CAN Parliament Hill Day 2026 – Canadian Association for Neuroscience Canadian Association for Neuroscience

Proud to share an overview of the CAN Hill Day which took place last week - engaging with Parliamentarians and civil servants to highlight the important work neuroscientists do for Canada and the importance of government support for Canadian Research.
can-acn.org/can-parliame...

🧠 Meet Dr. Milan Valyear (@milanium.bsky.social), the new Assistant Professor in @psych.ubc.ca and a researcher at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health!

Learn more about his career journey and his research into brain circuitry: https://bit.ly/4szI4fT

Meet Dr. Milan Valyear, a new researcher who is exploring the science of behaviour - Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health | DMCBH Growing up in a small town in Ontario, Dr. Milan Valyear always enjoyed tinkering and building things, and in particular, one memory stands out. “It was

What drives us to act and when do we stop?

Dr. Milan Valyear (@milanium.bsky.social) is a new @psych.ubc.ca faculty member studying the brain circuits behind reinforcement and disengagement.

From childhood tinkering to cutting-edge neuroscience, his work is all about curiosity and discovery.

perfect Vancouver fun:)

Stoked to announce that I’m starting a lab as an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Centre for Brain Health at UBC!

mcdiarmid-lab.sbme.ubc.ca

Recruiting at all levels - please share the word!

Cheers and happy long weekend all!

From skateparks to synapses: Meet Dr. Zach Pennington - Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health | DMCBH When Dr. Zach Pennington was growing up, he never imagined he would become a scientist. “I wanted to be a professional skateboarder, a guitarist in a punk

Meet @zachtpennington.bsky.social, a new researcher at the DMCBH and @psych.ubc.ca who is exploring how the brain regulates stress and emotion. He is also an advocate of building open-source tools to make science more accessible for all.

Read more: www.centreforbrainhealth.ca/news/from-sk...

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

Neural Circuits and Behaviour CAN 2026 Satellite Meeting The third-annual CAN satellite event, bringing together Canadian neuroscientists studying circuits and behaviour.

Registration for the @canacn.bsky.social 2026 Neural Circuits and Behaviour satellite meeting is now live! Looking forward to hosting this event with @franklandlab.bsky.social again, and we're looking to have 4 trainee talks as part of the satellite. Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/1984146883...

Read our letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney – Canadian Association for Neuroscience Canadian Association for Neuroscience

Read CAN President Douglas Zochodne's letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney highlighting the importance of Neuroscience research and the CIHR Project Grant shortfalls.
can-acn.org/read-our-let...

CIHR funding rate: 13.6%.
Early 2000s: 30%+.

Canada’s new $1.7B Impact+ program recruits talent — but without increased Tri-Council base funding, we risk further strain on an already stretched system.

We’re calling for $1B over 5 years.
Support here: tinyurl.com/33c5av46

Duration between rewards controls the rate of behavioral and dopaminergic learning - Nature Neuroscience Cue–reward learning rate scales proportionally with the time between rewards. Consequently, learning over a fixed duration is independent of the number of trials. This challenges trial-based dopamine ...

Very excited to post our paper led by @daburke.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... where we uncover a simple mathematical rule underlying how brains learn that a cue predicts a reward. 1/26

Since the Namboodiri lab isn’t on Bluesky (I think?), I’d like to amplify this cool paper which I and others in the Janak lab made a small contribution to.

Thank you:)

Thanks Jibran:)!

Thank you, Caroline!!

Thank you Shelley :D!

Thanks, Lauren!

Thanks, Raaj!

Thank you - so happy to join such an exciting and supportive department!

♥️

Thank you, Kiran!!

Thanks, Eric!

Thanks, Mark! See you soon!

en route to Vancouver. thrilled to start my lab @psych.ubc.ca @arts.ubc.ca and join the @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social - doors open Jan 2026. it's great to be back, 🇨🇦.