Alex O'Hare
@oharealex.bsky.social
Universitat de les Illes Balears, PhD Student
Computational Neuroscience, Dynamical Systems, Basal Ganglia, Dopamine. Searching for metaphysical clarity.
Computational Neuroscience, Dynamical Systems, Basal Ganglia, Dopamine. Searching for metaphysical clarity.
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
A very good read if you want to learn everything there is to know about dopamine. Take a look at chapter 4!
www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han...
www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han...
Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience | Volume 32: The Handbook of Dopamine | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Read the latest chapters of Handbook of Behavioral Neuroscience at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
www.sciencedirect.com
August 4, 2025 at 7:54 PM
A very good read if you want to learn everything there is to know about dopamine. Take a look at chapter 4!
www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han...
www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/han...
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
This is intetresting, paper argues that dopamine also encodes "action prediction errors", i.e. differences between actions you predict you will make and actions you do, regardless of reward. Could be used to reinforce habits for repetitive voluntary behaviours:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
Dopaminergic action prediction errors serve as a value-free teaching signal - Nature
Dopaminergic action prediction error signals are used by mice as a value-free teaching signal to reinforce stable sound–action associations in the tail of the striatum.
www.nature.com
July 31, 2025 at 3:39 PM
This is intetresting, paper argues that dopamine also encodes "action prediction errors", i.e. differences between actions you predict you will make and actions you do, regardless of reward. Could be used to reinforce habits for repetitive voluntary behaviours:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
'Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress'
by Urszula Skupio, Alexander Harris & Abigail Polter
@ampolter.bsky.social @dralexharris.bsky.social
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
by Urszula Skupio, Alexander Harris & Abigail Polter
@ampolter.bsky.social @dralexharris.bsky.social
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
July 30, 2025 at 12:30 PM
'Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress'
by Urszula Skupio, Alexander Harris & Abigail Polter
@ampolter.bsky.social @dralexharris.bsky.social
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
by Urszula Skupio, Alexander Harris & Abigail Polter
@ampolter.bsky.social @dralexharris.bsky.social
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
'What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease?'
by Randy Brutkiewicz, Wei Cao, David Morgan, Roberta Souza Dos Reis, Vidyani Suryadevara, Auriel Willette, Sara Willette, Season Wyatt-Johnson & Michael Duggan
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
by Randy Brutkiewicz, Wei Cao, David Morgan, Roberta Souza Dos Reis, Vidyani Suryadevara, Auriel Willette, Sara Willette, Season Wyatt-Johnson & Michael Duggan
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease?
Accumulating evidence over several years suggests that microbial infections (e.g.,
bacteria, viruses, fungi) may play a role in the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
In this review, we discuss the...
www.cell.com
July 29, 2025 at 6:14 PM
'What would it take to prove that a chronic infection is a causal agent in Alzheimer’s disease?'
by Randy Brutkiewicz, Wei Cao, David Morgan, Roberta Souza Dos Reis, Vidyani Suryadevara, Auriel Willette, Sara Willette, Season Wyatt-Johnson & Michael Duggan
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
by Randy Brutkiewicz, Wei Cao, David Morgan, Roberta Souza Dos Reis, Vidyani Suryadevara, Auriel Willette, Sara Willette, Season Wyatt-Johnson & Michael Duggan
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Avatars who appear to be sick entering the peripersonal space in virtual reality are anticipated by multisensory–motor areas, activate the salience network, and trigger activation of innate lymphoid cells, mirroring responses seen in actual infections
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response - Nature Neuroscience
Serino et al. show that seeing an infectious avatar approach the body in virtual reality triggers an immune response, indicating that the brain prepares the body to fight infections even for perceived...
www.nature.com
July 29, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Avatars who appear to be sick entering the peripersonal space in virtual reality are anticipated by multisensory–motor areas, activate the salience network, and trigger activation of innate lymphoid cells, mirroring responses seen in actual infections
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Many thanks to the organizers and participators for another excellent informative conference on mathematical neuroscience. Now looking forward to the OCNS conference in Florence next month!
Looking forward to exhibiting a novel computational model of dopamine at the ICMNS '25 conference in Barcelona next week! www.crm.cat/internationa... #ICMNS25 #Neuroscience
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DYNAMICS IN SYSTEMS AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: SCHEDULE - Centre de Recerca Matemàtica
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DYNAMICS IN SYSTEMS AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: SCHEDULE June 14th, 2021 June 15th, 2021 June 16th, 2021 June 17th, 2021 June 18th, 2021 MONDAY OF VIROLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY TUESD...
www.crm.cat
June 22, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Many thanks to the organizers and participators for another excellent informative conference on mathematical neuroscience. Now looking forward to the OCNS conference in Florence next month!
When I first heard of chronotypes in passing conversation, my first thought was "this is surely pseudoscience". Ever since I discovered this is not the case, I have been absolutely fascinated by this subject which goes a long way in explaining individual differences in productivity and work routines
Ambra Stefani has opened #EAN2025 this morning with her talk on the influence of sleep and chronotypes. Her accompanying Comment article in Nature Reviews Neurology is also now online! Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @ambrastefani.bsky.social @ean.org
June 22, 2025 at 9:53 PM
When I first heard of chronotypes in passing conversation, my first thought was "this is surely pseudoscience". Ever since I discovered this is not the case, I have been absolutely fascinated by this subject which goes a long way in explaining individual differences in productivity and work routines
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Nigeria’s pangolins are under threat mainly because they’re considered delicious
https://go.nature.com/3HJCN3J
https://go.nature.com/3HJCN3J
Why pangolins are poached: they’re the tastiest animal around
Trafficking of scales for traditional medicine plays a relatively small part in the hunting of pangolins in Nigeria.
go.nature.com
June 16, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Nigeria’s pangolins are under threat mainly because they’re considered delicious
https://go.nature.com/3HJCN3J
https://go.nature.com/3HJCN3J
Looking forward to exhibiting a novel computational model of dopamine at the ICMNS '25 conference in Barcelona next week! www.crm.cat/internationa... #ICMNS25 #Neuroscience
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DYNAMICS IN SYSTEMS AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: SCHEDULE - Centre de Recerca Matemàtica
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON DYNAMICS IN SYSTEMS AND SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY: SCHEDULE June 14th, 2021 June 15th, 2021 June 16th, 2021 June 17th, 2021 June 18th, 2021 MONDAY OF VIROLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY TUESD...
www.crm.cat
June 11, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Looking forward to exhibiting a novel computational model of dopamine at the ICMNS '25 conference in Barcelona next week! www.crm.cat/internationa... #ICMNS25 #Neuroscience
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Our work, out at Cell, shows that the brain’s dopamine signals teach each individual a unique learning trajectory. Collaborative experiment-theory effort, led by Sam Liebana in the lab. The first experiment my lab started just shy of 6y ago & v excited to see it out: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
June 11, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Our work, out at Cell, shows that the brain’s dopamine signals teach each individual a unique learning trajectory. Collaborative experiment-theory effort, led by Sam Liebana in the lab. The first experiment my lab started just shy of 6y ago & v excited to see it out: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Looking forward to exhibit some work on synaptic dopamine dynamics at the OCNS conference in July this year! ocns.memberclicks.net/cns-2025_quick #OCNS25 #Neuroscience @cnsorg.bsky.social
CNS 2025
ocns.memberclicks.net
May 13, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Looking forward to exhibit some work on synaptic dopamine dynamics at the OCNS conference in July this year! ocns.memberclicks.net/cns-2025_quick #OCNS25 #Neuroscience @cnsorg.bsky.social
Excited to be exhibiting a novel computational model of dopamine at the ICMNS '25 conference in Barcelona! www.crm.cat/internationa... #ICMNS25 #Neuroscience
International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience | ICMNS25 - Centre de Recerca Matemàtica
ICMNS 2025 International Conference on Mathematical Neuroscience REGISTRATION FEE 300€ Standard registration 250€ Registration for postdocs 170€ Registration for students SCHEDULE ABSTRACTS CONTRIBUTE...
www.crm.cat
May 13, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Excited to be exhibiting a novel computational model of dopamine at the ICMNS '25 conference in Barcelona! www.crm.cat/internationa... #ICMNS25 #Neuroscience
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Well well, as I suspected, you smart folks on Bluesky are unanimous in calling out this nonsense. (And N is pretty big in this informal survey!) And yet still these tech bros are given big platforms to spout this stuff, and the media (and some governments) love it. So we have a problem here, right?
Just watched Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO) say "We believe as an industry... that within 3-5 years we'll have AGI, which can be defined as a system that is as smart as [big deal voice] the smartest mathematician, physicist, [lesser deal voice] artist, writer, thinker, politician"...
May 12, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Well well, as I suspected, you smart folks on Bluesky are unanimous in calling out this nonsense. (And N is pretty big in this informal survey!) And yet still these tech bros are given big platforms to spout this stuff, and the media (and some governments) love it. So we have a problem here, right?
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
🧠✨ Symposia submissions are NOW OPEN for Dopamine Meeting 2026! @DopamineSociety
📍Sevilla, Spain
📅 Open: May 1, 2025
⏳ Deadline: June 16, 2025
Spread the word — don’t miss out!
#Dopamine2026
dopaminesociety.org
📍Sevilla, Spain
📅 Open: May 1, 2025
⏳ Deadline: June 16, 2025
Spread the word — don’t miss out!
#Dopamine2026
dopaminesociety.org
May 2, 2025 at 12:22 PM
🧠✨ Symposia submissions are NOW OPEN for Dopamine Meeting 2026! @DopamineSociety
📍Sevilla, Spain
📅 Open: May 1, 2025
⏳ Deadline: June 16, 2025
Spread the word — don’t miss out!
#Dopamine2026
dopaminesociety.org
📍Sevilla, Spain
📅 Open: May 1, 2025
⏳ Deadline: June 16, 2025
Spread the word — don’t miss out!
#Dopamine2026
dopaminesociety.org
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Unthinkable just 10 years ago:
Almost 3/4 of the EU’s electricity in 2024 was from renewable energy sources and nuclear.
Gas and coal electricity generation is at record low levels.
Almost 3/4 of the EU’s electricity in 2024 was from renewable energy sources and nuclear.
Gas and coal electricity generation is at record low levels.
April 19, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Unthinkable just 10 years ago:
Almost 3/4 of the EU’s electricity in 2024 was from renewable energy sources and nuclear.
Gas and coal electricity generation is at record low levels.
Almost 3/4 of the EU’s electricity in 2024 was from renewable energy sources and nuclear.
Gas and coal electricity generation is at record low levels.
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
I'm excited to share that the last chapter of my PhD thesis is now published in Nature! 🍾
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
A prospective code for value in the serotonin system - Nature
Merging ideas from reinforcement learning theory with recent insights into the filtering properties of the dorsal raphe nucleus, a unifying perspective is found explaining why serotonin neurons are ac...
doi.org
March 27, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I'm excited to share that the last chapter of my PhD thesis is now published in Nature! 🍾
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
What drives serotonin neurons? We think it's the expectation of future reward and --- critically --- how fast this expectation is increasing. 📈
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
1/6
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
This looks really helpful, although TBH I'm surprised (sort of) to find the LLM community is debating the equivalent of whether simulated water is wet, or simulated black holes will suck the researchers in. Why would "I can simulate ToM responses" be interpreted as "I can create an AI with ToM"?
new preprint on Theory of Mind in LLMs, a topic I know a lot of people care about (I care. I'm part of people):
"Re-evaluating Theory of Mind evaluation in large language models"
(by Hu* @jennhu.bsky.social , Sosa, and me)
link: arxiv.org/pdf/2502.21098
"Re-evaluating Theory of Mind evaluation in large language models"
(by Hu* @jennhu.bsky.social , Sosa, and me)
link: arxiv.org/pdf/2502.21098
March 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
This looks really helpful, although TBH I'm surprised (sort of) to find the LLM community is debating the equivalent of whether simulated water is wet, or simulated black holes will suck the researchers in. Why would "I can simulate ToM responses" be interpreted as "I can create an AI with ToM"?
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
An #astrocytic ensemble that emerges in the nucleus accumbens upon activity during cue-motivated behaviors and is essential for modulating cue-reward associations 🧪🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Astrocyte ensembles manipulated with AstroLight tune cue-motivated behavior - Nature Neuroscience
Using the AstroLight system, the authors reveal that astrocytic ensembles in the nucleus accumbens regulate cue-motivated reward behavior, demonstrating that selective manipulation of tagged astrocyte...
www.nature.com
February 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
An #astrocytic ensemble that emerges in the nucleus accumbens upon activity during cue-motivated behaviors and is essential for modulating cue-reward associations 🧪🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Full-on eugenics, in its most rabid, racist form is oozing its way back into mainstream discourse.
A senior US government official has called for “lower quality humans” to be sterilised en masse.
It’s disgusting & terrifying. And America has been here before.
It’s disgusting & terrifying. And America has been here before.
The US is talking about mass sterilisation – again
A senior US government official has called for “lower quality humans” to be sterilised en masse – his country has been here before
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
February 26, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Full-on eugenics, in its most rabid, racist form is oozing its way back into mainstream discourse.
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Nature research paper: An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning
https://go.nature.com/41a7Snf
https://go.nature.com/41a7Snf
An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning - Nature
D1- and D2-expressing striatal neurons encode separate parts of a learned reward distribution, paralleling modern approaches in machine learning.
go.nature.com
February 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Nature research paper: An opponent striatal circuit for distributional reinforcement learning
https://go.nature.com/41a7Snf
https://go.nature.com/41a7Snf
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
The case for proper scientific study of unidentified flying and subsea objects. Whatever you think of that, this long paper is full of fascinating case histories.
www.arxiv.org/abs/2502.06794
www.arxiv.org/abs/2502.06794
The New Science of Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP)
After decades of dismissal and secrecy, it has become clear that a significant number of the world's governments take Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena (UAP), formerly known as Unidentified Fl...
www.arxiv.org
February 17, 2025 at 2:24 PM
The case for proper scientific study of unidentified flying and subsea objects. Whatever you think of that, this long paper is full of fascinating case histories.
www.arxiv.org/abs/2502.06794
www.arxiv.org/abs/2502.06794
Reposted by Alex O'Hare
Dopamine-serotonin push-pull balances reward seeking and caution. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Happy to comment on this cool study in mammals and the parallels with our own work in #Drosophila!
www.thetransmitter.org/learning/dop...
Happy to comment on this cool study in mammals and the parallels with our own work in #Drosophila!
www.thetransmitter.org/learning/dop...
Dopamine ‘gas pedal’ and serotonin ‘brake’ team up to accelerate learning
Mice learn fastest and most reliably when they experience an increase in dopamine paired with an inhibition of serotonin, a new study shows.
www.thetransmitter.org
February 12, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Dopamine-serotonin push-pull balances reward seeking and caution. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Happy to comment on this cool study in mammals and the parallels with our own work in #Drosophila!
www.thetransmitter.org/learning/dop...
Happy to comment on this cool study in mammals and the parallels with our own work in #Drosophila!
www.thetransmitter.org/learning/dop...
A bit late to the party, but here's my favourite paper from 2024! journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Reward Bases: A simple mechanism for adaptive acquisition of multiple reward types
Author summary Animals and humans can search for different resources depending on their needs. For example, when you are thirsty at work, you may go to a common room where hopefully coffee or water is...
journals.plos.org
February 7, 2025 at 4:29 PM
A bit late to the party, but here's my favourite paper from 2024! journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...