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Patrick Piantadosi

@ppiantad

behavioral neuroscientist @ NIAAA | climber & lover of sport | he / him | not @PiantadosiSean (but close)

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Latest posts by Patrick Piantadosi @ppiantad

ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.

Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test?

In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers.

nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

27.02.2026 19:39 πŸ‘ 65 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 1

This is a catastrophic unforced error.

It was quite something to hear @ohsunews.bsky.social President Shereef Elnahal equate the shambolic lies of fringe groups (β€œothers”) with the heartfelt & credible testimony of the scientists & veterinarians in his employ.

β€œTeammates” don’t support rivals.

10.02.2026 04:24 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
A synaptic locus of song learning Learning by imitation is the foundation for verbal and musical expression, but its underlying neural basis remains obscure. A juvenile male zebra finch imitates the multisyllabic song of an adult tutor in a process that depends on a song-specialized cortico-basal ganglia circuit, affording a powerful system to identify the synaptic substrates of imitative motor learning. Plasticity at a particular set of cortico-basal ganglia synapses is hypothesized to drive rapid learning-related changes in song before these changes are subsequently consolidated in downstream circuits. Nevertheless, this hypothesis is untested and the synaptic locus where learning initially occurs is unknown. By combining a computational framework to quantify song learning with synapse-specific optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations within and directly downstream of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit, we identified the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapses that drive the acquisition and expression of rapid vocal changes during juvenile song learning and characterized the hours-long timescale over which these changes consolidate. Furthermore, transiently augmenting postsynaptic activity in the basal ganglia briefly accelerates learning rates and persistently alters song, demonstrating a direct link between basal ganglia activity and rapid learning. These results localize the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapses that enable a juvenile songbird to learn to sing and reveal the circuit logic and behavioral timescales of this imitative learning paradigm. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Institutes of Health, K99 NS144525 (DCS), F32 MH132152 (DCS), F31 HD098772 (SB), R01 NS099288 (RM), RF1 NS118424 (RM and JP)

Where does learning through imitation happen in the brain?

In juvenile zebra finches, we pinpoint a synaptic locus of song learning in a cortico-basal ganglia circuit and leverage this localization to measure the timescale of consolidation and make birds learn faster! #neuroskyence (1/14)

21.01.2026 16:39 πŸ‘ 73 πŸ” 28 πŸ’¬ 5 πŸ“Œ 8
Preview
Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the distinct motivational influences of reward and punishment on cognitive control Human motivation is fundamentally shaped by one's expectations of the reward they could earn for good performance or the punishment they would avoid for poor performance. However, the extent to which ...

Thrilled to share our new preprint highlighting distinct neurocomputational mechanisms underlying how reward and punishment determine adaptive cognitive control - a massive fMRI study and collaborative team effort with the @shenhavlab.bsky.social 🧠

Link here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

20.10.2025 18:42 πŸ‘ 44 πŸ” 19 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

thanks so much Jonas - including for all of your advice while I set this experiment up. PdCO is truly one of the only opsins I trust right now!

09.10.2025 13:56 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Risk reshapes amygdala representation of choice Modifying behavior in response to changing environmental conditions is a crucial adaptive function. This capacity is exemplified when animals curtail pursuit of a valued outcome that risks being punis...

for anyone interested in the amygdala and risky decision-making, check out our new preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

amygdala neurons track reward-seeking actions, and punishment risk dramatically alters this function. lots of other (BLA-accumbens!) data included.

09.10.2025 13:52 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

I promise I was not fishing for this with my re-tweet πŸ˜‚ really happy to hear about the work though, looks very cool!

12.09.2025 23:26 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Depression Curbs Ability to Actively Avoid Unpleasant Events Depression in young patients is linked to difficulty in taking action to avoid something unpleasant, while the ability to withdraw and not act remains intact.

1. Media coverage of a new paper by @ryantomm.bsky.social w @brandonforys.com, @dr-stan.bsky.social et al. Building on Stan’s rodent work, Ryan found that > depression levels were associated w reduced capacity to learn to actively button-press to avoid a nasty sound www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

12.09.2025 22:14 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 8 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

This is absolutely revolutionary.

02.06.2025 16:09 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Please comment. The Administration is trying to turn the NIH IC Directors and program staff roles into political appointees that serve at the whim of the President. Imagine if each change in administration brought sweeping changes in professional NIH staff across your favorite ICs.

23.05.2025 01:18 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 58 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is demanding a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele over the detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and says he’ll go to El Salvador himself if the Marylander isn’t returned.

14.04.2025 22:05 πŸ‘ 11312 πŸ” 2074 πŸ’¬ 280 πŸ“Œ 147
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Acting NIH director dismisses four neuroscientists from advisory boards The letters they received this week did not include a reason for their termination.

At least four neuroscientists received termination letters this week dismissing them from NIH advisory boards. β€œThis is unusual and unprecedented,” says @thebalelab.bsky.social, one of the terminated board members.

By @callimcflurry.bsky.social @avaskham.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

bit.ly/4hM0Xa3

25.03.2025 19:33 πŸ‘ 71 πŸ” 39 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 10

I maxed out my credit card, emptied my savings account, and took out a loan to move from Alabama to Bethesda, MD. I don’t even qualify for unemployment since I’ve only worked at NIH for a month. I will be financially and medically devastated.

Seeking suggestions for anywhere that’s hiring!!

14.02.2025 23:49 πŸ‘ 11509 πŸ” 4063 πŸ’¬ 666 πŸ“Œ 161

To all those saying "shouldn't we root out government inefficiency? What's wrong with DOGE?" a quick background on Constitutional law and why the WAY it is being violated exposes the true motives of the criminals:

08.02.2025 14:02 πŸ‘ 2875 πŸ” 946 πŸ’¬ 96 πŸ“Œ 167
Update: They were removed from our reviewer assignments completely. I'm so sorry to all those graduate students. 

Anonymous to protect the identity of the NIH employee I spoke to...I am on study section next month to discuss F awards. We were just instructed to put the F31-Diversity applications on the bottom of our priority list for review because there is a chance we may not be able to review them. My heart is breaking for the grad students and their mentors that put so much work into these just for them to be disqualified and thrown out.

Update: They were removed from our reviewer assignments completely. I'm so sorry to all those graduate students. Anonymous to protect the identity of the NIH employee I spoke to...I am on study section next month to discuss F awards. We were just instructed to put the F31-Diversity applications on the bottom of our priority list for review because there is a chance we may not be able to review them. My heart is breaking for the grad students and their mentors that put so much work into these just for them to be disqualified and thrown out.

Just in case you thought that removing DEI criteria would mean that everyone is competing equally: NIH is removing grad students from underrepresented backgrounds from the applicant pool altogether. Their applications will not be considered. Other students, not from these backgrounds, will be.

06.02.2025 19:59 πŸ‘ 5433 πŸ” 2870 πŸ’¬ 164 πŸ“Œ 359

Colombian President Gustavo Petro's full post ordering an increase of import tariffs on U.S. goods, says he doesn't really like traveling to the U.S. because it's β€œa bit boring” and invokes the ancestors

26.01.2025 22:21 πŸ‘ 12184 πŸ” 3480 πŸ’¬ 431 πŸ“Œ 1161
Post image

My paper is out!! πŸŽ‰

"Opponent control of reinforcement by striatal dopamine and serotonin", @Nature

Here, we show that dopamine and serotonin signals form a gas-brake system for reward in the mammalian brain

THREAD ⬇️

1/n

25.11.2024 16:31 πŸ‘ 202 πŸ” 67 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 7