Kate Wassum
@katewassum.bsky.social
Neuroscientist 🧠👩🏼🔬, UCLA, studying the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habits.
Pinned
Kate Wassum
@katewassum.bsky.social
· Feb 19
A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature
Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...
www.nature.com
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
We’re hiring a technician!!
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
November 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
We’re hiring a technician!!
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
Reposted by Kate Wassum
Submissions for #WCBR2026 open today! Please go to www.winterbrain.org Big Sky is my absolute favorite venue for this meeting. The science is top notch, the people are great, the meaning is inclusive, and I learned to ski as a 35 year old! Please repost!
July 1, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Submissions for #WCBR2026 open today! Please go to www.winterbrain.org Big Sky is my absolute favorite venue for this meeting. The science is top notch, the people are great, the meaning is inclusive, and I learned to ski as a 35 year old! Please repost!
Calling all amygdaloids!!! The #AmygdalaGRC is coming up this summer in Barcelona.
We’ve got talks, posters, networking, power hour, and tons of fun planned.
👀 the program 👇🏻
We’re accepting folks on a rolling basis, apply soon to make sure you get a spot: www.grc.org/amygdala-fun...
We’ve got talks, posters, networking, power hour, and tons of fun planned.
👀 the program 👇🏻
We’re accepting folks on a rolling basis, apply soon to make sure you get a spot: www.grc.org/amygdala-fun...
March 4, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Calling all amygdaloids!!! The #AmygdalaGRC is coming up this summer in Barcelona.
We’ve got talks, posters, networking, power hour, and tons of fun planned.
👀 the program 👇🏻
We’re accepting folks on a rolling basis, apply soon to make sure you get a spot: www.grc.org/amygdala-fun...
We’ve got talks, posters, networking, power hour, and tons of fun planned.
👀 the program 👇🏻
We’re accepting folks on a rolling basis, apply soon to make sure you get a spot: www.grc.org/amygdala-fun...
Reposted by Kate Wassum
New preprint! We untangle glutamatergic and dopaminergic subpopulations in the ventral tegmental area. Long thread incoming, buckle up friends. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Untangling dopamine and glutamate in the ventral tegmental area
Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons are of great interest for their central roles in motivation, learning, and psychiatric disorders. While hypotheses of VTA dopamine neuron function posit a...
www.biorxiv.org
February 27, 2025 at 7:25 PM
New preprint! We untangle glutamatergic and dopaminergic subpopulations in the ventral tegmental area. Long thread incoming, buckle up friends. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Kate Wassum
HEY SOCAL & LA FRIENDS!
We’ve gotten a TON of questions about how to get involved in SoCal/LA—and here’s the answer! ☀️🌎⬇️
Spread the word & tag someone in LA that should check it out!
We’ve gotten a TON of questions about how to get involved in SoCal/LA—and here’s the answer! ☀️🌎⬇️
Spread the word & tag someone in LA that should check it out!
Los Angeles people: join us 12pm March 7 for a rally for science at the Federal Building in Westwood, and please spread the word to any pro-science folks you know. @standupforscience.bsky.social @latimes.com @ktla.com @abc7.bsky.social @kcrw.com @laist.com @crooked.com @nbcla.com @foxla.bsky.social
March 1, 2025 at 12:19 AM
HEY SOCAL & LA FRIENDS!
We’ve gotten a TON of questions about how to get involved in SoCal/LA—and here’s the answer! ☀️🌎⬇️
Spread the word & tag someone in LA that should check it out!
We’ve gotten a TON of questions about how to get involved in SoCal/LA—and here’s the answer! ☀️🌎⬇️
Spread the word & tag someone in LA that should check it out!
Reposted by Kate Wassum
Scientists have found two ‘dials’ in the brain that help to explain how chronic stress hijacks decision-making
https://go.nature.com/41nrC88
https://go.nature.com/41nrC88
How chronic stress warps decision-making
Nerve-cell ‘highways’ identified in mice suggest that stress pushes the brain towards rigid habit and away from thoughtful choices.
go.nature.com
February 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Scientists have found two ‘dials’ in the brain that help to explain how chronic stress hijacks decision-making
https://go.nature.com/41nrC88
https://go.nature.com/41nrC88
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature
Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...
www.nature.com
February 19, 2025 at 11:37 PM
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
It felt like the time to return to my pocket community. Glad to have found you again.
Will post about my life, discoveries, and challenges as a 🧠👩🏼🔬.
Will post about my life, discoveries, and challenges as a 🧠👩🏼🔬.
a woman is standing in front of a door with the words i 'm here written in red
Alt: a woman is standing in front of a door with the words i 'm here written in red
media.tenor.com
February 15, 2025 at 6:25 PM
It felt like the time to return to my pocket community. Glad to have found you again.
Will post about my life, discoveries, and challenges as a 🧠👩🏼🔬.
Will post about my life, discoveries, and challenges as a 🧠👩🏼🔬.