Heather Snell

@heatherdsnell.bsky.social

Neuro. Cerebellum. Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine, Allen Institute Next Gen Leader, Board Member of The Swaliga Foundation, Lead organizer/matriarch of People of Color Burning Man camp. My words. She/her www.snelllab.org

Figure 1 of: How's life going? When life seems to be out of my control, I like to build things, and garden. ✅ ✅ Good thing I married an engineer! He planned the structure and I got to help put it together and add the plants. ❤️

Stages of garden build. Top left panel: previous garden bed. Top right panel: weeded garden with additional garden bed on the right. Bottom left panel: first post out into the ground for the garden enclosure. Bottom right panel: finished garden enclosure.

Do brain circuits really sit in a 'soup' of neuromodulators? Are neurons like soggy bits of bread soaked in signaling factors? Is the whole brain just squelching around in one big pool of warm modulators?

After a great day of doorknocking in Pennington, relaxing at Needle Creek Brewery over a glass of stout! The goat ran away, might not be a registered voter ;-) Great, engaged citizens. They’re concerned about health, AI, and democracy. Next weekend in #NJ12 come join our canvass! SamForNJ.org

What do Louie Lunchmeat, Jesse Owens, and Jesus Christ have in common? They are "signatures" on Sue Altman's ballot petitions. We found these and hundreds of fakes, using science and AI. Legislation requires attention to detail. NJ-12 needs someone who sweats the details. I'm SamForNJ.org

Are you thinking about acquiring multi-task fMRI for your study but don’t know where to start? @bassel_arafat just published a toolbox to optimally select tasks and run them in the MRI scanner - with many commonly used tasks ready to go! Check out the preprint below 👇

basselarafat.bsky.social@basselarafat.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The MultiTaskBattery toolbox is live: 20+ implemented tasks, object-oriented design and a battery optimizer built in! Docs: multitaskbattery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ Github: github.com/DiedrichsenL... With @carobellum.bsky.social Jinkang Derrick Xiang @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social 🙌

The government oversees safety of roads, flights, food, and drugs. It should do the same for AI. I’m a scientist who uses responsible AI to help parents with autism diagnosis. In Congress I’ll make sure this powerful technology serves us, not harms us. www.ft.com/content/7f63...

AI chatbots often validate delusions and suicidal thoughts, study finds

Stanford researchers analysing 391,000 messages warn conversational technology may reinforce psychological vulnerabilities

ft.com

Today, leading scientists & educators from New Jersey's 12th District are endorsing my candidacy! Nobel laureates, as well as pioneers in medicine, physics, AI, and chemistry. I'm deeply grateful. And I'm ready to defend science and the prosperity it brings! www.samfornj.org/news/scienti...

Nobel Laureates and Leading Scientists Endorse Sam Wang for Congress — Sam Wang for New Jersey

Nobel laureates and leading scientists across New Jersey’s 12th District endorsed Sam Wang for Congress, warning that attacks on science and research threaten America’s future.

samfornj.org

I am thrilled to announce that our group has received a new grant from the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation to study the neural dynamics of vocal learning in children! I am looking for a postdoc to join us in this effort, currently funded for 2 years. Please reach out with CV and letter of interest.

🧠 Resting-state fMRI is often treated as the gold standard for studying the brain’s intrinsic organization. But is it actually the best way to estimate functional architecture? We tested this directly. 🧵1/8

Rutgers scientists and academics! Come out to meet-and-greet with me at Destination Dogs, New Brunswick. Who can say no to Destination Dogs? There will be food and drink! Wednesday March 11, 5-7pm RSVP: forms.gle/6AykuoTq23XW... (truthfully just show up...but RSVP helps us choose how many dogs!)

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Had a lot of fun teaching the first year students about the cerebellum today! Opened with the Powerpuff girls, how the mayor was absolutely useless and horrible at his job, but his assistant was essential, ran everything, and kept the town afloat. Her name was Ms. Sara Bellum. Got audible gasps!

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Baked celebration cupcakes! My grad student received the National Ataxia Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship and I received the National Ataxia Foundation Early Career Investigator Award!! I had lots of rejections last year so nice to start 2026 with some wins. All gluten free!

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