The Allen Institute has announced six new Next Generation Leaders (NGL), members of a unique neuroscience advisory panel made up of early-career researchers who will help advise research efforts at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the MindScope Program, and the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics. Among the new panel members is Kauê Machado Costa,… [Read More]
Hot Off the Press
Calcium activity is a degraded estimate of spikes
Hot Off the Press – December 22, 2022 Summary Neurons communicate via electrical signals – spikes – and recording these has provided fundamental information regarding how the brain works. When neurons send electrical signals, several other biological signals occur, notably calcium. Calcium signaling is often used to make inferences about spike activity. However, it was… [Read More]
Reviews To Read
Seeking motivation and reward: Roles of dopamine, hippocampus, and supramammillo-septal pathway
Reviews To Read – March 2022. Published in Progress in Neurobiology and Coauthored by Satoshi Ikemoto of the NIDA IRP Neurocircuitry of Motivation Section. Little is known about neural substrates of curiosity and exploratory behavior. We refer to such behavior as information-seeking behavior and propose 1) key neural substrates and 2) the concept of environment… [Read More]
Featured Papers
Spironolactone as a potential new pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder: convergent evidence from rodent and human studies
Featured Paper of the Month – February 2023
Published in Molecular Psychiatry with authors from the NIDA IRP Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology Section and Neurobiology of Addiction Section.
The steroid hormone aldosterone regulates fluid and electrolyte homeostasis mainly via its mineralocorticoid receptor. Previous studies suggest that this pathway may also modulate alcohol seeking and consumption. Spironolactone is a nonselective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist primarily used in clinical practice to treat cardiovascular conditions. Preliminary evidence indicates that spironolactone may also reduce alcohol use…
