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Jennifer Bussell PhD

Jennifer Bussell PhD

@jenbussell.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1.9K following 58 posts

Neuroscientist studying information seeking and curiosity via mouse models at Columbia University. Previously at Vosshall Lab at Rockefeller University. Mom in Brooklyn, former S Carolinian www.jenniferbussell.org

Political science 68%

Sociology 15%

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Jennifer Bussell PhD @jenbussell.bsky.social · Oct 14

Absolutely thrilled to share my postdoc work in the Axel lab. We found odor-evoked representations of the intrinsic value of information in mouse orbitofrontal cortex and showed that mice desire knowledge as its own reward. Now on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Representations of information value in mouse orbitofrontal cortex during information seeking

bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

www.biorxiv.org

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 3d

Breaking News: The Trump administration repealed the bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human life and well being, meaning that the EPA can no longer regulate them. nyti.ms/4rSszQu

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Siegenthaler Lab @siegenthalerlab.bsky.social · 3d

Scientist's way of saying 'I ❤️ you'

"I found this paper/preprint that made me think of your project."
"I checked the mice/cells/plates already."
"I just sent you the edits you requested."
"I have a slide/diagram that will work for that."
"I had that problem with [lab equipment], I have a fix."

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Jennifer Bussell, Kevin Miller , and 2 more Lisa W. Fazio, Jennifer Bussell, Kevin Miller, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Karin Wulf

New York Magazine @nymag.com · 4d

Looking for an edge in college admissions? Just pull your kid from school. Homeschooling, long associated with hippies and religious conservatives in the U.S., is in the middle of a rebrand and a boom.

The Homeschooling Hack

Looking for an edge in college admissions? Just pull your kid from school. Homeschooling, long associated with hippies and religious conservatives in the U.S., is in the middle of a rebrand and a boom.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 4d

4,049 people gone from NIH compared to 2024, an 18% loss in staff.

www.medpagetoday.com/washington-w...

Here's How Many Jobs HHS Has Lost Since RFK Jr. Took Over

See the totals from NIH, FDA, CDC, and CMS, too

www.medpagetoday.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

tafazolisina.bsky.social @tafazolisina.bsky.social · 4d

Thrilled that my paper is out in the @nature.com. We explored how the brain builds complex tasks by compositionally combining simpler sub-task representations. The brain flexibly performs multiple tasks by dynamically reusing neural subspaces for sensory inputs and motor actions

rdcu.be/eRVUk

Building compositional tasks with shared neural subspaces

Nature - The brain can flexibly perform multiple tasks by compositionally combining task-relevant neural representations.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Ciarán Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 4d

Really nice work from the Holmes lab looking at amygdala astrocytes in fear memory and extinction!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Astrocytes enable amygdala neural representations supporting memory - Nature

Astrocytes in the basolateral amygdala dynamically track fear state and support fear memory retrieval and extinction.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Peter Jacobs

Steve Koczela @skoczela.bsky.social · 5d

One Boston Children’s Hospital researcher said, “This is like asking, how do you think dropping an atomic bomb on New York City will affect the future of Broadway musicals? This is a generational loss of innovation, technology, and economic power.” www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/09/m...

They came to Massachusetts to cure disease. Now they’re packing up their labs. - The Boston Globe

In a first-of-its-kind survey, the Globe asked hundreds of scientists about the impact of federal funding cuts.

www.bostonglobe.com

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Carly D. Ziter

Dr Manu Saunders @manusaunders.bsky.social · 5d

On this day that supports inclusive futures for women and girls in science, let's not forget all the women that were sidelined, ignored, or forced out of science because they:
- had children
- prioritised family/caring
- did science differently
- questioned boundaries & norms
- fought the patriarchy

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Stanislas Dehaene, Yue Wu

SueYeon Chung @sueyeonchung.bsky.social · 5d

Our paper is out in @natneuro.nature.com!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We develop a geometric theory of how neural populations support generalization across many tasks.

@zuckermanbrain.bsky.social
@flatironinstitute.org
@kempnerinstitute.bsky.social

1/14

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Monosov Lab @monosovlab.bsky.social · 6d

! New paper from the lab !

How does novelty impact value-based decision making ?

What are the circuits and what mechanisms do they implement?

Congratulations to Dr. Takaya Ogasawara and team

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Temporal-orbitofrontal pathway regulates choices across physical reward and visual novelty

Novelty can directly impact valuation of future outcomes, affecting how we choose among rewards such as food or money. This is the case even when novelty is objectively valueless. Here, Ogasawara et a...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 6d

This is a powerful message from Freeman Hrabowski.

🧵

1/12

Freeman Hrabowski III, the President Emeritus from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, giving a TED talk.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Serge Ahmed @sergeahmed.bsky.social · 6d

Can you easily distinguish between value, valence, and salience?

Probably not, but the prefrontal cortex of mice seems to achieve this by creating a sort of multidimensional orthogonal neural space, where each dimension corresponds to one of these subjective elements

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours - Nature

The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encodes the value, salience and valence of learned stimuli along distinct neural dimensions, and the geometry of these representations shapes motivated behaviours in ...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Rosemary A. Joyce, Rita Rubin , and 8 more Jennifer Bussell, Rosemary A. Joyce, Rita Rubin, Lesley A. Hall, Justin Lewis, Scott A. Imberman, Els Torreele, Melanie Simms, Erin O’Donnell, Catherine J. Frieman, Nicole Guenther Discenza

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 9d

Just because good news is worth celebrating:

There is now a Prep medication that is an *every six month* injection.

HIV has, effectively, a vaccination.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Tian Wang @tianw0318.bsky.social · 10d

Excited to share our new findings: distinct neural dynamics in prefrontal and premotor cortex during flexible decision making, preprinted on biorxiv.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Dana Howard

Chris Krupenye @chriskrupenye.bsky.social · 10d

Imagination in bonobos!

I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org

We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative

youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko

Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine

YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · 10d

And the amazing resource that is the Atlas of Inspiring LatinX/Hispanic Scientists, which you can learn more about and access here:

www.fredhutch.org/en/about/abo...

Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists

The Atlas of Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists is a grassroots effort developed to showcase the expertise, talents, and diversity of Hispanic and Latinx scientific faculty.

www.fredhutch.org

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Chrystal Starbird @drstarbird.bsky.social · 10d

I am SO incredibly excited to announce the launch of a global list of Inspiring Black Scientists. You can use this list to nominate and connect with researchers. Please share and join us in highlighting these outstanding scientists for #BlackHistoryMonth and beyond!

www.wiley.com/en-us/resear...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Harrison Ritz @hritz.bsky.social · 12d

Final paper of my PhD 🤗

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

There is growing interest in how cognitive control may improve value-based decision making.

However, we find that a recent paper overestimated the role of control in their task, leading to erroneous interpretations of dACC recordings.

Misspecified models create the appearance of adaptive control during value-based choice - Communications Psychology

In a new computational analysis of previous work, this study shows that a control-free mechanism better accounts for value-based decisions than an account that assumes top-down control invigorating th...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Larry W. Hunter , and 1 more Jennifer Bussell, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Larry W. Hunter, Clark Gray

Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · 12d

Both chambers of Congress have now passed the FY26 minibus with NIH provisions. The President will sign.

(1) $48.7 billion for NIH
(2) Full IDC recovery
(3) No more multi-year funding
(4) No NIH reorganization, maintaining the current IC structure.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Lauren Aulet @laurenaulet.bsky.social · 12d

first empirical paper from the Aulet lab! What does learning to count do to a brain? We trained neural networks on different tasks and only counting (i.e., predicting the number of dots in a dot array) reorganized representations around number. New preprint:

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Richard S.J. Tol

Aaron Sojourner @aaronsojourner.org · 16d

"...women receive substantially lower potential ratings despite receiving higher performance ratings... lower potential ratings do not reflect accurate forecasts of future performance: Women subsequently outperform male colleagues..."
pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...

“Potential” and the Gender Promotion Gap†
By Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue*
We show that subjective assessments of employee “potential” contribute to gender gaps in promotion and pay. Using data on 29,809
management-track employees from a large retail chain, we find that
women receive substantially lower potential ratings despite receiving
higher performance ratings. Differences in potential ratings account
for approximately half of the gender promotion gap. Women’s lower
potential ratings do not reflect accurate forecasts of future performance: Women subsequently outperform male colleagues, both on
average and on the margin of promotion. We highlight two mechanisms driving the gender potential gap: strategic retention and stereotyping. (JEL J16, J31, J71, L81, M12, M51)

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

kottke.org @kottke.org · 19d

Sesame Street has uploaded a bunch of classic episodes to YouTube that are free to watch, including the very first episode from 1969, the one where Mister Rogers visits, and the episode where Mr. Snuffulupagus is finally revealed. [kottke.org]

Watch Classic Episodes of Sesame Street for Free on YouTube

Sesame Street has uploaded a bunch of classic episodes to YouTube that are free to watch, including the very first episode from 1969, the one where Mister Rogers visits, and the episode where Mr. Snuffulupagus is fin

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Jennifer Bussell, Dorothy Bishop , and 2 more Lisa W. Fazio, Jennifer Bussell, Dorothy Bishop, Jesse H. Kroll, Philip N. Cohen

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 19d

New at Can We Still Govern: NIH scientist @markhisted.org reviews the damage done to American biomedical science in the last year and looks ahead:
"Scientists should not be political partisans, but they should be partisans for liberal democratic principles."🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/american-b...

American biomedical science in 2026

Where we are, how we got here, and what to do next

donmoynihan.substack.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch, Jennifer Bussell , and 22 more Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch, Jennifer Bussell, Richard S.J. Tol, Steve Peers, Mark D. White, Philip N. Cohen, American Library Association, Cathy N. Davidson, Michael Kevane, Silvia Secchi, Michael H. Whitworth, Michael D. McDonald, Michael Jones‐Correa, Alfie Kohn, Catherine J. Frieman, Sean P. Corcoran, Michael Larkin, Charles T. Mathewes, David Waldstreicher, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Virginia Sapiro, Clark Gray, David Darmofal

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 23d

This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.

Keung Hui @keunghui.bsky.social · 25d

Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges. This leaves in place a federal judge's ruling that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules. (Via AP) apnews.com/article/dei-... #ncpol #nced

Trump administration drops legal appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges

The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colle...

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Chris Gunter 🧬 @girlscientist.bsky.social · 23d

If you / your lab / your institution rely on NIH funding, you need to read this and understand how this is one of many changes affecting you. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026

Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Jennifer Bussell, Michael Wagner , and 27 more Stephen M. Walt, Jennifer Bussell, Michael Wagner, Linda J. Skitka, Gavin A. Schmidt, Joshua S. Weitz, Scott L. Greer, Mark D. White, Lesley A. Hall, Juan Cole, Daniel W. Drezner, Smith, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Margot C. Finn, Els Torreele, David Murakami Wood, Brooke Harrington, Richard M. Carpiano, Nathan Richardson, Pádua Fernandes, Aviel Roshwald, Ezra Golberstein, Susan D. Amussen, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dana Howard, Timothy D. McBride, Kristina McElheran

Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 24d

RFK Jr. appointee Kirk Milhoan has just clearly stated, out loud, that he wants to experiment on the people of the United States by seeing what happens as vaccination coverage plummets and infectious diseases spread.

Screenshot from STAT article that says

"What we're going to have is a real-world experience of when unvaccinated people get measles," he said. "What is the new incidence of hospitalization? What's the incidence of death?"

Reposted by Michael Barnett, Jennifer Bussell, Joshua S. Weitz , and 7 more Michael Barnett, Jennifer Bussell, Joshua S. Weitz, Scott L. Greer, Calvin K. Lai, Erika Franklin Fowler, Devon Greyson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Georg Weizsäcker, Jesse R. Lasky

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · 24d

🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year.

That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.

A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.

A short 🧵

Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026

Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell, Carl T. Bergstrom

johan @johanm.bsky.social · 24d

As #NYC is potentially facing historic levels of snow this weekend, now is the time to star preparing to help our neighbors.

dora.nyc is ready - but we need your help.

Upload resources, donate, volunteer.

Reposted by Jennifer Bussell

Stephen V Mahler @svmahler.bsky.social · 25d

Hey ventral pallidum fans, see our new paper showing that #VP GABA neurons, known for reward, also regulate aversive motivation! Inhibiting these cells with #DREADDs potentiates active or passive defenses to threats, likely via LHb.
Congrats to Erica Ramirez & Marty Martinez!
doi.org/10.1016/j.yn...

Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch , and 80 more Stephen M. Walt, Joanna Bryson, Marc Lynch, Tobias Bunde, Anupam Chander, Rebecca Solnit, Jennifer Bussell, Richard S.J. Tol, Dorothy Bishop, Brian J. Enquist, Richard E. Lenski, Andreas J. Bäumler, Tobias Kuemmerle, Will Jennings, Jon Pierre, Stefan Rahmstorf, Peter Thorne, Brendan Nyhan, Timon McPhearson, Linda J. Skitka, Du Toit, Julie L. Lockwood, Elena Litchman, Scott L. Greer, John Horgan, Steve Peers, Christopher Wright, Michael A. Clemens, Matthias Doepke, Lewis R. Gordon, Michael J. Allen, Martin Tomko, David W. Kerstetter, Marianne Hundt, Juan Cole, Cathy N. Davidson, Gernot Wagner, Jerry H. Ratcliffe, Edgar Morgenroth, Tuomas Mattila, Michael Kevane, Devon Greyson, Smith, Jonathan Hopkin, Michael W. Kraus, Silvia Secchi, Aaron Sojourner, Vincent Noël, Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, William A. Allen, Robert B. Reich, Michael D. McDonald, Craig R. McClain, Jason Lyall, Michael Müller, Michael Jones‐Correa, Mark Rice, Anthony Burke, Juanjo Medina, Arlene Stein, Jack Stilgoe, James Connelly, Georg Weizsäcker, Ted Temzelides, Richard M. Carpiano, Nathan Richardson, Guy Pe’er, Hisham Zerriffi, Tim Stephens, Blair Fix, Karen O’Leary, Taku Ito, Sylvain Genevois, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Dietmar Fehr, Karin Wulf, Juliet Johnson, Vincent Foucher, Jeannette Sutton, David R. Shumway, Elise Thomas, Carly D. Ziter

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 26d

This is the most astonishing graph of what the Trump regime has done to US science. They have destroyed the federal science workforce across the board. The negative impacts on Americans will be felt for generations, and the US might never be the same again.

www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

This line graph illustrates the percentage change in agency staff levels from the previous year for nine major U.S. federal scientific and health organizations between the fiscal years 2016 and 2025. The agencies tracked include the CDC, Department of Energy, EPA, FDA, NASA, NIH, NIST, NOAA, and NSF. For the majority of the timeline between 2016 and 2023, the agencies show relatively stable fluctuations, generally staying within a range of +5% to -5% change per year. However, there is a dramatic and uniform plummet starting in the 2024–25 period. Every agency depicted shows a sharp downward trajectory, with staffing losses ranging from approximately -15% to over -25%. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the most significant decline, dropping to roughly -26%, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shows the least severe but still substantial drop at approximately -15%.