So… we just found out that GPT sol can complete a complex online behavioral/cognitive study producing nearly indistinguishable behavior and subjective reports… right as we are about to launch. Is this doomsday for online cognitive testing?
Vincent Giampietro
@vincentgiampietro.bsky.social
Neuroscientist at @kingsioppn.bsky.social & @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social. French chatterbox and musicbox floating in a most peculiar way in Sarf London since the late 20th century...
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your #fmri results? Have you been worried about potential reproducibility issues? Well, this new @natmethods.nature.com article with 40+ coauthors shows how the simple change to transparent thresholding helps both. Go Figure! rdcu.be/B4tikBETdQZa
I am spending a fun few hours doing QA on one of my recorded lectures, going back and forth multiple times on each slide. I am constantly being reminded of my French accent, while in my head it all sounds like received pronunciation!
Cormier Denis: French Accent Strawberry
ALT: Cormier Denis: French Accent Strawberry
static.klipy.com
First there was the eclipse and then lying in the garden at midnight watching shooting stars, musing about the wonders of the universe and of the brain whilst listening to Mary in the Junkyard's great first album, with one cat asleep on me. That was a good night!
New Muscles (Official Video)
YouTube video by mary in the junkyard
youtu.be
Brilliant. It is actually worth watching the whole rehearsal documentary (available online...) for more fun like that
Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 2mo agoWatch David Bowie & Annie Lennox in Rehearsal, Singing “Under Pressure,” with Queen (1992)
Why should neuroscientists engage with the public? Dr @susannahcwalker.bsky.social reflects on the lng.org.uk #BYOB programme and shares: 💬 Advice for getting started ✨ Favourite moments ⚡ Challenges and lessons learned 🏆 Tips for the BNA #PublicEngagement Award www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhKN...
Susannah Walker BNA Public Engagement Prize Winner 2025
YouTube video by British Neuroscience Association
youtube.com
Ah yes, disappearing regularly to read when you have guests... I may have done that... a lot!
DiscordianKitty⭐@discordiankitty.bsky.social · 3mo agoMy husband has never been a reader but he bought Project Hail Mary to read on the train. He's almost through it and now today we're having guests over, and he keeps disappearing upstairs to read. So that's it, it's happened, he's a reader now.
Somehow I don't think that I will be taking on that student for an internship this summer... "While exploring research groups at King's College London, I became particularly interested in your work on [specific topic]."
Simon Cowell Says No No No
ALT: Simon Cowell Says No No No
static.klipy.com
It is great to know that the rooftop ward is finally open across the road! Congratulations @kingscollegenhs.bsky.social! I wonder how it will be there when helicopters are coming & going?
UK's first rooftop intensive care ward opens at King's College Hospital
The outdoor ward, at King's College Hospital in London, will monitor how much it boosts the recovery of seriously ill patients.
bbc.co.uk
Really nice discussion on Gödel Incompleteness Theorems. This led to so much hair pulling back in the days, that it may explain why I am now bald! I incompletely blame maths...
Quanta Magazine@quantamagazine.org · 4mo agoAt age 25, Kurt Gödel proved there can never be a mathematical “theory of everything.” In this week’s Qualia column, @nattyover.bsky.social asks experts how his ideas changed the course of humanity’s unending search for truth. www.quantamagazine.org/what-do-gode...
Yesterday I argued that cognitive "modules" could be seen as deep nonlinear networks, which could interact via linear (or linear-ish) mappings between their outputs, because deep networks can output rich representations suitable for linear decoding. bsky.app/profile/neur... But you might ask...
Neuroskeptic@neuroskeptic.bsky.social · 4mo agoHere's some quick thoughts on something I've been thinking about for a while: One of the books that most influenced me about cognitive science was The Modularity of Mind by Jerry Fodor (1983). (1/N)
Help me identify the dimensions of hypercuriosity by participating in this anonymous online study, and/or by sharing with others - thanks so much in advance! qualtrics.kcl.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_...
Just discovered a recording of a classic 1994 "Hard Problem of Consciousness" lecture from David Chalmers. This reminds me of my student days, including the dodgy haircut and pre-PowerPoint. Perfect for lunchtime viewing whilst munching.
David Chalmers on the Hard Problem of Consciousness (Tucson 1994)
YouTube video by NYU Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness
youtube.com
In the 17th century, Johannes Kepler calculated the densest way to pack circles or spheres. Today, biophysicists are using his ideas to example how chloroplasts pack optimally in a plant cell.
The Hidden Mathematical Dance Inside Plant Cells | Quanta Magazine
The sunlight-collecting organelles known as chloroplasts solve a packing problem: how to optimize photosynthesis without sustaining damage from dangerously intense rays.
quantamagazine.org
I had vaguely heard of "one-shot learning" brain plasticity and this @quantamagazine.bsky.social article by Yasemin Saplakoglu offers a good overview of what “behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity" (BTSP) is / could be.
A New Type of Neuroplasticity Rewires the Brain After a Single Experience | Quanta Magazine
“Neurons that fire together, wire together” is not the full story. A novel mechanism explains how the brain can learn across longer timescales.
quantamagazine.org
A spooky classic, both the poem and this The Simpsons' episode segment. The annual The Treehouse of Horror episodes coming out for Halloween were always my favourites.
Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe Simpsons Present Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” and Teachers Now Use It to Teach Kids the Joys of Literature
Sobering and really interesting episode of this great podcast. It is good to hear a balanced, reasonable view on what AI will be and probably won't be able to do.
Why Superintelligence Won’t Cure Cancer
Spotify video
open.spotify.com
How do exclusion and adversity drive social learning in adolescence? Here, @drjk.bsky.social, Lyn Ellett and I show that social exclusion reduces adolescent belief flexibility about others at a later point in time, and reduces the ability to generalise from social cues - 🧵 1/5
From labs to Glastonbury 🎪🧠 BNA Local Groups brought SenseShift to the festival to explore perception, mental health & neurodiversity with the public. This is what happens when local ideas get support. Want to be part of it? Join your local BNA group www.bna.org.uk/resource/sen...
Senseshift: BNA Local Groups bring Public Engagement to Glastonbury Festival
What is real to you?
bna.org.uk
From dementia prediction to brain-inspired AI - and the ethics in between. One day. Big questions. Register here: bna.org.uk/events/aiand... #ArtificialIntelligence #Neuroscience #AI #BrainScience #HealthcareInnovation #Neurotechnology #Research
Really cool hyperscanning research from up the road. We should get you down to the @kingsioppn.bsky.social to present this @emre-yavuz-21.bsky.social !
Emre Yavuz@emre-yavuz-21.bsky.social · 6mo ago📣 So happy to share with you the results of my main PhD study, where two human predators worked together to hunt a human prey in Minecraft, and had their brains scanned simultaneously using fNIRS 🎮🧠 We find that the brains of the predators are synchronised in the prefrontal cortex during hunting! 💡
When Soviet Youth Bootlegged Western Rock Music on Discarded X‑Rays: Hear Original Audio Samples
When Soviet Youth Bootlegged Western Rock Music on Discarded X‑Rays: Hear Original Audio Samples
A catchy tribute to mid-century Soviet hipsters popped up a few years back in a song called “Stilyagi” by lo-fi L.A. hipsters Puro Instinct. The lyrics tell of a charismatic dude who impresses “all th...
openculture.com
If you have ever wondered what is involved in proposing a new emoji, check out @neilcohn.bsky.social 's proposal for the newly released Fight Cloud emoji.
Neil Cohn@neilcohn.bsky.social · 6mo agoThis week's new iPhone update has the release of the newest set of emoji, including the Fight Cloud emoji created by @jenniferdaniels.bsky.social and me! You can read our original proposal here: www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/242...
Watch Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mind-Bending Masterpiece Free Online h
Watch Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Mind-Bending Masterpiece Free Online
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett about the movie Stalker (1979). “I hadn't seen anything like it before and I haven't really seen anything like it since. Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film in the USSR...
openculture.com
Did you know King’s is home to one of the largest tissue banks in the UK? This #BrainAwarenessWeek, Dr Claire Troakes invites us into the London Neurodegenerative Diseases Brain Bank – driving neuroscience research both in King’s and around the world. @kingsioppn.bsky.social #ScienceAtKings
It's fine, we can just sit outside on the pavement to do our non-digital research.
Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 7mo agoUniversities have been told not use Research England infrastructure funding to build new laboratories as non-digital research capital budgets are set to fall by a quarter within two years #AcademicSky #highered