ǝʞɐlq ǝʌɐp
@blakestah.bsky.social
Med School Professor. Brain Physiology researcher. Biomedical Engineer. Biomedical device work. I stimulate mammalian brains to improve cognition. OMHIWDMB.
The Senate invoked cloture on the Continuing Resolution (with OMB regs blocked) 89-4 Monday evening. It looks likely to pass before the recess begins Friday. This CR would clear spending until Dec 11. The House returns from recess on Aug 31, and would be able to take up the Senate CR bill then. 1/
The Senate Continuing Resolution would fund until Dec 11 and block OMB regs. From @murray.senate.gov www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/minorit...
Senator Murray on Release of CR Text | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
appropriations.senate.gov
The US House previously passed a clean continuing resolution to fund the govt through Dec 4. In the Senate, the Democrats are dangling a "block Russ Vought's OMB rule" to get their support for the Dec 4 CR. Again, the Senate goes home next Saturday, so this is an active story.
The Senate is in session through August 7, and then takes a long break. Appropriations are expected to be addressed by the two month CR. It is expected the Senate will modify the CR to address specific issues, one of which may be the new proposed OMC rule. The fiscal year ends Sept 30.
If a slop generator can produce a "graphical abstract" considered suitable for publication "in minutes", then "graphical abstracts" don't add anything of material value to the publication.
Jeffrey Perkel (he/him)@jperkel.bsky.social · 2w agoAlso new @nature.com, how to use #AI to create a graphical abstract in minutes. By Ananya Thakur. 🧪🎨🤖 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Appropriation watch: The House passed a clean continuing resolution yesterday that would extend FY26 from Oct 1 through Dec 4. Senate action is next. There is no other normal budget process ongoing.
The cranium is a fixed volume cavity filled with largely incompressible fluids and tissue. If the volume of blood goes up, even transiently, the volume of something else must herniate.
It is summer, appropriations season in Congress. The House committee sent an HHS budget to the floor which is a modest increase in funding for NIH. In the Senate, Democrats are blocking committee action as Mitch McConnell is absent. 1/
The academic hiring system is simply not designed for candidates like me. It privileges a kind of performative intellectualism—the ability to stand at a whiteboard and extemporize about science as if you were some kind of 19th-century naturalist 😂 😂 😂 open.substack.com/pub/inprepar...
Opinion: I Was Not Allowed To Type Prompts Into ChatGPT During My Chalk Talk And This Is Discrimination
By Dr. Rachel Simmons, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
open.substack.com
🚨PREPRINT ALERT!🚨 I’m delighted to share new work from Yau Lab @bcmneurosci.bsky.social addressing thermotactile interactions. What happens when your hands get cold? A common experience is for your sense of touch to be impaired by coldness. 1/n
Frozen Hands Close-Up
ALT: Frozen Hands Close-Up
static.klipy.com
I spent 10 years at UCSF, and Howard Fields was there the entire time. He counseled me many times, and I truly appreciate that nearly every time we spoke, although he was 20+ years my senior and 20+ times my h-index, he spoke to me as a peer, and with the best of intentions. I will miss him.
Josh Johansen@jojolab.bsky.social · 3mo agoI’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...
Michael Silver from UC Berkeley on science of psychedelics. Hopefully he makes a ton of progress. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnq0...
Psychedelic Science explained by Berkeley neuroscientist | 101 in 101
YouTube video by UC Berkeley
youtube.com
Update on NIH funding including multi-year funding. Here is the overall progress in terms of the number of projects (as opposed to the fraction of appropriated funds). The fiscal year 2026 curve lies below those for earlier fiscal years. 1/4
happy 2 see Dr Okihide Hikosaka elected to NAS Okihide has done an amazing amount of true discovery Think big contributions to understanding of mechanisms of saccadic control, chunking and skill formation, reinforcement learning, and more! Also a great mentor and friend.
Preprint alert! We've done the first ever wireless brain recordings from the high-level visual & motor regions (IT/PMv/PFC) in monkeys engaged in natural behaviors as well as during controlled screen-based tasks. Read below for a lay summary and the link for details! 1/8
For those who don't want to dig through a lot... When started EARLY in probable AD, very modest cognitive, clinical, and daily activities benefits relative to placebo are observed up to 18 months. Evidence after 24 months is not as positive. ARIA adverse effects are much stronger.
ǝʞɐlq ǝʌɐp@blakestah.bsky.social · 4mo agoAnti-amyloid drugs, in a meta analysis, do not meet the risk:benefit tradeoffs necessary to recommend to patients, at least according to this Cochrane review. www.cochrane.org/about-us/new...
Anti-amyloid drugs, in a meta analysis, do not meet the risk:benefit tradeoffs necessary to recommend to patients, at least according to this Cochrane review. www.cochrane.org/about-us/new...
Anti-amyloid Alzheimer’s drugs show no clinically meaningful effect | Cochrane
cochrane.org
This conference is going to be so cool! Good science good people good location. Register ASAP! #neuroskyence www.fens.org/news-activit...
The Brain Conference on Neural Foundations of Communication: Integrative Approaches Across Species - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies
Location: Heraklion, Crete, Greece Early registration and stipend applications deadline: 7 April 2026 Regular registration and abstract submission deadline (no further stipend applications accepted)…
fens.org
Article on the ReVision Implant brain implant originating from China (WeChat): WeChat eu.36kr.com/en/p/3729110... #BCI #NeuroTech #blindness
Milestone: Flexible Electrodes Implanted in Cerebral Cortex Offer Glimmer of Hope for Restoring Sight to the Blind; Brain - Computer Interface Gets FDA Breakthrough Device Designation
Recently, ReVision Implant, an innovative Belgian brain - computer interface firm, declared that its core product, the Occular visual reconstruction brain - computer interface, got the "Breakthrough D...
eu.36kr.com
Please circulate widely! Open positions at the Vision Lab, Centre for Neuroscience, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) sites.google.com/site/visionl... How to Apply: forms.gle/vWa1PwUrcpWf... Deadline : March 31 2026
Today I received a note from a grad student who lives in Tehran. Her note gives you firsthand experience of what it’s like to live in a city that is being bombed, and what it’s like to be young and feel despair about your future. rezashadmehr.blogspot.com/2026/03/hope...
Hopeless in Tehran
Essays on neuroscience
rezashadmehr.blogspot.com
Neuracle Medical Technology (Chinese BCI company) has gotten market approval in China after 36 trial procedures. They make an epidural implant (looks like eCoG basis) for tetraplegia treatment. I will explain the significance. 1/ www.scmp.com/business/ban...
In a first for China, Neuracle’s invasive brain-computer interface wins approval
China’s BCI start-ups, seen as potential rivals to Elon Musk’s Neuralink, gain momentum as regulatory support and new capital fuel growth.
scmp.com
I thought that I was a good programmer (in Matlab 😳) and then I started reading "Better Code, Better Science" by @russpoldrack.org ... Let's say that there is room for improvement in my coding practices 😜 bettercodebetterscience.github.io/book/
Better Code, Better Science - Better Code, Better Science
bettercodebetterscience.github.io
My quote of the day Science is the search for truth, that is the effort to understand the world: it involves the rejection of bias, of dogma, of revelation, but not the rejection of morality. Linus Pauling
The BCI market in China is ahead of the market in the US, and is accelerating away. The brain computer interfaces that ultimately improve the lives of people in the US will be developed and made in China, and the intellectual property profits will also go to China. techcrunch.com/2026/02/22/c...
China's brain-computer interface industry is racing ahead | TechCrunch
China’s brain-computer interface industry is rapidly scaling from research to commercialization, driven by strong policy support, expanding clinical trials, and growing investor interest.
techcrunch.com
If you calculate how many trials AI takes to learn an association and compare to a human, the AI takes orders of magnitude more to learn. LeCun has written extensively on this. If AI could learn like humans, it would be a huge advance. Until then, AI will use all the energy and water we have.
X2Y@x2y.tech · 6mo agoSAM ALTMAN: “People talk about how much energy it takes to train an AI model … But it also takes a lot of energy to train a human. It takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart.”
