Dopamine ≠ pleasure

1. I'm late to the party, but I've only recently finished @edyong209.bsky.social's An Immense World and highly recommend it. I don't know how he could pack so much detail into such a fluid prose, but the result is science writing at its best.

Thought-provoking. I fact, I highly recommend @daisychristo.bsky.social's whole substack to anyone interested in education. I've discovered it only recently but already read several essays, and every single one was interesting and insightful.

My essay for the blog of the APA is out: Could large language models really be conscious? blog.apaonline.org/2025/12/30/i...

Blog of the APA || I, Large Language Model: Could Large Language Models Really Be Conscious? https://blog.apaonline.org/2025/12/30/i-large-language-model-could-large-language-models-really-be-conscious/

Love this short opinion piece on “mechanical bypass” in analogy to “spiritual bypass”.

What do we measure when we measure pubertal development? Conceptual challenges in measuring and interpreting pubertal effects on #brain and #behavior HormBehav

Our paper on pubertal measures is finally out! What do we measure when we measure pubertal development? Conceptual challenges in measuring and interpreting pubertal effects on brain and behavior authors.elsevier.com/c/1lblI,QxXs... A preprint is also available here: osf.io/preprints/ps... +

Our review of puberty and the development of self-regulation/executive functions is finally out! We show that behavioral evidence don't fit well w/ standard models of adolescent cognitive development, and discuss ways to address current limitations. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Great talk by @matthewcobb.bsky.social on the life and times of Francis Crick. Can't wait for the book! www.youtube.com/live/JkXcteR...

"Yet living matter is not only order and information. Apollo may have crafted its fabric, but Dionysos rules its soul. Living matter has a dark side. It fights a lost battle against its own fragility and winds up scorched. It is a tragic matter."

Eve Marder wrote a nice piece about the importance of remembering in science back in 2017: doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Seems even more relevant now as large language models increasingly invade education...

Really nice, thought-provoking essay on (not) using LLMs in teaching. The authors focus on art history, but I think most of the arguments apply equally well to other fields.

I was inspired by all proposed uses of AI in education and decided to design an equivalent for physical training. The device will use AI to control a mechanical system that helps lift weights in the gym. I guarantee your weight-lifting productivity will skyrocket. Gym has never been so efficient!

Can someone share the most beautiful LaTex template for a general paper (not specific to a journal) please? Looking for something better...

This excellent interactive tutorial on misleading data visualizations explores the idea of a "counter chart" — the graph you draw in response to refute a misleading claims flowingdata.com/projects/dis...

Outro texto excelente por Sabine Pompeia: Os Mercadores Globais do Saber. Um olhar sobre o oligopólio das revistas científicas, como desviam recursos da pesquisa, a alternativa da Ciência Aberta e o esforço para sabotá-la. outraspalavras.net/tecnologiaem...

Artigo interessante de Sabine Pompeia e Luiz Marques sobre o "feudalismo científico": Na era das plataformas, a produção científica revive relações medievais. As Big Techs são os novos suseranos; os pesquisadores sujeitam-se a obrigações típicas dos servos. outraspalavras.net/tecnologiaem...

@physoc.bsky.social has a starter pack of physiologists. Hooray!! go.bsky.app/2KU1XD6

We posted a revised version of our systematic review on pubertal status and self-regulation/executive functions during adolescence on PsyArXiv: doi.org/10.31234/osf... We identified and discussed several methodological issues that significantly limit how informative this literature can be. 1/2

Reflective piece by Eve Marder – "What happened to the pursuit of truth" rupress.org/jgp/article/...

One would. "One would be excused to believe that scientists, in all their rationality and devotion to scientific ideals, would resist the stratagems used for brand construction." rupress.org/jgp/article-...

"Scholarly publishing has been shaped by the pressure of a liquid economy to become an exercise in branding more than a vehicle for the advancement of science. The current revolution in #AI is poised to make matters worse." 🧪 rupress.org/jgp/article/...

Eve Marder has a nice commentary on our paper out in the Journal of General Physiology: "What happened to the pursuit of truth?" doi.org/10.1085/jgp....

Out new paper is now online! We argue that the growing indiscriminate use of LLMs to speed up the production of papers threatens to worsen the already dysfunctional state of the scientific literature and its publishing industry. doi.org/10.1085/jgp....

"In the past, with fewer tools available, there was no way to impress others with fancy graphics, and often, this had the effect of sharpening the thinking" Very nice interview with Hanna Kokko: www.cell.com/news-do/50-i...

We have a new preprint! "The artificial intelligence revolution... in unethical publishing" We discuss how the use of large language models in science is likely to be shaped by current incentives to end up damaging the scientific literature. doi.org/10.31219/osf...

My paper on exploring undiscovered public knowledge in neuroscience is now online at EJN, as part of a special issue on the relevance of a philosophical toolkit for neuroscience: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author... The text is also available as a preprint here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

I've disagreed with Dennett about evolutionary theory and about rationalist tactics more than I've agreed with him, but his passing is a major loss for philosophy. Gift link below.

We have a new paper out! Here we use Harry Frankfurt's philosophical work on free will to clarify the relationship between adolescent risky behaviors and self-control: doi.org/10.1177/0165... (also available as a preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf... )

New preprint: Exploring undiscovered public knowledge in neuroscience osf.io/preprints/ps...