Kiran Soma

In 25-Country Survey, Americans Especially Likely To View Fellow Citizens as Morally Bad | Pew Research Center Across 25 countries, Americans are the most likely to see the morality and ethics of people in their country as somewhat or very bad.

www.pewresearch.org/religion/202... Canada and US at opposite ends of this list

Best evidence yet that GLP-1 drugs reduce the risk of substance abuse, from >600,000 US Veterans with T2 diabetes across alcohol, nicotine, opioid, cocaine, cannabis @zalaly.bsky.social
@bmj.com
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

Read our letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney – Canadian Association for Neuroscience Canadian Association for Neuroscience

Read CAN President Douglas Zochodne's letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney highlighting the importance of Neuroscience research and the CIHR Project Grant shortfalls.
can-acn.org/read-our-let...

It’s a feature, not a bug.

S4SN 2026 Join S4SN 2026, August 23-26, 2026. Learn more on Fourwaves.

Join us in beautiful Montreal for the 2026 S4SN Conference (Aug 23–26)!

Share your latest research, spark new collaborations, and engage with a vibrant social neuroscience community!

Symposium proposals and individual abstract submissions are underway: event.fourwaves.com/s4sn2026/pages

And the name of the first author!

Maternal Sucrose Intake during Pregnancy Alone Disrupts Testosterone and Allopregnanolone Levels in the Fetal Brain of Rats Intake of added sugars, such as sucrose, is high globally. In rats, a maternal high-sucrose diet (HSD) from 10 wk before pregnancy to embryonic day (E…

I’m excited to share my new paper! 🤩 We showed that maternal sucrose intake during pregnancy alone disrupts testosterone and allopregnanolone levels in critical regions of the fetal brain 🧠

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@kiransoma.bsky.social

Congrats to Michelle and all our coauthors!! The fetal brain is very sensitive to maternal sugar consumption…

Photo of Dr. Zachary Pennington and Dr. Milan Valyear

We're thrilled to welcome Dr. @zachtpennington.bsky.social and Dr. @milanium.bsky.social as Assistant Professors in our Behavioural Neuroscience area and members of the @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social.

Read their Q&As: psych.ubc.ca/news

Spot on, but so sad.

Agouti integrates environmental cues to regulate paternal behaviour - Nature Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...

Why are some males caring toward infants while others are neglectful or abusive? I'm so pleased to share work that my colleagues and I @princeton.edu have just published @nature.com (an explanatory thread to follow!) (1/8)

Don’t deprioritize curiosity-driven research Around the world, governments are demanding that research funding follow broader political priorities. They should be careful what they wish for.

“they should be careful not to deprioritize the kind of curiosity-driven, investigator-led research that has a strong track record in advancing humanity’s knowledge, producing the types of innovation that prosperity and well-being depend on.”
🧪 #Research
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Wow, Elon Musk sure does like White people | Opinion Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a guy whose social media platform most companies still use, is a BIG fan of White people. Problematically so.

Terrific piece by @rexhuppke.bsky.social on Elon Musk, White Nationalist

CIHR funding rate: 13.6%.
Early 2000s: 30%+.

Canada’s new $1.7B Impact+ program recruits talent — but without increased Tri-Council base funding, we risk further strain on an already stretched system.

We’re calling for $1B over 5 years.
Support here: tinyurl.com/33c5av46

Thank you!

Indeed!

Same for me…

Will a ‘Trump slump’ continue to hit US tourism in 2026 − and even keep World Cup fans away? Talk of boycotts have added to fears among the US tourism industry that foreign tourists will continue to stay away.

Foreign tourism to the U.S. fell 5.4% in 2025 while the rest of the world saw a 4% increase.

Canadian visits dropped nearly 30%. buff.ly/MSynHSJ

Opinion | The Globalization of Canadian Rage

The Globalization of Canadian Rage www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o... 🎁 link

Ten Black Scientists That Science Teachers Should Know About Help your students see the possibilities of careers in STEM fields by providing them with diverse role models.

STEM Black History Fact 4/28

Dr. Percy Julian pioneered the large-scale synthesis of steroid hormones, enabling modern cortisone therapies, sex hormones, and birth control medications.

www.pbs.org/education/bl...

I completely agree

Yes, always validate your antibodies!! 🙏🏾

A Common Iba1 Antibody Labels Vasopressin Neurons in Mice There are a wide variety of commercially available antibodies for labeling microglial cells based on different protein targets, as well as antibodies for the same protein target made in different spec...

PSA for all #microglia lovers: certain Iba1 antibodies (see our new paper below for details) label not only microglia, but also vasopressin neurons, at least in mice. Brain region and species matter. A friendly reminder to always validate your antibodies! 🔬

www.eneuro.org/content/13/2...

a styled mouse appearing to scream, inpired by a painting by Munch created by Dr Rachael hokenson

Embargo over @cp-neuron.bsky.social High hippocampal estrogen levels promote #plasticity but also maladaptive They allow stress-induced memory loss in both sexes changing chromatin state www.cell.com/neuron/fullt.... c awesome @eahellerphd.bsky.social @neurohoke.bsky.social
@tollkuhn.bsky.social

Hippocampal estrogen levels, receptor types, and epigenetics contribute to sex-specific memory vulnerabilities to concurrent acute stresses Acute concurrent stresses provoke lasting, sex-dependent memory problems. Hokenson, Rodríguez-Acevedo, et al. find that high hippocampal estrogen levels in mice generate permissive chromatin states, a...

Check out our new paper, investigating the role of estrogen in stress-induced memory disruptions. 🧠 online now!

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

@talliezee.bsky.social @eahellerphd.bsky.social

With co-first author @neurohoke.bsky.social 🙂

High estrogen levels in brain may increase women's risk of stress-related memory issues Findings of UC Irvine-led study could lead to new ways of addressing PTSD, dementia

news.uci.edu/2026/02/03/h... Happy I could contribute to this exciting project! @talliezee.bsky.social @eahellerphd.bsky.social

An airline security card but instead of oxygen masks, it's squid. Just roll with it.

Secure your own squid first before helping others.

(I'm disproportionately proud of this drawing.)

Oof

Absolutely right