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Mazen Kheirbek

@mazenkheirbek.bsky.social
566 followers 290 following 9 posts

Neuroscientist at UCSF www.kheirbeklab.org

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Mazen Kheirbek @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Our new review is out now on the ventral hippocampus, highlighting a large body of recent work, from the information it represents to how internal state shapes its activity to how its circuits influence behavior.
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Mazen Kheirbek @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
New preprint from the lab. @markgergues.bsky.social and crew show that the PVT gates ventral hippocampal salience coding, shifting output between threat- and reward-weighted representations during associative learning and anxiety-related behavior. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
vCA1 SST neurons represent avoidance states that guide anxiety-related behavioral choices www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Reposted by Mazen Kheirbek
Josh Johansen @jojolab.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Excited to share our new paper: We uncover a locus coeruleus→amygdala circuit linking β-adrenergic signaling to transcription regulation in defined amygdala cells during memory reconsolidation—+ stress or elevated noradrenergic signaling at recall can strengthen memory. www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...
cell.com
A neuromodulatory circuit-to-molecular pathway for reformatting aversive memories during recall
Tan et al. identify a neuromodulatory circuit-to-molecular pathway in rats that updates aversive memories when they are recalled. Noradrenaline from the locus coeruleus triggers synapse-to-nuclear tra...
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Martin Kampmann @kampmann.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Apply by Oct 15 - please spread the word!
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Mazen Kheirbek @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
New paper from the lab, from Jeremy Biane and team, out today, characterizing the principles of stimulus feature coding in populations of ventral CA1 neurons.
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Vikaas Sohal @vikaassohal.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
New work! Learning is assumed to involve synaptic plasticity, but which specific synapses change to enable higher order cognitive functions? We actually find that cognitive flexibility involves potentiation of long-range GABAergic synapses from prefrontal PV neurons: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Synaptic plasticity of prefrontal long-range inhibition regulates cognitive flexibility
While glutamatergic synaptic plasticity is believed to be a fundamental mechanism mediating learning, the behavioral significance of plasticity at cortical GABAergic synapses remains less well underst...
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Reposted by Mazen Kheirbek
Alexandra Klein @aexolowski.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Come to our symposium tomorrow morning at #NeuroFrance2025 if you want to hear about extero- and interoceptive impact on emotions!
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Josh Johansen @jojolab.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
I’m excited to share a new paper from the lab. The study led by Xiaowei Gu reveals how the mPFC encodes complex emotional memories, using an internal model to infer emotional associations and memories via projections to the amygdala. a🧵(1/8) rdcu.be/el19t
rdcu.be
Prefrontal encoding of an internal model for emotional inference
Nature - Neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encode a flexible internal model of emotion by linking directly experienced and inferred associations with aversive experiences.
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Paul Frankland @franklandlab.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Sharing a new paper from the lab. This paper, led by Sangyoon Ko, represents a merging of two longstanding research themes in the lab-- adult neurogenesis and systems consolidation. rdcu.be/el18q A short thread follows for those interested. 1/n
rdcu.be
Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry
Nature - A study shows that loss of memory precision associated with systems consolidation can be explained by neurogenesis-dependent reorganization of engram circuitry within the hippocampus over...
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Alex Kwan @alexkwan.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
A much-needed joint effort from five labs to see which behavioral effects of psilocybin in mice are reliable, and which may be spurious 🐁🍄 @theborislab.bsky.social @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social @indigenerd.bsky.social Vikaas Sohal and Stephan Lammel 👏 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A multi-institutional investigation of psilocybin's effects on mouse behavior
Studies reporting novel therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs are rapidly emerging. However, the reproducibility and reliability of these findings could remain uncertain for years. Here, we impleme...
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AntonioFR @antferrui.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Excited to share our latest story! We found disentangled memory representations in the hippocampus that generalized across time and environments, despite the seemingly random drift and remapping of single cells. This code enabled the transfer of prior knowledge to solve new tasks
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Kate Wassum @katewassum.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨 Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
nature.com
A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature
Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...
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Saul Kato @focolab.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
For our inaugural post on bsky, we're happy to share our preprint on tardigrades as a new model organism for neuroscience. Exciting times for these little critters! www.focolab.org/post/our-pre...
focolab.org
Our preprint "The tardigrade as an emerging model organism for systems neuroscience" is up.
We have been making the case for some time that tardigrades, aka water bears, would be an amazing new model organism for certain big systems neuroscience questions. We put this into a detailed paper o...
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Paul Frankland @franklandlab.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Scientist position at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. We are looking for neuroscientists with interests in the molecular and cellular bases of cognition. The position is open-rank, and the successful candidate will also be appointed at U Toronto. Deadline is Feb 15th. Come join us!
career.sickkids.ca
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Josh Johansen @jojolab.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Check out our pre-print from Xiaowei Gu! It shows how the medial prefrontal cortex encodes an internal model of emotional associations which can be used for inference biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗵𝗲𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮 Looks like a very cool paper. #neuroscience doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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stefanofusi.bsky.social @stefanofusi.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
A beautiful work with a wonderful team! A lot of new ideas and a huge number of elegant experiments
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Frances Xia @fxia.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Excited to share our new paper out now @natureportfolio.bsky.social, where we identified neural signatures of stress susceptibility and resilience in the amygdala-ventral hippocampal network to enable control of anhedonia! <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08241-y> Thread below:
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Valeria Fascianelli @valeriafascianelli.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
What is the neural code and statistical structure of neural states characterizing stress? Our new work in Nature answers these questions and more. Thanks to my amazing co-first @fxia.bsky.social @stefanofusi.bsky.social @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social for precious guidance www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Understanding the neural code of stress to control anhedonia - Nature
Examination of the neural activity in the basolateral amygdala and ventral CA1 of mice during tasks or rest following exposure to social stress reveals signatures of resilience and susceptibility to s...
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Mazen Kheirbek @mazenkheirbek.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
I am excited that my first Bluesky post is to share our new paper in @natureportfolio.bsky.social - "Understanding the neural code of stress to control anhedonia." With @fxia.bsky.social , @valeriafascianelli.bsky.social and @stefanofusi.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Understanding the neural code of stress to control anhedonia - Nature
Examination of the neural activity in the basolateral amygdala and ventral CA1 of mice during tasks or rest following exposure to social stress reveals signatures of resilience and susceptibility to s...
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