Mara Mather
@maramather.bsky.social
Fascinated by the brain, what makes it work well and how to keep it working well as we age. Noradrenaline, locus coeruleus, heart rate variability, oscillatory dynamics, parasympathetic/sympathetic changes in aging. USC professor.
LC influences OFC probablistic learning www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Orbitofrontal noradrenaline supports adaptive learning-rate adjustment in probabilistic reversal learning | PNAS
Adaptive decision-making in dynamic environments requires flexible adjustment of learning speed to balance stability and flexibility. When outcomes...
pnas.org
Truly bizarre story of how two papers from the 1940s by physics pioneer Max Planck have been "retracted" from Naturwissenschaften, potentially by an algorithm, for anachronistic "plagiarism" issues, leaving the current editor baffled (but it is Springer Nature so.... www.science.org/content/arti...
Why have papers by one of history’s most famous physicists been retracted?
Springer Nature has removed two studies by Max Planck. A bot may be to blame
science.org
The Battle over the Constitution Has Spread to American Science. I'm out in the @theatlantic.com today about the new OMB proposed rule. It's just the longtime agenda of the the Supreme Court. US science and cancer cures now all depend on us picking up a fight with the Roberts Court.
The Unitary Executive Takes Over New Territory
The Trump administration’s theory of how the federal government should work is a threat to American science.
theatlantic.com
Neuroscientist here, who has talked about the US losing science ground to other countries: The biggest problem for generating future cures for brain diseases is the ongoing utter destruction of US basic neuroscience. It’s not about regulation.
Semafor@semafor.com · 2mo agoChina’s beating the US in neuroscience: “There is a very real possibility that without significant regulatory reform, if you’re a wealthy American, in 10 years, the only place you’ll be able to get your state-of-the-art cancer care is in Shanghai,” said Max Hodak, former president of Neuralink.
Report from the trenches on how Frontiers does not care about quality, instead only about getting as many accepted papers as they can to collect those open access fees.
Michael Okun@michael-okun.bsky.social · 2mo agoI’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇
I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇
“MRI scans of the marathon runners’ brains showed that myelin content was reduced in several white-matter tracts immediately after the race; two months later, myelin levels had recovered to baseline levels.”
Natalie Christie Peluso 🧠@nataliepeluso.com · 2mo ago"Structure and metabolism should no longer sit in separate boxes. The brain’s wiring could also be part of its fuel strategy. Myelin may be more than insulation; it may also form part of the brain’s adaptive metabolic infrastructure." 🧠👇 #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/metabolism/b...
The locus coeruleus, which provides norepinephrine to the rest of the brain, is even more spatially and functionally diverse than previously thought, new findings suggest. By Holly Barker www.thetransmitter.org/locus-coerul...
Brain’s blue spot possesses unexpected structure-function ties
The arrangement of locus coeruleus neurons in mice points to how the structure mediates specific effects across the brain, a new study shows.
thetransmitter.org
I want to know- can I use this principle to reward myself so I can learn a foreign language faster? Huge pieces of chocolate after each word remembered correctly doesn’t seem like a great long-term idea.
Bethany Brookshire@beebrookshire.bsky.social · 2mo agoY'all I spent YEARS of my life putting mice in little cages and giving them tiny little treats, took a solid month to train... ...and it turns out that no one ever checked if a BIG TREAT might work better. www.hhmi.org/news/bigger-... YEARS OF MY LIFE. Via the excellent @science.org newsletter.
NEW: A serious staffing shortage — of the Trump admin's own making — is delaying the agency's ability to send billions to universities around the country, leaving labs reeling in the meantime. “I thought we were at rock bottom”, a senior NIH official said. “We are below rock bottom now.”
NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year
Some units at the US funding giant are so understaffed, they are focusing on mandated grant renewals rather than new awards.
nature.com
Surely this set up could only be to make fun of Google Scholar... who would believe in 5 million citations, with both Eric Topol and Noam Chomsky among his coauthors? scholar.google.com/citations?us...
scholar.google.com
The Emotion & Cognition lab is recruiting for a full-time project assistant. If you know of any graduating seniors looking for a research position, please let them know! usc.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/ExternalUSCC...
Project Assistant (Fixed-Term)
The University of Southern California (USC), founded in 1880, is located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles and is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. USC is consistently ranked...
usc.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
Good news on maintaining university funding through indirect cost recovery: fabbs.org/news/2026/04...
Trump Administration Forgoes Appeal in NIH F&A Rates Case, Leaving Injunction in Place – FABBS
Last week, the Trump Administration decided not to appeal the most recent court ruling on the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) indirect costs policy. This
fabbs.org
By design they are featuring some controversial folks. Hopefully it will spark some good dialogue.
Katy Milkman@katymilkman.bsky.social · 4mo agoI'm co-organizing a free, 2-day Zoom workshop from the NAS & hope you'll consider attending! 📅 April 23-24: Discuss how we can enhance scientific integrity in the social and behavioral sciences REGISTER: www.nationalacademies.org/projects/DBA... PROGRAM: www.nationalacademies.org/cdn/material...
how to give a great talk: "Mystery... Create puzzles for your audience, and bring them along for the solution. This is where scientific talks can excel, because the whole scientific process is aimed at uncovering a mystery."
Zen Faulkes@doctorzen.net · 5mo agoIf you are giving a presentation sometime soon, I have a little ebook for you! Imaginatively titled, "Presentation Tips"! Sections on: 1. What to say 2. What to show 3. Giving the talk Free PDF (linked) or cheap Kindle version (if that's your thing.) doi.org/10.6084/m9.f... #AcademicChatter
✨ SHINY NEW PAPER ✨ Evidence of locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) hyperactivity in older adults using behavioral, pupil and EEG data @maramather.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Electroencephalography, pupillometry, and behavioral evidence for locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system related tonic hyperactivity in older adults
Neuroimaging studies have shown that age-related dysregulation of the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system is associated with cognitive declin…
sciencedirect.com
A journalist attempts to buy a first author publication and uncovers the full suite of products available. youtu.be/SEwiOykoXXc
I tried to buy a scientific paper
YouTube video by Christophe
youtu.be
elifesciences.org/articles/110...
Scientific Publishing: Rethinking how research is reviewed and published
Taking a radical new approach to the publication process resulted in eLife losing its impact factor, but authors, reviewers, editors and funders support the journal and its efforts to reform scientifi...
elifesciences.org
"Freezing and hoping that it will all somehow go away is neither individually nor collectively effective." zenodo.org/records/1569...
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to ...
zenodo.org
New preprint highlighting the involvement of the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in oscillatory cardiorespiratory dynamics www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
Daily Paced Breathing Sessions Induce Left Orbitofrontal Volume Changes Linked to Cognitive Outcomes
Oscillatory coupling between respiration, heart rate, and cortical function is fundamental to physiological regulation yet remains poorly characterized in humans. Diminished respiratory heart rate var...
medrxiv.org
Our paper on respiratory modulation of excitability during sleep is now online! Open access link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... First of hopefully many collabs with the @tschreiner.bsky.social Lab and led by @asanchezcorzo.bsky.social #neuroskyence
Respiratory coordination of excitability states across the human wake-sleep cycle
While the respiratory rhythm is increasingly recognized as a key modulator of oscillatory brain activity across the wake-sleep cycle in humans, very l…
sciencedirect.com
New paper with Andy Kim, @santimoralesphd.bsky.social, and Josh Senior just published! "Electroencephalography, pupillometry, and behavioral evidence for locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system related tonic hyperactivity in older adults" authors.elsevier.com/c/1mCryivP7S...
authors.elsevier.com
Neat that my review of Zhang et al.'s "Cortical and subcortical mapping of the human allostatic–interoceptive system using 7 Tesla fMRI" was quoted in this Research Briefing. It was one of my favorite papers I reviewed in 2024! rdcu.be/eOlTT by Jiahe Zhang, @lisafeldmanbarrett.com and others
Evidence from 7 Tesla fMRI of intrinsic network supporting allostasis in the human brain
Nature Neuroscience - Functional connectivity analyses using ultra-high precision 7 Tesla functional MRI identified a unified system for allostasis and interoception that included more than 96% of...
rdcu.be
I will be recruiting 🌟PhD students🌟 for my newish lab! If you're interested in learning & memory mechanisms applied to individual, interactive & collective behavior using computational modeling, real-world experiments and fMRI, email me! RTs much appreciated 🙏 rouhanilab.com
Interactive Cognition Lab | USC
Interactive Cognition Lab at USC, led by principal investigator, Dr. Nina Rouhani.
rouhanilab.com
Our paper showing opposing effects of mindfulness alone and mindfulness + slow breathing on the Alzheimer's-related amyloid-beta peptide was just accepted for publication at Psychophysiology! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
A randomized clinical trial reveals effects of mindfulness and slow breathing on plasma amyloid beta levels
Prior research suggests that meditation may slow brain aging and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, we lack research systematically examining what aspect(s) of meditation may drive ...
medrxiv.org
