Ali Rigby (she/her)

After decades of dreaming, I FINALLY DID IT!! At 41, I'm starting a PhD program at @UCSDNeuro!! ✨✨✨

Special Episode! Didn't get into your dream grad program? Don't give up! Colors of the Brain (@UCSD_CoB) co-founder Dr. Maribel Patino (@MariMelonPan) shares tips to strengthen your application #AcademicTwitter #GradSchoolTips storiesofwin.org/profiles/2025/…

Interested in rhythm and communication? Infant-directed speech and song? Social and language development in autism? Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab is recruiting a postdoc focused on these areas! #musicscience redcap.vumc.org/surveys/?s=N8E…

Two weeks ago, they found a tumor in my abdomen. imagine a big, juicy orange just sitting there. Routine exam, totally unexpected, and yeah, it’s scary as hell. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. Tomorrow’s the big day: a long surgery to cut this thing out, along with part of my small intestine. I don’t know if it’s malignant yet, I’m very nervous, but I’ve got confidence it’s going to go well. I’m in the hands of one of the best surgical oncologists @UCSDHealth seriously, I lucked out. I’ been thinking a lot lately obviously and I can’t say enough about my brilliant colleagues @UCSD and @NIH researchers and clinicians who pour their hearts into advancing science and fighting diseases. I’ve gone from being an NIH-funded researcher to a patient trusting my life to an NIH-funded surgeon. It’s a full-circle moment that hits hard. None of this—none of the research, the treatments, the hope—would exist without a robust healthcare infrastructure and the significant indirect costs from NIH that make it all possible. Slashing those funds to 15% IDC, doesn’t just threaten my lab and my research to find a cure for addiction, it threatens my life right now, and the lives of so many others counting on this system to survive. This is one of the toughest challenge I have ever faced. But I’m ready. Let’s kick this tumor’s ass!

Proud to have contributed to @JiaxuanQi's masterpiece out @Nature! She shows dopamine transients track the quality of song during juvenile song learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! nature.com/articles/s4158…

🚨 New lab paper!🚨 Dream study of mine for 20 yrs not possible until now thanks to NIH 🧠 funding & 1st-author lead @m_seeber We tracked hippocampal activity as people walked memory-guided paths & imagined them again. Did brain patterns reappear?🧵👇 nature.com/articles/s4156…

@SuthanaLab @m_seeber So cool!!!

Check out our review to learn about all things joint music making! 🎶

🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 A postdoc position is available at my lab (npa.iit.it) in Rome! Join us to explore: 🎵 Neural bases of musicality (humans, infants, macaques) 💃🕺 Dance & joint music-making 🤝 Spontaneous social behavior ⬇️ Apply through the link below! ⬇️

I am thrilled to share my postdoc work from the Soohyun Lee Lab, nature.com/articles/s4158…. Huge thanks to the awesome PI Soohyun Lee and collaborators Yuan Zhao, Ka Chun Lam, @fpereira, and Charles R Gerfen.

PhD programs are pausing admissions to graduate school due to NIH indirect cost cuts. See the growing number of programs here: #gid=0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d… How is science supposed to advance with fewer trainees, less $ for research? This is devastating.

Since good news feels rare these days, excited to share a win - My R00 was awarded! Will be looking for a postdoc soon to help uncover biological 🧠🧬 & behavioral prospective 📈factors for adolescent eating disorders 🍽️ @UCSDHealth @UCSD_EDC @PsychiatryUcsd

@MatthewEHughes Oh no! I was able to submit last night finally. I would definitely email them at info@humanbrainmapping.org and let them know you’re still experiencing problems. Hoping it will work for you soon!

@NeuroMusicNerd How did you go? I still get the error

Is anyone experiencing a "500 ERROR Page request problem. 500 ERROR Oh No! It appears that the page you are looking for is under construction, was removed, or never existed (bummer)" when trying to access parts of the #OHBM2025 submission portal?

WHEW!!!

@AcharyaAlaka I'm sorry you're having the same issue. Any luck yet?

@NeuroMusicNerd I am having the same problem.

@OHBM is the portal ok? I continue to get this error.

Very excited to share new work merging some of my fave things (adolescence, 🧠imaging, carefully collected behavioral data📊, and multivariate methods) to further our neurobiological understanding of eating disorders 👉 doi.org/10.1101/2024.1… 1/n

📜I just preprinted a little perspective piece / mini review on the history of the study of aperiodic neural activity - arguing there is more out there in literature than one might expect! A historical overview of the study of aperiodic neural activity: osf.io/preprints/psya…

@carolinamak15 @PsychiatryUcsd @UCSDHealth BEST NEWS EVER! 🥳🎉

Ecstatic to say that I will be joining UCSD's Dept of Psychiatry as Asst Prof Feb 1st! My lab will be bridging 🌉 brain imaging 🧠 and genetics 🧬research to understand adolescent psychiatric disorders 📈, esp eating disorders & related conditions @PsychiatryUcsd @UCSDHealth