raphe and its forebrain ...
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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Acetylcholine: a candidate substrate for hippocampal predictive learning? - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Predictive models have emerged as a normative lens for understanding neural function. In this Perspective, de Cothi, Shipley and Barry plausibly unify the diverse roles of hippocampal acetylcholine in...
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Keri Martinowich @martinowk.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
I am so excited to get to share this paper that extends our work on understanding how circuitry between locus coeruleus and prefrontal cortex control attention. Just huge congrats to @rehg-j.bsky.social and @jorge-miranda.bsky.social - I am so proud of both of you 💙💙!!!
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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
LC influences OFC probablistic learning www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Orbitofrontal noradrenaline supports adaptive learning-rate adjustment in probabilistic reversal learning | PNAS
Adaptive decision-making in dynamic environments requires flexible adjustment of learning speed to balance stability and flexibility. When outcomes...
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Alzheimer's Association @alzassociation.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
"When I look around this room, I see the people who are committed to celebrating our similarities and discussing our differences of opinion. Committed to seeing our field progress. Committed to global healthy aging. And committed to training the next generation of leaders.”
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Science X / Phys.org @sciencex.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Fluoxetine did not affect serotonin neurons as one uniform group. In the dorsal raphe nucleus, two populations shifted in opposite directions, with one response appearing early and another later. doi.org/hb6z8d
medicalxpress.com
New map reveals how antidepressants reshape the brain's serotonin system
A new study has uncovered how antidepressants affect different groups of serotonin-producing brain cells in opposite ways, offering new insights into why selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can cause unpleasant side effects at the start of treatment but lead to symptom relief over time.
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
And for our own contribution to the theme issue: Oliver Warrington and I show that the dentate gyrus encodes prediction errors during learning of perceptual predictions. This finding complements our previous work showing a transition from errors to predictions during learning (Aitken & Kok 2022). 🧠🟦
royalsocietypublishing.org
Dentate gyrus encodes prediction errors during learning of perceptual predictions
Abstract. The hippocampus is involved in learning predictive associations, responding to prediction errors as well as representing predictions of future in
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Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
How do we update our predictions when our environment changes? The hippocampus rapidly integrates previously distinct sequences to support updated predictions. New work w/ @hannahtarder-stoll.bsky.social & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social – part of the theme issue on hippocampal predictions!
royalsocietypublishing.org
The hippocampus rapidly integrates sequence representations during novel multistep predictions
Abstract. Memories for temporally extended sequences can be used adaptively to predict future events on multiple timescales, a function that relies on the
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Neuropsychopharmacology @npp-journal.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Norepinephrine signaling in the locus coeruleus causally regulates decision thresholds, a key determinant of the speed-accuracy tradeoff
nature.com
Regulation of the decision threshold by the locus coeruleus
Neuropsychopharmacology - Regulation of the decision threshold by the locus coeruleus
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Darya Frank @darya-frank.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
📣 Thrilled to share our recent work in @natneuro.nature.com. Using direct recordings from the human hippocampus and visual cortex, we asked how the brain prepares to encode information when upcoming events are unpredictable, and what ripples do in that process. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Human hippocampal ripples tune cortical responses based on predicted uncertainty - Nature Neuroscience
Using direct recordings from the human brain, Frank et al. show that hippocampal ripples increase ahead of unpredictable events and tune the visual cortex to respond faster and more strongly to surpri...
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Vidita Vaidya @viditavaidya.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Excited to see this study from @darshanakapri out in @npp_journal showing norepinephrine regulates mitochondria within hippocampal neurons via a β2-AR–Gs-cAMP–PKA-PGC-1α cascade, suggesting links between NE effects on mitochondria and cognition. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Norepinephrine regulates hippocampal mitochondrial biogenesis via β2-adrenergic receptor signaling and PGC-1α - Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology - Norepinephrine regulates hippocampal mitochondrial biogenesis via β2-adrenergic receptor signaling and PGC-1α
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Cholinergic and noradrenergic modulation of perceptual decision making and learning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student, funded by a new ERC grant. The grant focuses on the role of the hippocampus in visual perception, using 7T fMRI (hippocampal subfields, cortical layers) and MEG+iEEG. The intended start dates for both positions are in early 2027. 🧠🟦 1/3
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davidweinshenker.bsky.social @davidweinshenker.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Interested in how dysregulation of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine circuits contribute to neuropsychiatric symptoms in early Alzheimer's disease? Check out our new review article from freshly minted Dr. Anu Korukonda! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A new hope: locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system at the nexus of neuropsychiatric symptoms - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - A new hope: locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system at the nexus of neuropsychiatric symptoms
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davidweinshenker.bsky.social @davidweinshenker.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The UK National Institute for Health and Care Research developed a systematic drug prioritization pipeline to identify repurposed drug candidates for inclusion in a planned platform trial for clinical AD. The norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor atomoxetine came in #1. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42186115/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Checking your browser - reCAPTCHA
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Caswell Barry @caswell.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Really excited about this work with the awesome Will de Cothi & Sarah Shipley, just out in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. We propose acetylcholine is an analogue of dopamine — tracking not reward prediction errors but state-transition prediction errors. doi.org/10.1038/s41583-026-01058-w
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Quirin Gehmacher @quiringehmacher.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
New preprint w/ @akalt.bsky.social, Juliane Schubert, Nathan Weisz, & @clarepress.bsky.social 🎉 Predictive-brain accounts treat "prediction error" as one signal. We find it's two jobs, in two dissociable systems. And one of them you can watch in the pupil, as people listen to a story. 🧵 (1/9)
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Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Niek Stevenson, Steven Miletić, and Birte U. Forstmann: Building bridges between brain and behavior: An open-source toolbox for joint modeling with fMRI doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
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Thomas Yeo @bttyeo.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
For those attending @ohbmofficial.bsky.social @ohbmtrainees.bsky.social come check out our poster on E/I imbalance in pre-dementia individuals and the relationships with blood/CSF biomarkers. Poster 1059 Stand-by time: Monday, June 15 | 13:45-14:45 & Tuesday, June 16 | 12:30-13:30
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Tim Lawn @timlawn.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I'll be presenting two posters at OHBM this week - come say hi! [0510] Spatial collinearity constrains multivariate molecular enriched network estimation ↳ Monday & Tuesday [1985] Locus Coeruleus Connectivity Confers Cognitive Resilience in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease ↳ Wednesday & Thursday
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Jan R. Wessel @janw.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Here's a bit of unusual work on error processing and error awareness from our lab, which we've been working on off and on for around eight years: www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S245... Details in thread
biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org
Pupil dilation indexes – but does not causally influence – conscious error detection: a double-blind, placebo-controlled investigation of performance-monitoring using atomoxetine.
Conscious error detection is accompanied by error-related changes in phasic autonomic activity. This autonomic response is diminished in older age – accompanied by impairments in the conscious detecti...
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Christoffer G. Alexandersen @cgalexandersen.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
🧠 New paper out in 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯 Why does tau pathology often begin in the entorhinal cortex in Alzheimer’s disease? We show that brain-wide gradients of neuronal activity and amyloid-β may make this region particularly vulnerable to tau pathology. academic.oup.com/brain/articl...
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Natale R. Sciolino, PhD @sciolinolab.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
1/ New preprint from our lab: “Locus coeruleus activation transforms cortical taste representations” We asked how a major neuromodulatory system reshapes cortical taste coding toward behaviorally meaningful features. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Exciting progress, lots of new things coming!! Today we tested our new sequential predictive processing task in the new Cima.X scanner with new sequences and our eye-tracker system (now redesigned from 7T to 3T setup)! #locuscoeruleus @mghmartinos.bsky.social
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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Postdoc opportunity to investigate the role of noradrenaline in Alzheimer's disease. Require: strong fMRI (fMRS) skills and interest in predictive coding. The Martinos Center in Boston is a superb place to work. Reach out for info; I will be in London (AAIC) and NL in July shorturl.at/1HSey
shorturl.at
Postdoc at MGH | Heidi Jacobs
Postdoctoral opportunity to work on understanding the role of the noradrenergic system in Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology and symptoms. The focus is on integrating 3T and 7T MRI (sMRI, fMRI, MRS)...
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Mike Yassa @mikeyassa.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I am recruiting an exceptional postdoc to join my lab at UC Irvine. Must be a productive researcher with experience in functional neuroimaging, network neuroscience, AI/ML, who is interested in aging, neuropsychiatric or neurodegenerative illness. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/44...
linkedin.com
UC Irvine hiring Postdoctoral Researcher in Irvine, CA | LinkedIn
Posted 12:31:04 AM. Postdoctoral Fellow – Neuroimaging, Network Neuroscience & AI/ML in Cognitive DisordersYassa Lab |…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
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Science Magazine @science.org · 28/05/2026
Recent studies have revealed the synchronization of neuromodulators including norepinephrine, serotonin, acetylcholine, dopamine, and histamine during sleep. A new #ScienceReview explores what potential role the synchronization of these oscillations may play in health. scim.ag/3PEGdsW
scim.ag
The oscillatory biology of sleep: Linkage to dementia
During wakefulness, neuromodulators operate largely independently to support behavior and cognition. By contrast, sleep reorganizes their activity into a coordinated brain rhythm. During sleep, the ma...
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Molecular Neurodegeneration @molneurodegen.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Dual orexin receptor antagonism with lemborexant enhances #microglial clearance of β-#amyloid in mice Ashish Sharma, Emiko Segawa, Xiaoying Chen...Erik S. Musiek @washumedicine.bsky.social #Sleep #AlzheimersDisease link.springer.com/article/10.1...
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
The locus coeruleus, which provides norepinephrine to the rest of the brain, is even more spatially and functionally diverse than previously thought, new findings suggest. By Holly Barker www.thetransmitter.org/locus-coerul...
thetransmitter.org
Brain’s blue spot possesses unexpected structure-function ties
The arrangement of locus coeruleus neurons in mice points to how the structure mediates specific effects across the brain, a new study shows.
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Mike Greicius @mikegreicius.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
🧪 #alzheimer #amyloid Amazing new paper from @sfackley.bsky.social that exposes the statistical alchemy Lilly applied to their donanemab data: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... There is little to no correlation between amyoid removal and clinical outcomes with donanemab (or lecanemab).
jamanetwork.com
Methodological Considerations for Quantile Aggregation in Alzheimer Disease Trials
This study evaluates the quantile-aggregation method using both simulated data and publicly available Alzheimer disease randomized trial data.
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Thomas Yeo @bttyeo.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
In a meta-analysis of 210 biomedical AI studies that statistically compared models under cross-validation, 97% used invalid statistical tests. Here's our new preprint doi.org/10.64898/202... led by @tianchu.bsky.social @hetuli.bsky.social @shaoshiz.bsky.social @nichols.bsky.social 1/N
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Jess Cardin @jess-cardin.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Do brain circuits really sit in a 'soup' of neuromodulators? Are neurons like soggy bits of bread soaked in signaling factors? Is the whole brain just squelching around in one big pool of warm modulators?
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Jamie Cockcroft @jamiecockcroft.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
New paper out: Short review of Rait et al. (2025) on hippocampal drift and memory organisation. doi.org/10.1523/JNEU... #SoloAuthor #JoN #JournalClub
doi.org
Shifts in Context Affect Hippocampal Activity and the Sequence of Recall
People often find that memories linked to the same place or period come to mind together. Visiting a former workplace can prompt recall of events that had not been thought about for years, such as con...
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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Impressive PhD defense on depression, tau and serotonin by Teodora Markova from @anneberry.bsky.social ‘s lab @brandeisuniversity.bsky.social today!! Congrats Dr.Markova!
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Heidi Jacobs @heidijacobslab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Thrilled to share that, supported by @brightfocus.bsky.social we are going to use new MRI-PET methods to examine what happens in the serotonergic system during aging/Alzheimer disease, and what that means for cognition/behavior. #raphenucleus With:@leatgrinberg.bsky.social, @joyitadutta.bsky.social
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Karin Roelofs @epanlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
PhD Position: Computational Affective Neuroscience and Ultrasonic Neuromodulation at @dondersinst.bsky.social >Passionate about ultrasonic modulation? Come and join us! funded by @erc.europa.eu HEART2ADAPT @epanlab.bsky.social in coll. with @lennartverhagen.bsky.social www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
ru.nl
PhD Position: Computational Affective Neuroscience and Ultrasound Neuromodulation | Radboud University
Do you want to work as a PhD 'Computational Affective Neuroscience and Neuromodulation' at the Faculty of Social Sciences? Check our vacancy!
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Sara Mehrhof @saramehrhof.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Excited to share our new paper asking a simple question: Why do mental and metabolic health so often go hand in hand? We (@camillanord.bsky.social @hugofleming.bsky.social) tested whether shared neurocognitive signatures play a role in this relationship www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Computational phenotyping of effort-based decision-making in type-2 diabetes on and off semaglutide - Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology - Computational phenotyping of effort-based decision-making in type-2 diabetes on and off semaglutide
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David Clewett @davidclewett.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Can you make your life feel “longer” in retrospect? Add a dose of change and novelty in the present to later expand memories of your past. Excited to share our work on how dopamine-related processing bends memory to reflect the passage of distinct events. newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/can...
newsroom.ucla.edu
Can dopamine bend time to shape memory?
The brain may use dopamine to expand time between distinct events, enabling us to remember unique episodes.
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