James Howard
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howardlab.bsky.social
James Howard
@howardlab.bsky.social
290 followers 950 following 2 posts

Cognitive Neuroscientist | Assistant Professor at Brandeis University | Reward, learning, decision making, olfaction | www.thehowardlab.org

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Neuroscience 42%
Psychology 15%
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Reposted by James H. Howard

storiesofwin.bsky.social
Stories of WiN @storiesofwin.bsky.social · May 14
Check out our latest profile! Dr. Eve Marder studies the stability and flexibility of neural circuit function. Follow the link below to learn more!

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

#StoriesofWiN #WomenInNeuroscience #WomenInNeuro

Reposted by James H. Howard

talialerner.bsky.social
Talia Lerner @talialerner.bsky.social · Apr 29
All NIDA F31 diversity scholars officially losing their funding...

I barely have words.

Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.

Reposted by James H. Howard, Michael Müller, Tabitha Bonilla

achukilissa @achukilissa.bsky.social · Apr 23
My god. He’s gone after the Civil Rights Act!!!!

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose.  A
www.whitehouse.gov

Reposted by James H. Howard, Thomas Krafft, Joni Lovenduski , and 3 more

chrislhayes.bsky.social
Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · Apr 18
This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!

Reposted by James H. Howard, Shannon M. Monnat, Jen Nelles , and 1 more

mayasen.bsky.social
Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · Apr 18
Ok so yeah, this has quickly become the #1 misunderstanding about the canceled grants

the grants are not “subsidies” or “entitlements” to Harvard or Princeton or whatever

they aren’t going into universities’ endowments

they are competitive contracts won by these universities to do research
mayasen.bsky.social Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · Apr 15
There is a PR narrative quickly emerging about “entitlement” of elite universities, as if this $ is some sort of subsidy

Harvard & others must counter this quickly

The $ doesn’t flow into Harvard’s coffers - this is grant money, most of which goes to research the govt has agreed has social value

Reposted by James H. Howard

mayasen.bsky.social
Maya Sen @mayasen.bsky.social · Apr 15
There is a PR narrative quickly emerging about “entitlement” of elite universities, as if this $ is some sort of subsidy

Harvard & others must counter this quickly

The $ doesn’t flow into Harvard’s coffers - this is grant money, most of which goes to research the govt has agreed has social value

Reposted by James H. Howard

behrenstimb.bsky.social
Tim Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social · Apr 15
Very nice indeed from Schoenbaum lab www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Hippocampal output suppresses orbitofrontal cortex schema cell formation - Nature Neuroscience
Inactivation of the ventral subiculum does not change existing schema cells in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) but aids their formation during new learning. This challenges the idea that the OFC relies...
www.nature.com

Reposted by James H. Howard

hannahrsnyder.bsky.social
Hannah R Snyder @hannahrsnyder.bsky.social · Mar 10
Our Forms-H "reversion guide" is now ready to share! Thanks greatly to my grad student Elizabeth Marsh who drafted much of this and fantastic pre-award assoc. dir. Christine DiBlasi who reviewed it for us this morning. Strength and fortitude to everyone submitting! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Reposted by James H. Howard

epopppp.bsky.social
Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · Mar 7
We need some better language for pushing back against what the administration is doing. They’re not “ending DEI.”

No. They're firing women and people of color in the military.
They’re forbidding whole fields of research.
They’re erasing trans people from existence.

Reposted by James H. Howard, Elizabeth Pisani, Donald Tomaskovic‐Devey , and 4 more

standupforscience.bsky.social
Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · Mar 2
WHERE WILL YOU BE ON MARCH 7TH!?

Head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ or the link in our bio to find your closest event—or add one if you're hosting one!

#standupforscience2025
Map of Stand Up for Science events, with official SUFS events in Red and solidarity events in Blue

Reposted by James H. Howard, Usama Bilal

jlweiner.bsky.social
Jeff Weiner @jlweiner.bsky.social · Feb 5
The CSR comm I'm on just pulled all Diversity F grants from the current review cycle. These apps are reviewed alongside (and by the same criteria) as all other F grants. So, instead of helping these trainees, they will actually be punished by having their grant reviews delayed at least 1 cycle !?!?

howardlab.bsky.social
James Howard @howardlab.bsky.social · Feb 7
Disheartening and infuriating that these funding mechanisms can be erased so easily. How to communicate to a trainee that any of this was serious in the first place?

Reposted by James H. Howard, Jae-Young Son

vpmurty.bsky.social
Deepu Murty @vpmurty.bsky.social · Nov 23
I want to draw attention to a special issue that Lila Davachi and I put together to memorialize our friend and colleague Sarah DuBrow. It’s full of papers inspired by her work and her being from a group of collaborators, friends, and fans! Thanks @bradpostle.bsky.social for helping make this happen.

Reposted by James H. Howard

hugospiers.bsky.social
Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · Jan 14
Going beyond integrating value - dopamine responses are more sophisticated:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The curious case of dopaminergic prediction errors and learning associative information beyond value - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Midbrain dopamine neurons are widely assumed to signal a unidimensional value-based prediction error. In this Perspective, Kahnt and Schoenbaum overview accumulating evidence that challenges this assu...
www.nature.com

howardlab.bsky.social
James Howard @howardlab.bsky.social · Aug 30
Excited to share a new paper just out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that patterns of prediction error signals in human midbrain carry reward identity information, with implications for the kinds of learning these error signals support. Check it out!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Distributed midbrain responses signal the content of positive identity prediction errors
Recent work across species has shown that midbrain dopamine neurons signal not only errors in the prediction of reward value but also in the predictio…
www.sciencedirect.com