Ad for walking shoes for elderly people with poor balance, 60% off.

The algorithm knows no mercy. All I did was google 'what does 6-7 mean?'.

Five portable red traffic lights lined up in a row on a London pavement, all showing red, in front of a terrace of Victorian brick houses.

Me: I should start a podcast.

The universe:

A macOS-style dialog box titled 'AI Use Declaration' asking 'Did you use generative AI in preparing this?' with three checkbox options: 'Yes', 'No — I was born throwing around em-dashes', and 'This is not a question. It is an invitation to delve into the meaning of the word "use".' A Cancel and Submit button appear at the bottom. The filename in the corner reads manuscript_final_v7_FINAL.docx.

This is getting out of hand.

Delusions and the Role of Beliefs in Perceptual Inference Delusions are unfounded yet tenacious beliefs and a symptom of psychotic disorder. Varying degrees of delusional ideation are also found in the healthy population. Here, we empirically validated a neu...

As for PPI, I would agree that decreased PPI could be interpreted as weaker priors, but it is not clear how this would translate to HALIPs, as different priors can be differentially affected, with some weakened and others strengthened, as we proposed for delusions www.jneurosci.org/content/33/3...

Thank you! Great question: testing HALIPs in this model isn't straightforward due to training demands in sample sizes required for between-subject designs, but it is something we are working on, not least because it would allow us to examine how PPI and other measures relate to HALIPs.

Thank you! Agreed, so much still to find out about antipsychotics!

Thank you 😊

Thank you 😊

Led by Le He and Harriet Feldman, both fearlessly venturing across interdisciplinary borders, supported by an extraordinary collective of collaborators.

Enabled by @wellcometrust.bsky.social and @crick.ac.uk

Inspired by and dedicated to everyone touched by psychosis.

Hence, the most effective antipsychotic may work, at least in part, as an immunotherapy.

We think this opens an entirely new direction for treating psychotic disorders like schizophrenia. We are on it, watch this space!

Comments and questions welcome, that's the beauty of preprints 🤩

💊 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝗜𝗜: 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝘁
We gave mice clozapine, the most effective antipsychotic drug available. It worked but with a twist: clozapine did not just block psychosis-like behaviour, it also suppressed the autoimmune attack! We found this in not one but TWO different autoimmune models.

⚙️ 𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝗜: 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺
How does autoimmunity against the brain cause psychosis? We followed the immune trail and found that antibodies flag NMDA receptors for elimination by microglia. When we blocked this process, psychosis-like behaviours did not develop. We found the villain!

🏗️𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗜: 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹
First, we needed a model of psychosis. In mice, we used mRNA-nanoparticle technology to trigger an autoimmune attack against the NMDA receptor. Et voilà: mice developed behaviours that resemble the agitation, disorganisation and cognitive-sensory changes seen in psychosis.

Graphical abstract showing that NMDAR immunisation drives psychosis-like behaviour in mice, while clozapine reverses this. Upper panel: arrows show NMDAR immunisation producing a mouse exhibiting psychosis-like behaviour, with clozapine reversing this effect. Lower panels: anti-NMDAR antibodies bind neuronal NMDA receptors, which are then eliminated by microglia via phagocytosis, leading to psychosis. Clozapine restores NMDA receptor levels by reducing anti-NMDAR antibody levels, consistent with an immunomodulatory mechanism of action.

🥁🎉The Psychosis Collective proudly presents our first preprint

𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐳𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬-𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐞

𝘈 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴

starring Le He & Harriet Feldman

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We wanted to understand how antipsychotics work. Thread🧵

Multilingual parenting theory: OPOL – one person, one language.

Multilingual parenting reality: OSTL – one Satz, tres languages.

Fair point! Perhaps Stoßlüften should be exported as part of a package deal, alongside universal double glazing and proper insulation.

House burping: should we all adopt this German habit? It’s a simple way to keep homes fresh and mould-free, and has caught on in the US. But there are a few potential downsides ...

Here is the link to the Guardian article

www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ja...

𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗵𝗹𝘂𝗻𝗴𝘀𝗸ä𝗹𝘁𝗲 (noun) 𝘭𝘪𝘵. 𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥

A form of cold felt even though the air is warm, explained in physically plausible terms by reference to cold walls and surfaces; a key concept in couples’ negotiations over the thermostat.

𝗦𝘁𝗼ß𝗹ü𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 (verb) 𝘭𝘪𝘵. 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨

The ritualised act of opening all windows at once; a universal cure for any malaise, whether or not caused by "stickige Luft" (stuffy air)

𝗭𝘂𝗴 / 𝗭𝘂𝗴𝗹𝘂𝗳𝘁 (noun), 𝘭𝘪𝘵. 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵

A moving current of air perceptible only to the trained perceiver; proven to cause colds, neck stiffness and headaches. Its detection ('es zieht') requires immediate corrective action.

Glad to read in the Guardian today that some German concepts central to indoor wellbeing are becoming more widely appreciated 😅

Read on for a short glossary on indoor climate for those living with people raised in Germany

𝗭𝘂𝗴 / 𝗭𝘂𝗴𝗹𝘂𝗳𝘁 (noun), 𝘭𝘪𝘵. 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵

A moving current of air perceptible only to the trained perceiver; proven to cause colds, neck stiffness and headaches. Its detection ('es zieht') requires immediate corrective action.

☺️🤩

Photo of a basketball hoop in a gym with several balls stuck in the net and one ball mid-air above it, as players watch the hoop.

Last experiment before submission? 🤞

I was so busy conferencing that I only took one photo on arrival!

Wonderful to see old friends, make new ones, and talk bottomless science.

My goal for ACNP 2027: make it onto the @ahmarilab.bsky.social #fashionsOfAcnp feed 😀

#acnp2026 @acnporg.bsky.social

Lab member: can I show you some data?
Me, 9am: YES
Me, 8pm: YES
Me, 3am: YES
Me, while undergoing surgery: YES

For anyone who made it through the “Everything was better back then” moments of the holiday season:

Reward sensitivity declines with age.

That might explain why apples tasted like apples, music felt real, and TV was just better.

Side-by-side photographs of the Ecce Homo mural before and after restoration, showing substantial changes to facial features and overall appearance.

Images were processed in accordance with journal guidelines.

LinkedIn got my thoughtful 2025 year-in-review reflection.

Bluesky gets the stupidest thing I did in 2022:

Booking travel to a conference in Maine, happily thinking “Cool, there’s a direct flight from London to Portland.”

A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions Flexible behaviour requires transforming abstract cognitive representations, such as value preferences, into concrete motor actions. During economic decision-making, individuals evaluate options to gu...

New preprint from the lab!
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.