Abby Polter
@ampolter.bsky.social
Associate professor in Washington DC. Neuroscientist/mouse psychiatrist
Reposted by Abby Polter
November 25, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Abby Polter
So excited to see our latest paper out today in @natcomms.nature.com! Studies led by the amazing @margestelzner.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41.... VTA GABA neurons have a unique role in economic decision making - they integrate reward seeking motivation and the current cost of seeking
Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence - Nature Communications
The role of ventral tegmental area GABA neurons in behavior is unclear. Here, authors show that VTA GABA but not dopamine neurons integrate positive and negative valence to encode motivational conflic...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
So excited to see our latest paper out today in @natcomms.nature.com! Studies led by the amazing @margestelzner.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41.... VTA GABA neurons have a unique role in economic decision making - they integrate reward seeking motivation and the current cost of seeking
Reposted by Abby Polter
We are also seeing how people respond to the world burning down: looking out for themselves or finding solidarity to maintain something that can work for a broader array of people. How science and scientists respond to disruption has always been a microcosm of our larger society’s response
November 22, 2025 at 4:40 PM
We are also seeing how people respond to the world burning down: looking out for themselves or finding solidarity to maintain something that can work for a broader array of people. How science and scientists respond to disruption has always been a microcosm of our larger society’s response
Reposted by Abby Polter
It’s just that almost everything is worse today than it was even a year ago. I hate it.
November 22, 2025 at 4:00 PM
It’s just that almost everything is worse today than it was even a year ago. I hate it.
Reposted by Abby Polter
Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
November 22, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Just an absolutely gutting essay by Tatiana Schlossberg, a writer, mother of two young children, and cousin of RFK Jr who is dying of leukemia.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
Reposted by Abby Polter
we have PrEP because of these monkey studies. animal welfare in medical research is extremely strictly limited and regulated to ensure ethical use. there is no replacement for these animal models in biomedical research.
EXCLUSIVE: CDC to end all monkey studies. Decision handed down by recent college grad and former DOGE employee who is now deputy chief of staff at the agency. Animals were being used in studies of HIV prevention. Some may be euthanized. My latest for @science.org
Exclusive: CDC to end all monkey research
Studies related to HIV and other infectious diseases will be phased out, sources say; fate of the agency's animals remains unclear
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
we have PrEP because of these monkey studies. animal welfare in medical research is extremely strictly limited and regulated to ensure ethical use. there is no replacement for these animal models in biomedical research.
My dad, retiree and Certified Volunteer Naturalist is a big participant in a citizen science project called FROGWATCH, which involved memorizing all local frog noises, going to various ponds and creeks at night and recording what frogs are there.
You dont have to be in the profession of science to contribute to science. You can do publishable research as a hobbyist too.
November 21, 2025 at 3:36 PM
My dad, retiree and Certified Volunteer Naturalist is a big participant in a citizen science project called FROGWATCH, which involved memorizing all local frog noises, going to various ponds and creeks at night and recording what frogs are there.
Dialing down my usual flight outfit of "too big jeans and a sweatshirt" to "the actual pajamas I sleep in" for next week's travel
Trump's Transportation Secretary on how to improve air travel:
"People dress up like they're going to bed when they fly... We want to push people as we come into a really busy travel season, help people out, be in a good mood, dress up"
"People dress up like they're going to bed when they fly... We want to push people as we come into a really busy travel season, help people out, be in a good mood, dress up"
November 21, 2025 at 3:02 AM
Dialing down my usual flight outfit of "too big jeans and a sweatshirt" to "the actual pajamas I sleep in" for next week's travel
Spotted at Eastern market
November 19, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Spotted at Eastern market
The absolute NERVE of this from people who have a meltdown about the war on Christmas whenever someone says "happy holidays"
The Trump Department of Homeland Security is briefing federal agencies on plans for immigration enforcement operations inside churches over the holiday season.
Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays
The Trump Dept. of Homeland Security is briefing federal agencies on plans for immigration enforcement operations inside churches over holidays.
thisweekinworcester.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
The absolute NERVE of this from people who have a meltdown about the war on Christmas whenever someone says "happy holidays"
Reposted by Abby Polter
predatory men are an enormous tax on women’s productivity (and happiness)
November 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM
predatory men are an enormous tax on women’s productivity (and happiness)
Reposted by Abby Polter
Reposted by Abby Polter
My new faculty orientation in 2011 featured two messages: “get grants and don’t have sex with students.” I thought it was odd because both points seemed obvious, but as the Epstein emails suggest, for many academic men the later wasn’t nearly as obvious as it should have been.
November 17, 2025 at 12:00 AM
My new faculty orientation in 2011 featured two messages: “get grants and don’t have sex with students.” I thought it was odd because both points seemed obvious, but as the Epstein emails suggest, for many academic men the later wasn’t nearly as obvious as it should have been.
Reposted by Abby Polter
Sue and win. Fight back. AAUP ✊🏼
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Sue and win. Fight back. AAUP ✊🏼
Imagine if we had started an operation warp speed for EBV vaccines when we found out it caused multiple sclerosis a few years ago...we could be well on our way to preventing (and eventually eliminating) TWO major autoimmune disorders.
IFL Science: “Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How”
"We think it applies to 100% of lupus”
cases."
www.iflscience.com/lupus-linked...
"We think it applies to 100% of lupus”
cases."
www.iflscience.com/lupus-linked...
Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How
"We think it applies to 100% of lupus cases."
www.iflscience.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:17 AM
Imagine if we had started an operation warp speed for EBV vaccines when we found out it caused multiple sclerosis a few years ago...we could be well on our way to preventing (and eventually eliminating) TWO major autoimmune disorders.
Reposted by Abby Polter
If you want to be hopeful, this seems like a first step in figuring out what causes autoimmune diseases
IFL Science: “Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How”
"We think it applies to 100% of lupus”
cases."
www.iflscience.com/lupus-linked...
"We think it applies to 100% of lupus”
cases."
www.iflscience.com/lupus-linked...
Lupus Linked To Virus That Over 95 Percent Of Us Carry – And Now We Finally Know How
"We think it applies to 100% of lupus cases."
www.iflscience.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:55 AM
If you want to be hopeful, this seems like a first step in figuring out what causes autoimmune diseases
Reposted by Abby Polter
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
November 13, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
Reposted by Abby Polter
The Cummings Lab is hiring a postdoc to work in the areas of reward and addiction! Please see the ad below:
October 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
The Cummings Lab is hiring a postdoc to work in the areas of reward and addiction! Please see the ad below:
Reposted by Abby Polter
a lot of people regretting the 'this shoulda been an email' advice rn lol
November 13, 2025 at 3:57 AM
a lot of people regretting the 'this shoulda been an email' advice rn lol
Your federal employees, none the worse for wear after shutdown
November 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Your federal employees, none the worse for wear after shutdown
Reposted by Abby Polter
The room is
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn’t.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there’s no
room to talk
about it.
-Kay Ryan, “The Elephant in the Room”
#everynightapoem
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn’t.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there’s no
room to talk
about it.
-Kay Ryan, “The Elephant in the Room”
#everynightapoem
November 13, 2025 at 12:13 AM
The room is
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn’t.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there’s no
room to talk
about it.
-Kay Ryan, “The Elephant in the Room”
#everynightapoem
almost all
elephant.
Almost none
of it isn’t.
Pretty much
solid elephant.
So there’s no
room to talk
about it.
-Kay Ryan, “The Elephant in the Room”
#everynightapoem
Reposted by Abby Polter
thinking about how i get anxious writing emails because i don't want to sound like a moron while larry summers is apparently typing emails like this:
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
November 13, 2025 at 1:38 AM
thinking about how i get anxious writing emails because i don't want to sound like a moron while larry summers is apparently typing emails like this:
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
u kno she dint want to talk tomorrow. make me bad pheel.
Reposted by Abby Polter
#SfN25 attendees - make sure to head to the posters when you get to the meeting on Saturday afternoon (V7-V11: Gretchen, Megan, Margaret, Louisa, Bella) and Sunday morning (KK17: Micaela) to hear about our work. We're printing the posters now and they look rad.
November 11, 2025 at 5:00 PM
#SfN25 attendees - make sure to head to the posters when you get to the meeting on Saturday afternoon (V7-V11: Gretchen, Megan, Margaret, Louisa, Bella) and Sunday morning (KK17: Micaela) to hear about our work. We're printing the posters now and they look rad.
Reposted by Abby Polter
i am starting to think larry summers should not be listened to
November 12, 2025 at 6:15 PM
i am starting to think larry summers should not be listened to
In that the clever hopes of a low dishonest decade are expiring?
November 12, 2025 at 3:20 PM
In that the clever hopes of a low dishonest decade are expiring?