Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

LightNews

Koya Lab

@koyalab.bsky.social

180 followers 130 following 38 posts

We aim to reveal the neuronal ensemble mechanisms of motivated behaviours guided by food-associated cues. We are located in weird and wonderful Brighton on the southern English coast! (lab homepage: http://tinyurl.com/y44g9a7u)

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 11

Our article “Prelimbic cortical excitatory overdrive and inhibitory underdrive accompany environmental suppression of food seeking” recently came out on @‪npp-journal.bsky.social‬. tinyurl.com/5xpd9ay5 Want to learn more? The thread is below: 1/n‬‬‬

Reposted by Koya Lab

Josh Johansen @jojolab.bsky.social · 9d

Excited to announce that I'll be moving to the Univ of California Irvine @ucirvine.bsky.social next Spring!🌴

Happily, this is not goodbye to Japan as I'll continue my lab @RIKEN_CBS for some time.

Help spread the word: the new UCI lab will be hiring, DM or email ([email protected]) if interested!

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 10d

Cool new study on how operant training and extinction learning recruit distinct prelimbic cortex ensembles to support opposing behavioural responses from Bruce Hope's lab! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Distinct prelimbic cortex ensembles encode response execution and inhibition | PNAS

Learning when to initiate or withhold actions is essential for survival, requiring the integration of past experiences with new information to adap...

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

Rest in peace, Pieter.
Thank you for everything and for helping me become the neuroscientist I am today.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

Pieter had a profound influence on how I investigate the brain.
I’m grateful I stayed in touch during his retirement, where he enjoyed making guitars.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

The microscope we used together (pictured below just before his retirement) was where many of these lessons were learned.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

He patiently showed me stained brain sections with e.g. Fos, calbindin, mu-opioid receptors. Amazingly, he could even infer corticolimbic inputs from clusters of Fos expression in striatal sections.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

I still remember when he asked me to sketch the borders of the nucleus accumbens and justify my choices. “Because it’s in the atlas” wasn’t good enough. He wanted my scientific rationale!

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

That question led to hours of Socratic dialogue about cell types, neurochemical markers, input-output relationships, and anatomical boundaries.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

Pieter taught me how to use the cryostat and dissect brain regions with precision.
But more importantly, he taught me how to think about “What makes a brain area a brain area?”.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

My obsession with histology, microscopy, and the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens began with him.
It’s something I’ve carried through my postdoc, my time at NIDA, and now as a PI.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

As a PhD student, I learned corticostriatal neuroanatomy, histology, and microscopy under his guidance, even though he wasn’t officially my supervisor.
He was just a generous scientist who wanted to help.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

Many in behavioural neuroscience will remember Pieter from his influential 2004 Trends in Neurosciences review, which helped shape our understanding of prefrontal–striatal circuitry.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 15d

I recently learned that my PhD mentor, Pieter Voorn, passed away at the age of 70.
He was a superb, ‘classical’ neuroanatomist at VU Medical Center in Amsterdam, working alongside Gloria Meredith, Henk Groenewegen, Harry Uylings, and Chris Wright.

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · 20d

Flight back has been cancelled so must spend another day in Almeria! Not a bad place to get stranded ! 😁

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Sep 7

Seen today in Brighton: Old-school, non-LLM, analogue spell checking! 😄

Reposted by Koya Lab

Marcello Solinas @msolinas.bsky.social · Sep 1

We are hiring!

www.fens.org/careers/job-...

Post-doc position in the « Neurobiology and Neuropharmacology of Psychiatric Disorders » team, INSERM-University of Poitiers - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

Reposted by Koya Lab

Neuropsychopharmacology @npp-journal.bsky.social · Aug 20

In this recent #ResearchHighlight, the authors discuss new findings pointing a potential non-pharmacological approach for mitigating maladaptive craving behaviors

To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking

Neuropsychopharmacology - To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Aug 5

Seen today in Brighton: A tribute to Pac-man on wheels! 😄

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 20

The Shoya House at The Huntington, San Marino, CA. A house built in the Edo period 300 years ago in Marugame Japan. It was disassembled there and reassembled at The Huntington. Amazing !

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 12

Friday happiness=yakitori and Suntory Premium Malts at Torikizoku! 😋

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 11

Once again, many thanks to all involved in project! Those on bluesky: @katepeters3.bsky.social‬, ‪@scottkinghorn.bsky.social Finally, special thanks to @moever.bsky.social‬ and Pelle Wilbers at VU Amsterdam for a nice commentary on our article! 🙂https://tinyurl.com/yutzpuv7 14/n‬

To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - To indulge or enrich: how environmental enrichment affects neurons that promote food seeking

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 11

Together, impaired neuronal food cue processing from simultaneous prefrontal excitatory 'overdrive' and inhibitory 'underdrive' likely underlies EE's anti-food seeking action, thereby serving as potential neurophysiological targets to develop novel medications that help control food cravings. 13/n

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 11

These findings were initially surprising since reduced reward seeking is generally associated with experimental inhibition of PL. But impaired behavioural control is associated with PL hypoactivity. So increased PL excitatory overdrive post-EE may contribute to increased behavioural control. 12/n

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 11

So increased gas pedal action might mean decreased braking action? We measured Fos in PL inhibitory interneurons. EE reduced recruitment of cue-reactive, inhibitory interneurons reflecting 'inhibitory underdrive', so decreased braking. 11/n

Koya Lab @koyalab.bsky.social · Jul 11

How does EE impact PL pyramidal cell activity in vivo? We used fibre photometry and measured GCaMP activity and revealed that EE induced a loss of cue specificity and general elevation of PL pyramidal cell activity in vivo during sucrose seeking. So another case of excitatory ‘overdrive’! 😲10/n