In Stories for Healing Earth the odyssey, “An Open Pickup on the High Seas,” continues. In which my father, John Todd, escapes with his life by sail only to encounter a sea serpent. And over the years hunts down the scientific explanation behind the mythical beast. open.substack.com/pub/oceanark...

New preprint of a theoretical paper with @evanthompson.bsky.social. We discuss using information theoretic approaches to test the role of emergent interaction dynamics hypothesized by #ParticipatorySensemaking on attention and agency — using dance improv as a laboratory: osf.io/preprints/ps...

The Third Entity: Participatory Sense-Making, Agency, and Attentional Dynamics osf.io/preprints/ps... New paper by @beckety.bsky.social and yours truly.

I’m an Autistic classically trained chef and I wrote a food aversion acceptance cookbook and guide titled COLOR TASTE TEXTURE, that’s all about finding out what works for specific sensory needs and how to customize food for them. It’s useful for all ages, no cooking experience necessary.

Depression may impair avoidance of aversive events, and aversive events may increase depression. Here is one of the possible depressive loops. "Depression levels are associated with reduced capacity to learn to actively avoid aversive events in young adults." www.eneuro.org/content/earl...

New in #eNeuro from Tomm et al: The more depressive symptoms a person has, the more they struggle with learning to actively avoid unpleasant stimuli. @ubcpsych.bsky.social‬ https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0034-25.2025

I should also be sure to say that wrt building on @dr-stan.bsky.social's lab’s rodent research I should acknowledge that the direct inspiration came from some of the PhD research carried out by @ppiantad.bsky.social!

1. Media coverage of a new paper by @ryantomm.bsky.social w @brandonforys.com, @dr-stan.bsky.social et al. Building on Stan’s rodent work, Ryan found that > depression levels were associated w reduced capacity to learn to actively button-press to avoid a nasty sound www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

I just published a new substack on death and loss and radical hope when meaning as we know it slips from under our feet: open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

My mother, Nancy Jack Todd, died May 30. This substack note is my first of many articulations of a personal tribute to her. substack.com/@beckettodd/...

My mother-in-law, the inestimable Nancy Jack Todd, has left us. Here's a piece about her by her daughter and my partner, @beckety.bsky.social substack.com/@beckettodd/...

@beckety.bsky.social in dialogue with Yuri Celidwen and Gregoire Lamoureux: Participatory Sensemaking with the More than Human World open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

Here I interview two of my heroes, Yuria Celidwen and Gregoire Lamoureux, who articulate and foster our enmeshed relationship with the more than human world. We need what they are offering so desperately, I'm excited to amplify their words and actions here: open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

New Love and Philosophy podcast from @lovephilosophy.substack.com with me, aerial dancer/philosopher Shay Welch & "frequency barista" penijean gracefire on complexity fatigue & the "third entity" - the interactive process that takes on a life of its own lovephilosophy.substack.com/p/complexity...

This is a letter calling on Canadian federal party leaders asking them to make a historic investment in Canadian research sovereignty. If you're a Canadian researcher please sign it! CC @mark-carney.bsky.social @jagmeetsingh.ca 🍁 🧪 www.linkedin.com/posts/dylanm...

A review of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry in the journal Cognitive Neuropsychiatry www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... "an engaging and accessible account of the state of the art, through the words of some of the leading figures involved in mapping the psychiatric territory."

🧠 Are you completing a PhD in neuroscience or psychology and seek a competitive postdoc abroad? Join my lab at CIMeC as a Marie Curie Fellow. We study abstract concept from newborns to adult using fMRI, EEG & more. Reach out for ideas! Call opens May 8, 2025. 🔗https://r.unitn.it/en/cimec/per2con

Here's the link to the piece @liisagalea.bsky.social and I wrote for The Tyee on the threats to medical research funding buried in the Conservative party platform 😬

If elected, Poilievre’s government will “put an end to the imposition of woke ideology in the federal civil service and federal funds for university research.” The phrase is almost identical to wording used by the Trump administration. Catharine Winstanley and @liisagalea.bsky.social write.

Wonderful new piece by Steve Rose on my dad John Todd’s always-visionary work in ecological restoration and design, from the New alchemy Institute in the 1970s to today's vision of a fleet of sailing ships to clean up polluted coastal waters open.substack.com/pub/oceanark...

My paper reviewing how different neurodegenerative diseases affect autonomic function was just published.

𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 How can network science tackle complex biological systems? Substantially reworked version Largely conceptual, would be happy to see others fill in details or collaborate if people find it of value osf.io/preprints/os... #complexity

I'm now searching for new PhD students who are interested in studying how people's brains understand sequences of images like in comics. So, a mix of comics, cogneuro (EEG), and psycholinguistics (especially syntax/semantics). Please circulate to all who might be interested! tiu.nu/22739

New substack post on holding people in personhood when they are in danger of losing it in the eyes of the world — with artscientists Stefanie Blain-Moraes, Naomi Askenaizi Ariane Boulet.  open.substack.com/pub/becketto... in Personhood open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

I just published a new substack post focusing on "holding in personhood." Stefanie Blain-Moraes, Naomi Askenazi, & Ariane Boulet describe their work using dance, music, and technology to hold people in relationship when communication channels are restricted: open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

I just spent an 8 hour drive listening to Andrea Hiott's Love and Philosophy podcast. It's now officially my favorite podcast --fascinating conversations that get to the heart of what matters. Recommend! www.youtube.com/@waymaking23 @lovephilosophy.substack.com

PhD position in cognitive computational neuroscience! Join us, & investigate how we can endow domain-specific models of vision (eg DNNs) with domain-general processes such as metacognition or working memory. All details => www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... #PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

A mix of both success stories and concrete suggestions for solutions to tackle as yet unresolved issues, Todd's narrative provides an important addition to the conversation about specific ways we can address the planetary crisis.

...using windmills and injections of bacteria to restore the health of a polluted New England pond, working with community members in a South African village to protect an important river.

The book chronicles ecological interventions he has created over the course of his career. Each chapter offers a workable engineering solution to an existing environmental problem: healing the aftermath of mountain-top removal and valley-fill coal mining in Appalachia...

A stand-out from the sea of despairing messages about climate change, well-known sustainability elder John Todd, who has taught, mentored, and inspired such well-known names in the field as Janine Benyus, Bill McKibben, and Paul Hawken.

Just posted! My dad, ecological designer John Todd reading from his book, Healing Earth: Chap 3, Part 1 open.substack.com/pub/oceanark... Part 2 of Chap 3 can be found here: open.substack.com/pub/oceanark... Need to start with chap 1? Here it is! open.substack.com/pub/oceanark...

@brandonforys.com !

It's all motor cortex. Robust encoding of stimulus–response mapping by neurons in visual cortex doi.org/10.1073/pnas... #neuroscience

New preprint! We untangle glutamatergic and dopaminergic subpopulations in the ventral tegmental area. Long thread incoming, buckle up friends. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

"One of the central themes in theories of participatory sensemaking is communicating across difference. And there is a lot of difference. From the level of the senses on up. More, even, than we tend to think there is." by @beckety.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

I just published a new substack piece with Naila Kuhlmann, @penijean.bsky.social, & @neuroyogacara.bsky.social on multiple levels of sensory/perceptual/attentional/cultural difference that separate all of us, &their thoughts about how to communicate across them: open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

NEW PAPER: How do we advance mixed methods in mental health research? doi.org/10.1136/bmjm... Mixed methods are widely recognised as valuable in mental health research, but aren’t as embedded as we’d hope and there are a lot of challenges that individual researchers and teams must navigate… 1/

please retweet this ad for a tenured-research position in fMRI at ultra-high. Join us!

@brandonforys.com @twoodward.bsky.social @ninetlab.bsky.social

If you're looking for a neuroscience postdoc position, please consider applying - fantastic city, very welcoming community, and a PI who is both highly knowledgeable and very fun to work with as a person. Strongly recommended!

"Can a book be ahead of its time by 50 years?! The answer is a definitive ‘yes’ in the case of this phenomenal book by Francisco Varela. A real gem of a book about the philosophical foundations of biology and so much more." - Luiz Pessoa @pessoabrain.bsky.social mitpress.mit.edu/978026255140...

2) ...As well as the social and political implications of their thinking.

New post in which @participha.bsky.social and Ezekiel Di Paolo talk about the experiences and thinkers that influenced their concept of participatory sensemaking and how their ideas are evolving. What is Participatory Sensemaking and Why Should We Care? open.substack.com/pub/becketto...

Here are some examples of why a lot of autistic people can't tell what is pain - it's because we're taught to ignore are sensory sensitivities *which are actually painful* It's as if we are experiencing a chronic pain condition. autisticscienceperson.com/2021/03/29/a...

In the latest “This paper changed my life,” Luiz Pessoa @pessoabrain.bsky.social discusses the paper that taught him that mathematical modeling can be used to understand how neural networks are organized. www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...

After 6 years of writing/thumbnails and 1 year of finishes, I'm excited/relieved to say I've finally submitted my graphic novel, Speaking in Pictures, about the cognition of language, drawing, and visual communication! 😮‍💨 Can't wait for people to see it in print soon... www.visuallanguagelab.com/sip

Human brain dynamics are shaped by rare long-range connections over and above cortical geometry. Some new results to inform this debate. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...