Alex Shackman
@ajshackman.bsky.social
Laboratory for Affective & Translational Neuroscience, University of Maryland | shackmanlab.org | affective neuroscience | "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”
After setting it down for a long spell, used a transcontinental flight to read most of How Not to Study a Disease. It's still fabulous. It slso warns against the temptation to prematurely adopt proxy biomarkers, a la fail-fast. Remember the Gramma Scrabble line in Fig 2
November 15, 2025 at 1:51 AM
After setting it down for a long spell, used a transcontinental flight to read most of How Not to Study a Disease. It's still fabulous. It slso warns against the temptation to prematurely adopt proxy biomarkers, a la fail-fast. Remember the Gramma Scrabble line in Fig 2
kudos to Kartik, who did all of the heavy lifting to bring scientific joy to my morning -
November 14, 2025 at 3:15 PM
kudos to Kartik, who did all of the heavy lifting to bring scientific joy to my morning -
#WM #STM #LabJournalClub - I keep posting this paper, but it really is magnificent, and a great anchor for a lab journal club. #DespoLab meets #ShackLab
November 14, 2025 at 3:09 PM
#WM #STM #LabJournalClub - I keep posting this paper, but it really is magnificent, and a great anchor for a lab journal club. #DespoLab meets #ShackLab
boo-hiss Elsevier - maybe @mariaironside.bsky.social could email me a copy :)
November 12, 2025 at 7:21 PM
boo-hiss Elsevier - maybe @mariaironside.bsky.social could email me a copy :)
More like, why did it take so damn long for the field to let go of X hypothesis, a la
November 6, 2025 at 1:25 PM
More like, why did it take so damn long for the field to let go of X hypothesis, a la
right next door to Kevin :)
November 6, 2025 at 1:22 PM
right next door to Kevin :)
@ desk. it's hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/u...
November 2, 2025 at 5:07 PM
@ desk. it's hsph.harvard.edu/wp-content/u...
Great talk from @lucinauddin.bsky.social at UMD!
November 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Great talk from @lucinauddin.bsky.social at UMD!
#Dunedin Saddened to realize that Richie Poulton passed. A giant who had an immense and positive impact on our understanding of a variety of phenomena, from human development to psychopathology and aging. Just yesterday, I was excitedly telling a colleague (Lucina!) about this multi-decade legacy.
November 1, 2025 at 3:53 PM
#Dunedin Saddened to realize that Richie Poulton passed. A giant who had an immense and positive impact on our understanding of a variety of phenomena, from human development to psychopathology and aging. Just yesterday, I was excitedly telling a colleague (Lucina!) about this multi-decade legacy.
Such a gorgeous example of genuinely multidisciplinary addiction neuroscience. So much respect to the Robinson-Berridge team and their students, who bring together everything from clinical reports and EMA, to human PET (NT signaling) and fMRI, to context-dependent neural assays across species.
November 1, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Such a gorgeous example of genuinely multidisciplinary addiction neuroscience. So much respect to the Robinson-Berridge team and their students, who bring together everything from clinical reports and EMA, to human PET (NT signaling) and fMRI, to context-dependent neural assays across species.
computational fac jobs @ multiple levels - Vandy
October 31, 2025 at 11:17 AM
computational fac jobs @ multiple levels - Vandy
and from Wani & Brian
October 24, 2025 at 2:42 PM
and from Wani & Brian
And teaching figures from D'espo lab...
October 24, 2025 at 2:38 PM
And teaching figures from D'espo lab...
Teaching figures from Joao
October 24, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Teaching figures from Joao
@samcooper.bsky.social @jfguassimoreira.bsky.social Target article for today's lab meeting...w/ help from ShackSlides & my Wisco buddy, Joao ... wishing Shmuel & Christian were in position to appreciate this
October 24, 2025 at 2:05 PM
@samcooper.bsky.social @jfguassimoreira.bsky.social Target article for today's lab meeting...w/ help from ShackSlides & my Wisco buddy, Joao ... wishing Shmuel & Christian were in position to appreciate this
4/n. Arguably, this makes a certain degree of post-hoc/just-so sense, in terms of the need to determine the nature, intensity, imminence of the first kind of threat (Anderson), and this helps explain confusability with surprise. Fear face = valenced surprise face? No surprise/startle, no fear face?
October 23, 2025 at 6:41 PM
4/n. Arguably, this makes a certain degree of post-hoc/just-so sense, in terms of the need to determine the nature, intensity, imminence of the first kind of threat (Anderson), and this helps explain confusability with surprise. Fear face = valenced surprise face? No surprise/startle, no fear face?
2/n. In my limited n=1 experience, Ekmanian fear faces are most probable in situations where there is a startling/surprising threat, as with haunted-house jump scares.
October 23, 2025 at 6:29 PM
2/n. In my limited n=1 experience, Ekmanian fear faces are most probable in situations where there is a startling/surprising threat, as with haunted-house jump scares.
1/n. Note that "context" = bodies, so based on a quick skim, this is consistent with the landmark "tennis players" study
October 23, 2025 at 6:25 PM
1/n. Note that "context" = bodies, so based on a quick skim, this is consistent with the landmark "tennis players" study
Clay wins. The last iteration of his lab website was cool. This even cooler.
October 12, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Clay wins. The last iteration of his lab website was cool. This even cooler.
Today's target article
October 10, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Today's target article
8/n. Yet, in contrast to work in humans and animals outside the scanner, imagers have yet to tackle this fundamental question. Why? Generally, the ITI contributes to the implicit baseline in std 1st-level fMRI GLM's, and std (uncalibrated) fMRI is insensitive to slow signals (1/f noise), h/t RikH
October 7, 2025 at 4:37 PM
8/n. Yet, in contrast to work in humans and animals outside the scanner, imagers have yet to tackle this fundamental question. Why? Generally, the ITI contributes to the implicit baseline in std 1st-level fMRI GLM's, and std (uncalibrated) fMRI is insensitive to slow signals (1/f noise), h/t RikH
5/n. And Lissek's patients, during the Pavlovian threat conditioning ITI (outlier dots on the left-most portion of the patient panels)
October 7, 2025 at 4:18 PM
5/n. And Lissek's patients, during the Pavlovian threat conditioning ITI (outlier dots on the left-most portion of the patient panels)