Excited to share the latest work from the lab—a true tour de force led by @nbaumgar.bsky.social. TLDR: We report a novel endogenous mechanism whereby cycling ovarian hormones alter threat memory expression through state-dependent recruitment of the lateral septum to the memory ensemble. 🧵⬇️

Thanks Tom!

In the emotional rollercoaster that was the last year, writing up this manuscript with @ewhizabeth.bsky.social has been a bright spot. I'm thrilled to share the bulk of my postdoctoral work in this preprint.

Alsoooo I may have other copies of some prints to give away in my bag if you come by my poster at the early career poster session right now! Poster Z5

Nina smiling and showing off her new two photon earrings and Christine smiling while holding some art prints

First day of SfN and I've already made new friends and done an art exchange with the lovely @christineliu.art ☺️

Come by my poster and nanosymposium talk if you'll be at SfN this week!

The Cummings Lab is hiring a postdoc to work in the areas of reward and addiction! Please see the ad below:

@sbn-bsky.bsky.social has released a statement on current events. SBN DEI comm, of which I'm chair, wrote this statement to be people-first focused on the human impacts. I want to thank Peg McCarthy & the Exec Comm in quickly approving the document w/ few edits. This is why SBN is my "home" society.

For my AL science peeps:

Senator Britt DC office 202-224-5744

Senator Tuberville DC office 202-224-4124

Call it in today folks! All hands on deck! Please repost.

A Cre- and FlpO-dependent viral vector conferring expression of mCherry was infused into the lateral septum of mice expressing Cre driven by the neurotensin promotor and FlpO driven by the somatostatin promoter.

Using #FluorescenceFriday to highlight a specialized population of neurons in the lateral septum that may comprise a hormone-sensitive memory engram to suppress conditioned fear responses when females are in the high hormone phase of the reproductive cycle. Interested? Come see my talk at #ACNP2024!

Thank you!!

Nature paper article with title and abstract

🌟 Cai Lab Nature (@natureportfolio.bsky.social) paper alert! In work led by Joe Zaki, we find that rest periods after learning not only stabilize new memories BUT ALSO integrate new memories with older ones from days past! (1/10)

Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I wonder if Sam will give Lynn a week off like she did with Becky after Portland's loss last week

Worth watching if only for the Trin vs Sonnett standoff after the red card

Add me please!

Thanks Kirstie! ☺️

Sorry I'm not equipped to sell any for now (currently just a hobby/mental health break from postdocing!), but I'll let you know if that changes!

Not currently, but I dream of one day maybe having a booth at SFN!

Multicolor linocut print resembling a brainbow microscopy image

This relief print of a brainbow dentate gyrus was a true labor of love with 8(!) layers of hand printing but it was so worth it in the end. #neuroskyence #sciart

Linocut print meant to resemble a microscopy image of dendritic spines, where the spines are all various mushrooms.

In honor of this place livening up I'm going to do something scary and share some of my more recent #neuroskyence themed lino prints! This is a personal fave based off of a pun of mushroom dendritic spines I've had in my head for ages

So grateful every day to have @ewhizabeth.bsky.social as my mentor!

@ewhizabeth.bsky.social just walked by my desk saying "Nina I made a cringe post about you" but then it was this sweet post making me tear up in the staff office 😭

Cover of Robert Sapolsky's book "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" with text overlay saying "but postdocs do!"

Having recently recovered from a stomach ulcer, I got to use my current favorite joke in my guest lecture on the HPA axis and stress for the grad neuroanatomy class today

Don't worry everyone I successfully opened the door for @andrewhardaway.bsky.social today using the Konami code

This week's #FluorescenceFriday is brought to you by undergrads May and Molly, who are investigating sex differences in activation of lateral septum circuits. #Neuroskyence

Multicolored linocut print inspired by fluorescent microscopy of hippocampal neurons, titled "Merge"

Recently remembered I enjoy printmaking
#neuroskyence

Fig. 1. Dynamic sex variability - An integrative, multidimensional framework. A framework that centers sex variability will enable the study of sex across multiple levels of biological analysis (colored boxes). A) Visual schematic representing the degree of sex variability (y-axis) across biological scale (x-axis) and time (z-axis), with example sex variables of interest (not all possible covariates and functional relationships are presented). In this example, to decipher mechanisms linking gonadal hormones to receptive reproductive behavior in adult rodents (lordosis), the functional relationships (black subset of possible gray relationships) between select variables (bold words) need to be identified. At each level of analysis, numerous variables differ across sex to contribute to reproductive behavior through these functional interactions. Importantly, the degree of variability across sex categories is dynamic and is affected by developmental stage, experience, and environment.

Fig. 2. Approaches for the statistical analysis of sex-associated traits. Flow chart of example approaches for analyzing datasets with sex-associated variables. These analyses answer questions about whether and how sex-associated variables explain variation in dependent variables of interest, how independent variables of interest explain variation in dependent sex-associated variables, and how sex-associated variables (within and/or across levels of analysis) relate to one another. The examples match those in the text where possible, but the approaches are widely applicable and flexible. The choice(s) of analyses should follow directly from the research question(s), and it is likely that multiple approaches will be used in the analysis of an integrative dataset.

Fig. 3. Questions for evaluating frameworks and approaches which study sex variability and diversity. Here, we present a set of questions to ask when critically evaluating work (whether it is your own or others) that addresses sex diversity and variability. Note that these questions reflect the integration of the conceptual framework, experimental approaches, and analysis and interpretation, as each of these aspects informs the other.

The sex binary is dead!
Long live sex diversity & variability!

Sex is one of the greatest sources of variation seen in life. How do we advance the scientific study of sex across the animal kingdom? Read our latest article in Hormones & Behavior to find out!

🧪 🧠 #neuroskyence

Baby's first RNAscope! (Its me, baby!)