Brian Xu @brianxu@qoto.org

Without a lab, access to research libraries/university facilities, entomologist Charles Henry Turner (1867–1923) died with a personal library of 1,000+ books, having published 50+ scientific papers; he revolutionized our knowledge of ants (Earth’s most abundant animal); he was 1st to prove insects can hear& distinguish pitch, alsi 1st scientist to achieve Pavlovian bug conditioning, training moths to beat their wings when he whistled #BlackHistoryIsHistory h/t @mariapopova

I've been thinking about how we might encourage more new Big Ideas in science (especially brain research).

There's a lot to unpack there, but one thing that works for some scientists: reading speculative fiction / #scifi. Science excels at its rigor but it can also stifle creativity. Speculative fiction is one way to open that gate back up again.

Here are a few of my favorite #specfic stories about the mind and brain and the big ideas that they are written around.

Ted Chiang, The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”. Big idea: our personal (and cultural) identities rely on the fallibility of memory.

@gregeganSF, "Axiomatic". Big Idea: we should be wary of perturbing brains to relieve angst.

Ken Liu, "The Cleaners", Big idea: Our attachment to memory defines us.

Jennifer Egan, "The Candy House". Big idea: Sharing our memories has both beneficial and negative consequences.

What are your favorite #specfic stories and what Big Ideas are they attached to?

#neuroscience #cognition #brain #mind

Wow... just learned about this story on the race to invent optogenetics.

https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/01/optogenetics/

The difference in doing and communicating high quality research from a "small" versus "elite" university is well amplified.

#neuroscience #optogenetics

Finally reading Hasok Chang's Is Water H2O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism. His historical accounts are a sobering antidote against simplistic, fairy tale accounts of how science works/should work, how scientific record needs to be corrected, and what it takes to make scientific progress. He says here "I argue that it would have been better for science if the phlogistonist system had been allowed to continue its work" because much knowledge was lost once the theory was discarded for good.

We are excited to announce that Cognitive Computational Neuroscience (CCN) 2023 will take place this year in Oxford from August 24 - 27, 2023. The conference will take place at the Examination Schools – more information can be found here:
www.venues.ox.ac.uk/our-venues/examination-schools/.

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Confirmed speakers for this year's CCN include Stan Dehaene, Helen Barron, Cate Hartley, Jay McClelland and Tim Kietzmann TimKietzmann@neuromatch.social

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We also want to note that the paper submission period will be earlier this year than in previous years: abstract submissions will open end of January, and will close March 31.

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For the most up-to-date information about CCN 2023, including reminders about deadlines, join our mailing list (https://mail.securecms.com/mailman/listinfo/ccneuro-announce) and also follow us here on Twitter (https://twitter.com/CogCompNeuro) or Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@CogCompNeuro@qoto.org)

Please boost!!

Networking 101

Science is losing its moxie https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05543-x

I have collected some tips on how to write a scientific paper. I know that many people are way better than me at it and that there is a whole genre on this. Still, some have found these tips useful. If you are interested, or you think others would benefit, here you go:

Some tips for writing science
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zcmqa47vmpw81AW2q5EMeIxxJiVrqXCd/view?usp=share_link

@albertcardona @matthewcobb
A shocking correlate of this is that the vast majority of brain researchers never come up with a new idea about how the brain works. Which I don't throw out there not to belittle (I'm one too) but to inspire the next generation: WE.NEED.NEW.IDEAS.ABOUT.HOW.THE.BRAIN.WORKS!

I haven't seen a paper that mixes a task-driven neural network (a la DiCarlo) with anatomical connectome detail, save for the work from Bryan Tripp. It seems like it's an obvious research direction and an important step towards virtual brains. Anybody know of any good work in this direction? CC @neuralreckoning @ShahabBakht

Image from https://www.cell.com/trends/neurosciences/fulltext/S0166-2236(22)00125-4

Posting some eye candy of pyramidal neurons in visual cortex from microns-explorer.org

I've migrated to neuromatch.social because:

1) Their Code of Conduct aligns with my own beliefs:
https://wiki.neuromatch.io/Mastodon/Code_of_Conduct

2) I am optimistic they will be around for a long time (it's Neuromatch!)

3) I'm excited about their Local feed.

Instructions on how to:

https://wiki.neuromatch.io/Mastodon/Migration_help

@SussilloDavid @barbosa @PessoaBrain @NicoleCRust @neuralengine @sganguli

For anyone who'd like to know more about the math behind bifurcations, here's a video of a discussion session I organized on the topic. A physicist friend walks through some key ideas.

Towards the end (1:04) I mention a toy neural model featuring a bifurcation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i2FYxiz2cQ

#introduction I'm a neuroscientist at Oxford and UCL. I spend most of my time thinking about the front of the brain and how it controls behaviour. Sometimes this leads me backwards, but never really further back than hippocampus. I am also deputy editor at eLife so you can shout at me for that if you like.