Also incredibly honored that our image was selected as the cover art for this issue. We used viral tracing and whole-brain light sheet microscopy to map the brain-wide collateral targets of primary somatosensory cortex neurons that project to the insula.
Sam Centanni
Next big lab news: we’ve received an R01 from the NIAAA to study the role of the insular cortex in stress and alcohol use disorder-related behavior! It’s been a longgg road to get here, but I’m incredibly excited (and grateful) to finally be able to pursue this research
All my trainees have been absolutely crushing it lately- receiving awards, submitting manuscripts and grants, giving phenomenal talks, posters, etc. But special shoutout to PhD student Aditi Buch, for receiving an F31 NRSA from NIAAA! Aditi is a rock star and she developed an awesome project.
I’ve been quiet here and on the other platform for a while partly to tune out the inescapable negativity. But i'll admit I miss the good side of science social media- celebrating wins and learning about the cool science others are doing. I’ve got some exciting lab updates to share. Stay tuned!
Really excited to finally have this paper published 🎉🎊. A true team effort spanning many years and multiple lab members. Special thanks to former MS student Amanda Salazar for launching the project and current PhD student Tatiyana Adkins for leading the final push. Proud of everyone who contributed!
Want to combat the Thanksgiving food coma? Grab a cozy spot on the couch and read our new paper in Psychopharmacology, part of an upcoming special issue honoring the late Dr. Klaus Miczek's seminal contributions. Congrats co-first authors Aditi Buch & Ava Shipman! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The CSR comm I'm on just pulled all Diversity F grants from the current review cycle. These apps are reviewed alongside (and by the same criteria) as all other F grants. So, instead of helping these trainees, they will actually be punished by having their grant reviews delayed at least 1 cycle !?!?
🚨New lab paper! TL;DR we ID'd interesting connections between alcohol naïve stress-induced insula activity, and negative affect-like behavior in abstinence after chronic alcohol exposure. An AUD susceptibility marker? Congrats to 1st author Ben Williams! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Sam Centanni
Sam Centanni
Sam Centanni
Sam Centanni
#JNeurosci highlight of the week: S1-insula neurons modulate AUD-related behavior.
Explore this week’s selection of featured research: https://www.jneurosci.org/content/featured-research
Sam Centanni
Sam Centanni
Jeff Weiner
One more week for poster submissions (Due Oct 9!) to #WCBR2026 www.winterbrain.org
#JNeurosci: Adkins et al. explored how binge alcohol exposure and protracted abstinence impact the S1-insular circuit in mice, revealing how alcohol can reshape sensory processing to drive alcohol use disorder-related behavior.
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1588-25.2026
