Neurofrontiers @neurofrontiers@qoto.org

Fuck it. This was my 2023: getting married, almost dying, learning that the thing about almost dying is that nobody cares except for the people who care so much that it rewrites the world around you, the way that scientists love, the fact that at the end of the day we are our cells, what it means to get caught up inside of #LongCovid while everyone talks about it but nobody listens, the cruelty of doctors, how much we try not to see it all.

https://www.drcathicks.com/post/covid-data-log

@tyrell_turing @DrYohanJohn this is a great question. I've been thinking about it all evening and my answer surprised myself.

When you read a really good and careful experimental paper, and you go through the methods in detail, there's just this staggering attention to detail and willingness to consider all the ways they could be accidentally tricking themselves into seeing what they want to see.

Like, they recorded responses to two different types of stimulus to see the different responses, but then they realised that the ancient PC they were using to generate the stimuli had different levels of fan noise depending which stimuli it was and the PC was in the chamber, so they put the chamber in a sound proof booth. But they didn't stop there, they got high precision calibration equipment to measure the received noise in the booth and it was just still just detectable. So they put the booth on stilts to minimise the vibrations. Then they couldn't detect the noise but they still didn't trust it wasn't there so they filled the room outside with a bunch of PCs generating the same types of stimuli on random uncorrelated schedules to mask the true signal, and so on.

As a computational person it's shameful to say it, but even though this level of attention to detail would be so much easier for us, we just don't do it. I think we're a little bit too willing to allow ourselves to be tricked by our models or simulations and don't put the effort in to stopping it from happening. Our methods sections are just recipes with no explanation as to why 5 layers were used instead of 4, etc.

And to get back to the specifics we were talking about, it's so much easier to trick yourself with a massively complex model with millions of parameters that's so computationally expensive to run that it can only be run a handful of times, and a measure that is so involved we can only guess at what it's actually measuring.

Stop using #Mailchimp.

Mailchimp (a proprietary mailing list and customer CMS platform) has updated its terms of service.

Mailchimp is planning to feed your email content and customer contacts into its AI models.

Mailchimp's email generating AI might spit out content that infringements on another person's copyright. And the new Mailchimp terms of service say you are legally liable for that copyright infringement, not them.

See section 30. Generative AI Features: https://mailchimp.com/legal/terms/preview/

beautiful and lucid reflection of an autistic researcher on her academic journey https://elifesciences.org/articles/93330?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic_features

Congrats to my colleagues Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman on the Nobel Prize!

My favorite part of this news is knowing that more people (including kids) will get to hear and be inspired by the story behind the science and scientists (especially Kariko).

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/katalin-kariko-and-drew-weissman-penns-historic-mrna-vaccine-research-team-win-2023-nobel

If you're applying to grad school, reminder that I will be looking for PhD students through the Cognition & Perception (https://as.nyu.edu/departments/psychology/graduate/phd-cognition-perception.html) & Data Science (https://cds.nyu.edu/phd-admissions-req/) programs. Research areas listed below and available here: https://lindsay-lab.github.io

http status code breakdown
1xx - you need to do it
2xx - we did it
3xx - go do it over there
4xx - you can't do it
5xx - we can't do it

My latest: that guy who's planning to live forever? Yeah he's absolutely going to die. Let's talk about the science of longevity, whether humans have a maximum lifespan, and the philosophical reasons behind why we're so scared of death
https://skepchick.org/2023/09/bryan-johnson-is-going-to-die-sorry/

If your preferred theory makes it hard for you to communicate with large sections of your field, there's probably a major problem with your theory, at least in socially pragmatic terms.

What one needs is a principle of intellectual plenitude, to maximize one's resonances.

AoIR will not be using Twitter/X during #AoIR2023. We will be posting here. Please see this announcement for additional information and details. https://aoir.org/aoir2023onmastodon/

I'm reading a paper about "cognitive neuroscience" and it's becoming clear that it's specifically talking about fMRI research.

Apologies if this is a dumb question - is there now an (implicit) assumption that cog neuro work means neuroimaging?

Some artists use paint and a brush, this guy uses leaves and a rake! These drawings are created by raking leaves. Every fall Nikola Faller, academic sculptor and land artist creates these magic images.

We made a robot and landed it on a rock hurtling through space, took samples of that rock, and just this morning, landed the samples safely back on Earth. Scientists will study them for decades. Who knows what they'll learn, about the history of the solar system and the universe. All without endangering human crew or spending the resources needed to support them.

Congratulations to the OSIRIS-REx team and everyone at NASA who has to hear people complain that we don't do amazing things anymore.

Hi All! I just changed instances and feel like this might be a good home for an old neuroscientist like me. A brief introduction: I study the neurobiological underpinnings of episodic memory in rats, pigs and humans, and how they go awry in preclinical models and clinical disorders. I like talking about all things neuroscience, neurocareers and science communication. I am happy to be here and to find some new (and old) SciFriends such as @elduvelle @markgbaxter @alicia_izquierdo and many others!​​​

“Elegant and powerful new result that seriously undermines large language models”

Like I’ve been saying for a while now: LLMs do not think or reason. They are not on the path to AGI. They are extremely limited correlation and text synthesis machines. https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/elegant-and-powerful-new-result-that

Overdue #introduction #1stToot

Hi 👋🏼! I’m a #neuroscience Instructor in Rudebeck’s lab at #MountSinai NY.

Strong focus on animal #learning #DecisionMaking #Reward #valuation and how #prefrontal #subcortical regions represent these and interact at the level of #neurons and #LFP.

Proponent of recording neurons in too many areas simultaneously, and a #Matlab enthusiast (I know.. I complain about it too!).

Off lab, you will find me #biking , pushing a #stroller , and/or enjoying #beers.

#introduction Hi all, I recently switched instances and am getting my profile set up. If you followed me on my old instance I'll not be using that anymore.
I am a PhD candidate in Albert Einstein College of Medicine, working with #intrinsic #manifolds and #decisionmaking , doing some visual cortex research by coincidence.

Am I misunderstanding something?

This appears to be a stunningly irresponsible story in Science, claiming that up to 30% of the scientific literature is fake.

https://www.science.org/content/article/fake-scientific-papers-are-alarmingly-common

Below, the first two paragraphs of the story.

h/t @Hoch

Please share this widely, esp. among diverse junior scientists. Posted on behalf of the editor (Isabel Gauthier) of my favorite journal and the one I'm an action editor for, JEP:HPP:

Call for nominations for intern junior editorial positions at JEP:HPP
Deadline November 20th, 2023. Open to PhD Students and post-doctoral fellows.

The editorial leadership team for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance seeks nominations for intern junior editorial positions for early-career psychologists (IJEs). These positions are meant for those with an interest in developing skills for future roles in the scientific publishing process.

IJE’s will serve 12-month terms beginning January 1, 2024 and the position includes an honoraria stipend of $1,500 USD.

In service of APA’s recent resolutions to address systemic racism in psychology, this program seeks to provide opportunities for people from historically excluded groups, particularly Black, Indigenous, and other psychologists of color, as well as members from other communities which have been historically excluded from leadership opportunities in research and publishing.

IJE positions are open to all qualified candidates, including those from historically excluded groups, who have completed at least 3 years in a PhD program and are no more than 5 years postdoctoral. Individuals in non-academic positions with suitable qualifications are also eligible. Qualified candidates should have published original research in an area broadly relevant to the Journal.

IJEs will work with the journal’s editor, Isabel Gauthier, to work on the Journal’s pre-external review process. Each IJE will work on 3-4 manuscripts a month. The pre-external review process includes screening manuscripts for appropriateness, verifying adherence to instructions for authors and providing authors with feedback that can increase transparency and strengthen the manuscript before external review. This work will be done in concert with the editor, who will co-sign pre-external review letters.

This position does not require experience with peer-review, although it is welcomed, and IJEs will be working on manuscripts on a broad range of topics as represented in the Journal.

How to apply (Deadline November 20th, 2023)
Interested and qualified candidates should send a letter of interest introducing themselves, their expertise, and an explanation of their interest in and appropriateness for the position, along with a copy of their CV, to Isabel Gauthier (Isabel.gauthier@vanderbilt.edu) and put “IJE nomination” in the subject line. Nominees are asked to send the contact information for their current mentor and let them know that they may be contacted for a reference.

Appointments will be made in December and positions will begin January 1, 2024.

#psychology #neuroscience #science #journal