Jennifer Bussell | Lightnews

Light up
your news

About Privacy Terms Help

Jennifer Bussell PhD

Jennifer Bussell PhD

@jenbussell.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1.9K following 58 posts

Neuroscientist studying information seeking and curiosity via mouse models in the Axel lab at Columbia University. Formerly at Vosshall Lab at Rockefeller University. Mom in Brooklyn, former S Carolinian www.jenniferbussell.org .. more

Political science 68%

Sociology 15%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pinned

Jennifer Bussell PhD @jenbussell.bsky.social · Oct 14

Absolutely thrilled to share my postdoc work in the Axel lab. We found odor-evoked representations of the intrinsic value of information in mouse orbitofrontal cortex and showed that mice desire knowledge as its own reward. Now on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Representations of information value in mouse orbitofrontal cortex during information seeking

bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Alessandro Gozzi

Ben Hayden @benhayden.bsky.social · 3d

New Perspective from myself, Sarah Heilbronner and @myoo.bsky.social . “Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization” in Nature Neuroscience. 🧵

rdcu.be/eVZ1A

Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization

Nature Neuroscience - Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Brigitte Nerlich

Jaclyn A. Siegel, PhD @jacasiegel.bsky.social · 9d

You should be able to respond to reviewer comments with memes to liven up the peer review process.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

callista yee @csybio.bsky.social · 9d

we’ve come a long way from 20 labs! #celegans

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 9d

How do biological agents learn for the future?

Our perspective piece on the value of prospective learning in neuroscience is finally out. This is part of a long running collaboration with @kordinglab.bsky.social & Josh Vogelstein (as well as many other people)

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

Jennifer Bussell PhD @jenbussell.bsky.social · 10d

Achievement unlocked! 💀💀🤣

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Catherine Dulac @dulaclab.bsky.social · 13d

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...

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...

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Andy Moore @aaandmoore.bsky.social · 15d

This movie shows lysosomes (orange) and keratin (gray) in a cultured cell over 10 minutes.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Lauren J. Young @laurenjyoung.bsky.social · 15d

Some good news: U.S. sunscreens might finally be able to use a key UV filter ingredient found in many popular brands made in Japan, South Korea and European countries. The last time the FDA approved a new sunscreen ingredient was 1999. @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-...

U.S. Sunscreens Aren’t Great. The FDA Could Soon Change That

The U.S. is considering allowing bemotrizinol, a highly effective UV filter used throughout Europe and Asia, in its sunscreen products for the first time

www.scientificamerican.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 16d

NMDA receptor ablation in medial prefrontal cortex disrupts value updating and reward history integration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.06.692679v1

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · 22d

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

How distributed is the brain-wide network that is recruited for cognition? - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Both localized and distributed views on the functional organization of the brain have been put forward. In this Perspective, Rosen and Freedman examine the degree to which these two views account for ...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Serge Ahmed @sergeahmed.bsky.social · 22d

A vigorous negative finding

Subsecond dopamine transients in the striatum of mice are neither required nor sufficient for specifying the vigor of ongoing forelimb movements

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

Jennifer Bussell PhD @jenbussell.bsky.social · 23d

Congrats!!

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 24d

33 neuroscience researchers from across the world shared how their labs our funded, providing insight into the current state of funding and how that might shift.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence #StateOfNeuroscience

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/whic...

Survey: Which sources fund your neuroscience research?

Government sources are the main contributors to neuroscience labs, but funding breakdown varies across labs, career stages and neuroscience subfields.

www.thetransmitter.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Nov 26

@thetransmitter.bsky.social’s “New Lab Directory” features a list of new neuroscience labs that opened in 2024-2025, and some set to launch in 2026. Check out the list to learn about the work of more than 50 new neuroscience labs. www.thetransmitter.org/community/th...

#StateOfNeuroscience

The Transmitter’s New Lab Directory

Learn about neuroscience labs launched in the past two years, plus a few opening their doors in 2026.

www.thetransmitter.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Fabián Muniesa, Robert C. Richards , and 4 more Jennifer Bussell, Fabián Muniesa, Robert C. Richards, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, Michael H. Whitworth, Zen Faulkes, Raúl Pacheco-Vega

Tyler King @tyleraking.com · Nov 26

Slop Evader is a tool from artist and researcher Tega Brain that lets you search the web for results exclusively before November 30, 2022—the day that ChatGPT was released to the public.

'Slop Evader' Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022

Artist Tega Brain is fighting the internet’s enshittification by turning back the clock to before ChatGPT existed.

www.404media.co

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Gary Polhill

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · Nov 25

You know those labs that keep harming students, again and again? Some reflections on why it's so hard to stop this from happening and where our responsibilities lie.

scienceforeveryone.science/bad-mentors-... 🧪

Bad mentors hurt people

What to do about bad mentors?

scienceforeveryone.science

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Marla B. Feller

Piali Sengupta @senguptalab.bsky.social · Nov 25

Check out the newest Editors' (that would be me and Eunjoon Kim) Choice issue in Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

Superbly guest edited by Stephen Liberles and @zknight.bsky.social

>20 review articles on Interoception

www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Current Opinion in Neurobiology | Interoception 2025 | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

Read the latest articles of Current Opinion in Neurobiology at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

www.sciencedirect.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · Nov 23

“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”

Neural dynamics outside task-coding dimensions drive decision trajectories through transient amplification

Most behaviors involve neural dynamics in high-dimensional activity spaces. A common approach is to extract dimensions that capture task-related variability, such as those separating stimuli or choice...

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Nicola Sambuco @nicolasambuco.bsky.social · Nov 20

Bonus on this paper:
there is also a commentary from Masakazu Taira & @melissajsharpe.bsky.social that is certainly worth reading-
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#RewardSignals #neuroskyence

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Nov 17

'Approximately 1 in 30 trials and more than 74 000 trial participants were affected by grant funding disruptions. Affected trials disproportionately studied infectious diseases, prevention, and behavioral interventions, and were based in the Northeastern US or in other countries.'

Clinical Trials Affected by Research Grant Terminations at the National Institutes of Health

This cross-sectional study summarizes the number of trials with terminated grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and calculates the proportion of affected trials among those with previou...

jamanetwork.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Constantinople lab @constantinoplelab.bsky.social · Nov 17

Who wore it better? Our new paper shows that rat OFC supports Bayesian inference of hidden states! With neural correlates of inferred state transitions at the level of single neurons and population-level latent factors. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

diksha gupta @dikshagup.bsky.social · Nov 17

come check out this #SfN25 minisymposium happening today at 2pm!

we will discuss recent approaches to make sense of multi-area population dynamics

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

annecollins.bsky.social @annecollins.bsky.social · Nov 17

My paper is out!
Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets.
rdcu.be/eQjLN

A habit and working memory model as an alternative account of human reward-based learning

Nature Human Behaviour - In this study, Collins proposes an alternative dual-process (working memory and habit) model of reinforcement learning in humans.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Jeremy Hogeveen @jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social · Nov 15

Interested in spatiotemporal decoding of choice and feedback in the human brain?

My lab’s postdoc Rohit Yadav will present these beautiful MEG results from our novelty bandit at #SFN2025 Sunday 11/16, PSTR094.23 / LL8 (top row: explore vs exploit; bottom: reward vs nonreward)

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Fabián Muniesa

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Nov 13

Texas A&M University adopts a policy requiring professors to get approval from the school president to discuss certain race and gender issues.

Texas A&M University professors now need approval for some race and gender topics

Texas A&M University has adopted a new policy requiring professors to first get approval to discuss some race and gender topics.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Carla Golden @goldenneurons.bsky.social · Nov 11

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

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.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

The City University of New York @cuny.edu · Nov 10

CUNY is waiving its application fee from Nov. 10-21 for New York State high school seniors on pace to graduate next year. You can apply to up to six of our colleges with one application! Go to cuny.edu/apply.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Enny van Beest @ennyvb.bsky.social · Nov 10

All talks of the 2025 UCL #Neuropixels course are now available: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

For more information on the course see the website: www.ucl.ac.uk/neuropixels/...

And for those at #SfN, come say hi at the #Neuropixels booth (Number 3731) or at my Poster 👋.

Happy Neuropixeling!

2025 UCL Neuropixels Course - YouTube

Lectures at the 2025 UCL Neuropixels course (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/neuropixels/training/2025-neuropixels-course)

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · Nov 6

VTA dopamine neuron activity produces spatially organized value representations https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.04.685995v1

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Mirya R. Holman, John Mollenkopf

Steven Romalewski @sromalewski.bsky.social · Nov 4

The Ctr for Urban Research at @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social (led by @jomoko.bsky.social) has prepared an online map for tonight's NYC mayoral results. Link below in #thread. For now the map is blank, but it'll fill in w/unofficial returns tonight.

The map will do more than show the 2025 #s.
1/n