Kauê Machado Costa
@kmcostalab.com
Neuroscientist 🧠
Brazilian
Assistant Professor at UAB Dept. of Psychology
Allen Institute Next Generation Leader
Interested in dopamine, cortex, learning, cognition, and more
kmcostalab.com
Brazilian
Assistant Professor at UAB Dept. of Psychology
Allen Institute Next Generation Leader
Interested in dopamine, cortex, learning, cognition, and more
kmcostalab.com
Happy to be featured by the @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social! Their Impact Award has been transformative for the lab and setting us on an exciting new research direction!
www.parkinson.org/living-with-...
www.parkinson.org/living-with-...
Kauê M. Costa, PhD
Kauê M. Costa, PhD, recipient of a Parkinson’s Foundation Impact Award, is diving into the complex neuroscience of PD to better understand what causes cognitive PD symptoms to occur before movement sy...
www.parkinson.org
October 31, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Happy to be featured by the @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social! Their Impact Award has been transformative for the lab and setting us on an exciting new research direction!
www.parkinson.org/living-with-...
www.parkinson.org/living-with-...
Out in @elife.bsky.social!
Lora and the Roeper lab discovered a new mechanism by which surviving dopamine neurons recover their function in a model of Parkinson's - a key step for understanding this disease!
@goetheuni.bsky.social @uabneuro.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/104...
Lora and the Roeper lab discovered a new mechanism by which surviving dopamine neurons recover their function in a model of Parkinson's - a key step for understanding this disease!
@goetheuni.bsky.social @uabneuro.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/104...
Recovery of the full in vivo firing range in post-lesion surviving DA SN neurons associated with Kv4.3-mediated pacemaker plasticity
elifesciences.org
September 19, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Out in @elife.bsky.social!
Lora and the Roeper lab discovered a new mechanism by which surviving dopamine neurons recover their function in a model of Parkinson's - a key step for understanding this disease!
@goetheuni.bsky.social @uabneuro.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/104...
Lora and the Roeper lab discovered a new mechanism by which surviving dopamine neurons recover their function in a model of Parkinson's - a key step for understanding this disease!
@goetheuni.bsky.social @uabneuro.bsky.social
elifesciences.org/articles/104...
Reposted by Kauê Machado Costa
Alright rat #neuroskyence community, lock in! We have an #OpenScienceWeek treat for you.
You've asked for it in our DMs, comments, and SfN booth. 🥁🥁🥁
MapMyCells can now map rat data and map it onto any of our mouse or human taxonomies!
More info: community.brain-map.org/t/new-featur...
You've asked for it in our DMs, comments, and SfN booth. 🥁🥁🥁
MapMyCells can now map rat data and map it onto any of our mouse or human taxonomies!
More info: community.brain-map.org/t/new-featur...
New features in MapMyCells: Basal Ganglia taxonomy and cross-species mapping
We are pleased to announce two new features in MapMyCells. MapMyCells now allows users to map data onto the Consensus Basal Ganglia taxonomy, a multi-species (human, macaque, marmoset) taxonomy of ...
community.brain-map.org
September 18, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Alright rat #neuroskyence community, lock in! We have an #OpenScienceWeek treat for you.
You've asked for it in our DMs, comments, and SfN booth. 🥁🥁🥁
MapMyCells can now map rat data and map it onto any of our mouse or human taxonomies!
More info: community.brain-map.org/t/new-featur...
You've asked for it in our DMs, comments, and SfN booth. 🥁🥁🥁
MapMyCells can now map rat data and map it onto any of our mouse or human taxonomies!
More info: community.brain-map.org/t/new-featur...
I'm super happy to have the lab featured on @thetransmitter.bsky.social, my favorite place for neuroscience news!
#neuroskyence
@uabneuro.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
@uabneuro.bsky.social
In this month’s “Liftoff,” @matthiasnau.bsky.social talks about the importance of making quick decisions as a PI, and @kmcostalab.com shares how lab members being mad at a PI can sometimes be a good thing.
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
Liftoff: New lab alerts
Learn about early-career scientists starting their own labs.
www.thetransmitter.org
September 17, 2025 at 6:06 PM
I'm super happy to have the lab featured on @thetransmitter.bsky.social, my favorite place for neuroscience news!
#neuroskyence
@uabneuro.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
@uabneuro.bsky.social
I am extremely grateful to the @pfresearchteam.bsky.social for this great opportunity!
📢 Congratulations to 2025 Impact Awardee, Dr. Kauê Costa from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, whose project focuses on uncovering the dopaminergic mechanisms of early cognitive deficits in #Parkinsons disease.
@kmcostalab.com @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
@kmcostalab.com @parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 2:08 AM
I am extremely grateful to the @pfresearchteam.bsky.social for this great opportunity!
The lab has received a Parkinson's Foundation Impact Award!
Together with @poonamthakur.bsky.social, we will explore how dopamine signaling changes in early PD impacts cognition. We are honored and grateful for this opportunity!
proposalcentral.com/Insights/E_E...
@parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
Together with @poonamthakur.bsky.social, we will explore how dopamine signaling changes in early PD impacts cognition. We are honored and grateful for this opportunity!
proposalcentral.com/Insights/E_E...
@parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
August 26, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The lab has received a Parkinson's Foundation Impact Award!
Together with @poonamthakur.bsky.social, we will explore how dopamine signaling changes in early PD impacts cognition. We are honored and grateful for this opportunity!
proposalcentral.com/Insights/E_E...
@parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
Together with @poonamthakur.bsky.social, we will explore how dopamine signaling changes in early PD impacts cognition. We are honored and grateful for this opportunity!
proposalcentral.com/Insights/E_E...
@parkinsondotorg.bsky.social
GREAT NEWS! Our paper on dopamine signaling of valueless prediction errors is out in Science Advances @science.org! I found that striatal dopamine tracks cue-cue prediction errors in sensory preconditioning, which goes against model-free ideas of dopamine function
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Striatal dopamine signals errors in prediction across different informational domains
Dopamine reflects prediction errors not only about reward but also about valueless stimuli, challenging many current theories.
www.science.org
July 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
GREAT NEWS! Our paper on dopamine signaling of valueless prediction errors is out in Science Advances @science.org! I found that striatal dopamine tracks cue-cue prediction errors in sensory preconditioning, which goes against model-free ideas of dopamine function
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Funding updates coming soon, and the lab is looking to recruit motivated postdocs, grad students, or postbacs with expertise in rodent behavior, stereotactic surgery, and neural data analysis. Come help us figure out the neural mechanisms of learning and cognition! See link:
www.kmcostalab.com/join
www.kmcostalab.com/join
K.M. Costa Lab - Join
Join
www.kmcostalab.com
June 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Funding updates coming soon, and the lab is looking to recruit motivated postdocs, grad students, or postbacs with expertise in rodent behavior, stereotactic surgery, and neural data analysis. Come help us figure out the neural mechanisms of learning and cognition! See link:
www.kmcostalab.com/join
www.kmcostalab.com/join
This one is special - through my collaborator Anderson Herculano, we received a special grant from Brazil for collaborations with expat Brazilian PIs like me.
I am beyond thrilled to start working with my alma mater @ufpa.bsky.social on Amazonian research applied to the brain and mental health🥳
I am beyond thrilled to start working with my alma mater @ufpa.bsky.social on Amazonian research applied to the brain and mental health🥳
May 29, 2025 at 8:47 PM
This one is special - through my collaborator Anderson Herculano, we received a special grant from Brazil for collaborations with expat Brazilian PIs like me.
I am beyond thrilled to start working with my alma mater @ufpa.bsky.social on Amazonian research applied to the brain and mental health🥳
I am beyond thrilled to start working with my alma mater @ufpa.bsky.social on Amazonian research applied to the brain and mental health🥳
This is a fantastic program. I learned quite a lot. Strongly recommend applying!
Open call for Next Generation Leaders!
Our NGL program recognizes early career scientists with fresh and innovative perspectives. For 3 years, NGLs contribute to ongoing research and initiatives at the Allen Institute.
Apply by June 3. alleninstitute.org/about/people...
Our NGL program recognizes early career scientists with fresh and innovative perspectives. For 3 years, NGLs contribute to ongoing research and initiatives at the Allen Institute.
Apply by June 3. alleninstitute.org/about/people...
Next Generation Leaders
The Next Generation Leaders program at the Allen Institute aims to support emerging and diverse early-career researchers in bioscience who will contribute to cultivating new ideas to make a broad, tra...
alleninstitute.org
May 1, 2025 at 8:27 PM
This is a fantastic program. I learned quite a lot. Strongly recommend applying!
Thrilled to see this great work by Bsky-less Wenhui Zong out in @natneuro.nature.com! It was a pleasure to contribute to this! The findings are wonderfully counterintuitive and provide surprising insight on the circuit bases of abstract representations in learning.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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
April 14, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Thrilled to see this great work by Bsky-less Wenhui Zong out in @natneuro.nature.com! It was a pleasure to contribute to this! The findings are wonderfully counterintuitive and provide surprising insight on the circuit bases of abstract representations in learning.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Kauê Machado Costa
Wonderful stand up for science rally in Birmingham! Well attended, gorgeous weather, and great thoughts!!
March 8, 2025 at 3:38 AM
Wonderful stand up for science rally in Birmingham! Well attended, gorgeous weather, and great thoughts!!
Love this - it reflects many things that I had thought about and debated heatedly with others. I will print this out for future arguments. 🧐
We are super happy to present our first preprint - the effect of our Rethinking Naturalistic Behaviour Workshop - where we look more critically at the term "naturalistic behaviour" and point to its vagueness and inconsistency in its use! osf.io/preprints/os...
March 5, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Love this - it reflects many things that I had thought about and debated heatedly with others. I will print this out for future arguments. 🧐
Reposted by Kauê Machado Costa
We are super happy to present our first preprint - the effect of our Rethinking Naturalistic Behaviour Workshop - where we look more critically at the term "naturalistic behaviour" and point to its vagueness and inconsistency in its use! osf.io/preprints/os...
March 5, 2025 at 11:28 AM
We are super happy to present our first preprint - the effect of our Rethinking Naturalistic Behaviour Workshop - where we look more critically at the term "naturalistic behaviour" and point to its vagueness and inconsistency in its use! osf.io/preprints/os...
I am happy to share my latest (NIH funded) work, out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
!
We show that task demands define the correlations between accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine, in a pattern that supports a tripartite coincidence model of striatal plasticity.
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social
!
We show that task demands define the correlations between accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine, in a pattern that supports a tripartite coincidence model of striatal plasticity.
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens depend on behavioral task states
Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) changes quickly in response to errors in predicting events like reward delivery1,2,3 but also slowly …
sciencedirect.com
March 3, 2025 at 10:16 PM
I am happy to share my latest (NIH funded) work, out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social
!
We show that task demands define the correlations between accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine, in a pattern that supports a tripartite coincidence model of striatal plasticity.
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social
!
We show that task demands define the correlations between accumbal dopamine and acetylcholine, in a pattern that supports a tripartite coincidence model of striatal plasticity.
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In these turbulent times, I am happy to share our NIH-supported paper in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
Led by Zhewei Zhang, we discuss the rigor needed to rule out TDRL models of dopamine function - after all, when you aim at the king, you better not miss🎯
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by Zhewei Zhang, we discuss the rigor needed to rule out TDRL models of dopamine function - after all, when you aim at the king, you better not miss🎯
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The devilish details affecting TDRL models in dopamine research
Over recent decades, temporal difference reinforcement learning (TDRL) models have successfully explained much dopamine (DA) activity. This success ha…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 26, 2025 at 5:21 PM
In these turbulent times, I am happy to share our NIH-supported paper in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
Led by Zhewei Zhang, we discuss the rigor needed to rule out TDRL models of dopamine function - after all, when you aim at the king, you better not miss🎯
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Led by Zhewei Zhang, we discuss the rigor needed to rule out TDRL models of dopamine function - after all, when you aim at the king, you better not miss🎯
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Good start of 2025! Happy that this paper from @MoussawiKhaled lab, which I had the great pleasure to help with, is now online in its final version. This study rigorously tested the cue reactivity hypothesis of dopamine in addiction, with surprising results! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Generalized cue reactivity in rat dopamine neurons after opioids - Nature Communications
A widely accepted assumption in addiction research is that overvaluation of drug cues is caused by enhanced dopaminergic response to these cues. Here, the authors show similar dopamine neuronal respon...
www.nature.com
January 3, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Good start of 2025! Happy that this paper from @MoussawiKhaled lab, which I had the great pleasure to help with, is now online in its final version. This study rigorously tested the cue reactivity hypothesis of dopamine in addiction, with surprising results! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Kauê Machado Costa
Meet our 2024 cohort of Next Generation Leaders! For the next 3 years, they will network with other rising stars, participate in professional development, and share their ideas for future research directions.
December 19, 2024 at 6:20 PM
Meet our 2024 cohort of Next Generation Leaders! For the next 3 years, they will network with other rising stars, participate in professional development, and share their ideas for future research directions.
Lab Christmas party! Seemed appropriate to celebrate a great year (and our first successful surgeries!) with tasty treats, hot cocoa with marshmallows, and a Secret Santa 😁 I hope the building and learning we all did this year will bear fruit in 2025!
December 18, 2024 at 1:40 PM
Lab Christmas party! Seemed appropriate to celebrate a great year (and our first successful surgeries!) with tasty treats, hot cocoa with marshmallows, and a Secret Santa 😁 I hope the building and learning we all did this year will bear fruit in 2025!
I am thrilled to see how quickly neuroscience has evolved on this platform! I already have way more, and more meaningful, engagement here than I ever had on X. It feels like a social media just for neuroscience, with little distractions - which is what I always wanted 🥳🧠
December 9, 2024 at 5:12 AM
I am thrilled to see how quickly neuroscience has evolved on this platform! I already have way more, and more meaningful, engagement here than I ever had on X. It feels like a social media just for neuroscience, with little distractions - which is what I always wanted 🥳🧠
With all the recent commotion, I ended up never sharing the lab's first picnic/hiking trip. We had a blast! 😄
It may seem like a cliche, but having the chance to guide sharp, dedicated, and enthusiastic people is truly one of the best parts of being a PI. So happy to celebrate our fledgling team!
It may seem like a cliche, but having the chance to guide sharp, dedicated, and enthusiastic people is truly one of the best parts of being a PI. So happy to celebrate our fledgling team!
November 17, 2024 at 10:23 PM
With all the recent commotion, I ended up never sharing the lab's first picnic/hiking trip. We had a blast! 😄
It may seem like a cliche, but having the chance to guide sharp, dedicated, and enthusiastic people is truly one of the best parts of being a PI. So happy to celebrate our fledgling team!
It may seem like a cliche, but having the chance to guide sharp, dedicated, and enthusiastic people is truly one of the best parts of being a PI. So happy to celebrate our fledgling team!
Someone once told me that every lab is a journey that starts in an empty room(s). Yesterday I got mine. So it begins 🧠🐀
January 9, 2024 at 7:40 PM
Someone once told me that every lab is a journey that starts in an empty room(s). Yesterday I got mine. So it begins 🧠🐀
I'm excited to present two different stories this SFN, one in a Sunday PM mini-symposium chaired by the great @purely_science, and another in a Tuesday PM poster.
Hop by to talk some science, and if you'd like to join my new lab! - kmcostalab.com
Hop by to talk some science, and if you'd like to join my new lab! - kmcostalab.com
November 10, 2023 at 1:50 PM
I'm excited to present two different stories this SFN, one in a Sunday PM mini-symposium chaired by the great @purely_science, and another in a Tuesday PM poster.
Hop by to talk some science, and if you'd like to join my new lab! - kmcostalab.com
Hop by to talk some science, and if you'd like to join my new lab! - kmcostalab.com
Faculty profile page is out! Super excited to start the lab in a few months!
www.uab.edu/cas/psycholo...
www.uab.edu/cas/psycholo...
October 24, 2023 at 3:50 PM
Faculty profile page is out! Super excited to start the lab in a few months!
www.uab.edu/cas/psycholo...
www.uab.edu/cas/psycholo...
I took the suggestion to join Blue sky! I'm starting my lab soon at UAB, where I'll be investigating neural mechanisms of learning, focusing on dopamine, frontal cortex, basal ganglia, and latent learning.
My website is kmcostalab.com, and I'm looking to hire at all levels, including a lab manager!
My website is kmcostalab.com, and I'm looking to hire at all levels, including a lab manager!
September 24, 2023 at 4:35 PM
I took the suggestion to join Blue sky! I'm starting my lab soon at UAB, where I'll be investigating neural mechanisms of learning, focusing on dopamine, frontal cortex, basal ganglia, and latent learning.
My website is kmcostalab.com, and I'm looking to hire at all levels, including a lab manager!
My website is kmcostalab.com, and I'm looking to hire at all levels, including a lab manager!