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drjkhokhar.bsky.social
Associate Professor, CRC in Translational Neuropsychopharmacology, Open-Source Tools! Committed to knowing better and doing better!
194 posts 2,773 followers 1,377 following
Prolific Poster

ECRs of my generation

Does the average American not understand that a few extra dollars in their paycheck will not compensate for the total lack of vaccine development, progress in new disease treatments and care for when they are old? Because those and so much more are what is being taken away from them.

Interested in knowing more about conditioning? It’s not what you think it is. #rescorla Check this webinar out on March 5 at 2pm apa-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... awesome new work out today! From the Lee lab in the intramural research program at NIMH!

BREAKING: The NIH summer internship program (SIP) has been officially cancelled, across all institutes. It’s a sad loss for the brightest science students in America, for American science, and for future cures for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. 🧪 1/

This feels like an invitation😁 So... just a heads-up that we are recruiting for 5 positions pretty soon in the area of cognitive/behavioural neuroscience/psychology. Scotland is a beautiful place and we have some amazing science going on here... watch this space!

Some non-Americans are expressing a sense of helplessness watching the US. My personal recommendation to those feeling that way is to work to steel up the science infrastructure, funding, and culture in your own country. We need everyone to harbor knowledge and incubate progress while the US can't!

We are destroying programs that create better futures for America’s children to give tax cuts to the richest people on earth. It’s disgusting.

NIH funding is frozen. @annikabarber.bsky.social is keeping score: 50%+ of study sections planned for this year (77/148) have been cancelled. I talked to Dr. Barber about why these delays are disastrous, and why scientists should be pooling info and speaking up: www.chronicle.com/article/nih-...

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Our latest findings on social behavior circuits is out: how does the brain responds to social isolation? Terrific work by @dingliu.bsky.social et al. uncovering a circuit with similar neural architecture as physiological needs (hunger, thirst, sleep..). Detailed thread soon. rdcu.be/ebo63

Really looking forward to chatting with @anilseth.bsky.social about Free Will! Always nice to visit Brighton! 😊

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

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As of today, at least 73 study sections have not met. If they review 50 applications, plus 30 triaged, 10% funding rate = 8 grants per SS. That's 584 fundable grants on hold. Probably 5000 researchers affected in those teams composed of our best and brightest. SABOTAGE.

NIH freeze by the numbers, and the conclusion is correct. This is sabotage, and we are quickly reaching a point where even if everything were to open back up today, it would be too late to save many labs.

"History never repeats, but it rhymes." Academics across the US are or will soon be grappling with how to maintain scholarly integrity under 🍊 rule. This essay, which pulls from the author's experience in E Germany, gives some helpful structure to what choices lay ahead substack.com/home/post/p-...

Nucleus accumbens dopamine encodes the trace period during appetitive Pavlovian conditioning I will also be curious to know what is the time course of behavior during the trace delay www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New collaboration with @mallarchak.bsky.social Sex differences in synucleinopathy www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Our job posting for 1 or more PDF positions in Vancouver Canada is now live here: tinyurl.com/4mrjw3m2 Please share/repost and apply soon!

Kudos to Solal Aubailly @lilsundawn.bsky.social, MSc student in my lab, for the hilarity and inventiveness of this 3-min thesis presentation youtube.com/shorts/nMWHB... 😂😂 Thanks to Professors Ciaran Murphy-Royal @ciaranmr.bsky.social and Eric Samarut for a creative course curriculum!! 👏

On March 6th, join Dr. Andre Isaacs for a conversation on modern strategies that capitalize on the unique learning styles of the younger generation, with special attention to students from historically marginalized groups. Register today: uwaterloo.ca/science/even...

New paper‼️ Interested in the protective impacts of parenthood on brain dynamics? 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🧠 Read Edwina Orchard & @sidchop.bsky.social's new paper, out now in PNAS @pnas.org ! With collaborators L. Ooi, P. Chen, L. An @bttyeo.bsky.social, and more! 🔗https://tinyurl.com/parentalbrain

New piece from Richard Frank @brookings.edu re. the important role Medicaid plays in curbing overdoses. If Medicaid and Medicaid expansion are cut, hospitals will bear the cost of emergency care & more people will be uninsured. And - overdose deaths will increase. www.brookings.edu/articles/the...

NIH cuts are getting the press, but VA research is getting slashed too. What do we lose when VA research goes away? Here's some greatest hits: The nicotine patch, invention of the cardiac pacemaker, first successful liver transplant, development of the CAT/CT scan prospect.org/health/2025-...

Yup. By Bill Bramhall

La Dre @liisagalea.bsky.social est responsable scientifique du programme @camhnews.bsky.social womenmind™. Il s’agit d’une communauté qui met les expériences uniques des femmes au premier plan de la recherche sur la santé mentale. #MoisDeLaPsychologie Continue a lire : https://buff.ly/4iewtyg

Totally agree with this. No other funding agency that I have ever reviewed for uses as rigorous a system as NIH, or holds its reviewers to such a high standard. There is simply no comparison, and everyone in biomedical science across the world knows it.

Using cocaine without being able to move Cocaine self-administration in mice immobilized on a head-fixed device Mice responded under a FR1 schedule and were allowed to obtain a maximum of 40 doses of cocaine per session, but they produced > 300 responses www.frontiersin.org/journals/beh...

Important result here

Obsession with IQ: A reliable sign of low intelligence? theneuroscienceofeve... On how a relentless focus on 'IQ scores' can mean the opposite of what is (presumably) intended. #Psychology #Intelligence #IQ

The Z-score method is apparently last and not just in alphabetical order for analyzing in vivo dopamine signals in the brain www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Good coverage of the Federal Register block by @wbur.org featuring @turrigiano.bsky.social 🙌🏻 www.wbur.org/news/2025/02...

SOBP BrainHack is officially open for registration! The hackathon will be held April 22-23 at Sick Kids Toronto. Beginners and experienced hackers welcome! Website and registration: www.repronim.org/SOBPHack-042...

1) Let's see if this actually happens 2) Study sections without council meetings = funding block continues. This is NOT progress.

Study Section Composition drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/s...

Ever thought about writing for @thetransmitter.bsky.social? You should! It’s a great way to spread your message across the neuroscience community. Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Read this: www.thetransmitter.org/editorial-po.... 2️⃣ Email a pitch: www.thetransmitter.org/contact-us/

Grad admissions and hiring at your Uni taking a hit from NIH chaos? There’s a list for that. Slide into @cbibberson.bsky.social DMs to add to it. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

What if we all got together and crowdfunded science communication from folks who just lost their jobs/funding? Like patreon, $1/month to sponsor each scicommer and we compile all the folks participating, gathering hundreds of amazing scientists and admins to speak out on why their work matters

"Meritocracy" was coined in a 1958 fictional dissertation "The Rise of Meritocracy" about a dystopian society focused on biological superiority. The author warned it creates a self-congratulatory elite that disregards the struggle, suffering & abilities of others. hbr.org/2025/02/the-...

My heart breaks daily for those who started careers in the pandemic & survived 5 years of heart wrenching loss and uncertainty to now be faced with loss and uncertainty. This time, the uncertainty is driven by pure evil and is 💯 unnecessary. That's why we must all @standupforscience.bsky.social

Prof. Rachel Arey wrote for The Herald Banner in Texas about the cancer treatment that saved her dad: “The therapies that helped him were discovered by a scientist right here in Texas”. 🐎 🧪🧬🔬🏠 www.heraldbanner.com/opinion/colu...

Do any of the NIH watchers of a certain age remember any of the details of the suit brought by women against the NIH in an effort to get more women on study section panels? It was before I was paying attention to such matters and I am having trouble googling up information.

Next brain-dead order from DOGE, destroy all female lab mice?