iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

At University of Bristol today to conduct a MSc and PhD viva (on the same day). It's been a nice week of academic tourism! 😄

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

At the University of Edinburgh today !

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

Happiness = haggis bonbons and whisky in Edinburgh 😋

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

An afternoon stroll in Edinburgh !

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Finally, we used retrograde viral tracing to label PL→PVT and PL→NAc neurons and examined their recruitment after EE. We focused on these pathways because they process cue-related information and coordinate reward seeking. EE reduced recruitment of PL→PVT neurons, but not PL→NAc neurons. 8/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Next, we used ex vivo electrophysiology and found that EE increased the general, ‘baseline’ (before cue exposure) excitability of PL inhibitory interneurons, but not pyramidal cells. This suggests that EE enhances the ability to inhibit local neuronal activity. 7/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

First, we found that environmental enrichment (EE) not only reduced cue-evoked sucrose seeking but also decreased sucrose solution consumption in the home cage. These findings suggest that EE lowers the motivational value of sucrose, thereby diminishing sucrose cue reactivity. 6/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

We previously provided such stimulation via environmentally enriched (EE) housing (e.g. large cage, tunnels, exercise wheels). EE reduced cue-evoked sucrose seeking and neuronal ensemble activity in prelimbic cortex (PL), a brain area that controls motivated actions like reward seeking. 4/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Background: Cognitive (playing Tetris) and physical (exercise) stimulation reduces food cravings and cue reactivity. Not surprisingly, health agencies such as UK National Health Services (NHS) recommends such accessible, non-pharmacological interventions to control food cravings! 3/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Our article “Environmental Enrichment Suppresses Food Seeking and Increases Inhibitory Interneuron Excitability While Decreasing Corticothalamic Neuronal Recruitment in the Prelimbic Cortex” is now out on @ejneuroscience.bsky.social Read it here: tinyurl.com/2dbnk5c2 Highlights below 👇 1/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

The microscope we used together (pictured below just before his retirement) was where many of these lessons were learned.

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

I recently learned that my PhD mentor, Pieter Voorn, passed away at the age of 70. He was a superb, ‘classical’ neuroanatomist at VU Medical Center in Amsterdam, working alongside Gloria Meredith, Henk Groenewegen, Harry Uylings, and Chris Wright.

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Flight back has been cancelled so must spend another day in Almeria! Not a bad place to get stranded ! 😁

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Seen today in Brighton: Old-school, non-LLM, analogue spell checking! 😄

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Seen today in Brighton: A tribute to Pac-man on wheels! 😄

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

The Shoya House at The Huntington, San Marino, CA. A house built in the Edo period 300 years ago in Marugame Japan. It was disassembled there and reassembled at The Huntington. Amazing !

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Friday happiness=yakitori and Suntory Premium Malts at Torikizoku! 😋

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Together, impaired neuronal food cue processing from simultaneous prefrontal excitatory 'overdrive' and inhibitory 'underdrive' likely underlies EE's anti-food seeking action, thereby serving as potential neurophysiological targets to develop novel medications that help control food cravings. 13/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

So increased gas pedal action might mean decreased braking action? We measured Fos in PL inhibitory interneurons. EE reduced recruitment of cue-reactive, inhibitory interneurons reflecting 'inhibitory underdrive', so decreased braking. 11/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

How does EE impact PL pyramidal cell activity in vivo? We used fibre photometry and measured GCaMP activity and revealed that EE induced a loss of cue specificity and general elevation of PL pyramidal cell activity in vivo during sucrose seeking. So another case of excitatory ‘overdrive’! 😲10/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

How does EE impact reactivation of this ‘originally’ (before EE) cue-reactive, pyramidal cell ensemble? Following EE, we measured tdTomato and Fos expression in FosTRAP2:Ai14 mice after testing for cue-evoked sucrose seeking. Ensemble neurons were reactivated despite decreased sucrose seeking! 😲9/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Might EE tap into this cue-reactive ensemble? We used FosTRAP2:Ai14 mice and measured excitability in tdTomato+ and – pyramidal cells. EE boosted the baseline excitability of 'originally', or before EE exposure, cue-reactive, excitatory pyramidal cells in PL, resulting in neuronal ‘overdrive’. 😲 8/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

First, in FosTRAP2 mice, we tagged cue-reactive PL neurons with hM4Di. Chemogenetic inhibition of cue-reactive neurons in PL blocked cue-evoked sucrose seeking, thereby confirming the function of these neurons in sucrose cue memory. 7/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

We previously saw that cue-evoked food seeking is controlled via fine-tuning neuronal ensemble recruitment and excitability. Here we investigated how EE promoted suppression of cue-evoked sucrose seeking through modulating excitability- and activity-related properties of PL neurons. 6/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Previously, we provided such stimulation via environmentally enriched (EE) housing (e.g. large cage, tunnels, exercise wheels). EE reduced cue-evoked sucrose seeking and neuronal ensemble activity in prelimbic cortex (PL), a brain area that controls motivated actions like reward seeking. 5/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Interestingly, cognitive (playing Tetris) and physical (exercise) stimulation reduces food cravings and cue reactivity. In fact, UK National Health Services (NHS) recommends such accessible, non-pharmacological interventions to control food cravings! 4/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Background: Stimuli or ‘cues’ associated with food (e.g. fast-food advertisement) can provoke food cravings, which may make us overeat. As such, we want to control our cravings. But how do we suppress such food cue reactivity and what are the brain mechanisms behind this suppression? 3/n

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Our article “Prelimbic cortical excitatory overdrive and inhibitory underdrive accompany environmental suppression of food seeking” recently came out on @‪npp-journal.bsky.social‬. tinyurl.com/5xpd9ay5 Want to learn more? The thread is below: 1/n‬‬‬

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Nice views of Arundel this afternoon!

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Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Many years ago I found this book at a used bookstore in Brighton by Louis-Antoine Ranvier dated 1889. Although I don't understand any French, it was still cool to see drawings of microscopes that were used back then! (Not sure it this is the microscope he used to discover those famous 'nodes')