Maithe Arruda Carvalho

Carney says he supports US invading Iran, Cuba, and possibly Canada "with some regret" "It's a good thing that Trump is the most peaceful president in history who ends all wars, right?"

Carney says he supports US invading Iran, Cuba, and possibly Canada "with some regret"

A neuromodulatory circuit-to-molecular pathway for reformatting aversive memories during recall Tan et al. identify a neuromodulatory circuit-to-molecular pathway in rats that updates aversive memories when they are recalled. Noradrenaline from the locus coeruleus triggers synapse-to-nuclear tra...

Excited to share our new paper:
We uncover a locus coeruleus→amygdala circuit linking β-adrenergic signaling to transcription regulation in defined amygdala cells during memory reconsolidation—+ stress or elevated noradrenergic signaling at recall can strengthen memory.
www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...

Assistant Professor - Psychology (Behavioural Neuroscience) Assistant Professor - Psychology (Behavioural Neuroscience)

New neuroscience job at Wilfrid Laurier University. You may not know the name, but science has been growing fast. It is also down the street from Canada's top tech university (Waterloo) and a world class physics institute (Perimeter). I feel happy and lucky to be here careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...

We think of white matter as the highways of the brain. But when we followed development along those highways, we were surprised. The journey is more complex than we thought. My final PhD paper, “Two Axes of White Matter Development”, is now out in @natcomms.nature.com! 🛣️🧠✨
🔗 bit.ly/wm2axes

Congrats!!!!!

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

CIHR should do this too!

Astrocytes enable amygdala neural representations supporting memory - Nature Astrocytes in the basolateral amygdala dynamically track fear state and support fear memory retrieval and extinction.

Astrocytes enable amygdala neural representations supporting memory
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share the newest study from our lab, led by superstar postdoc Dr. Rodrigo Campos Cardoso, where we resolve the infralimbic cortex GABAergic circuits of fear extinction: tinyurl.com/38vvr2my

Identification of an engram ensemble mediating memory forgetting in the dentate gyrus Hu et al. show that the dentate gyrus engram comprises two neuronal ensembles: one supports remembering, and the other promotes forgetting. By shifting the balance between these ensembles via Rac1 sig...

Identification of an engram ensemble mediating memory forgetting in the dentate gyrus
www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...

13% success rates at #CIHR, is a really 87% fail rate for>4000 scientists. At a time when 🇨🇦 is investing millions to recruit more scientist into a broken funding environment. 🇨🇦, U need a strong science foundation 2 attract success. #CIHR, fix your science foundation, it is eroding in real time

#JNeurosci: Johantges et al. used mice to study excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections in the CA1 region, creating a circuit map with cell-type resolution that will guide future research on how the hippocampus supports learning and memory.
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1102-25.2025

Let’s be clear, no funder can absorb a 50% increase in application over a period of two years without a significant increase in resources. It is unsustainable and will trigger significant policy changes, which will cause significant challenges. This needs everyone working together.

We were on the cusp of changing medicine forever. Curing things that had no cure. mRNA vaccines are revolutionary

The shingles vaccine has demonstrated in what is now a 4th replication that it results in a ~20% reduction in dementia. This is better than any drug ever designed and tested for Alzheimer’s.

This amazing woman worked so hard for science and sport in Canada. She set up the Standing Committee on Science and Research, was a powerful voice for science in parliament and after being diagnosed with two cancers continued to advocate for good. Proud to have known the Rt Hon Kirsty Duncan. RIP 💔

Save the date for the annual "Neural Circuits and Behaviour" satellite conference at the Canadian Association for Neuroscience annual meeting, cohosted by @franklandlab.bsky.social and myself on May 18, 2026. We have a great speaker lineup and will be selecting 4 trainees talks from our registrants!

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is closing seven of its research operations Work force will be reduced by about 665 positions, organization says, as part of government’s effort to shrink public service

Cuts to the research & scientific expertise that guard public health - in this case food safety - are very troubling in light of Canada’s weakened ability to rely on US science.

Protecting Canadians requires more, not less, in these areas.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

100%. I wrote about how Carney needs to strengthen Canada's regulatory capacity, esp. in food & health, as the US guts its regulatory & science capacities. Carney's cutting the public service is dangerous & plans use AI chatbots instead in govt is foolhardy. policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/12/trum...

Maturation of hippocampus-medial prefrontal cortex projections defines a pathway-specific sensitive period for cognitive flexibility Cruz-Sanchez et al. show that the maturation trajectory of ventral and intermediate hippocampus-medial prefrontal cortex connectivity displays distinct anatomical and synaptic developmental signatures...

Happy to share the latest from our lab published @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, where we delineated the synaptic maturation trajectory for vCA1 and iCA1 projections to mPFC, and pathway-specific effects of vCA1- and iCA1-mPFC juvenile inhibition on cognitive flexibility

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

A prefrontal cortex map based on single-neuron activity - Nature Neuroscience The authors mapped spontaneous and choice activity across mouse prefrontal cortex. The activity maps aligned with intrinsic connectivity rather than anatomical subregions, suggesting that connectivity...

Main postdoc study out! We can redefine prefrontal cortex regions with single-unit activity! Grateful to @carlenlab.bsky.social and @weltgeischt.bsky.social who made this crazy project real. Thanks to all co-authors, collaborators, and reviewers.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Registration is filling up fast!

Prefrontal neural geometry of learned cues guides motivated behaviours
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Viral delivery of microRNA in patients with Huntington's - years of basic science at Universities, Colleges & Medical Centers make this possible. Hopeful & Exciting

I meet a lot of pregnant women at work.
A grand total of 0 (ZERO!) have been advised to get a COVID vaccine in pregnancy.
I would say the majority have bought into the misinformation that the vaccine is dangerous in pregnancy, which is the opposite of the truth.

Examining the Three‐Dimensional Spatial Architecture of Mouse Amygdala Engram Ensembles Memories are stored in a sparse population of neurons active at the time of an event, an engram ensemble, and reactivation of the engram ensemble drives memory recall. Although the amygdala is essent...

New Year, new paper from our lab. Emily Kramer used 3D light-sheet imaging and tissue clearing to examine the spatial architecture of mouse amygdala engram ensembles.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

We talked about running these numbers at UM soc when it became so obvious that women TAs got more complaints for the same classes. Glad someone tested it formally.

We published some a few years ago. You can find the link to the files in the paper: www.eneuro.org/content/eneu...

The Injunction Against Bill 26 Has Been Lifted: Affirming care ban to come into effect. Despite our best efforts, today the Government of Alberta was able to bring an end to the injunction against Bill 26 on the basis of its use of the notwithstanding clause. This is a cruel and dangerous move by a government that will harm vulnerable young people. Egale Canada and Skipping Stone will not stop fighting. Together, with lawyers from McCarthy Tétrault LLP, we will be seeking a new injunction based on constitutional arguments not subject to the notwithstanding clause. To the trans youth and families in this province, know that while the Government has violently taken away your rights, they can never legislate away your transness, your beautiful existence or how deserving you are of all the beauty and happiness this world has to offer.

Heartbreakingly, despite our best efforts, today the Government of Alberta was able to bring an end to the injunction against Bill 26 on the basis of its use of the notwithstanding clause.

This is a cruel and dangerous move by a government that will harm vulnerable young people.

📣We have 2 open faculty positions for senior researchers in Neuroscience at Queen's University!

healthsci.queensu.ca/administrati...

1. a new Director for our Centre for Neuroscience Studies
2. a non-human primate NeuroAI researcher

Please share widely and reach out for questions!