Part 1 focused on the roadblocks brain research has faced; here, in part 2, we talk about how the field is shifting to find solutions. Among all the podcasts I’ve done for Elusive Cures, this is perhaps the clearest description of its optimistic message. Thank you for bringing that out, Hedi.

Part 1 focused on the roadblocks brain research has faced; here, in part 2, we talk about how the field is shifting to find solutions. Among all the podcasts I’ve done for Elusive Cures, this is perhaps the clearest description of its optimistic message. Thank you for bringing that out, Hedi.

OH MY GOD YES YES YES

Big wow! Wonderful listen on my commute home. My 2 cents is that what @antihebbiann.bsky.social is talking about here (biological mechanisms for computation that interface with brain activity but go beyond it, like hormones) is the next big impactful thing, and she's among those leading the way 🤩.

This is amazing! The company behind it is uniQure and it's a type of gene therapy. Does anyone know the story about the preclinical work leading up to it? It know a lot about the discovery of the HTT mutation (an amazing story!). I'm curious about this specific microRNA approach: who developed it?

Let's be clear: no one should be taking medical advice from the man who told Americans to inject bleach. To moms worried about the Tylenol they took while pregnant: you deserve better than being RFK Jr's scapegoat. And to the autism community: you are loved exactly as you are.

Happening today!

Autistic people deserve much better, my latest www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/o...

@pessoabrain.bsky.social talks to @wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @aliyarumana.bsky.social and Peter Ulric Tse about the need for neuroscience’s traditional mechanistic framework to give way to a richer understanding of how brains generate behavior. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...

2024 Swedish study on 2.5M people's data: "Acetaminophen use during pregnancy was not associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability... This suggests that associations observed in other models may have been attributable to confounding." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I once saw a (very interesting) talk about sleep in which the speaker started by saying that we don't really know how to define sleep, and then proceeded to operationalize sleep in flies as basically periods when they are still for a long time. This got me thinking...

I'm near speechless. @awaisaftab.bsky.social heard was I was trying to say (and added his own insights). Thank you for engaging with Elusive Cures so thoughtfully, Awais. I'm so appreciative.

This is one of the most outstanding examples of circuit understanding I've seen in a long time. The unification of theory and experiment is beautiful. When Malcolm presented this in my lab, the audience was cheering at the end, and one person shouted (non-ironically) "You did it!"

Yea, as a journalist, I really appreciate when scientists reach out to let me know a paper is coming out. Just a couple sentences is great along with a link to the preprint or a pdf of the paper. Typically, these are scientists who have read my work on similar topics.

For those of you mulling this over, you might enjoy this workshop! We'll be discussing both the "whys" behind broadening communication around your science (over and under) AND how to accomplish it - not just with your own elbow grease, but also by connecting with others (like your Uni com folks).

Your article was just published in a journal—what’s next? Join this upcoming webinar to hear tips and strategies to promote your work. Register now! 🔗 vist.ly/47abu #neurosky #neuroskyence

Only single cell sequencing of the all these post docs will reveal why

Fantastic piece in Nature Reviews Neuro by @nicolecrust.bsky.social on the importance of science communication. My take? Everything matters - just do something. It will make a difference for how science is valued and trusted, how community understands. Let's get out there and communicate! 👏

Congrats @natrevneuro.nature.com! I enjoyed your editorial. Things have come a long way in the last 25 years, haven’t they? I admire shaking things up a bit on big birthdays; may we all. And thank you for including me in your first WorldView. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A spatially resolved transcriptomic atlas of the primate amygdala (human, macaque, and baboon) now out in Science Advances (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). The amygdala contains 32 types of neurons with many neuron types specific to particular subdivisions. Lots of updates from the preprint!

I wonder if researchers who study attention and researchers who study emotion are aware about the strong parallel controversies regarding the theoretical targets? Let me describe them.

New funding opportunity from the BRAIN Initiative! Applications due Oct 28! grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

A rare day when an email task sparks joy:

Happy birthday to us! 🥳 In 2003, we launched with just four employees in a small, rented laboratory working together towards a big goal - map the entire mammalian brain in a way the world had never seen. 🧠📈 #OpenScienceWeek

*puts hand up* if you are looking for platforms to get your biomedical research out there I can provide one! Just DM me!

Happening in 1 week. Open to all (just register). We'll be discussing both the "How" AND the "Why" (over/under) on Getting Attention for Your Science. Including some too well kept secrets about how to connect with to your Uni's Comms people (Yes, they exist and they are probably wonderful!).

Just published in World Psychiatry our study "Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing" . Amazing work led by @ophirnetzer.bsky.social with the brave survivors of the Nova festival attack. Huge team effort, thx to all! 👉 doi.org/10.1002/wps....

(1/10) We’re excited to share our new preprint (doi.org/10.1101/2025...), which uncovers the spatiomolecular landscape of the human nucleus accumbens (NAc), by integrating snRNA-seq with Visium spatial transcriptomics across 10 control donors. 🧠 #NAcLIBD #snRNAseq #10xVisium

I don't know that it works perfectly, but I have to say that the Asta search tool from @ai2.bsky.social is exactly what I want from an AI-powered research search tool for scientists: Describe a style of experiment or work and see if there are papers that have done that. asta.allen.ai/chat

This is an incredible development for all types of conditions. Including neuromodulation for depression (like TMS) which is currently largely limited to the brain's surface whereas some of the most relevant bits of the mood network lie deep in the brain (subcallosal cingulate, insula ...).

I think about this diagram a lot. This is a *simplified* schematic of *some of* the brain regions and circuits involved in behavioral control. (From: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...)

I'm doing this: publicusaresearchbenefits.com . Join me. Is it the best thing to do? I don't know. If you can think of something that fits you better, then do that! 💪🏼But do something. And don't forget that science thrives on freedom, democracy, and strong institutions. We need to defend those too.

was reminded of this from more Epstein news, so I checked out Nowak's wiki page it had been what wikipedians call 'refbombed' : 50+ citations to fancy papers, a ton of text on books and awards etc, seemingly to avoid negative attention on the Epstein stuff I've edited accordingly & others can too

1/ Something surreal happened to me recently 🍀 I ordered “A Feeling for the Organism” — Evelyn Fox Keller’s biography of #BarbaraMcClintock, the 1983 Nobel prize winner who discovered “jumping genes.” 🧬

What scientific article(s) address strategies for how to make scientific articles more digestable (eg to the public) while also maintaining the precision required for accurate and precise scientific communication?

Intriguing (and confusing) that we use the term "depression" to refer to both to a symptom and a condition. Unlike "schizophrenia" (eg symptom "psychosis"). The term "depression" began to appear in medical dictionaries mid-1800s. Before that, "melancholia". pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3074848/

If you run a life science lab where research has either significantly slowed or shut down completely due to Trump administration policies, I’d like to hear your story. I'm a biotech and life sciences reporter for @statnews.com, and you can reach me at [email protected] #journorequest

They’re asking! And I KNOW you ECRs have thoughts. It’s worth taking the time to share them, I think! I know that individuals in positions to do things want to know what you need (so they can help).

Strong emergence

My head is still spinning from my visit to Columbia U's @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social earlier this week. Big wow. Among the highlights: seeing my friend @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social thrive 🤩 and meeting their (get! this!) public engagement team, including @dianateuthis.bsky.social (amazing! follow!)

Great opportunity to learn to use fancy neural data analysis tools developed at the @flatironinstitute.org. Sign up for this workshop at SFN 2025!

Well this is nice to see! 😊

Leafing Through Science is a terrific podcast focused on science nonfiction (books). I really enjoyed this conversation about Elusive Cures with Hedi, who is so thoughtful and well read. Thanks for having me!

“Species” is a lot like “emotion”: hard to define in ways that everything fits nicely + a long history of debate (including Darwin for both cases). www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-it-so...

Excited to be featured in today’s @nature.com article about scientists standing up to Trump. I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines, especially when something I believe so deeply in—science funding that saves lives—is under attack. Read more here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Dean Peter Struck and I discuss the Roman roots of the liberal arts tradition, how AI is changing the college experience, and charting curriculum for the 21st century in the new Ampersand podcast. Listen to full episode here: https://bit.ly/42prYev @upenn.edu @sas.upenn.edu

The UVA Clinical Psychology area is hiring! We're looking for someone whose research is at the intersection of youth mental health and digital technology. I love my colleagues and Charlottesville and would love to have you as a colleague! Please RT apply.interfolio.com/172895

I'm happy to now be able to share a talk I gave at TEDx New England last Fall!  The talk is about our lab's work on what makes decisions costly, and how to make them less so. I discuss lessons for all kinds of decisions, including getting people to vote. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeHg...

The NIMH Director job announcement and search is back on: hr.nih.gov/jobs/search/... The NIMH Director provides executive direction and scientific leadership for NIMH, overseeing a $2.3 billion budget and ~1600 employees, trainees, and contractors. Up for the challenge 😉? Apply!