Fluorescence microscopy of a section of mouse brain tissue with neurons labeled in green and red based on projection target

For #FluorescenceFriday 🧠🔬🧪 - mPFC projection neurons heading to ventral tegmental area 🟢 or the locus coeruleus 🔴. Processes on some of these GPF+ neurons are just AMAZING! Image credit to our Circuits team! @jorge-miranda.bsky.social @rehg-j.bsky.social and Daniel Olivares!

It is so nice to see some mPFC neurons lighting up. Maybe they know its friday and they are also excited for the weekend like me. #fluorescenceFriday #miniscope

Great feeling for a friday. First cell from the new rig. Still a lot of work to do on the rig, but we are patching. Feels like going back to your first love ❤️ 😍

Potentiation of fentanyl-induced respiratory depression by alcohol is not fully reversed by naloxone - PubMed The high frequency of opioid overdose deaths often involves co-use of alcohol, which is reported in approximately 30% of fentanyl fatalities. Both substances depress respiratory function, and their combined effects can be lethal. The present study investigated physiological parameters of respiratory …

Our work characterizing the respiratory depression caused by opioids and alcohols is finally out in the world! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41632547/

Microscopy image showing pink fill in neurons stained for tyrosine hydroxylase in a section of mouse brain tissue

For #FluorescenceFriday - unmistakably the blue spot 🔵 (locus coeruleus) - here labeled in a section of the mouse brain in pink with tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) 🔬🧠🧪

Image credit to the @lieberinstitute.bsky.social Circuits team - @jorge-miranda.bsky.social @rehg-j.bsky.social

Misspecified models create the appearance of adaptive control during value-based choice - Communications Psychology In a new computational analysis of previous work, this study shows that a control-free mechanism better accounts for value-based decisions than an account that assumes top-down control invigorating th...

Final paper of my PhD 🤗

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

There is growing interest in how cognitive control may improve value-based decision making.

However, we find that a recent paper overestimated the role of control in their task, leading to erroneous interpretations of dACC recordings.

Notice of Extension to Early-Stage Investigator (ESI) Eligibility Period by NIH: Investigators whose ESI end date was in Sept, Oct, or Nov 2025 will have ESI status extended through March 31, 2026

But what about if the end date was Dec 25 or Jan 26?
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Microscopy image showing different type of neurons labeled in green, red and purple in a section of mouse brain in the frontal cortex

For #FluorescenceFriday, activity-trapping experiments to better understand how amphetamine controls attention. RNAscope for glutamate neurons 🟢, inhibitory neurons 🔴 and our "ensemble" 🟣. Quotes for the loaded definition ;)

Image credit to JHU neuro student Suhaas Adiraju 🧠🔬🧪

Oscillatory and aperiodic neural dynamics shape temporal perception and weighting of perceptual priors in ADHD profiles www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01...

Hi @bita137.bsky.social, thanks for sharing. As Keri said, we are interested in dissecting the motivational components in attention with an interest in the role of mPFC projectors to the VTA and LC. it would be great to chat with you about what we are doing and and know what you think about it.

So happy to share this preprint and so proud of @rehg-j.bsky.social and his hard work and determination. Here we showed circuit-specific effect after activation of mPFC-LC projectors to sustained attention during rCPT.

Top-down control of sustained attention by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)- locus coeruleus (LC) circuit during the rodent continuous performance task (rCPT) The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a pivotal role in attention by exerting top-down control to allocate cognitive resources toward behaviorally relevant stimuli based on learned context and exp...

Finally on Bluesky and I’m really excited to share this latest preprint with @jorge-miranda.bsky.social in which we functionally examined the role of a medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)- Locus Coeruleus (LC) circuit in regulating sustained attention.

1/7

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

We are thrilled to announce that the preliminary program for the 2026 GRC on the Frontal Cortex is now live!
www.grc.org/frontal-cort...
Registration is now open for both the GRC and our GRS, chaired by @albitc.bsky.social and @jorge-miranda.bsky.social!

We also analyze calcium activity across entire session using a #HMM of two states and found latent states that correlate with task engagement.

We analyzed PrL neuronal activity using miniscope calcium imaging during #rCPT performance and found different patterns of recruitment of PrL neurons during correct and incorrect responses depending on proficiency of the task.

This work is also part of Suhaas Adiraju (co-first author and Student of @jhu.edu Neuro thesis project.

Patterns of neural activity in prelimbic cortex neurons correlate with attentional behavior in the rodent continuous performance test - Translational Psychiatry Translational Psychiatry - Patterns of neural activity in prelimbic cortex neurons correlate with attentional behavior in the rodent continuous performance test

Happy to share that our paper characterizing PrL dynamics during sustained attention is finally out. This work was a collaboration between the @martinowk.bsky.social and Greg Carr groups at @lieberinstitute.bsky.social . www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Calicumimaging #miniscopes #rCPT #PrL

New paper, studying time-on-task related decrements in the rodent continuous performance task (rCPT). CPTs are used to assess attentional function in clinical settings and have been adapted for mice (rCPT). Sustained attention is the ability to focus on an activity or stimulus over time,