Neurofrontiers @neurofrontiers@qoto.org

New paper out, from an effort led by Patrick Butlin and Robert Long. This report takes a cautious and thorough approach to the sensationalized topic of AI consciousness, working from the theories neuroscientists use to study consciousness in brains. #neuroscience #AI #consciousness
https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08708

Neuroscientists successfully test theory that forgetting is actually a form of learning https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-neuroscientists-successfully-theory.html

Adaptive expression of engrams by retroactive interference https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(23)01010-0

Highlights
• Retroactive interference causes forgetting by the competition of two memory engrams
• Forgotten engrams can be expressed or updated by reexposure to training cues
• Artificial reactivation of engram cells rescues interference-induced forgetting
• Interference is an active process that requires the activation of the suppressed engram

these findings indicate that retroactive interference modules engram expression in a manner that is both reversible and updatable. Inference may constitute a form of adaptive forgetting where, in everyday life, new perceptual and environmental inputs modulate the natural forgetting process.

#memory #engram #neuroscience #cognition

Report: Potential NYT lawsuit could force OpenAI to wipe ChatGPT and start over
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/08/report-potential-nyt-lawsuit-could-force-openai-to-wipe-chatgpt-and-start-over/

Yesterday, the best news which has ever come out during my lifetime, did. There's going to finally be an HIV cure. It's a ways down the road, but this all but guarantees it.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-treatment-based-gene-safely-effectively.html

Here's the original paper explaining what was done in detail. Again, it's going to be a few more years before this is on the shelf, but there's finally hope for the end of HIV.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41434-023-00410-4

Here's one of the two papers where the technology germinated about a decade ago. Note that the last paper was SIV instead of HIV, but it's such a good model, it almost always translates to humans.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.2647

Here's the other one. If you don't like reading original source materials like this, or want to read the first announcement with the details on the good news, I'll sum up...

https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.2623

This is a gene therapy which inactivates HIV/SIV by entering the virus itself and editing the genome. This is cool in and of itself, but it is meaningful because it does a thing called "draining the viral reservoir". This is what makes it a cure and not just a treatment.

The reason why you can only suppress, and not eradicate viruses, is because they will go into a dormant state and hang out for years and then re-deploy, and you're back where you started.

This is why, as amazing as antivirals are, you're generally stuck taking them forever.

This is also why Sovaldi is such a big deal: it actually *cures* Hepatitis C, which previously was only treatable. You take it (along with other things) for twelve weeks, and at the end you are free of the virus. This is a first. No other cures for viruses exist.

And now there's a method to drain the viral reservoir and inactivate HIV. And this isn't just the best news of my lifetime, but it also paves the way for therapies to cure Hep B, and any number of others.

I am so excited, so happy, so hopeful.

✨💖✨

In preparation for our #CCN2023 @CogCompNeuro GAC next week, I’m going to do some polls here this week to take the temperature of the room. 🌡️

Very curious to see the range of answers so please pass it on 🔁🙏 and feel free to elaborate - we'll try to take any discussion into account at the workshop

https://gac.ccneuro.org/gacs-by-year/2023-gacs/2023-1

I am finally getting to rebuild my follow circles on mastodon, which I lost when I migrated server. I am sadly discovering that most of the people I used to follow have stopped posting months ago :( :( :( I very much hope that my former science twitter is going to somehow resurrect on here. In the meantime, I'm going to try and build a brand new (active) mastodon circle her. Please send suggestions of your favorite people to follow! neuroAI in particular, but any cog neuroscience will do.

Now that I'm moved to neuromatch.social, a new #introduction.

I’m a professor at UPenn who studies memory. I work at the nexus of brain research and computation. I’m also writing a book: When it comes to understanding the brain, what are we trying to achieve? What’s our plan to get there? What challenges do we face?

Writing has deepened my appreciation for community-based progress. I'm excited to be here to participate in, and benefit from, collective intelligence.

I'm also committed to restraining myself from the power of 10K characters. But I will edit whenever I'm allowed - that is the superpower that we all deserve.

#neuroscience #psychology #neuroAI #author @cogneurophys @complexsystems

Focus on the real, current harms of AI

Excellent article by @emilymbender @alex

"We urge policymakers to draw on solid scholarship that investigates the harms and risks of AI—and the harms caused by delegating authority to automated systems, which include the unregulated accumulation of data and computing power, climate costs of model training and inference, damage to the welfare state and the disempowerment of the poor, as well as the intensification of policing..."

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-need-to-focus-on-ais-real-harms-not-imaginary-existential-risks/

New blog post! I talk about some recent articles I've read about the frontal theta beta ratio (TBR) in EEG, and how it relates to attention.

@psychologician@fediscience.org@a.gup.pe
@neuroscience

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-do-you-know/202308/can-we-develop-a-brain-test-for-adhd

#PsychologyToday #Neuroscience #ADHD #Attention #EEG #ERP

Hey all, just moved over here from a generic server, nice to see you all!

@russpoldrack @neurobuzz
Yes - that was the book I was thinking of. Congrats! Looking forward to checking it out.

And great to see you push forward on the Cognitive Atlas (https://www.cognitiveatlas.org/). Cognitive ontologies and how we think about what it is that the brain and mind do is such a fundamental topic; it's one that I didn't appreciate for far too long. (For anyone curious to know more, this is a great talk from Russ on the topic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHbcTnv8Zik).

On my end, I'm still very much thinking and researching memory. I'm also working to finish a book focused on diagnosing why it is that we've been learning so much about the brain and mind but new treatments for brain/mind dysfunction have emerged so sporadically. It's been fascinating and thrilling to dive into the history and philosophy of science as well as arms of research well outside my own.

Finished up a blog post on dissertation writing barriers. I talk about getting to the "I hate my dissertation" stage of the PhD, why naming reasons for my "hate" was useful, and ways I've been tricking myself into getting the work done anyway.

It felt good to blog (or do "regular writing") again. Now unfortunately I have to get back to that #dissertation.

#AmDissertating #AmWriting #PhDChat #AcademicChatter #AcademicMastodon #Writing @academicchatter @phdstudents

http://monicaheilman.com/writing-barriers/

Do LLMs understand? Check out my post where I explain why they don't understand or have common sense like humans, and discuss what are the essential ingredients of human-like understanding. https://dileeplearning.substack.com/p/ingredients-of-understanding

Significant concerns about the new Alzheimer's drugs

Unpredictable, serious side effects {ARIA]

https://science.org/content/article/will-unpredictable-side-effects-dim-promise-new-alzheimer-s-drugs

Image benefit ≠ Clinical benefit

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2807943

#Blaugust2023 has started and thus, you can find the Blaugust Participant Apprecation Post right here with quick summaries and a few kind words for every person participating! #Blaugust

https://indiecator.org/2023/08/02/blaugust-2023-participant-appreciation-post/

Good Morning! I just updated the assorted lists from the sign-up sheet and we are now up to 64 Participants registered for #Blaugust2023

What I think is even more impressive though is 26 of the folks who have signed up are first time Blaugustans.

Still plenty of time to sign-up and join in the nonsense.

https://aggronaut.com/2023/07/12/blaugust-2023-is-coming/

Finally made the jump to neuromatch so time for re-#introduction:

Hi #ScienceMastodon! I'm a neuroscience PhD working in science administration. During my PhD, I studied emotion and decision-making in patients with chronic focal brain damage and those undergoing surgery for epilepsy.

After my PhD I completed the AAAS Science and Technology Policy fellowship and made the jump from bench to science policy. These days I'm involved in cognitive and affective #neuroscience as it relates to #aging and #Alzheimers.

“What is the function of Species X?” Is a question I hear often from non-biologists.

But it’s hard to answer. Species don’t exist to serve a function. They exist because they can. Everything is just trying to find a way to be.

Are you interested in...mind control? circadian rhythms? host-pathogen interactions? neural circuits? weird fungi? Join the Elya lab (elyalab.org), opening in Harvard's MCB Dept Jan 2024. Curious scientists from all backgrounds wanted.