Vinny Costa
@vincentcostaphd.bsky.social
Neuroscientist (PhD) exploring how the primate 🧠 learns and decides, while exploiting the consumption of 🍕 and 🥯
Lab website: www.fullcolorbrain.com
SYR/UFL/NIMH/ONPRC/EMORY
Lab website: www.fullcolorbrain.com
SYR/UFL/NIMH/ONPRC/EMORY
Other instance is our recent preprint where Kati Rothenhoefer found slightly higher learning rates when monkeys learned associations with gaining and losing tokens they exchanged for rewards. But they are leaning in a mixed valence environment & task is more complicated than 2-arm bandit task.
October 19, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Other instance is our recent preprint where Kati Rothenhoefer found slightly higher learning rates when monkeys learned associations with gaining and losing tokens they exchanged for rewards. But they are leaning in a mixed valence environment & task is more complicated than 2-arm bandit task.
I would generally agree. Need to read @prakhargodara.bsky.social’s paper, but only time I have ever seen bias go away is when we lesioned amygdala AND tested animals on a deterministic Bayesian reversal learning task. But once stochasticity kicked in…bias returned. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27720488/
October 19, 2025 at 9:14 AM
I would generally agree. Need to read @prakhargodara.bsky.social’s paper, but only time I have ever seen bias go away is when we lesioned amygdala AND tested animals on a deterministic Bayesian reversal learning task. But once stochasticity kicked in…bias returned. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27720488/
All faculty seminar visits should conclude with a balloon fiesta. Thanks for the invite @jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social!
October 4, 2025 at 3:49 PM
All faculty seminar visits should conclude with a balloon fiesta. Thanks for the invite @jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social!
Waiting for Godot featuring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters was outstanding. Highly recommend and try to get orchestra seats with a direct view of the stage for the full effect of the set and lighting.
September 20, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Waiting for Godot featuring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winters was outstanding. Highly recommend and try to get orchestra seats with a direct view of the stage for the full effect of the set and lighting.
Another #GRCAmygdala in the books! Kudos to @katewassum.bsky.social for chairing an inspiring meeting.
When I passed by Sagrada Familia yesterday evening it looked like @joserodroma.bsky.social & @anna-beyeler.bsky.social were already hard at work planning the next one.
When I passed by Sagrada Familia yesterday evening it looked like @joserodroma.bsky.social & @anna-beyeler.bsky.social were already hard at work planning the next one.
July 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Another #GRCAmygdala in the books! Kudos to @katewassum.bsky.social for chairing an inspiring meeting.
When I passed by Sagrada Familia yesterday evening it looked like @joserodroma.bsky.social & @anna-beyeler.bsky.social were already hard at work planning the next one.
When I passed by Sagrada Familia yesterday evening it looked like @joserodroma.bsky.social & @anna-beyeler.bsky.social were already hard at work planning the next one.
This is a great paper from Leah Somerville’s lab showing that exploration peaks in adolescence.
@jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social is also working on this in the context of addiction risk in adolescence
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
@jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social is also working on this in the context of addiction risk in adolescence
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
June 28, 2025 at 3:08 PM
This is a great paper from Leah Somerville’s lab showing that exploration peaks in adolescence.
@jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social is also working on this in the context of addiction risk in adolescence
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
@jeremyhogeveen.bsky.social is also working on this in the context of addiction risk in adolescence
www.apa.org/pubs/journal...
Some good news for the lab
June 17, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Some good news for the lab
“My boy is wicked smart. [He’s got heaps of layer 6 projection neurons]” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 3, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“My boy is wicked smart. [He’s got heaps of layer 6 projection neurons]” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I don’t know why this figure stuck in my memory but as a recovering emotion researcher turned systems neuroscientist there are as many theories of emotion as there are researchers. TCE is in my mind the latest and most comprehensive attempt to blend many sub-disciplines of evidence.
May 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
I don’t know why this figure stuck in my memory but as a recovering emotion researcher turned systems neuroscientist there are as many theories of emotion as there are researchers. TCE is in my mind the latest and most comprehensive attempt to blend many sub-disciplines of evidence.
I only drink salted strawberry Negronis now. @docbecca.bsky.social
May 8, 2025 at 11:37 PM
I only drink salted strawberry Negronis now. @docbecca.bsky.social
We found encoding of the previous trial outcome (reward or not) persisted through the ITI and into next choice trial in amygdala and striatum:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31196672/
Saw the same thing in OFC:
www.jneurosci.org/content/40/1...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31196672/
Saw the same thing in OFC:
www.jneurosci.org/content/40/1...
April 6, 2025 at 1:28 AM
We found encoding of the previous trial outcome (reward or not) persisted through the ITI and into next choice trial in amygdala and striatum:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31196672/
Saw the same thing in OFC:
www.jneurosci.org/content/40/1...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31196672/
Saw the same thing in OFC:
www.jneurosci.org/content/40/1...
I must be honest here, I love my @discoverecho.bsky.social Revolve with apochromat objectives and a Z-stack module.
It is so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
It is so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
April 1, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I must be honest here, I love my @discoverecho.bsky.social Revolve with apochromat objectives and a Z-stack module.
It is so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
It is so choice. If you have the means I highly recommend picking one up.
For #fluorescentfriday check out these #AAC neurons in Area 32 filled with DIO-HM4Di DREADDs.
March 21, 2025 at 3:51 PM
For #fluorescentfriday check out these #AAC neurons in Area 32 filled with DIO-HM4Di DREADDs.
Posting this image of neurons transfected to secrete proteins that @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social bioengineered to enable noninvasive monitoring of neuronal integrity in NHPs for #fluorescentfriday.
This technology will eventually lead to improved treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
This technology will eventually lead to improved treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
March 7, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Posting this image of neurons transfected to secrete proteins that @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social bioengineered to enable noninvasive monitoring of neuronal integrity in NHPs for #fluorescentfriday.
This technology will eventually lead to improved treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
This technology will eventually lead to improved treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
For a brief moment I was excited because I thought someone discovered fossilized bagels.
January 30, 2025 at 10:09 PM
For a brief moment I was excited because I thought someone discovered fossilized bagels.
Costa Lab getting ready for 2025
December 23, 2024 at 10:08 PM
Costa Lab getting ready for 2025
Rodent basolateral amygdala is haunting me on this desert hike
December 6, 2024 at 8:53 PM
Rodent basolateral amygdala is haunting me on this desert hike
Ok this is pretty awesome:
“Given what you know about me, create an image of my life”
“Given what you know about me, create an image of my life”
November 23, 2024 at 12:13 AM
Ok this is pretty awesome:
“Given what you know about me, create an image of my life”
“Given what you know about me, create an image of my life”
“If you guys know so much about the dolphin foraging how come you guys are here at a Gas-N-Sip on a Friday night, completely alone, drinking beer, with no dolphins anywhere.”
Perhaps it’s because the field of animal cognition, like philosophers, chooses to silo itself against neuroscience
Perhaps it’s because the field of animal cognition, like philosophers, chooses to silo itself against neuroscience
November 16, 2024 at 12:03 PM
“If you guys know so much about the dolphin foraging how come you guys are here at a Gas-N-Sip on a Friday night, completely alone, drinking beer, with no dolphins anywhere.”
Perhaps it’s because the field of animal cognition, like philosophers, chooses to silo itself against neuroscience
Perhaps it’s because the field of animal cognition, like philosophers, chooses to silo itself against neuroscience
Animal cognition: Horses can count
Neuroscientists: Full stack demonstration from neurons to behavior of learning transition probabilities & sequences
This is one of the silliest things I read in a while.
Neuroscientists: Full stack demonstration from neurons to behavior of learning transition probabilities & sequences
This is one of the silliest things I read in a while.
November 16, 2024 at 11:43 AM
Animal cognition: Horses can count
Neuroscientists: Full stack demonstration from neurons to behavior of learning transition probabilities & sequences
This is one of the silliest things I read in a while.
Neuroscientists: Full stack demonstration from neurons to behavior of learning transition probabilities & sequences
This is one of the silliest things I read in a while.
People wonder why NHP scientists are cranks about mouse work. It’s because of nonsense statements like this one:
November 11, 2024 at 11:23 PM
People wonder why NHP scientists are cranks about mouse work. It’s because of nonsense statements like this one:
“Mammalian brain” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Dense contralateral projections of BLA to NAc might exist in mice but they sure don’t exist in primates (Friedman, Aggleton, Saunders, 2002) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 11, 2024 at 11:06 PM
“Mammalian brain” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Dense contralateral projections of BLA to NAc might exist in mice but they sure don’t exist in primates (Friedman, Aggleton, Saunders, 2002) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...