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Amanda Elton

@amandaelton.bsky.social

99 followers 150 following 27 posts

Assistant professor at the University of Florida. fMRI, addiction, alcohol, early life stress, resilience, cognitive neuroscience

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Dec 2

Our recent work looking at adverse life events and resting-state functional connectivity in the ABCD study now available online www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Key findings:
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The effects of adverse life events on brain development in the ABCD study®: a propensity-weighted analysis - Molecular Psychiatry

Molecular Psychiatry - The effects of adverse life events on brain development in the ABCD study®: a propensity-weighted analysis

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Amanda Elton

Nora Newcombe @noranewcombe.bsky.social · 6d

Really interesting approach to mood regulation!
news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Wearable patch reduces cravings for alcohol and drugs — Harvard Gazette

First year of recovery is “immensely challenging,” researchers note. New device could be a difference maker.

news.harvard.edu

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · 26d

Got a NOA for a new R01 from #NIAAA this week. Looks like new awards are finally moving! Also year two is already listed as pending?

fireworks are displayed over a body of water in the night sky

ALT: fireworks are displayed over a body of water in the night sky

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Amanda Elton

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Sep 8

Updating my analysis now that August data should be relatively complete.

Not great news...

The rate of investment of the appropriation is not increasing and it seems unlikely that the entire appropriation will be committed this year.

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

#NIAAA funded 5 new R01s last week, bringing the FY25 total to 13. 10 of 50 grants funded last week were new (not renewals). Perhaps marks a shift towards funding of new awards in the final stretch?

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

Yes, unfortunately it affects so many families and is so multifaceted. I wish the best for your nieces and the rest of the family!

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

This NIH-funded study helps us understand more about the brain mechanisms of familial risk for alcohol use disorder, which can help us develop new methods to improve health outcomes for people who are at risk for addiction. 5/5

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

Family history was related to greater activation in the nucleus accumbens, suggesting a heightened sensitivity to rewards, but not with brain differences in future thinking or cognitive control. Greater nucleus accumbens activation was also related to steeper escalations in alcohol drinking. 4/5

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

We examined brain systems for future thinking, cognitive control, and reward processing during an fMRI delay discounting task and tested these as mediators of the relationship between family history and alcohol drinking trajectories. 3/5

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

Family history is associated with more impulsive decision-making and greater alcohol use. We hypothesized that these relationships are driven by particular brain differences in regions that contribute to decision-making for delayed vs. immediate rewards. 2/5

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Sep 8

Family history of alcohol use problems increases reward-related brain activity, leading to increased drinking trajectories in young adults. New preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... #addiction #fMRI #NIAAA 1/5

Delay Discounting, Nucleus Accumbens Activation, and Alcohol Use Trajectories in Young Adults with a Family History of Alcohol Use Disorder

A family history (FH) of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with increased personal risk for alcohol misuse and AUD. FH is also related to increased impulsivity as evidenced by performance on de...

www.medrxiv.org

Reposted by Amanda Elton

Chris Kahler @chriskahlerphd.bsky.social · Sep 2

The numbers for #NIAAA are especially bleak. No new (Type 1) NIAAA awards posted on Reporter last week. With 4 weeks to go, there is an immense amount of ground to make up to ensure that novel alcohol research is supported and investigators can support their work, their staff and trainees.

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · Sep 2

One month to go for NIH grants in the FY2025 cycle drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/02/o...

One month to go for NIH grants in the FY2025 cycle

As of today*, the NIH has funded 2,479 new (Type 1) R01 projects for Fiscal Year 2025. This FY expires at the end of the month, so we have four more weeks to go. For reference, NIH funded 4,612 new…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Aug 26

They seem to be prioritizing type 5 grants right now, around 10 per day in August.... Not sure how many of those they need to get through PO told me to expect a "funding decision" for my pending grant before 9/30 😬

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Aug 24

Actually 33 (one new)!

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Aug 24

Only last week one for NIAAA...?

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Reposted by Amanda Elton

Ethan Michael Anderson, Ph.D. @ethanandersonphd.bsky.social · Aug 23

I'm thrilled to announce that I just got my first R01 from NIAAA! 1R01AA031007. I'm hiring here in Baton Rouge, LA, so message me if you are interested in working on this alcohol grant, or on other projects in lab involving opioid use!

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Aug 19

So are we all resubmitting next cycle, or what?

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · Aug 19

NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025 drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/n...

NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025

I know Doctor Editor Director Professor Berg has more sophisticated analyses going but this simple data set made sense to me once I realized how few new R01 NIAAA has issued so far (5). Since we ar…

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

Reposted by Amanda Elton

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · Aug 19

NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025 drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/08/18/n...

NIH progress on new R01s in FY 2025

drugmonkey.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Amanda Elton

Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · Aug 18

Adverse experiences in early life affect brain development. A Review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience discusses evidence for how these adversity-induced changes to human brain architecture alter developmental trajectories that may underpin adult psychopathology. go.nature.com/45xZOii 🔒

This is figure 3, which shows key neural mechanisms linked to early adversity.

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Reposted by Amanda Elton

UF McKnight Brain Institute @ufmbi.bsky.social · Jun 23

College students pursuing careers in science or medicine can learn skills for grad school through the Summer Neuroscience Internship Program at the University of Florida, now celebrating its 10th year. SNIP provides mentorship, hands-on lab work and more.

Learn more: bit.ly/4kdYPJC

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Reposted by Amanda Elton

Alex Shackman @ajshackman.bsky.social · May 23

fMRI Peeps - I remember reading a paper, years ago, focused on identifying regions for brain-association analyses based on peak inter-individual variance (rather than peak activation), but a 20-min search failed to recover it. Suggestions? Thx!

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · May 22

access link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1l8AV3AZg%...

authors.elsevier.com

Reposted by Amanda Elton

Marc L Seal @parkvillegeek.bsky.social · May 19

👏👏👏

fMRIPrep Lifespan: Extending A Robust Pipeline for Functional MRI Preprocessing to Developmental Neuroimaging | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Amanda Elton

Natalie Matosin @nataliematosin.bsky.social · Apr 21

Psychiatric disorders share genetic roots, but the mechanisms are unclear. With exon-level brain data, we linked common & rare variants to 110 core genes in pathways such as cortisol & dopamine cascades, mainly in excitatory neurons, offering new therapeutic targets 🧠✨ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Exon-variant interplay and multi-modal evidence identify endocrine dysregulation in severe psychiatric disorders impacting excitatory neurons - Translational Psychiatry

Translational Psychiatry - Exon-variant interplay and multi-modal evidence identify endocrine dysregulation in severe psychiatric disorders impacting excitatory neurons

www.nature.com

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Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Apr 11

💯

Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · Apr 11

The result of a large (42 authors!) collaboration:
"Go Figure: Transparency in neuroscience images preserves context and clarifies interpretation"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.07824
TL;DR: The FMRI world can (and should) improve results interpretation and reproducibility *today*, via transparent thresholding.

Amanda Elton @amandaelton.bsky.social · Apr 11

New study in JAACAP with wonderful collaborators, Shanting Chen and Catalina Lopez-Quintero: Racial discrimination alters subcortical brain connections in minority youth, speeding up maturation. Changes tied to mental health issues, especially in girls #ABCDStudy authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...