I'm all for exploring ways to deemphasize journal prestige, but this isn't it...

Oded Rechavi@odedrechavi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Gloves are off! TODAY WE RELEASE THE 1% A list of the year’s very best papers 👇 (see thread)

Finally putting this work out as a preprint :) Thanks to Emery Brown and @earlkmiller.bsky.social for helping conceptualize this work! Code: github.com/Bowen-Zheng-... and a tutorial notebook on the key ideas: github.com/Bowen-Zheng-... A 3-min overview below: (1/)

Earl K. Miller@earlkmiller.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New results! A new method that analyzes brain waves and spike timing together. This lets us pinpoint exactly which rhythms neurons are locking to. BAYESIAN STATE-SPACE MODEL FOR JOINT INFERENCE OF OSCILLATORY DYNAMICS AND POINT-PROCESS COUPLING doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Great thread. My favorite tip: write axes labels in plain english and don't rotate the ordinate label! Makes it so much easier to engage, and, if you don't have room to do this, you know you have too many plots on your slide.

Mike Wiser@drmikewiser.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My primary academic conference is in a few weeks. I have given a good number of conference presentations over the years, and possibly moderated even more often than I've presented. Advice for anyone who wants it, in a thread:

There's one week left to apply to become this Fall's BCS Rising Star speaker 🌟 Please make sure to apply if you're a postdoc in the Brain & Cognitive Sciences🧠 Reposts are appreciated! 🪐

Lynn Sörensen@lynnkasorensen.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Are you a postdoc in the Brain & Cognitive Sciences? 🧠 Don't miss this opportunity to showcase your work at MIT - apply by May 31! 🌟

In general, students have a clear opportunity to gain a massive advantage over their classmates by simply not using AI for their coursework.

John Scalzi@scalzi.com · 3mo ago

I really wish people aspiring to write understood what a competitive advantage being able to write without AI will be in the coming years.

Who knows, maybe AI will make it easier to identify scientific fraud...

Neuroskeptic@neuroskeptic.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A @pubpeer.com user spots suspicious features on an image in a NEJM case report - a ruler that seems to skip a number! Was the image AI generated? pubpeer.com/publications... The author replies, saying that "we performed minor image adjustment to straighten the tilted scale." Hmm...

In the case of dentate...excited to help the field realize that they've been ignoring a key piece of the puzzle!

Konrad Kording@kordinglab.bsky.social · 4mo ago

If you work on interposed nucleus, medial geniculate nucleus, fastigial nucleus, dentate nucleus of the cerebellum, or the olfactory tubercle. How do you handle being so lonely/ so unique?

Hit the nail on the head.

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Prediction without understanding sustained astronomy through a thousand years of epicycles, writes @tonyzador.bsky.social. AI is now offering neuroscience the same deal. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/machine-lear...

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

My K99 was assigned to a study section that, based on the title, is a terrible fit for my grant. SRO dismissed my concerns. Does anyone have any insight on these things? Am I screwed?

I wish I could tell all the young eager people who write to me about wanting to do research, or the new novel exciting theory they have developed, that if your email (or worse, theory) was very obviously generated by chatGPT it will be very hard for anybody to take you seriously.

This is a really insightful piece. Highly recommend 👇🏽

Aatish Bhatia@aatishb.com · 4mo ago

"The failures are the curriculum. The error messages are the syllabus. Every hour you spend confused is an hour you spend building the infrastructure inside your own head that will eventually let you do original work. There is no shortcut through that process that doesn't leave you diminished"

The MIT BCS Postdoc Association is looking for a Rising Star 🌟 Showcase your work and meet folks in the department! Deadline 31st May 2026! @picowerinstitute.bsky.social

Let’s get more scientists into Congress!

Sam Wang@samwang.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Central NJ friends, I urgently need help with signatures to qualify for the ballot. Come help, get swag! I need at least 500...but we have to overkill, or else face legal challenges. Sign up to help in Princeton, Montgomery...or another town in NJ-12. Earn a hat! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

At this point, any paper from Mark's group immediately jumps to the top of the reading list.

Mark Wagner@mark-j-wagner.bsky.social · 5mo ago

How does the brain generalize past experiences without confusing memories? 🧠 Our lab's newest preprint reveals a fundamental division of labor between the cortex and cerebellum that solves this problem. (Check out the cortex-cerebellum video below! 👇) 🧵

So strange to see a discussion section in a high profile paper that's clearly written by AI. People, it's very easy to tell. It's not just lazy—it's almost always poorly written neuroscience gobbledygook. Not to mention a disservice to our community.

Do you or someone you know work on the neurobiology of cognition, and is an early career researcher? The cognition GRS is open for applications! Human, non-human, computational models are all welcome. Apply here now: www.grc.org/neurobiology...

Such a great idea!

Tim Behrens@behrenstimb.bsky.social · 7mo ago

At @elife.bsky.social you can now include explainer videos with every figure. Like going to a seminar while you engage with the paper. First example here elifesciences.org/articles/106... Click the arrows next to each figure to get a video of @mathiassablemeyer.bsky.social explaining it for you!

Do you have questions about how to use neuropixels in NHPs? Want to learn about how to record simultaneously from a crap-load of probes? Come stop by the Neuropixels booth (#3731) today from 3-4pm, where I'll be serving as an "expert"! #SfN25 #SfN2025

Come to my poster at SfN on Wednesday morning! I'll present my work on how the cerebellum uses internal models to control neocortical dynamics in a non-motor learning task. I'm biased, but I think it's pretty exciting! www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/21171...

Come to my poster at SfN on Wednesday morning! I'll present my work on how the cerebellum uses internal models to control neocortical dynamics in a non-motor learning task. I'm biased, but I think it's pretty exciting! www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/21171...

Not only that, but new tech is making monkey neuroscience more exciting/promising than it ever has been!

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of brain-computer interfaces and artificial neural networks. New funding and policy changes put future such advances at risk, write Cory Miller, @movshon.bsky.social and Doris Tsao. #neuroskyence bit.ly/47MXYLH

My reviewing style has changed over time. Rather than litigate every little thing, and pushing my own ideas, I focus only on 2 things: (1) Are the claims interesting/important? (2) Does the evidence support the claims? Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.

Anyone know what happens with NIH deadlines during a government shut down??

Interested in doing a Ph.D. to work on building models of the brain/behavior? Consider applying to graduate schools at CU Anschutz: 1. Neuroscience www.cuanschutz.edu/graduate-pro... 2. Bioengineering engineering.ucdenver.edu/bioengineeri... You could work with several comp neuro PIs, including me.

Some journals are claiming that you need to pay big $$ for gold open access to comply with NIH's new public access policy. FYI that is total bs. You can comply by depositing the Accepted Manuscript into PubMed Central on the Date of Publication without embargo. Pass it on.

Please reach out if you want help with these probes. I benefited immensely by having early access to them, and so I feel an obligation/responsibility to help others adopt the tech. And, stay tuned for open-source hardware/software for a motorized microdrive to lower these (and other) probes!

Finally out! I've been using these probes for a few years and they have been truly transformative for us. The core experiments of my lab are based around them.

Gabriel Stine@gabrielmstine.bsky.social · last yr.

Our paper on NHP neuropixels is finally out in Nat Neuro! These probes have already been transformative and will usher in a new era of primate neuroscience. I am extremely proud to have played a very small role in this project. I can't wait to see what our community discovers. tinyurl.com/54u3hrj8

Our paper on NHP neuropixels is finally out in Nat Neuro! These probes have already been transformative and will usher in a new era of primate neuroscience. I am extremely proud to have played a very small role in this project. I can't wait to see what our community discovers. tinyurl.com/54u3hrj8

Large-scale high-density brain-wide neural recording in nonhuman primates - Nature Neuroscience

Neuropixels 1.0 NHP is a 45-mm, high-density silicon probe capable of recording large numbers of neurons with single-neuron resolution from most areas in a macaque’s brain.

tinyurl.com

This is amazing.

Nature@nature.com · last yr.

Nature research paper: An instantaneous voice-synthesis neuroprosthesis https://go.nature.com/4kLPolK