Caroline Phelps
@carolinephelps.bsky.social
Chronic pain, decision making and memory | Postdoc at Georgia Tech in NRD lab | Tennis player | Loves tea, cake and a good book.
Poppy is “helping” me read this paper today
October 13, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Poppy is “helping” me read this paper today
Is the pain of null data taking up slots in your working memory? Or shifting you over optimum arousal on the Yerkes Dodson curve?
Not for me! I've externalized it to this lovely preprint!
Plus, read on for why it might not be the pain that causes deficits in your working memory... 🧵
Not for me! I've externalized it to this lovely preprint!
Plus, read on for why it might not be the pain that causes deficits in your working memory... 🧵
No Effect of Chronic or Acute Pain on Working Memory in the Sternberg Task https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.13.653893v1
May 22, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Is the pain of null data taking up slots in your working memory? Or shifting you over optimum arousal on the Yerkes Dodson curve?
Not for me! I've externalized it to this lovely preprint!
Plus, read on for why it might not be the pain that causes deficits in your working memory... 🧵
Not for me! I've externalized it to this lovely preprint!
Plus, read on for why it might not be the pain that causes deficits in your working memory... 🧵
Poppy, Stella and Noelle 100% agree with this writeup
May 19, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Poppy, Stella and Noelle 100% agree with this writeup
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
When is a "pathogenic" variant in a classic pain gene (NaV1.7) not pathogenic? When its carried by many thousands of people and has no evidence of a pain phenotype or analgesic prescriptions... We need to reconsider how we assign pathogenicity to these variants.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Carriers of SCN9A variants linked to inherited and acquired pain syndromes show no alteration in the prevalence of pain or analgesic usage in the UK Biobank cohort
The voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.7, encoded by the SCN9A gene, is integral to nociceptor excitability and pain sensation. Multiple gain-of-function SCN9A variants have been reported to cause auto...
www.medrxiv.org
March 19, 2025 at 7:16 AM
When is a "pathogenic" variant in a classic pain gene (NaV1.7) not pathogenic? When its carried by many thousands of people and has no evidence of a pain phenotype or analgesic prescriptions... We need to reconsider how we assign pathogenicity to these variants.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
Interested in dopamine? Have fMRI data? We’ve identified a temporal BOLD feature that carries rich information about dopamine physiology. This measure, obtainable from resting-state and task fMRI, opens new ways to indirectly probe dopamine’s role in cognition and disease. 1/n tinyurl.com/bddyz67b
Temporal fMRI Dynamics Map Dopamine Physiology
Spatial variations in dopamine function are linked to cognition and substance use disorders but are challenging to characterize with current methods. Because dopamine influences blood vessel dilation,...
www.biorxiv.org
March 26, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Interested in dopamine? Have fMRI data? We’ve identified a temporal BOLD feature that carries rich information about dopamine physiology. This measure, obtainable from resting-state and task fMRI, opens new ways to indirectly probe dopamine’s role in cognition and disease. 1/n tinyurl.com/bddyz67b
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
Excited to share our latest publication, out now in @ScienceAdvances: “Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... Read the full thread for details!
Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain
Computational modeling reveals how uncertainty transforms harmless stimuli into perceptions of pain.
www.science.org
March 19, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Excited to share our latest publication, out now in @ScienceAdvances: “Thermosensory predictive coding underpins an illusion of pain.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/.... Read the full thread for details!
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
Why do we remember so many details of our experiences even when it is unclear if we will actually ever need them?
In a new preprint, @marcelomattar.bsky.social and I asked whether this property is adaptive, because what will be relevant in the future often (usually?!) isn’t apparent.
In a new preprint, @marcelomattar.bsky.social and I asked whether this property is adaptive, because what will be relevant in the future often (usually?!) isn’t apparent.
Episodic memory facilitates flexible decision making via access to detailed events
Our experiences contain countless details that may be important in the future, yet we rarely know which will matter and which won't. This uncertainty poses a difficult challenge for adaptive decision ...
www.biorxiv.org
March 14, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Why do we remember so many details of our experiences even when it is unclear if we will actually ever need them?
In a new preprint, @marcelomattar.bsky.social and I asked whether this property is adaptive, because what will be relevant in the future often (usually?!) isn’t apparent.
In a new preprint, @marcelomattar.bsky.social and I asked whether this property is adaptive, because what will be relevant in the future often (usually?!) isn’t apparent.
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
***New paper from our lab*** By Jennika Veinot
Low working memory underpins the association between aberrant functional properties of pain modulation circuitry and chronic back pain severity.
Journal of PAIN, 2025
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#pain #neuroscience #cognition
Low working memory underpins the association between aberrant functional properties of pain modulation circuitry and chronic back pain severity.
Journal of PAIN, 2025
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#pain #neuroscience #cognition
March 4, 2025 at 4:11 PM
***New paper from our lab*** By Jennika Veinot
Low working memory underpins the association between aberrant functional properties of pain modulation circuitry and chronic back pain severity.
Journal of PAIN, 2025
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#pain #neuroscience #cognition
Low working memory underpins the association between aberrant functional properties of pain modulation circuitry and chronic back pain severity.
Journal of PAIN, 2025
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#pain #neuroscience #cognition
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
Can you blind taste and guess Sauvignon Blanc from Riesling? If so, congrats—they’re pretty different! But just know… rats can too. 🐀🍾 h/t @cprofaci.bsky.social
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Rats can distinguish (and generalize) among two white wine varieties - Animal Cognition
In the olfactory literature there is considerable debate about how differences in olfactory receptors across different species map onto variations in perceptual acuity and performance. Although humans...
link.springer.com
March 4, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Can you blind taste and guess Sauvignon Blanc from Riesling? If so, congrats—they’re pretty different! But just know… rats can too. 🐀🍾 h/t @cprofaci.bsky.social
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
February 27, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Caroline Phelps
Just a reminder - if you're interested in human decision-making, this is a great set of people to follow (and please let me know if you want to be added!)
Hello #neuroeconomists and decision (neuro)scientists - did I miss you in this starterpack? Just reply to this post or DM if you'd like to be added!
go.bsky.app/1K9Suh
go.bsky.app/1K9Suh
February 27, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Just a reminder - if you're interested in human decision-making, this is a great set of people to follow (and please let me know if you want to be added!)
Are you feeling stuck in your ways? Less excited about exploring anything new? You may be aging!
Read on for insight into why your decision making is changing.
Read on for insight into why your decision making is changing.
The dynamics of explore-exploit decisions suggest a threshold mechanism for reduced random exploration in older adults https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.13.638023v1
February 24, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Are you feeling stuck in your ways? Less excited about exploring anything new? You may be aging!
Read on for insight into why your decision making is changing.
Read on for insight into why your decision making is changing.