Nicola Sambuco
@nicolasambuco.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, University of Bari.
https://nsambuco.github.io/
Former CSEA trainee at UF
Curating reward processing research → RewardSignals feed (#RewardSignals).
https://nsambuco.github.io/
Former CSEA trainee at UF
Curating reward processing research → RewardSignals feed (#RewardSignals).
Pinned
Nicola Sambuco
@nicolasambuco.bsky.social
· Nov 15
🧠💸 Launching the RewardSignals feed
RewardSignals is a custom feed collecting posts about reward processing and decision making.
To appear in the feed, tag your post with #RewardSignals.
You can find and pin the feed from the Feeds tab as “RewardSignals”.
#RewardSignals
RewardSignals is a custom feed collecting posts about reward processing and decision making.
To appear in the feed, tag your post with #RewardSignals.
You can find and pin the feed from the Feeds tab as “RewardSignals”.
#RewardSignals
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
January 9, 2026 at 1:27 AM
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
New paper & a thread on the results 👇
‘Reward-specific learning parameters change across normative adolescent development and are blunted in youth with high risk for depression’
acamh-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/doi/full/10....
‘Reward-specific learning parameters change across normative adolescent development and are blunted in youth with high risk for depression’
acamh-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/doi/full/10....
January 7, 2026 at 7:50 PM
New paper & a thread on the results 👇
‘Reward-specific learning parameters change across normative adolescent development and are blunted in youth with high risk for depression’
acamh-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/doi/full/10....
‘Reward-specific learning parameters change across normative adolescent development and are blunted in youth with high risk for depression’
acamh-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Very happy to see this last thesis paper in press @natcomms.nature.com! We combine intracranial EEG with multimodal MRI to study how interregional similarity in neurophysiology relates to different network scales ⚡ 🧠
Full story 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Full story 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
January 5, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Very happy to see this last thesis paper in press @natcomms.nature.com! We combine intracranial EEG with multimodal MRI to study how interregional similarity in neurophysiology relates to different network scales ⚡ 🧠
Full story 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Full story 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Would love to hear expert views on this paper. It appears to show that the operationalization of brain activity the field has relied on for 3 decades—the BOLD response—is not actually a sensible measure of brain activity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
BOLD signal changes can oppose oxygen metabolism across the human cortex - Nature Neuroscience
Using quantitative brain imaging, the authors show opposite fMRI BOLD signal to metabolic activity due to variable oxygen extraction across the human cortex. This questions the canonical interpretatio...
www.nature.com
January 5, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Would love to hear expert views on this paper. It appears to show that the operationalization of brain activity the field has relied on for 3 decades—the BOLD response—is not actually a sensible measure of brain activity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Postdoctoral research position in #ComputationalPsychiatry and #EEG as part of relmed.ac.uk trial testing reinforcement learning as biomarker for antidepressant treatment response. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @mikebrowning.bsky.social @relmed.bsky.social
Antidepressant treatment shouldn't be a guessing game. RELMED is working towards using advanced research to predict which medication is most likely to help each person along their individual path to recovery.
relmed.ac.uk
December 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Postdoctoral research position in #ComputationalPsychiatry and #EEG as part of relmed.ac.uk trial testing reinforcement learning as biomarker for antidepressant treatment response. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @mikebrowning.bsky.social @relmed.bsky.social
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Well, my New Year's resolution is to read less (seriously). But made it through lots of great books this year, including several from fields I'm less familiar with. Here are 10 books I gave 5 stars to this year along with an excerpt (usually belief-related; I have a type) from each
December 31, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Well, my New Year's resolution is to read less (seriously). But made it through lots of great books this year, including several from fields I'm less familiar with. Here are 10 books I gave 5 stars to this year along with an excerpt (usually belief-related; I have a type) from each
This made me realize that I’ve been heavily biased lately. I commit to at least 10% of citations in every relevant paper on the topic.
For 2026, I dare the human & rodent behavioral & cognitive neuroscience communities to find one NHP paper relevant to your research & cite it regularly next year when writing up your manuscripts. If you already cite one, find another one and double up. #Neuroskyence bsky.app/profile/vinc...
I definitely didn’t just scrape the web to get the h-index and total citation count as of 12/30/2025 for 319 living and dead nonhuman primate researchers to get a sense of publication metrics by rank on tenure-track.
December 31, 2025 at 4:48 AM
This made me realize that I’ve been heavily biased lately. I commit to at least 10% of citations in every relevant paper on the topic.
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
I definitely didn’t just scrape the web to get the h-index and total citation count as of 12/30/2025 for 319 living and dead nonhuman primate researchers to get a sense of publication metrics by rank on tenure-track.
December 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
I definitely didn’t just scrape the web to get the h-index and total citation count as of 12/30/2025 for 319 living and dead nonhuman primate researchers to get a sense of publication metrics by rank on tenure-track.
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Now published in Biological Reviews!
Continual decision‐making dynamics across biological organisms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Continual decision‐making dynamics across biological organisms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Continual decision‐making dynamics across biological organisms
Decision-making is a central function of adaptive behaviour in biological agents. However, strategies for adaptive decision-making can vary substantially across species. Here, we aim to extend the co...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 27, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Now published in Biological Reviews!
Continual decision‐making dynamics across biological organisms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Continual decision‐making dynamics across biological organisms onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reminds me of the network taxonomy challenges discussed by @lucinauddin.bsky.social. The field is moving toward anatomical labels (e.g. dorsal frontoparietal) over functional ones. Using functional names risks baking the reverse inference fallacy into the study design.
Valid critiques on reverse inference here. The friction often stems from rigid functional labels for resting-state networks. What if, instead of seeing these as definitive behavioral proxies, we treated them as circuit-level hypothesis generation for future task-based testing?
Bottom line is that this is all reverse inference of intrinsic functional connectivity. No task. No behavior. The take-home headline inferences (behavioral, cognitive, and psychological) are misaligned with the approach. You don't need imaging at all for drawing strong psych inferences.
December 28, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reminds me of the network taxonomy challenges discussed by @lucinauddin.bsky.social. The field is moving toward anatomical labels (e.g. dorsal frontoparietal) over functional ones. Using functional names risks baking the reverse inference fallacy into the study design.
Valid critiques on reverse inference here. The friction often stems from rigid functional labels for resting-state networks. What if, instead of seeing these as definitive behavioral proxies, we treated them as circuit-level hypothesis generation for future task-based testing?
Bottom line is that this is all reverse inference of intrinsic functional connectivity. No task. No behavior. The take-home headline inferences (behavioral, cognitive, and psychological) are misaligned with the approach. You don't need imaging at all for drawing strong psych inferences.
December 28, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Valid critiques on reverse inference here. The friction often stems from rigid functional labels for resting-state networks. What if, instead of seeing these as definitive behavioral proxies, we treated them as circuit-level hypothesis generation for future task-based testing?
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
I’ve mostly kept this space professional, but today I need to share something and ask for your help 🙏🏻
I’ve dedicated my entire career to neuroscience research in Russia. Through challenging times, my colleagues and I have done our best to continue the work we love and believe in...(1/4)
I’ve dedicated my entire career to neuroscience research in Russia. Through challenging times, my colleagues and I have done our best to continue the work we love and believe in...(1/4)
December 15, 2025 at 7:42 AM
I’ve mostly kept this space professional, but today I need to share something and ask for your help 🙏🏻
I’ve dedicated my entire career to neuroscience research in Russia. Through challenging times, my colleagues and I have done our best to continue the work we love and believe in...(1/4)
I’ve dedicated my entire career to neuroscience research in Russia. Through challenging times, my colleagues and I have done our best to continue the work we love and believe in...(1/4)
1/2 New in eNeuro: STs exhibit lowest intrinsic excitability in NAc Core compared to GTs and Intermediate Responders. This provides the first evidence linking low Core excitability directly to incentive salience attribution.
doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
Individual Variation in Intrinsic Neuronal Properties of Nucleus Accumbens Core and Shell Medium Spiny Neurons in Male Rats Prone to Sign- or Goal-Track
The “sign-tracking” and “goal-tracking” model of individual variation in associative learning permits the identification of rats with different cue reactivity and predisposition to addiction-like beha...
doi.org
December 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
1/2 New in eNeuro: STs exhibit lowest intrinsic excitability in NAc Core compared to GTs and Intermediate Responders. This provides the first evidence linking low Core excitability directly to incentive salience attribution.
doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
A must-read review. It argues that brain areas are only one of several organizing principles and are not especially central, given their weak correspondence to function. Cytoarchitecture and connectivity are a starting point, not the endpoint.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience
Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization - Nature Neuroscience
Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas in neuroscience from the ...
www.nature.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:21 PM
A must-read review. It argues that brain areas are only one of several organizing principles and are not especially central, given their weak correspondence to function. Cytoarchitecture and connectivity are a starting point, not the endpoint.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Last preprint 🎶(of the year).
If vagus nerve stimulation alters motivation by amplifying internal signals, then bodily states should matter. Using milkshake vs. water loads, we show that tVNS-induced changes in Pavlovian bias are dependent on hunger. #neuroskyence 🩺
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
If vagus nerve stimulation alters motivation by amplifying internal signals, then bodily states should matter. Using milkshake vs. water loads, we show that tVNS-induced changes in Pavlovian bias are dependent on hunger. #neuroskyence 🩺
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
December 17, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Last preprint 🎶(of the year).
If vagus nerve stimulation alters motivation by amplifying internal signals, then bodily states should matter. Using milkshake vs. water loads, we show that tVNS-induced changes in Pavlovian bias are dependent on hunger. #neuroskyence 🩺
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
If vagus nerve stimulation alters motivation by amplifying internal signals, then bodily states should matter. Using milkshake vs. water loads, we show that tVNS-induced changes in Pavlovian bias are dependent on hunger. #neuroskyence 🩺
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
That’s the toy that I really needed for Xmas - thanks for the early present Andrea! @loopyluppi.bsky.social
🧠 Excited to share our latest preprint: Automated Brain Mapping with AI Experts!🤖
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ever wanted to summarise the cognitive/systems neuroscience literature beyond MRI and PET? Ever wished we could do the same for macaque 🐒 and mouse 🐭 ? Read on! 🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ever wanted to summarise the cognitive/systems neuroscience literature beyond MRI and PET? Ever wished we could do the same for macaque 🐒 and mouse 🐭 ? Read on! 🧵👇
Cognitive cartography of mammalian brains using meta-analysis of AI experts
The complexity of the brain is increasingly mirrored by the complexity of the neuroscientific literature, yet no individual mind can fully grasp the diversity of scales, methodologies and model organi...
www.biorxiv.org
December 15, 2025 at 8:03 PM
That’s the toy that I really needed for Xmas - thanks for the early present Andrea! @loopyluppi.bsky.social
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Chronic semaglutide treatment shows differential effects on incentive motivation and consummatory responses to food
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
Chronic semaglutide treatment enhances the incentive motivational value of a small food reward and associated cue in male and female rats https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.06.692775v1
December 10, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Chronic semaglutide treatment shows differential effects on incentive motivation and consummatory responses to food
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
NMDA receptor ablation in medial prefrontal cortex disrupts value updating and reward history integration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.06.692679v1
December 10, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Hunger increases exploration and risk-taking behavior, allowing an animal to forage for food despite risks
Hunger-induced changes in exploration result from the modulation of dopamine signaling in the tail of the striatum via the following circuit:
1/2
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Hunger-induced changes in exploration result from the modulation of dopamine signaling in the tail of the striatum via the following circuit:
1/2
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
December 5, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Nicola Sambuco
Call for papers: Emotion special issue on Affect Dynamics Across Multiple Timescales (moments→days→years) and links to mental and physical health. Letters of intent due Jan 15, 2026. Details/submission:
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
Please share with colleagues/trainees. @affectscience.bsky.social
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
Please share with colleagues/trainees. @affectscience.bsky.social
www.apa.org
December 13, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Call for papers: Emotion special issue on Affect Dynamics Across Multiple Timescales (moments→days→years) and links to mental and physical health. Letters of intent due Jan 15, 2026. Details/submission:
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
Please share with colleagues/trainees. @affectscience.bsky.social
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
Please share with colleagues/trainees. @affectscience.bsky.social
This is a gem 💎
Ready for a crash course in psychosis?
My recent public lecture is now on YouTube! I explain what psychosis is, what we are doing about it in the lab, and what the future may hold.
Watch & share👇
youtu.be/EUb3_5ecatU
My recent public lecture is now on YouTube! I explain what psychosis is, what we are doing about it in the lab, and what the future may hold.
Watch & share👇
youtu.be/EUb3_5ecatU
A Crash Course in Psychosis – with Katharina Schmack
YouTube video by The Francis Crick Institute
youtu.be
December 13, 2025 at 12:34 PM
This is a gem 💎
This new preprint by @katewassum.bsky.social is 🔥
Really solid work. It's a must read
Really solid work. It's a must read
½ New preprint reveals a twist in dopamine’s role: Cue-evoked dopamine in the Nucleus Accumbens core doesn’t just boost reward pursuit—it shapes how we pursue.
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Dopamine supports reward prediction to shape reward-pursuit strategy
Reward predictions not only promote reward pursuit, they also shape how reward is pursed. Such predictions are supported by environmental cues that signal reward availability and probability. Such cue...
doi.org
December 13, 2025 at 11:44 AM
This new preprint by @katewassum.bsky.social is 🔥
Really solid work. It's a must read
Really solid work. It's a must read
very excited to share some of the final bits of work from my PhD! 🎉 we find that phasic DA in the accumbens simultaneously tracks persistent motivation towards reward cues in addition to new learning (but maybe not RPE?!) in sign-tracking rats. check out the preprint below!
Phasic dopamine encodes persistent attraction to reward cues https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.09.693300v1
December 13, 2025 at 11:36 AM
½ New preprint reveals a twist in dopamine’s role: Cue-evoked dopamine in the Nucleus Accumbens core doesn’t just boost reward pursuit—it shapes how we pursue.
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Dopamine supports reward prediction to shape reward-pursuit strategy
Reward predictions not only promote reward pursuit, they also shape how reward is pursed. Such predictions are supported by environmental cues that signal reward availability and probability. Such cue...
doi.org
December 13, 2025 at 11:27 AM
½ New preprint reveals a twist in dopamine’s role: Cue-evoked dopamine in the Nucleus Accumbens core doesn’t just boost reward pursuit—it shapes how we pursue.
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1101/2025...