Dr. Samantha Fede

PS ... would also add more broadly, what is our ridiculous system that I still have student loan debt 14 yrs after undergrad and 8 yrs after PhD despite having consistent and decently paid positions (4/4)

NIH LRPs are supposed to support clinical researchers to stay in US non-profit roles not high pay private industry jobs or leaving the country. This isn't free money, there is service commitment and application is a competitive, time consuming, research proposal at inital and each renewal. (3/4)

Last yr, received 1 yr renewal for another 22k as expected. I then submitted an app for the remaining. Instead, just got NOA for 19k over 2 more yrs, so would have to do ANOTHER yr renewal app to complete payoff. This was not the deal I applied for last summer or 4(!!) yrs ago. (2/4)

FYI: they changed the NIH LRP formula so that renewals don't actually pay your loans off. I prob shouldnt be suprised academic science is being devalued. To be specific: orig. award was 50% of student loan debt(44k award) over two years. 2 yr renewal supposed to cover the remaining amount. (1/4)

Congratulation to @katiew.bsky.social for being awarded the 2025 RSA Marlatt Mentorship Award!!! So proud of you Katie!! #RSA_ISBRA2025

Amazing talk on the impact of mindful parenting on alcohol use from Mallory Kismer... she was an absolutely rock star post-bac for me and I am excited to see her present her current work as she's wrapping up her clinical psych PhD! @rsaofficial.bsky.social

(Cont.) Dr. Copeland discussed effect of individualized positive alcohol memory of alcohol demand. And Prof. Field wraps it all up with a discussion on how behavioral economic models may partially reconcile our neurobiological models of addiction.

Session on behavioral economic mechanisms in alcohol research at @rsaofficial.bsky.social meeting. Dr. Weinzstok discusses cross-commodity purchasing and alcohol alternatives - no clear evidence for substitutabiliy. Dr. MacKillop discusses neuroeconimcs of alcohol demand with fMRI. 1/?

Attending Brain Initiative roundtable @rsaofficial.bsky.social... optimistic presentations on tools available to researchers esp. in preclinical space. Notable that when asked about BRAIN k99/r00, Dr. Lantz said training funding was "expired to align with current administration goals and priorities"

The QA was preselected, fairly innocuous questions with canned answers. FWIW, Koob did seem to be acknowledging that he was limited on what he could say. The vibe from him was "we are all at the mercy of policies from above, talk to your PO, they know as much as I do".

Considering this talk was surely approved by powers that be, that was more enlightening than expected. As a former intramural postdoc, list of RIF people felt like a eulogy. Now Koob is trying to convince us (or nih director?) that niaaa is in line with new priorities (and should continue to exist?)

First full day of @rsaofficial.bsky.social 2025 meeting. Great seeing friends/colleagues last night. Starts with a NIAAA update from Dr. Koob. Most notable take-aways: no more NIAAA study sections... 25% reduction in staff.... no news on budget... 1/2

Does anyone know what's up with this message on NIAAA's website? "Due to HHS and NIH restructuring, this website will be maintained, but no new content will be added." I don't see that message on other institute pages...

I would love to loiter in the faculty/staff parking lot & demand explanations from all the students casually parking there until they move their cars in shame (since tickets clearly don't work). Pay your dues and walk a mile each way from the parking lot like we did in ug (and grad, and post-doc)!

Wrapping up at the first Society for Philosophy and Neuroscience (SPAN)... Gave a talk on addiction, attention, and agency with @katefinley.bsky.social

Saturday of ##SOBP2025 starts at 8am(!!) but we're here for exciting talks on AI. Dr. Desmond Patton presents important work on social media and gun violence. Highlights important interactions between virtual and physical neighborhoods and discussing CASM- with caution on potential misuse.

Really interesting plenary from Dr. Edward Chang on next generation closed and open loop dbs for depression and pain. Great example of AI application that doesn't feel like jumping on the bandwagon. Deeply impactful use of intensive data on a per subject basis. #SOBP2025

Day 2 of #SOBP2025 -- we're starting with a plenary on machine learning in psychiatry from Dr. Tim Hahn. Highlights the limitations of group level inference and discusses the potential of dynamical systems modeling.

2/2 there's a lot of assertions made here... many of which rely on statements that as described by Dr. Rolls I wouldn't quite agree with. Any one else have any thoughts on this?

Who's at #SOBP2025 in Toronto? We start the plenary "decoding brain states" with Edmund Rolls giving us a very traditional behavioral account of emotion in the brain.

Last day of #BrainStimConf starts with plenary from Dr. Shirley Fecteau on NIBS for SUD. Take away is that there's still a lot of variability for TUD, AUD, CUD. Possible avs for improvement: consider comorbidity, GMV, functional connectivity, concurrent therapy, cue timing, tx adherence, stim site.

Day 2, Plenary 2: Ulf Ziemann discusses closed-loop TMS. Take-aways: the brain has highest excitability (and greater response to stimulation) at the troughs of mu oscillations. Brain state specific stimulation is more efficient, and can be achieved with real-time EEG calculation. #BrainStimConf

Day 2 of #BrainStimConf morning plenaries. Dr. Randolph Nudo starts the day with a presentation about the impact of stimulation on neuroplasticity. Major focus on falsifiable models.

Always great to hear research from TMS/AUD scientists. Afternoon symposium at #BrainStimConf starting with talks from Padula & Kinney. Take away is that multiple targets (dlPFC, mPFC, dACC).

International Brain Stimulation Award recipient Walter Paulus gives an overview of the field and his career at #BrainStimConf

Kim Butts Pauly presents an overview of transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS). Great detail on how it actually works and a take away that this is a very promising technique but its complicated with a lot of dosing parameters and uncertainty remaining. Gave useful references #BrainStimConf

Second plenary of #BrainStimConf from Charlotte Stagg discussing developments in NIBS for motor function. 1) deep brain structures like thalamus targeted with specificity (and during MRI) with TUS; and 2) brain state during stim leads to specific effects; need to target specific oscillations.

In the first plenary, Marom Bikson presents disposable wearable electrical stimulation to improve brain stimulation treatment access. All this is without electronics. For direct current application-- vibes in the room seem quite excited.

Harold Sackeim presents conference attendance numbers across the last few years (more than 1600 this year)

Harold Sackeim presents figure showing growth in number of brain stimulation publications over time

Opening remarks of #BrainStimConf highlight the expansion of the field (and this conference itself). More than 1600 colleagues here in Kobe! Interesting data on the increasing impact (and decreasing acceptance rate) for the journal as well.

First day of the #BrainStimConf in Kobe, Japan. I often post about conferences for those who can't make it, but this is my first time doing it here rather than the other place. Let's see how it goes!