Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

New paper out in JEP:General, led by uber-productive grad student Ricardo Morales Torres: We use behavior and RNNs to show that object semantics protect visual working memory against visual interference but increase susceptibility to semantic interference psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-45…

New review/theory paper out in PBR with Julie Bugg, Chris Nuno, and Changrun Huang. We muse about the "puzzle of profitless pre-cues" - why is it so hard to get people to engage proactive control from trial-to-trial? We hope it stimulates more research! link.springer.com/epdf/10.3758/s…

New lab paper! 🧠 Human hippocampal & MTL theta activity is linked to eye movements, but only during memory-guided navigation. Theta is also strongest during longer, more exploratory eye movements. plos.io/4dwJhR8 Huge congrats to @humza_n_zubair & team! 👏

Joining a bit late, but check out our mini-review on the #gutbrain and #heartbrain axes in #reward processing! 🧠We dig into how body-to-brain signals shape emotion and motivation and why it matters for mental health

Scientist Debra Silver, PhD, is taking on three of the biggest questions in science: how the brain builds itself, how it misfires, and why human cognition leapfrogged every other species. 🔗 Read more: medschool.duke.edu/stories/brains…

We are excited to share that our team's paper is published in Immunity: "Resident tissue macrophages maintain intraocular pressure homeostasis." This work grew out of a collaboration between glaucoma clinician-scientist Katy Liu MD PhD, glaucoma physiologist W. Daniel Stamer PhD, and immunologist Daniel Saban PhD, bringing together clinical, physiological, and immunological expertise to tackle a long-standing question: does the immune system directly regulate intraocular pressure? The answer is yes. authors.elsevier.com/a/1mkeB3qNrV3V… #Glaucoma #Immunology #ResidentMacrophages #Ophthalmology #Immunity #CellPress cell.com/immunity/fullt…

Endorsed!

📖IN THE NEWS...a Duke Vertices article featuring Duke #Anesthesiology's Dr. Leah Acker, "Keeping Humanity at the Heart of the Lab:"🔗dukevertices.org/blog/dr-leah-a….

New paper from the lab now out online. Changrun Huang asked whether people use informative pre-cues to up-regulate cognitive control in the spatial Stroop task. Surprisingly, they do not, and we rule out some possible reasons for this: psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi…

This project on 2-color calcium imaging is from the COVID years. Delayed for too long but still useful. You should be able to build this version based on our paper. Some interesting data showing direct pathway neurons activated before indirect pathway neurons for contraversive movements. A dual-color miniature endoscope for calcium imaging in behaving mice biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Ramadan Mubarak (Blessed Ramadan) to all that observe the month. May it be a month of spiritual awakening and being grateful for all our blessings.

1st paper from my @NIMHgov F32 fellowship 🎉 examining risk and resilience factors + biological aging after trauma (@ mentors Drs. Nate Harnett + Kerry Ressler). #description" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">reporter.nih.gov/search/is52084… Under certain conditions, resilience factors can have unexpected or even adverse effects....

Link in quoted post and here: nature.com/naturecareers/…

Only about 1.5 weeks left to apply for this! Neurobiology at Duke is searching for a new Chair. Consider applying. Encourage a colleague to apply. Amazing opportunity to lead a world-class community of neuroscientists. And we'll show you all the best places for BBQ.

The biggest problem holding neuroscience back right now isn’t data or tools, thanks in large part to the BRAIN Initiative. It’s fragmentation across species. I wrote👇 to hopefully spark discussion around an issue that can only be solved as a community thetransmitter.org/animal-models/…

Last week, Jim Zhang (4th year PhD student, @DukeBrain) presented Sina Tafazoli’s paper on building compositional tasks with shared neural subspaces. This 📷 explores our thoughts (📷 & 📷) doi.org/10.1038/s41586…

Congratulations to CBB PhD candidate Edward Mosely for receiving a 2026 Germinator Award from the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. Mosely was awarded for his proposal for interdisciplinary research in the brain sciences. 🔗 Read more: #edwardm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">dibs.duke.edu/2026-dibs-germ…

Great opportunity!!

Also ICYMI - official adjustment to timeline of NIH’s implementation of Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support. "NIH will be extending the current leniency period through May 2026." See link for details.