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Ron Keiflin

@ronkeiflin.bsky.social

730 followers 460 following 25 posts

Behavioral Neuroscientist • Associative learning • Decision-making @UC Santa Barbara KeiflinLab.com

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Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · Dec 2

ICYMI: @sophiepeterson.bsky.social work comparing OFC and hippocampus in the retrieval and inference of context-dependent predictions is now out in Current Biology
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Also check out the great summary by (bsky-less?) Matt Gardner: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Neuroscience: Setting the neurobiological occasions for hierarchical learning and inference

Hierarchical associations help animals navigate the environment by using contextual and latent states to guide learning and behavior. Chemogenetic inactivation in an occasion setting task reveals that...

www.cell.com

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Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · 21h

More info about Neuroscience PhD programs at UCSB:
neuroscience.ucsb.edu/graduate-pro...

Neuroscience Graduate Programs | UCSB Neuroscience | UC Santa Barbara

Discover the ideal graduate program for your neuroscience training.

neuroscience.ucsb.edu

Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · 21h

🧠 Curious about grad school in Psych & Brain Sciences?
Join UC Santa Barbara’s PBS Department for a virtual open house on Oct 14 — meet faculty, connect with grad students, and learn more about the program!

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Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · 2d

Congrats!!!

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Alicia Izquierdo @aliciaizquierdo.bsky.social · 4d

🎇 Excited to finally share JL Romero Sosa’s publication! Results are from single-cell imaging in different subregions of rat frontal cortex during ✨de novo learning. Spoiler: everything is not everywhere all at once www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Neural coding of choice and outcome are modulated by uncertainty in orbitofrontal but not secondary motor cortex - Nature Communications

Neural mechanisms underlying flexible learning and decision-making are not fully understood. Using single-cell calcium imaging, authors here found that neurons in orbitofrontal and secondary motor cortex exhibit complementary roles in reward learning, with neurons in the former exerting a sustained role in conditions of uncertainty.

www.nature.com

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Stephanie L. Grella, PhD @sgrella.bsky.social · 6d

First lab paper out today! Student authors: Mikayla Cutler and Abhi Thati 🎉🤩

Hippocampus | Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Memory is a cornerstone of human behavior, and addiction offers a compelling model of its persistence and plasticity. The scope of engram research has rapidly expanded to include addiction-related ph....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Ron Keiflin

Mark Laubach @marklaubach.bsky.social · 9d

I'm recruiting a PhD student to study how enkephalins affect cognitive processing in the rodent frontal cortex. The project uses pharmacology, multi-electrode recordings, and fiber photometry, and is funded by NIDA. Please share with trainees applying this cycle. Thanks!

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Sean Ostlund @ostlundlab.bsky.social · 8d

We have an open NIH-funded postdoc position in the lab to study circuit and neurochemical mechanisms of cognitive and motivational deficits in opioid withdrawal. Apply here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09885 or message/email for more information.

Postdoctoral Scholars - Ostlund Laboratory - Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care

University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

recruit.ap.uci.edu

Reposted by Ron Keiflin

Ben Saunders @bensaunders.bsky.social · Aug 28

Honored to be elected to serve as the next vice co-chair, along with the amazing @sciolinolab.bsky.social, for the Catecholamines Gordon Research Conference. I first came to this meeting in 2011 as a grad student and it was transformative for my career. Excited to help cultivate that for others.

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Kauê Machado Costa @kmcostalab.com · Aug 26

If you are a highly motivated grad student (@uabneuro.bsky.social) or a prospective postdoc with experience in behavior, neural recordings, or programming, and would like to contribute to this project, just contact me. Details on kmcostalab.com

K.M. Costa Lab

kmcostalab.com

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Reposted by Ron Keiflin

Kurt Fraser @kurtfraser.bsky.social · Aug 22

My hero!!!!

OneNeuro Initiative @oneneurojhu.org · Aug 11

We are thrilled to announce that OneNeuro Co-Director Patricia Janak, Ph.D., has been elected as the 2026-2027 President of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). @janaklab.bsky.social

View the official announcement: www.sfn.org/publications...

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OneNeuro Initiative @oneneurojhu.org · Aug 11

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Shauna Parkes @shaunaparkes.bsky.social · Aug 21

New Dispatch in @currentbiology.bsky.social w/ @RobinPiquet & @dryacinetensaouti.bsky.social highlighting elegant work from the @iordanova.bsky.social lab that formally disentangles whether dopamine signals reward prediction errors or value.

authors.elsevier.com/a/1ldGk3QW8S...

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Ben Saunders @bensaunders.bsky.social · Aug 21

Very excited to share this major update to our paper delineating VTA GABA neuron encoding of valence and decision conflict. Studies led by the amazing @margestelzner.bsky.social. We leaned in here, taking the opportunity to add a lot of cool new data. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · Jul 18

Parting gift from @sophiepeterson.bsky.social.
I feel so seen!

Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · Jul 18

Catching up on announcements — huge congrats to @sophiepeterson.bsky.social on a successful defense! Proud PI moment!

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Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · Jul 8

just DMed you

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Ron Keiflin @ronkeiflin.bsky.social · Jul 8

We also use a long cable (~3m). The part exposed to the rat is protected by a flexible metal jacket, which can rotate.
The fiber itself runs straight to the cube (no rotary joint). It works well for 1 fiber; I imagine it could be adapted for 2 fibers. Let me know if you want details of our system

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Steve Maren @stevemaren.bsky.social · May 24

🚨New paper alert! 🚨 Inactivation of the nucleus reuniens causes relapse of extinguished fear. Here we show this “circuit-induced relapse” depends on hippocampal fear memories and is mediated by hippocampal engrams. Congrats to the team!

Hippocampal ensembles regulate circuit-induced relapse of extinguished fear

Molecular Psychiatry - Hippocampal ensembles regulate circuit-induced relapse of extinguished fear

urldefense.com

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Reposted by Ron Keiflin

Ben Saunders @bensaunders.bsky.social · May 17

Check out our latest! Studies led by the amazing Megan Brickner - she finds really interesting patterns of dopamine signaling in the basolateral amygdala that report the emotional salience of sensory state transitions. These are largely non-associative, value-free signals, in contrast to classic DA.

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · May 17

Basolateral amygdala dopamine transmits a nonassociative emotional salience signal https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.15.654323v1

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Rhiana Simon, PhD @rhianasimon.bsky.social · May 16

Thrilled to announce that our paper is now finally out! 🎉We combine scRNAseq, 2p imaging, ephys, and behavior to understand the role of lateral septal Nts neurons in opioid withdrawal. Curious about the septum and addiction? Give it a read👇

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

Opioid-driven disruption of the septum reveals a role for neurotensin-expressing neurons in withdrawal

Opioid withdrawal produces a dysphoric state that can lead to relapse. Simon et al. reveal that lateral septal neurotensin-expressing neurons are selectively activated by naloxone and drive changes in...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Ron Keiflin

Will Redman @wtredman.bsky.social · May 15

Very surprised (but very excited) to announce that I’ll be officially starting as an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and as part of the new Data Science and AI Institute in July 2026!

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Josh Johansen @jojolab.bsky.social · May 14

I’m excited to share a new paper from the lab. The study led by Xiaowei Gu reveals how the mPFC encodes complex emotional memories, using an internal model to infer emotional associations and memories via projections to the amygdala. a🧵(1/8)

rdcu.be/el19t

Prefrontal encoding of an internal model for emotional inference

Nature - Neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encode a flexible internal model of emotion by linking directly experienced and inferred associations with aversive experiences.

rdcu.be

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Paul Frankland @franklandlab.bsky.social · May 14

Sharing a new paper from the lab. This paper, led by Sangyoon Ko, represents a merging of two longstanding research themes in the lab-- adult neurogenesis and systems consolidation.

rdcu.be/el18q

A short thread follows for those interested.

1/n

Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry

Nature - A study shows that loss of memory precision associated with systems consolidation can be explained by neurogenesis-dependent reorganization of engram circuitry within the hippocampus over...

rdcu.be

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Michael Goard @michaelgoard.bsky.social · May 13

🚨Very excited to share a new paper from our lab in Neuron (@cp-neuron.bsky.social) on the influence of the estrous cycle on structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Thread below 🧠🧪🧵:

The estrous cycle modulates hippocampal spine dynamics, dendritic processing, and spatial coding

Histological evidence suggests that the estrous cycle exerts a powerful influence on CA1 neurons in the mammalian hippocampus. Decades have passed sin…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Emily G. Jacobs @emilyjacobs.bsky.social · May 12

Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara! We're hiring a full-time junior specialist/research technician to play a central role in data collection & analysis of brain imaging studies of pregnancy & menopause.

Learn more & apply at: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974

Or help us spread the word 💫

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