James Howard
@howardlab.bsky.social
Cognitive Neuroscientist | Assistant Professor at Brandeis University | Reward, learning, decision making, olfaction | www.thehowardlab.org
Reposted by James Howard
Check out our latest profile! Dr. Eve Marder studies the stability and flexibility of neural circuit function. Follow the link below to learn more!
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#StoriesofWiN #WomenInNeuroscience #WomenInNeuro
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#StoriesofWiN #WomenInNeuroscience #WomenInNeuro
May 14, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Check out our latest profile! Dr. Eve Marder studies the stability and flexibility of neural circuit function. Follow the link below to learn more!
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#StoriesofWiN #WomenInNeuroscience #WomenInNeuro
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#StoriesofWiN #WomenInNeuroscience #WomenInNeuro
Reposted by James Howard
All NIDA F31 diversity scholars officially losing their funding...
I barely have words.
Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.
I barely have words.
Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.
April 29, 2025 at 8:08 PM
All NIDA F31 diversity scholars officially losing their funding...
I barely have words.
Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.
I barely have words.
Expected at this point but so so disappointing and unfair. We are effectively punishing some of America's best science students for telling the government they are from an underrepresented community.
Reposted by James Howard
One of the wilder political things in recent history is that Project 2025 publicly released a 900 page document laying out their plans to roll back 100 years of human progress and then during the campaign Republicans just said "no we're not :)" and then they won and now they're doing it all.
April 24, 2025 at 1:18 AM
One of the wilder political things in recent history is that Project 2025 publicly released a 900 page document laying out their plans to roll back 100 years of human progress and then during the campaign Republicans just said "no we're not :)" and then they won and now they're doing it all.
Reposted by James Howard
This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!
April 18, 2025 at 11:08 PM
This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!
Reposted by James Howard
Very nice indeed from Schoenbaum lab 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 15, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Very nice indeed from Schoenbaum lab www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by James Howard
Ok so yeah, this has quickly become the #1 misunderstanding about the canceled grants
the grants are not “subsidies” or “entitlements” to Harvard or Princeton or whatever
they aren’t going into universities’ endowments
they are competitive contracts won by these universities to do research
the grants are not “subsidies” or “entitlements” to Harvard or Princeton or whatever
they aren’t going into universities’ endowments
they are competitive contracts won by these universities to do research
There is a PR narrative quickly emerging about “entitlement” of elite universities, as if this $ is some sort of subsidy
Harvard & others must counter this quickly
The $ doesn’t flow into Harvard’s coffers - this is grant money, most of which goes to research the govt has agreed has social value
Harvard & others must counter this quickly
The $ doesn’t flow into Harvard’s coffers - this is grant money, most of which goes to research the govt has agreed has social value
April 18, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Ok so yeah, this has quickly become the #1 misunderstanding about the canceled grants
the grants are not “subsidies” or “entitlements” to Harvard or Princeton or whatever
they aren’t going into universities’ endowments
they are competitive contracts won by these universities to do research
the grants are not “subsidies” or “entitlements” to Harvard or Princeton or whatever
they aren’t going into universities’ endowments
they are competitive contracts won by these universities to do research
Reposted by James Howard
Our Forms-H "reversion guide" is now ready to share! Thanks greatly to my grad student Elizabeth Marsh who drafted much of this and fantastic pre-award assoc. dir. Christine DiBlasi who reviewed it for us this morning. Strength and fortitude to everyone submitting! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
March 10, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Our Forms-H "reversion guide" is now ready to share! Thanks greatly to my grad student Elizabeth Marsh who drafted much of this and fantastic pre-award assoc. dir. Christine DiBlasi who reviewed it for us this morning. Strength and fortitude to everyone submitting! docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Reposted by James Howard
We need some better language for pushing back against what the administration is doing. They’re not “ending DEI.”
No. They're firing women and people of color in the military.
They’re forbidding whole fields of research.
They’re erasing trans people from existence.
No. They're firing women and people of color in the military.
They’re forbidding whole fields of research.
They’re erasing trans people from existence.
March 7, 2025 at 10:45 PM
We need some better language for pushing back against what the administration is doing. They’re not “ending DEI.”
No. They're firing women and people of color in the military.
They’re forbidding whole fields of research.
They’re erasing trans people from existence.
No. They're firing women and people of color in the military.
They’re forbidding whole fields of research.
They’re erasing trans people from existence.
Reposted by James Howard
Ohio! Come rally with us in Columbus at the Statehouse, 12-3p.
Also, stay tuned for details on a walkout in Cleveland, in case you're up that way and can't make the drive to Cbus.
Also, stay tuned for details on a walkout in Cleveland, in case you're up that way and can't make the drive to Cbus.
WHERE WILL YOU BE ON MARCH 7TH!?
Head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ or the link in our bio to find your closest event—or add one if you're hosting one!
#standupforscience2025
Head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ or the link in our bio to find your closest event—or add one if you're hosting one!
#standupforscience2025
March 2, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Ohio! Come rally with us in Columbus at the Statehouse, 12-3p.
Also, stay tuned for details on a walkout in Cleveland, in case you're up that way and can't make the drive to Cbus.
Also, stay tuned for details on a walkout in Cleveland, in case you're up that way and can't make the drive to Cbus.
Reposted by James Howard
Reposted by James Howard
My student's diversity F31 has been pulled from study section even though it's the SAME APPLICATION as regular F31s, normally reviewed together in the same panel. Throwing out all the applications from URMs while the ones from white/privileged students get to be reviewed is blatant discrimination.
The CSR comm I'm on just pulled all Diversity F grants from the current review cycle. These apps are reviewed alongside (and by the same criteria) as all other F grants. So, instead of helping these trainees, they will actually be punished by having their grant reviews delayed at least 1 cycle !?!?
February 7, 2025 at 3:31 AM
My student's diversity F31 has been pulled from study section even though it's the SAME APPLICATION as regular F31s, normally reviewed together in the same panel. Throwing out all the applications from URMs while the ones from white/privileged students get to be reviewed is blatant discrimination.
Reposted by James Howard
I want to highlight a special issue in honor of Sarah DuBrow, a brilliant scientist and dear friend who passed away in 2022.
We contributed a paper in which we disentangled the importance of temporal and causal relationships while participants recalled the non-linear narrative, Memento. 🧵 ⬇️ 1/9
We contributed a paper in which we disentangled the importance of temporal and causal relationships while participants recalled the non-linear narrative, Memento. 🧵 ⬇️ 1/9
I want to draw attention to a special issue that Lila Davachi and I put together to memorialize our friend and colleague Sarah DuBrow. It’s full of papers inspired by her work and her being from a group of collaborators, friends, and fans! Thanks @bradpostle.bsky.social for helping make this happen.
January 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
I want to highlight a special issue in honor of Sarah DuBrow, a brilliant scientist and dear friend who passed away in 2022.
We contributed a paper in which we disentangled the importance of temporal and causal relationships while participants recalled the non-linear narrative, Memento. 🧵 ⬇️ 1/9
We contributed a paper in which we disentangled the importance of temporal and causal relationships while participants recalled the non-linear narrative, Memento. 🧵 ⬇️ 1/9
Reposted by James Howard
Going beyond integrating value - dopamine responses are more sophisticated:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The curious case of dopaminergic prediction errors and learning associative information beyond value - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Midbrain dopamine neurons are widely assumed to signal a unidimensional value-based prediction error. In this Perspective, Kahnt and Schoenbaum overview accumulating evidence that challenges this assu...
www.nature.com
January 14, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Going beyond integrating value - dopamine responses are more sophisticated:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Excited to share a new paper just out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that patterns of prediction error signals in human midbrain carry reward identity information, with implications for the kinds of learning these error signals support. Check it out!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that patterns of prediction error signals in human midbrain carry reward identity information, with implications for the kinds of learning these error signals support. Check it out!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Distributed midbrain responses signal the content of positive identity prediction errors
Recent work across species has shown that midbrain dopamine neurons signal not only errors in the prediction of reward value but also in the predictio…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 30, 2024 at 6:44 PM
Excited to share a new paper just out in
@currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that patterns of prediction error signals in human midbrain carry reward identity information, with implications for the kinds of learning these error signals support. Check it out!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that patterns of prediction error signals in human midbrain carry reward identity information, with implications for the kinds of learning these error signals support. Check it out!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...