Meenakshi Asokan

New paper hot off the (pre-)press! We dig into the evolutionary origins of neural computations for behavioral control across mice, monkeys, and humans: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6....

As our lab's first foray into comparative analysis of neural dynamics, I’m super excited about this work! 1/18

Excited to share our latest work in @nature.com showing shared neural substrates for parenting and prosocial helping behavior. Full text available here: rdcu.be/e6PnY

The Journal of Neuroscience: 46 (8)

Very excited to share a Special Collection at the Journal of Neuroscience (@sfnjournals.bsky.social) - Central Questions for Social Neuroscience Research. This issue includes some of the latest perspectives on social neuroscience research. Please check it out!👇

www.jneurosci.org/content/46/8

Dr. Theanne Griffith — Stories of WiN studies molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms for proprioception

Our latest profile is here! Dr. Theanne Griffith (@doctheagrif.bsky.social) studies molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms for proprioception. Follow the link below to listen to our full interview!

www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

#WomenInNeurosciene #StoriesOfWiN

Congrats!!!

Hippocampal estrogen levels, receptor types, and epigenetics contribute to sex-specific memory vulnerabilities to concurrent acute stresses Acute concurrent stresses provoke lasting, sex-dependent memory problems. Hokenson, Rodríguez-Acevedo, et al. find that high hippocampal estrogen levels in mice generate permissive chromatin states, a...

Check out our new paper, investigating the role of estrogen in stress-induced memory disruptions. 🧠 online now!

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

@talliezee.bsky.social @eahellerphd.bsky.social

A prefrontal cortex map based on single-neuron activity - Nature Neuroscience The authors mapped spontaneous and choice activity across mouse prefrontal cortex. The activity maps aligned with intrinsic connectivity rather than anatomical subregions, suggesting that connectivity...

Main postdoc study out! We can redefine prefrontal cortex regions with single-unit activity! Grateful to @carlenlab.bsky.social and @weltgeischt.bsky.social who made this crazy project real. Thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and reviewers.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.

My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.

Dr. Carla Shatz — Stories of WiN studies how early neural activity sculpts developing brain circuits and informs our understanding of neuroplasticity and neurodegenerative disease.

We're excited to share our next profile! Dr. Carla Shatz is a pioneering neuroscientist whose work reveals how early neural activity sculpts developing brain circuits & informs our understanding of neuroplasticity & neurodegenerative disease. Learn more below!

www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

Extremely excited & proud to share our new preprint - we provide for the first time a single cell map of the mouse brain across sex, the estrous cycle, and peripartum! Data are 🔥 👇

"Single-cell map of the female brain across reproductive transitions"

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Defining Your Legacy in Science and Beyond (Panel Discussion) — Stories of WiN In November, we hosted our first-ever in-person Stories of WiN Symposium in San Diego, just before the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. The program included a panel discussion on “Defining You...

We're kicking off 2026 with a special episode! Check out our panel discussion from our in-person event: Defining Your Legacy in Science and Beyond featuring @theerincalipari.bsky.social, @denisejcai.bsky.social & @huda-akil.bsky.social 💜

Listen below:
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

How heterogeneity shapes dynamics and computation in the brain Much effort has been spent clustering neurons into transcriptomic or functional cell types and characterizing the differences between them. Beyond sub…

"My New Year's Resolution is to find a principled way to think about all those cell types in the brain"

Why friend, you are in luck, because @rgast.bsky.social has just the perspective for you: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are manifolds real?
Are latent circuits real?
Tatiana @engeltatiana.bsky.social uses one, infers the other, and says yes to both.

Also, how timescales are different and the same across the entire brain...

braininspired.co/podcast/226/

A real pleasure and honor interviewing @neurozoe.bsky.social. Check out her story!

The most-cited neuroscience papers from the past 30 years Highly cited papers reflect the surge in artificial-intelligence research in the field and other technical advances.

@thetransmitter.bsky.social gathered citation metrics for the top neuroscience papers published over the past 30 years and assembled a list of the top 20 to try to capture a different view of the field’s changing landscape. www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/w...

#neuroskyence #StateOfNeuroscience

Tips to navigate SfN as a trainee As the mammoth annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience kicks off, here is some guidance to get the most out of it—plus a request for principal investigators to train students in “soft skills.”…

As @sfn.org kicks off, here is some guidance to help you get the most out of it—plus a request for principal investigators to train students in “soft skills.”

By @drnancypadilla.bsky.social

#SfN25 #neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...

The Transmitter’s Rising Stars of Neuroscience 2025 We recognize the outstanding achievements of 25 neuroscientists who stand to shape the field for years to come.

Congrats to the @thetransmitter.bsky.social Rising Stars of Neuroscience, including our own @drnancypadilla.bsky.social and @megkirch.bsky.social! 🌟

www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...

Vocal ontogeny in Mus musculus Infants of many species produce distress calls when in need of parental care. As they mature and gain independence from caregivers, juveniles stop producing infant calls and begin producing adult-like...

Another study to share, led by my grad student Nicole Pranic! Before diving in, I'll add that Nicole (who is clever, tenacious, and interested in neural changes that underlie developmental changes in social behaviors) is looking for a post-doc position! Please RT!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congrats Malu!! So well deserved!

Happy to share my lab's first review article!

We outline how the lateral habenula is a critical regulator of almost every type of social behavior, from pro- to anti-social behaviors, in both sexes, and across the lifespan. Hopefully this can serve as a useful reference!

rdcu.be/eLWPw

I am thrilled to share our latest work: we identified a population of central amygdala neurons that promote the earliest and perhaps most important social behavior: pup suckling!... We also developed new tools for pup neuroscience
Work by @Jeff Moore now at USC, a collaboration with @Sam Pfaff lab

So helpful, informative and such a great special episode! Thank you @drnancypadilla.bsky.social and @moeneuro.bsky.social for doing this!!

Applying to faculty jobs 101 — Stories of WiN This episode features Dr. Monique Smith (Assistant Professor, UCSD) discussing faculty job applications with host Dr. Nancy Padilla-Coreano.

Applying for faculty jobs this cycle? Check out our latest special episode! @moeneuro.bsky.social and @drnancypadilla.bsky.social discuss when to apply, important considerations when preparing applications, and more! Listen below!

www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...

#AcademicBluesky #NeuroJobs

Check this out! It was such a pleasure capturing her story!

Maternal aggression driven by the transient mobilisation of a dormant hormone-sensitive circuit - Nature Communications Mothers can fiercely defend their young, but how the brain triggers this response remains to a large extent a mystery. Here, authors show that a dormant, hormone-sensitive brain circuit switches on to spark maternal aggression during the lactation period.

1/n. New paper from us: here we explore the mechanisms underlying maternal aggression in mice as a means of addressing how an individual transiently can gain access to a behaviour normally outside of its repertoire. Lead investigator Stefanos Stagkourakis (not on 🦋)🧵:

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

Neuroscience lecture by Dr. Chris Zimmerman on Body-Brain interactions in learning

Excited to hear the latest science updates from @czimmerman.bsky.social on Monday, 1-2 pm CST. You can join us too—either on Zoom or in person! bit.ly/3VOJrcy

When @laurapritschet.bsky.social & Pavel Shapturenka set out to build the 28&Me + 28&He datasets, I don't think any of us could've predicted the spectacularly creative ways the datasets would be used years later. That's the power of open science. 👇🏼

Check this out!! Neat unsupervised quantifications of rich social behavior, while simultaneously recording from the entire hormone-sensitive subcortical social behavior network. Massive effort, congrats @endoeartha.bsky.social !!

Transitions in dynamical regime and neural mode during perceptual decisions - Nature Simultaneous recordings were made of hundreds of neurons in the rat frontal cortex and striatum, showing that decision commitment involves a rapid, coordinated transition in dynamical regime and neura...

How does the brain decide? 🧠

Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc.

After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up.

rdcu.be/eGUrv