Lab moments

March 2025

Recent updates:

• New award: our collaborative grant with the Herculano lab at the Federal University of Pará, which will was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development! This grant is intended to support collaborative projects with Brazilian researchers working abroad, and will involve the pre-clinical testing of Amazonian products for neuropsychiatric disorders

• New award: Kody Ewing has received a scholarship from the UAB undergraduate research academy to conduct research in the lab over the Summer! Congrats Kody!

February 2025

Recent updates:

• New paper: Our work demonstrating that dopamine and acetylcholine correlations vary depending on behavioral task states is out in Current Biology!

Costa K.M.*,  Zhang Z.*, Zhuo Y., Li G., Li Y., Schoenbaum G. Dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens depend on behavioral task states. Current Biology, 35, 6, 1400-1407. *Co-first authors

January 2025

Recent updates:

• New award: the NARSAD Young Investigator award for Dr. Costa is nowin effect!

• New pre-print: Our work demonstrating that acetylcholine encodes associative salience in paralel to dopamine prediction error signaling is our in bioRxiv!

Zhang Z.*, Costa K.M.*, Zhuo Y., Li G., Li Y., Schoenbaum G. Accumbal acetylcholine signals associative salience. bioRxiv, 2025.01.06.631529. *Co-first authors

• New publication: Our collaborative work with the Moussawi lab is now published in Nature Communications!

Lehmann C.M., Miller N.E., Nair V.S., Costa K.M., Schoenbaum G., Moussawi K. Generalized cue reactivity in dopamine neurons after opioids.  Nature Communications, 16, 321, 2025.

September 25th 2024

The first rats are here! Let the experiments begin! 

August 6th 2024

GREAT NEWS! Kauê Costa's application for the BBRF NARSAD Young Investigator Grant has been approved and recommended for funding! This highly prestigious program adds further to the support the lab. We are very grateful to the BBRF for the opportunity.

https://bbrfoundation.org/grants-prizes/bbrf-young-investigator-grants

June 2nd 2024

New pre-print! A collaborative contribution to the work from Khaled Moussawi's lab. A real fundamental change to how we think about dopamine cue reactivity in addiction!

Lehmann C.M., Miller N.E., Nair V.S., Costa K.M., Schoenbaum G., Moussawi K. Generalized cue reactivity in dopamine neurons after opioids. bioRxiv, 2024.06.02.597025 

May 12th 2024

New pre-print! In collaboration with the lab of Yulong Li, we demonstrate how behavioral task states affect dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens. See link below:

Costa K.M.*,  Zhang Z.*, Zhuo Y., Li G., Li Y., Schoenbaum G. Dopamine and acetylcholine correlations in the nucleus accumbens depend on behavioral task states. bioRxiv, 2024.05.03.592439 *Co-first authors

February 12th 2024

New publication out in the Journal of Neuroscience! Exciting collaboration with the Shaham lab at the NIDA IRP on the intersection of sex, dopamine, and social reward. See link below:

Chow J.J., Pitts K.M., Schoenbaum A., Costa K.M., Schoenbaum G., Shaham Y. Different effects of peer-sex on operant responding for social interaction and striatal dopamine activity. The Journal of Neuroscience, e1887232024, 2024 - Featured in This Week in the Journal