Ken Miller

The NSF AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI) seeks Postdoctoral Research Fellows. Fellows will be based at @Columbia, NYC, but can work with ARNI researchers at multiple institutions. More info: arni-institute.org

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Ken Miller

@MiriShuli You can see the eLife Board's statement here: elifesciences.org/inside-elife
Even if there were other problematic social media engagements as they claim, this one wasn't problematic, it was just ferociously attacked and needed free speech defense. And if they wanted to fire him for other things, they should have done so entirely separately from this. But they were succombing to intense pressure pushing against this tweet and what it expressed, and I suspect the Board was susceptable to the arguments that suppress criticism of Israel in so many contexts. One of the six Board members has resigned over this, his statement will be coming out tomorrow. See also twitter.com/drdevangm/status/1

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Ken Miller

@failedLyndonLaRouchite I'm Jewish. I am wanting to move away from twitter but for this issue, or the Gaza war, or news in general, it is still the only place, tho not as good as it was. I hope that changes.

You can find the tweets including the link to the onion article on @mbeisen's twitter account, Oct 13 and 14.

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Ken Miller

@tdverstynen I don't think their hand was forced. They were under very strong pressure from a group of Israeli scientists who took offense, for reasons that are still somewhat opaque to me. It was a last straw, perhaps, in that the eLife Board's explanation was "his approach to leadership, communication and social media has at key times been detrimental to the cohesion of the community we are trying to build and hence to eLife’s mission. It is against this background that a further incidence of this behaviour has contributed to the board’s decision." But it was succumbing to pressure from the Israeli side, and I'm afraid this Board was sympathetic to the arguments that suppress criticism of Israel in many contexts. Fundamentally, if they had other reasons to fire him, they should have cleanly separated them from an incident of his political expression; instead, that incident was the precipitating incident for dismissal. It led to controversy, outrage from the group of Israeli scientists, and so that made it for them another example of his detrimental social media side, rather than being a sincere but unfair and one-sided attack. The Israelis insist that it is not his politics but something about how he expressed his politics in a way that gave them great offense and was insensitive to their grieving, and tho I don't fully understand their point I think that it still comes down to politics -- his emphasizing Palestinian suffering without first focusing on their own, and his doing so in a bitter or sardonic joke or ironic piece (the Onion piece) rather than just a show of empathy, was, in the end, I think just unacceptable to them, they found it hurtful and offensive. They're entitled to their feelings, but unfortunately they used them to very narrowly circumscribe the allowed range of political expression, and to make many people afraid of publicly criticizing Israel or supporting the Palestinians.

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Ken Miller

@crash_course we debated. we wanted people to have to sign in with their email to prevent trolls, so in the end we decided on this. every solution has its downsides unfortunately. Sorry.

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Ken Miller

Well, they did it. eLife fired Michael Eisen. Absolutely outrageous. The bounds of allowed thought tighten. Any criticism of Israel is out of bounds. A new McCarthyism, except instead of communists under the bed, it's people who think it matters both when Israelis are slaughtered AND when Palestinians are slaughtered. And many, many in the academic community, seeing this, are afraid to speak, especially those without tenure, & even w/ tenure especially those from Middle Eastern countries other than Israel. How easily they can be slandered as anti-semitic should they speak.

Please sign our petition calling for this *not* to happen, and to defend academic freedom: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI

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Ken Miller

@JosephMeyer @MolemanPeter @WorldImagining @albertcardona @NicoleCRust

I believe there is a connection between creativity and depression (though this is based on experience, not on real data), but it is definitely not that you are creative while depressed. While in depression it can be a struggle just to get out of bed and eat; creative juices are not flowing. Nothing is flowing, except darkness and pain.

But I think that whatever gives rise to creativity, or at least one form of whatever gives rise to creativity, is linked to a vulnerability to depression. Creativity involves an inward search, deep introspection, far more I think than the average person usually experiences. And rumination, when focused on the painful aspects of one's life (and almost every bit of life has some pain and cringe along with joy and accomplishment) and of one's anticipated future, is a key aspect of depression. Somehow this inward focus that can lead to creativity can also, in some subset at least, yield vulnerability to depression.

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Ken Miller

@violetmadder @WorldImagining @albertcardona @MolemanPeter @NicoleCRust

One of the symptoms of depression is that you suffer the delusion that you are a liability, that the world and in particular your loved ones would be better off without you. This is absolutely a delusion, a symptom of the disease, not a sign of an instinctive socially adaptive mechanism, not based on reality.

Loved ones are absolutely crushed by suicide; they love you, they need you, you are a great plus in their lives, and to lose one they love by suicide is a tragedy and a horror they never completely recover from.

And the delusions that you are a burden in other ways -- at work, say -- are just that, a delusion. Co-workers are thinking the person is doing great, when the person is under the delusion they have failed in their job.

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Ken Miller

Scientists in life/neuro sciences: defend academic freedom. Sign our petition to eLife/HHMI saying Michael Eisen should not be censured for expressing his political opinions. Can be anonymous.

A chill is setting into academia. Many, especially without tenure, are afraid to express their opinions on the situation in Israel/Gaza. The leading edge of this chill has been the attacks on Eisen. Whatever your personal opinion, defend academic freedom by signing this petition.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI

Open letter to HHMI and eLife, in defense of free expression

To the Board of Directors, eLife and Erin O’Shea, President, HHMI: We, the undersigned life scientists, are writing to express our view that Professor Michael Eisen's social media posts should not be grounds for removing him as eLife editor or otherwise censuring him by HHMI. Eisen posted on twitter an article in The Onion satirizing the view that people should not be allowed to criticize Israeli actions until they first criticize Hamas. Our opinion is not based on the merits (or lack thereof) of Eisen’s views. Rather, we believe that censuring Eisen would create a chilling effect on freedom of expression in academia. To be clear, there are contexts in which it may be entirely appropriate to remove people from positions of leadership for their views -- even when those views are expressed in their role as private individuals and are otherwise within the bounds of the law. We can think of at least three such contexts. One is when a leader’s views are antithetical to the value or mission of the organization (e.g., thus a gun control lobby might remove a spokesperson who conveyed support for the NRA, and the NRA might remove someone who advocated for gun control). Another instance is when the leaders’ views reflect poorly on their professionalism or undermine their ability to do their job effectively. This is the case when the views suggest ignorance or poor judgment on issues that ought to be within their professional purview, or are explicitly disrespectful of superiors, colleagues or subordinates within an organization. A final context is when the views are hate speech: abusive and pejorative language based on people's race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. In short, we believe that organizations have broad license to ensure that the professional and social mission of their institution is not undermined by individuals who are the public face of that organization. It is another matter entirely when individuals might be removed for positions of leadership for expressing views that are a) independent of the mission or values of the organization; b) play no role in the individual's area of professional expertise; c) do not cast doubt on their professional qualifications; d) do not bad mouth other individuals in their organization, and e) are not hate speech. This is the context in which Michael Eisen may be asked to step down from his editorial position. This possibility is aligned with a culture of fear, intolerance and political repression. The spectre of losing positions of authority for questioning government policies has no place in a democracy, let alone within academia. This is especially egregious in this instance because the threat to remove Eisen from his role is directly contrary to the mission and values of both eLife and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (a funder and founding member of the journal). The journal eLife is "committed to create a future where a diverse, global community of scientists and researchers shares open and trusted results for the benefit of the greater good" and HHMI writes in its mission statement: "We embed equity and inclusion into our vision of scientific excellence". It should go without saying that forcing scientists out of leadership positions because they express opposition to government policies is not equitable, inclusive, committed to a diverse, global community, or in the interest of the greater good. It's already apparent that a move to displace Eisen from his role will have ramifications beyond eLife and HHMI. Many of us have received private communications from graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members working at institutions in the USA describing the vulnerability they feel either because they support Palestinian human rights, or because of their Middle Eastern ethnic backgrounds. Many of them have mentioned the backlash against Eisen as a primary reason for their fears. For example, one trainee wrote: “after seeing what happened to Michael Eisen I am extremely worried about my career trajectory and future in the United States...I don’t feel safe as a Middle Eastern neuroscientist in the United States.” An Iranian faculty member commented that he left Iran for the US so that he could speak openly, but now finds himself unable to speak openly even in the US. The right to express dissenting views is a cornerstone of our intellectual mission as scientists and citizens. Open debate in this country should never include promotion of violence, but it must allow the articulation of views that make some people uncomfortable. Censuring Eisen for expressing views uncomfortable to some would ally eLife and HHMI with one side of an ongoing political issue, create a chilling effect on open debate in American academia, and risk ushering in a new wave of McCarthy-esque targeting of peace activists. We urge eLife, HHMI, and other American academic institutions, not to censure Eisen or other scientists articulating legitimate (i.e. non-violent) political opinions. To do so harms the reputation of these institutions, places at particular risk the careers of junior scientists of diverse faiths and backgrounds, and undermines the free exchange of ideas necessary for scientific discovery. (The undersigned include many junior colleagues who are afraid of retribution for expressing their opinions, so they have signed anonymously. This in itself speaks volumes) Nancy Kanwisher, Professor, MIT Josh Dubnau, Professor, Stony Brook School of Medicine. Ken Miller, Professor of Neuroscience, Columbia University Mayank Mehta, Professor and Director of the Center for Physics of Life, UCLA Peter Sterling Professor of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania University of Pennysylvania Bence Ölveczky, Professor, Harvard Alfonso Caramazza, Professor, Harvard University Bevil Conway Michael Shadlen MD, PhD, Professor, Columbia University Anthony Zador, Professor, CSHL John W. Krakauer, Professor, Johns Hopkins University Joshua Tenenbaum, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT Laura Schulz, Professor of Cognitive Science, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, MIT Grace Lindsay, Assistant Professor, New York UniversityAnonymous, professor, University of Bristol Maxine Sherman, Lecturer, University of Sussex Sebastiaan Mathôt, assistant professor, University of Groningen Suhasa Kodandaramaiah Pandelis Perakakis, Associate Professor of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid Adam Buchwald, Professor, NYU Anonymous graduate student Anonymous, Postdoc, Harvard University Alexis Makin, Dr, University of Liverpool Anonymous, Graduate Student, Harvard University Miguel Arocena, associate professor, Universidad de la República, Uruguay Ahlem Assali, PhD, ICM-Paris Brain Institute Adrian Bondy, postdoctoral research fellow, Princeton University Anonymous graduate student Panagiota Theodoni, PhD, graduate student in philosophy, University of Athens Rob Reinhart, associate professor, Boston university Scott Rennie, Post doctoral researcher, Champalimaud Research Lara Urban, Principal Investigator, Helmholtz Munich Vincent Bonin, Associate Professor, KU Leuven Anonymous Postdoc, University of Nottingham Giacomo Aldegheri, Postdoc, University of Amsterdam Anonymous graduate student, University of Pennsylvania Anonymous trainee, Yale University Anonymous grad student, University of Toronto Anonymous Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Anonymous Postdoc, Rockefeller University Anonymous assistant professor Ruth Rosenholtz Todd Gureckis Shaul Pollak, Group Leader, University of Vienna Anonymous graduate student, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig Hakwan Lau, Team Leader, RIKEN Center for Brain Science Candas Sert, Graduate student, Humboldt University of Berlin, Mind&Brain Institute Anonymous Postdoctoral researcher, Harvard Medical School Siddhartha Das, Dr, IIIT Hyderabad Anonymous, Postdoc, CEA Anonymous, Postdoc, Harvard University Anonymous Graduate student, University of Glasgow Anonymous Graduate student, Université Paris-Cité Devang Mehta, Assistant Professor, KU Leuven, Belgium Asif Bakshi Anonymous postdoc, UNC Chapel Hill Paul LaFosse, graduate student, University of Maryland College Park Sean Escola, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Anonymous PhD Student, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Anonymous Postdoc, UConn Mazen Al Borno, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus Konrad Kording, Professor, University of Pennsylvania Anonymous Faculty, Harvard Medical School

docs.google.com
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Ken Miller

New work with Alessandro Sanzeni, Agostina Palmigiano, Tuan Nguyen, Nicolas Brunel & others in Neuron:

Unveiling the Mechanisms Behind Reshuffling Visual Responses via Optogenetic Stimulation in Mice and Monkeys.

Ale's tweeprint: twitter.com/AlessandroSzeni/st
Author's share link (free access to Dec 9): authors.elsevier.com/a/1hyQd3B

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Ken Miller

@beneuroscience @debivort @yoginho @tyrell_turing @NicoleCRust

This conversation is genuinely confusing to me. @yoginho seems to be saying that "computation" means anything that can be mechanized, reduced to an algorithm or program, and the brain is not limited to that. @tyrell_turing seems to be saying that a computation is anything that a physical system can instantiate, and so a brain, being physical, does computations.

I"m confused as to whether there is genuine disagreement here, or just different definitions of computation. @yoginho can you explain what are, or give examples of, things a physical system (a brain) can do that are not computations by your definition? @tyrell_turing, are you stating that the brain, or indeed any physical system, cannot do anything that is not computable, reducible to a rote computation, an algorithm or program?

Again, what I'm trying to understand is: are you using the same definition of computation, or different definitions of computation? Are you disagreeing about what physical systems, including the brain, can do, or only about what to call it?

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Ken Miller

@NicoleCRust I agree with you, there's nothing happening there yet, mostly just decent people goofing off. I think it overall has a better design, so if it got past the invite-only stage and could build up a real critical mass in neuro (or whatever someone's thing is) I think it might be really good. But I don't know when invite-only will go away. Also I hear worries about it being owned by Jack and I don't really know if that's true or what its status is, but it's supposed to be designed so you can seamlessly migrate with all your posts, followers, and followees to any other instance.

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Ken Miller

The new NSF AI Institute for Artificial and Natural Intelligence (ARNI) seeks Postdoctoral Research Fellows, starting Summer or Fall 2023. Fellows will be based at Columbia U, NYC, but can work with ARNI researchers at multiple institutions. More info: engineering.columbia.edu/nsf-a

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Ken Miller

Nominations are open (until May 11) for the Swartz Prize for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, which is given either for lifetime contribution or for particularly noteworthy/impactful recent advances. Nominations encouraged! sfn.org/careers/awards/outstan

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Ken Miller

@NicoleCRust I'm not a visual person, i think i have aphantasia (inability to form mental visual images), and i don't have such vivid visual memories. In one case when i was talking with people, i remember where i was, leaning on a desk, and the arrangement of other people in the room, vaguely - not entirely certain who was where or even who was there. In other cases my memory is more of an internal mental experience, kind of seeing, or more accurately feeling or sensing, the suddenly understood relationships as spatial relationships and a sense of the whole thing kind of spinning backwards.

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Ken Miller

Terrible news, Chethan Pandarinath posted on Twitter that Krishna Shenoy has died. He had long been battling cancer. A huge leader in the field, developing BCI and unraveling motor cortical dynamics, and as kind, generous, and gentle a soul as you could hope to meet.

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Ken Miller

@DrYohanJohn @bwyble @ekmiller @strangetruther @achristensen56 @NicoleCRust

How do you describe that pattern? Periodic but with a weaker continuous pattern across layer 6??

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Ken Miller

@DrYohanJohn @bwyble @ekmiller @strangetruther @achristensen56 @NicoleCRust

OK here's one example, from Jenny Lund and others, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ab

The did both anterograde and retrograde tracing from injections in prefrontal areas 9 and 46. Both intrinsic (within-area) projections and "associational" (to other pre-frontal areas) projections formed periodic patches or stripes, with a repeat spacing of about 780 microns for intrinsic connections; no significant differences were seen between structure/distribution of intrinsic vs associational projections, but they seem to have less data on associational and don't specifically state a repeat distance for them.

I attach an example figure. The figure legend reads "Fig. 6. Brightfield photomicrograph of four discrete intrinsic clusters of CtB-positive neurons (arrows) [KM: CTB is a retrograde tracer; they also did the same experiments with the same results with an anterograde tracer] distributed along the dorsal bank of the principal sulcus (PSI in area 46. All clusters arise from a single injection site near the area 9/46 border, which is located immediately to the left (medial) of the left edge of the micrograph. Clusters of anterogradely-labeled axons are also apparent coincident with neuron clusters. Scalebar = 200microns".

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Ken Miller

@DrYohanJohn @bwyble @ekmiller @strangetruther @achristensen56 @NicoleCRust

But do you know about the structure of within-area long-range horizontal connections in motor and frontal cortex? My memory is that these projections are periodic/patchy, but I am not remembering precisely what the paper(s) were or what areas they studied.

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Ken Miller

@bwyble @ekmiller @strangetruther @achristensen56 @NicoleCRust @DrYohanJohn

My vague memory is that it was seen in frontal areas. Not a trustworthy memory though. One of us should dig up those old papers. @DrYohanJohn does anatomy, maybe he could identify the papers, or ask Helen Barbas if she could?

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