Is the human brain really an optimal template for AI? Probably not. The connectome is a compromise among competing objectives, shaped by evolution, development, and biological constraints. Check this @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social paper www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @brigan.bsky.social

Further evidence for chronogeneity just out: heterogeneity in autism may be partly explained by distinct developmental trajectories with early or later onset. And intriguingly this associates with stages of brain processing. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Distinct Temporal Stages of Infant Brain Processing Associate With Early Versus Later Autism Diagnosis

The expression of autism traits sufficient to meet criteria for a diagnosis can occur early (by 3 years) or later (from mid-childhood onwards). It remains unknown whether variation in age of onset i...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I am so excited about this finding from @pengrui-han.bsky.social and @andreadevarda.bsky.social, also with Jacob Andreas! Perhaps modularity is inevitable in intelligent systems, biological or in silico. :)

pengrui-han.bsky.social@pengrui-han.bsky.social · last mo.

The human brain is strikingly modular: distinct networks for language, formal reasoning, social reasoning, physical reasoning. Is this fundamental to intelligent systems, or an accident of evolution? In our new preprint, we find the same modular organization emerges in LLMs.

Review of CH Waddington's influence on developmental biology and evo-devo: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... includes supp info with his 50th birthday songs!

C.H. Waddington's lasting achievements in development and evolution

ABSTRACT. C.H. Waddington (1905-1975) was a British biologist and perhaps the major figure in developmental biology between the 1940s and 1960s. He is one of the few pre-molecular-age developmental bi...

journals.biologists.com

New podcast alert 🎧👶 The Baby Fact Check sees science communicator Greg Foot (BBC's Sliced Bread) investigate popular claims about babies and parenting, separating evidence from myth in an accessible and engaging way. #BabyFactCheck #Parenting #ChildDevelopment #Psychology

Welcome to The Baby Fact Check with Greg Foot - Trailer

YouTube video by The Baby Fact Check

youtube.com

Is this a model of how the brain works?

The University approves plans for the Cambridge Mind and Brain Institute (CMBi). An evolution of the renowned CBU, bridging across Schools and Departments, the new Institute will integrate discovery science with clinical innovation to transform brain health. #Neuroscience #MentalHealth

Our review of 103 studies of the neonatal brain at rest shows group-level developmental changes in functional connectivity, but also evidence for significant inter-individual variability. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The neonatal brain at rest: A systematic review of task-free functional connectivity in the first 100 days

Over the first 100 days post-partum human brain functions may undergo rapid changes, with plasticity peaking. Studies of task-free functional connecti…

sciencedirect.com

How do #prenatal & #postnatal periods shape the developing human #cortex? This study uses #neonatal MRI to show that time in the womb drives widespread, uniform maturation, whereas time after birth produces more region- & depth-specific changes across the cortex @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/47o6rpk

How does the brain adapt when a child is born with an upper limb difference? Research from @mrccbu.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk reveals widespread changes across the brain, highlighting its remarkable ability to reorganise and support adaptation to the world around them. Find out more: bit.ly/3Ov88dT

Children born with upper limb difference show the incredible adaptability of the young brain

Children born with upper limb difference show the incredible adaptability of the young brain

bit.ly

"Babies can categorise objects better at two months than previously known." - Professor Rhodri Cusack from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and co-author of the research speaks to NewsTalk. Listen to the interview: ow.ly/MqA650Y8ZbB @rhodricusack.bsky.social @trinityneuro.bsky.social

Babies can categorise objects better at two months than previously known | Newstalk

Babies as young as two-months-old can categorise objects in their brains, which is far younger th...

ow.ly

I'm very fortunate to have been continuously funded by the MRC for most of my career despite some funding squeezes. However, things now look dire; first cutting all proper unit funding, then scrapping programme grants, and now circa 2% funding rate: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News

Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls

researchprofessionalnews.com

Thrilled to share our paper on the formation of brain shape in human newborns, just out @natneuro.nature.com: tinyurl.com/2ty4ef43 Using #fractal analysis of #MRI data from the developing Human Connectome Project (lnkd.in/dxeHbJX6), we show that brain shape closely captures infant age and genetics ⬇️

Subtle changes in the body may reveal how the #brain develops before behaviours emerge. In their new blog, Drs Chloe Wong & Laurel Fish explore how #DNA methylation is linked to the pupillary light reflex, offering insight into #autism development. 🔗 www.kcl.ac.uk/what-the-eye...

What the eyes may reveal about the epigenetics of early autism…

Subtle changes in the body can reveal a great deal about early brain development. One such change is the pupillary light reflex (PLR): the automatic constriction of the pupil in response to…

kcl.ac.uk

Direct Fit to Nature: An Evolutionary Perspective on Biological and Artificial Neural Networks www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - thought-provoking (2019) paper from @urihasson.bsky.social and colleagues

Direct Fit to Nature: An Evolutionary Perspective on Biological and Artificial Neural Networks

Evolution is a blind fitting process by which organisms become adapted to their environment. Does the brain use similar brute-force fitting processes …

sciencedirect.com

Mapping the Developmental Trajectory of Functional Brain Networks in Early Infancy: Insights into Typical Maturation | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment” in @npp-journal.bsky.social! We examine neurobiological, environmental & behavioral evidence for human critical periods in sensory and association cortex +discuss new research directions rdcu.be/eMkVU 🧵

Annette Karmiloff-Smith. She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too. I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.

Dreadnought Holiday@dreadships.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Right, enough of James Watson - who's a senior academic you've met who's been an utter delight? I'll go first: Jocelyn Bell Burnell

First human newborn paper from my NSF CAREER Award! Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - with our amazing @umiamipsych.bsky.social team: Guangyu Zung, Yeojin Amy Ahn, @tiffany6390.bsky.social, @semaylott.bsky.social, Arushi Malik, @dmessinger.bsky.social doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - Behavior Research Methods

Automated behavioral measurement using machine learning is gaining ground in psychological research. Automated approaches have the potential to reduce the labor and time associated with manual behavio...

doi.org

The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias | PNAS

The structure of the environment includes more horizontal and vertical (i.e. cardinal) orientations than oblique orientations, meaning that edges t...

pnas.org

And a very helpful and informative commentary on the paper by @tuckerdrob.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Early- and late-diagnosed autism are genetically distinct

Analyses of symptoms and genomic data indicate that autism that manifests in early childhood is distinct from autism that is diagnosed later in development.

nature.com

👀

University of Cambridge@cam.ac.uk · 11mo ago

A short, relatable message about a migrant worker boosted positivity toward EU #immigration by 20 points among UK voters. The latest @campsydept.bsky.social #research suggests that pro-immigration arguments can be effective for the UK electorate 👇 https://bit.ly/3HYkEQi

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 “Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist,” in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...

Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist

Academic who showed little tolerance for IQ testing, but made steps towards a treatment for Alzheimer’s, dies aged 87

thetimes.com

Join our #NewBONDS study at #Cambridge #Babylab ✨ Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brain🔎🧠🐣 📨Get in touch to learn more! #developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction

Join us for a 2-day international conference "Interventions & Recovery"🧠 bit.ly/46QQ1WG We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology Check out our Programme!👇https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2

thrilled to share this project over a decade in the making out now in @pnas.org! We show that precocious GABA boosting in neonates by early sevoflurane/propofol anesthetic exposure accelerates visual cortical maturation in human infants www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Excellent work from my colleague Daniel Wechsler showing that "Mother–child autism trait similarity positively predicted both social functioning and psychological well-being in children..". Trait similarity may act as a protective or promotive factor. acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

<em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em> | ACAMH Pediatric Journal | Wiley Online Library

Background There is a pressing need for research on neurodevelopmental conditions to focus on predictors of resilient or positive outcomes, rather than core symptoms and impairment. One promising av.....

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1/ New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com, led by @marinv.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1038/s420...! Across several past studies, we showed how newborns' degraded vision may benefit human development and inspire more robust deep networks. We have referred to this as Adaptive Initial Degradations (AID).

Potential role of developmental experience in the emergence of the parvo-magno distinction - Communications Biology

Developmentally-driven computational modeling study suggests that early sensory experience shapes distinct neuronal response properties in the visual system, providing a potential account of the emerg...

doi.org

DNA is often called a “blueprint for life”. In common parlance a blueprint refers to (e.g.) an architect plan, technical drawing or engineering design. DNA does indeed contain information to guide construction, in this case of a living organism. But beyond that, similarities rapidly break down. 2/n

The latest essay in our #NeuroAI series explores how inspiration from how babies learn language might improve language models.

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · last yr.

Alona Fyshe @alonaf.bsky.social on the BabyLM Challenge, a competition that trains language models (LMs) on smaller datasets, more akin to how a baby learns, in search of solutions to some of the major challenges of today’s LLMs. #NeuroAI #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/the-...