Environmental enrichment and physical exercise prevent stress-induced social avoidance and blood-brain barrier alterations via Fgf2 - Nature Communications Chronic stress disrupts the brain vasculature and contributes to mood disorders, but mechanisms of resilience remain unclear. Here, the authors show that enriched environments increase astrocytic Fgf2...

Out in its final form! Congratulations @sejpaton.bsky.social @jolusolo.bsky.social Alice Cadoret @adelinec.bsky.social @luisa-binder.bsky.social Béatrice Daigle @laura-mb.bsky.social Laurence Dion-Albert @katarzynaadudek.bsky.social @manonlebel5.bsky.social 🥂🧠🤓

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cell Type-Specific Hormonal Signaling Configures Hypothalamic Circuits for Parenting Parenting behavior emerges from hormonally sensitive circuits, but how distinct circuit components are affected by, and contribute to, sex and state dependent changes in infant caregiving remains uncl...

New paper alert!!...🤩 Led by @blogeman.bsky.social, we identify how cell type-specific hormonal responses in the hypothalamus tunes parenting behavior in males and females 🐭🧠🍼. Highlights in thread 👇 1/6

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

📣#TellUsAboutYourResearch:

Meet Dr. Jonathan VanRyzin @jwvanryzin.bsky.social, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina! His research investigates how microglia and astrocytes sculpt neural circuits underlying motivated behavior.

#MeetThePNIResearcher

😍😍😍

A favorite recent image of some busy microglia, lovingly named the Rat King (yellow CD68, pink Iba1, blue DAPI) for my first #FluorescenceFriday

Sex differences in BNST signaling and BNST CRF in fear processing Critical differences in how the BNST responds to different types of fear across male and female mice.

In @elife.bsky.social: Sex differences in BNST signaling and BNST CRF in fear processing doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Official version finally out. Thank you to reviewers, made it better!

Join us for the next live webinar in the #PNIRS Presents Speaker Series:

🗣️ Dr. Laura Fonken from UT Austin
🪧 "Microglial rhythms contribute to sex-specific changes in behavior across the lifespan"
📆 Tues. Dec. 9th, 11:00am ET

RSVP is FREE and you don't need to be a member! pnirs.org/pnirs-presents

Jumping spiders can recognise one another. This ability to learn, remember and represent images is quite surprising for such a tiny-brained animal!
buff.ly/dCkwPr0

Very glad to share our newest paper published in Molecular Psychiatry: Investigating milk-derived extracellular vesicles as mediators of maternal stress and environmental intervention www.nature.com/articles/s41... fun collab w/ @jordanmarrocco.bsky.social. Please enjoy! #OpenAccess #MaternalHealth

Which human brain circuits are implicated in neurodevelopmental conditions? We bridged human genetics, spatial transcriptomics and neurodevelopment to discover the convergence of autism-associated genes in the developing human thalamus! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Crosstalk Between Astrocytes and Inhibitory Neurons During Maturation: Emerging Mechanisms and Functional Implications In this review, we discuss the development and maturation of inhibitory neurons and astrocytes and how early developmental activity in the brain might promote the interactions between these cell type...

Check out our new review article from my lab:

doi.org/10.1111/jnc....

New preprint from the lab! We identified Vipr2-expressing BNST neurons as a distinct subpopulation of the oval nucleus that promotes feeding, is activated by food restriction, is non-overlapping with appetite-suppressing PKC delta neurons, and projects to PSTN & PVN hypothalamic feeding centers.

Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning - Nature Neuroscience Dopamine encoding of reward prediction errors naturally fluctuates over females’ reproductive cycles with estrogenic signaling due to reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins.

Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#blueprint 1/7

How genetically encoded sensors have lit up neuroscience Tools that track specific molecules in neurons have enabled researchers to probe previously unexplored aspects of neurobiology — although important caveats remain.

Tools that track specific molecules in neurons have enabled researchers to probe previously unexplored aspects of neurobiology

go.nature.com/4p2hyua

Can say that I've done this previously with my rats and it's 100% worth it to "hear" them giggle with a USV microphone 🤣

Superior colliculus projections drive dopamine neuron activity and movement but not value To navigate dynamic environments, animals must rapidly integrate sensory information and respond appropriately to gather rewards and avoid threats. It is well established that dopamine (DA) neurons in...

Check out our latest, online now at @sfnjournals.bsky.social www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

Finally it’s here! 🌟⬇️

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I’m sooo excited to share our latest article led by Steve Hill and Isabel Bravo-Ferrer
1- How does the vasculature communicate with astrocytes?
2- Is this communication dependent to what happens in the body.
3- Is it relevant to human diseases?

Science friends! I need your help. We have a Neurophotometrics FP system that we are having trouble integrating with behavioral tracking software for annotation purposes. For example, we want to align fluorescence with open/closed arm exploration in the EPM. Can you help us out??

Thrilled to share our new paper @cp-cell.bsky.social:
“Microglia–astrocyte crosstalk regulates synapse remodeling via Wnt signaling.”

This work demonstrates the necessity of glia–glia communication and coordination during synapse remodeling.

🔗 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Faust et al., Cell 2025

Congrats! Fantastic work!

Prenatal stress induces transient developmental alterations in distinct GABAergic populations and leads to long-lasting behavioral abnormalities Prenatal stress (PNS) is a well-established risk factor for psychiatric disorders, yet the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unclear. Here,…

Prenatal stress induces transient developmental alterations in distinct GABAergic populations and leads to long-lasting behavioral abnormalities
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Excited my PhD work in @brianmathur.bsky.social’s lab is now published and available!

Thank you!

If you have a "recently" (in the last 2 years) published paper with a preprint available, I’d love to hear from you!

All neuroscience topics are welcome.

🙏🏼 Thank you!

This was a huge collaborative effort with Anze Testen and Tania Bellinger, and a big shout out to @haleyv.bsky.social and Ève Tremblay for their electron microscopy expertise!

Abstinence from cocaine self-administration promotes microglial pruning of astrocytes, which drives cocaine-seeking behavior Rodent drug self-administration leads to a compromised ability of nucleus accumbens astrocytes to maintain glutamate homeostasis as well as to reducti…

I am SO EXCITED to share this one! The latest paper from the lab is online in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social. We show microglia prune NAc astrocyte processes during abstinence from cocaine-self ad which drives later drug seeking behavior.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This project will explore how early life adversity impairs circuit-specific astrocyte-neuron interactions in the nucleus accumbens and identify the molecular mechanisms of astrocyte dysfunction that lead to addiction susceptibility

Incredibly grateful to be one of the 2025 BBRF Young Investigator Grant awardees!
Thank you to @bbrfoundation.bsky.social and to my mentors for their support along the way!

Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress Neuropsychopharmacology - Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress

Review now out in @npp-journal.bsky.social!
Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early life stress
rdcu.be/ezzYq

Timing matters: modeling the effects of gestational cannabis exposure on social behavior and microglia in the developing amygdala - Neuropsychopharmacology Neuropsychopharmacology - Timing matters: modeling the effects of gestational cannabis exposure on social behavior and microglia in the developing amygdala

#ThisWeekInNPP

This study explored how prenatal & postnatal THC exposure affects 🧠 development & social behavior in 🐭, highlighting an impact on microglial phagocytosis in the developing amygdala in a sex-specific & timing-dependent manner ⏲️ / @jwvanryzin.bsky.social