Latest open-source project from the @JKhokharLab by @JudeFrie: FARESHARE (Fluid Acquisition REcording in Socially Housed Animal REsearch) now out as a preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Excited to share the first of @A_Albeely's work on characterizing a model of vaped cannabis withdrawal! In addition to being the first study to look at cannabis vapor, behavioral network analyses are used to characterize withdrawal for the first time! biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…

Behavioral indices of incentive salience, not sensitization or tolerance, were highly predictive of escalation of cocaine self-administration, suggesting incentive salience as a critical behavioral indicator of vulnerability to cocaine use nature.com/articles/s41386-0…

Online now: Basolateral amygdala astrocytes encode anxiety states dlvr.it/TRgXpY

Why female-specific research is critical to understand addiction? For decades, females were basically ignored in addiction neuroscience. Then, thanks to the NIH SABV mandates almost exactly 10 years ago, researchers started including females, and things got intriguing, some evidence suggested the estrous cycle may influence the motivation to take cocaine. Our lab just published a paper in @PsychopharmEBPS, led by Dr. Elizabeth Sneddon @esneddon21, that forces us to rethink this relationship. We tested whether estrous phase influences cocaine self-administration in our Heterogeneous Stock (HS) rat model, using over 400 female rats, one of the largest female cocaine datasets ever generated. The answer: no. Estrous phase had no association with cocaine intake during short access, long access, or progressive ratio sessions. High vs. low estrogen groupings? No difference. This is a null finding and null findings matter. But the story gets far more interesting.

With the rumblings around CIHR wanting to move to one cycle per year not going away, in consultation with a diverse stakeholder group, we have put together a letter for CIHR leadership. Please consider signing this letter and share/RT: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F… @canna_brain

Great to see @quansah_amissah and the @JKhokharLab's work out in the world! Please reach out if you would like to try it! We are building interchangeable platforms for use in the magnet and outside, combined with behaviour!

If you are in Toronto and close to @uoftmedicine @UofT campus, check out this talk by Dr. Hayley Thorpe from @JKhokharLab titled Variants and Vulnerability: Genetic Approaches to Understanding Substance Use!

Excited to be having this conversation with Kate on this awesome paper!

Back to back paper drops: Which Came First? Utility of Preclinical Models in Cracking the Chicken-or-Egg Relationship between Cannabis Use and Schizophrenia: link.springer.com/article/10… in Current Addiction Reports led by Amanda Lee!

Excited to share this in final form @SfNJournals : An Open-Source Restraint System for Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Rats: eneuro.org/content/13/2/ENEU… If anyone wants to try doing it, give us a call! Happy to help you get going!

Led by @quansah_amissah with @WesternCFMM and @hakan_kayir @mahmoud_hero97 @amr_eed!

This recent review highlights behavioral inhibition (BI) & maternal anxiety in infancy as anxiety risk factors; infants w/ BI or maternal stress exposure have altered patterns in attention & control systems, predicting greater anxiety in adolescence nature.com/articles/s41386-0…

Behavioral orienting but not novelty activates dopamine neurons biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…

Please see this new publication by Leanne Holt and colleagues in @ScienceAdv that defines a role for CREB, acting within astrocytes of the nucleus accumbens, to control the activity of medium spiny neurons and consequently behavioral responses to cocaine. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4140…

This GWAS of cannabis lifetime use identified 11 variants, with greatest signal near CADM2 Cannabis lifetime use showed broad genetic correlations & bidirectional causal links w/ traits related to risk-taking, openness & substance use, distinct from CUD nature.com/articles/s41386-0…

netneurotools: a trainee-oriented approach to network neuroscience | doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.09.6… Our lab’s internal toolkit for accomplishing everyday tasks in brain imaging ⤵️

Dr. Baglot is a postdoc at UCLA, exploring the effects of cannabis & its constituents on pain, cognition, subjective drug effects, & abuse liability in clinical populations, as well as mitigation of neuropathic and inflammatory pain in🐁 models / #ACNP2026 @s_baglot

Dr. Thorpe explores the intersection of complex traits with mental health using translational population genetics approaches #ACNP2026 Her recent work uses new GWAS of cannabis use traits to understand genetic & biological underpinnings: tinyurl.com/57vdj3df /@JKhokharLab

So great to have Hilal Lashuel (@QatarFoundation) as the 32nd Annual Murray Barr Lecture at @westernuACB @westernu @schulichmeddent @westernuwin What a master-class in telling the story of his career and the importance of engaging with the humans impacted by neurodegeneration!

Coverage of our recent work in Vice Magazine: vice.com/en/article/your-gen… @WesternuWIN @WesternU @SchulichMedDent