Rik Henson
@rhens.bsky.social
Father, husband, academic, cognitive neuroscientist, atheist, europhile, Arsenal fan. Slight preference for beer over wine but will drink anything. Posts are personal views.
Why are we still dithering after all these years? Something needs to be done to address the growing wealth imbalance… www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Wealth tax on UK’s super-rich could raise £10bn a year, Andy Burnham told
New PM urged to introduce a 2% minimum charge on households with more than £100m in wealth
theguardian.com
Thanks to Kshipra Guranandan, my notebook on how to design efficient fMRI experiments (for activity, connectivity and pattern analysis) is now available in Python as a Jupyter notebook (as well as previous Matlab): github.com/RikHenson/fM...
GitHub - RikHenson/fMRIefficiency
Contribute to RikHenson/fMRIefficiency development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
New protocol paper (https://doi.org/10.37349/en.2026.1006138) describing Phases 4-5 of the Cam-CAN study of healthy ageing, led by Ina Demetriou Includes MRI and MEG data up to 14 years after baseline. Data available soon on https://cam-can.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/dataset/
The US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what?
Ben Allen@evodynamics.bsky.social · 3w agoCongrats we just made it impossible to come here for a PhD www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/16/m...
Only four invitations were required to obtain two reviews for manuscripts submitted in 2007, but this increased to eight invitations to obtain two reviews in 2025. Non-response to review invitations was relatively constant up to 2020 but increased 4-fold by 2025. #metascience #reviewerCrisis
In our new paper we use 2 fMRI studies to put SLIMM to the test. We find the U-shape function of memory and expectancy, yet no differential hippocampal involvement at the different ends of the expectancy spectrum - highlighting the need to revisit SLIMM. doi.org/10.1098/rstb...
Predictions and declarative memory encoding: two fMRI paradigms provide slim pickings for SLIMM
Abstract. Memory is often better for both highly unexpected and highly expected information. To explain this U-shape relationship between memory and expect
doi.org
A thought for @ref2029.bsky.social (thanks to Marcus Munafo): rather than reviewing the “best” outputs that universities select (in order to game system), why not review a random selection of all a university’s outputs, to see how well their research process/infrastructure is working in general…?
Fantastic perspective on peer review by @rorinstitute.bsky.social, with some great ideas for future improvements to the current limping system: doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...
The Future of Peer Review: A system-wide perspective
This report presents the main outcomes of the PEER REVIEW project conducted by the Research on Research Institute (RoRI) from 2023 to 2026. It draws on the substantial literature on peer review as well as 39 in-depth interviews with experts from across the research system, including policymakers, funders, publishers, editors, researchers and others. Peer review is often seen as one of the cornerstones of the research system. At the same time, many researchers and other actors in the system have expressed deep concerns about dysfunctions of peer review. In response to this, much work has been done to assess and improve peer review in individual domains, notably within research funding, scholarly publishing, career advancement, and assessment of research units.However, by considering peer review in each domain in isolation, knowledge about peer review has remained fragmented, offering a weak basis for strengthening the organisation of peer review.In this report, we take a systemic perspective on peer review across domains. Rather than focusing on incremental process-level innovations in individual domains, we conclude there is a need for system-wide reform in peer review. We outline future pathways for such reform.
doi.org
As Britain swelters through another heatwave, few people will have heard that ministers have quietly dropped plans for solar carports. Cars cooler in summer. Shelter from the rain in winter. Clean electricity all year round. A missed opportunity?
As Britain bakes, ministers quietly park plans for solar carports
Ministers have quietly shelved plans that could have transformed Britain's biggest car parks into shaded power stations
eastangliabylines.co.uk
Good data is essential for policy. Today it’s been a year since we had a permanent National Statistician. No news on what is happening with the current recruitment which began Oct 2025. This is an under the bonnet issue that points to state failure 🧵 uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/stateme...
Statement: Sir Ian Diamond steps down as National Statistician
Today the UK Statistics Authority has announced the resignation of Sir Ian Diamond as the UK’s National Statistician. Since joining the organisation more than five and a half years ago, Sir Ian has l...
uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk
It’s wild that politicians don’t seem to grasp the degree to which universities contribute to the economy- local, regional, national. The failure to intervene is a stain on this govt - a shocking dereliction of duty to every worker, every local business, every student, every area that is suffering
Stephen Shapiro@stephenshapiro.bsky.social · last mo.UK to Universities: drop dead archive.is/PN5y7
Does signed prediction error influence declarative memory? This recent study takes a closer look - replicating prior findings, but uncovering an alternative explanation along the way! Doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01864-8
When you see the story about how the world now has its first trillionaire, and when you see the story about how laboratories in Congo have run out of supplies to test for Ebola, it is important to understand that in many ways these are the same story.
A reminder that Brazil banned Twitter for failing to stop the spreading of disinformation. There is nothing stopping the British government from doing the same.
Had my first (and probably last) attempt at Stand-Up comedy last night, about open science... drive.google.com/file/d/1MQGJ...
drive.google.com
Another thoughtful piece by Michael (of @colemanlab.bsky.social)…
Coleman Lab@colemanlab.bsky.social · 2mo agoNot all grant rejections are equal. Some are more devastating than others. As a researcher, how do you keep going in those moments? The latest Science Without Anguish blog post discusses a topic we need to talk about much, much more! www.sciencewithoutanguish.com/blog/when-a-...
Using a stochastic dynamical model, Grodem et al show that, before age 60, inter-individual differences in neuroanatomical volumes almost exclusively reflect stable differences between individuals, rather than systematic differences in rate-of-change: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1242
Excellent news! Nature is expanding Registered Reports to all the fields in which they publish! A great result by all those proposing this strong solution to publication bias and selective reporting (and getting expert feedback before data collection)! www.nature.com/articles/d41...
9. Consequently, many journals watered down their policies to just require a data-sharing statement. Ten years on, we have lots of data-sharing statements, but open IPD is strongly resisted and rarely happens unless mandated.
"Genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease is associated with loss of brain network segregation in midlife" - New paper published, co-authored by Professor Lorina Naci. Read the full paper here: https://ow.ly/fS1j50Z35L5 #Neuroscience @lorinanaci.bsky.social thenacilab.bsky.social TrinityNeuroscience
This country will not succeed with the current Brexit deal - it’s time to rip up the red lines, renegotiate and put our national interests first. Join the @labour4europe.bsky.social to back this call and find out how you can help our campaign.
Labour Movement for Europe@labour4europe.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe change this country needs is impossible if we stay trapped in a failed Brexit deal. It's time to rip up the red lines on Europe. Join our campaign today 👇
Sky News projecting a national vote share for Reform of 27%, based on results so far. That’s four points down on what they achieved in local elections last year. Somewhat of a counter to the prevailing narrative. More evidence that Reform appears to have peaked.
ReplicationResearch.org is now open for submissions! Submit replications and reproductions from many different fields, as well as conceptual contributions. With diamond OA, open and citable peer review reports, and reproducibility checks, we push the boundaries of open and fair publishing.
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
