Mel Sharpe

🚨 Proposals for @sfn.org Jan 21st 🚨

I’ve only been on the programming committee led by @nictritsch.bsky.social for a short time but already impressed with the vision for 2026 & @sfn.org’s service to our 🧠 community.

This is a grear year to support @sfn.org & contribute to a smashing meeting! 🧪

Thanks for all your support!!!

two men are standing next to each other in front of a refrigerator . ALT: two men are standing next to each other in front of a refrigerator .

Over the moon to receive the happy news that I’m promoted to Associate Professor @sydney.edu.au! 🎉

Took a bit of a detour around the 🌎 to get here but worth the wait.

So grateful for all the hard work from folks in the lab, my mentors, and letter writers who made it possible ❤️ 🧠 🧪

How do the stats relate to # of submissions?

Yay!! So glad you liked it. And congrats on the paper! It really is an amazing piece of work.

LOVED this paper from @constantinoplelab.bsky.social showing how estrogen modulates reinforcement learning in @natureportfolio.nature.com

Was also stoked to write the commentary for this paper with our superstar postdoc Masa Taira.

Check it out 👇 🧠🧪

@sfn.org

Good morning everyone! Suitably following the #dopamine dinner, we have our #dopamine symposium at 9:30am in SDCC room 6B!

‘Beyond Value: Non-canonical roles for dopamine in aversion and reward’

Come join us! 🧠 🧪

Pretty special dinner @sfn.org with these glorious women last night 🤩 ❤️

How do I have a job where I travel around the world and hang out with awesome people?

@moriel-z.bsky.social @denisejcai.bsky.social @ladenardo.bsky.social @neurrriot.bsky.social @bjmarlin.bsky.social @debiaselm.bsky.social

Full house for @earlkmiller.bsky.social’s Presidential Lecture @sfn.org tonight! I had to sneak in 🤫 inspiring to hear about the amazing work that drove my PhD thesis and so much more beyond 🤩

Yes! That would be fab! I have some time before dopamine social
at 8 tomorrow?

Folks the Sharpe Lab are in the house for @sfn.org! 🎉 Come check out our talks and posters. We’ve been doing some cool stuff down under 🇦🇺 on dopamine, reinforcement learning, and remapping of the fear circuit. 🧠 🧪

Awesome, congrats! Will take a look!

Would be cool to see how the differences track with projection profiles of VTA DA neurons.

Thanks for the shout out, Poppy 😊 Lots of recent data cannot be accommodated by a theory arguing dopamine is only movement. They seem like they’re in quite a different place in VTA from where we and others have conducted recent work. Could suggest the medial posterior VTA subserves movement?

Awesome— thanks, Keri!

Thanks, Brianna. Do you also feel MATLAB experience is necessary for additional analyses conducted outside IDEAS?

Thanks, Brianna! Do you like it and find it useful for producing quality data?

Is anyone using the IDEAS platform from #inscopix to analyze single-unit calcium data? 🔬🧪🧠

Hosting the Pavlovian society annual meeting in SYDNEY was the highlight of my career! Thanks to all who came from near and far to present their awesome science. Looking forward to 2026 in Montreal. Come and join us!

My first GRC amygdala in Barcelona hosted by @katewassum.bsky.social did not disappoint! Can’t wait for the next one with @joserodroma.bsky.social and @annabeyerle.bsky.social! ☀️🕶️🌴🌊

Cancers can be detected in bloodstream three years prior to diagnosis Detection of cancer before a clinical diagnosis could give patients and caregivers more time for intervention and may lead to better outcomes because tumors are more likely to be curable

Genetic material shed by tumors can be detected in the bloodstream three years before cancer diagnosis, according to a study led by investigators at Johns Hopkins University.

That study was made possible with federal funding. Now, many studies like this are canceled. hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/04/...

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.

... neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) [link] sensory stimuli in the environment with aversive events, whether they were directly or *indirectly* associated with that experience....

by the amazing lab of @jojolab.bsky.social

🧠📈

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dopaminergic processes predict temporal distortions in event memory Our memories do not simply keep time - they warp it, bending the past to fit the structure of our experiences. For example, people tend to remember items as occurring farther apart in time if they spa...

New from our lab: your brain doesn’t just remember time - it bends it.

We show that the dopamine system responds to natural breakpoints in experience, and this relates to more stretched memories of time. Blinking also increases, signaling encoding of new memories.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I have Tycho on repeat 🌈

#whatkeepsmeinscience #community

Yes! We need to see more of this. 🧪

One of the most epic trips of my life! Joshua Tree retreat with 11 of the most inspirational neuroscientists I know!

Thx to Moriel Z and Bianca JM for organizing. And featuring Michelin star chef and yoga instructor @denisejcai.bsky.social

Forever grateful for this crew

Until next year ❤️

🧪🧠

Who’s coming to Sydney!?