On this evening!

Come along if you're at SfN on Monday next week! #SfN25

Come along if you'll be at SfN!

Remembering past winners and nominations for the Aspirational Neuroscience Awards!

Memory Decoding advances nominated for 2025 Aspirational Neuroscience Awards!

If people with advanced dementia really do sometimes cognitively recover just before death, i.e. terminal lucidity is real, it means that even severely damaged brains can have their function restored. It's crazy that science hasn't investigated this properly yet open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

If people with advanced dementia really do sometimes cognitively recover just before death, i.e. terminal lucidity is real, it means that even severely damaged brains can have their function restored. It's crazy that science hasn't investigated this properly yet open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

Sydney people: I'm giving a talk at #SXSWSydney on Mon afternoon hosted by Tom Nash focusing on survey results of hundreds of neuroscientists on their thoughts about the feasibility of brain preservation for eventual uploading. Come check it out! www.sxswsydney.com/lineup?date=...

Sydney people: I'm giving a talk at #SXSWSydney on Mon afternoon hosted by Tom Nash focusing on survey results of hundreds of neuroscientists on their thoughts about the feasibility of brain preservation for eventual uploading. Come check it out! www.sxswsydney.com/lineup?date=...

When writing a chapter on how optogenetics enables memory manipulation (forced recall, erasure, etc), I was shocked that there were no popular science books that already covered the topic. I'm glad to see that's finally been remedied! Very much excited to read this.

New #preprint out! In this paper @naotsuchiya.bsky.social and I take a look at the current debate on theories of #consciousness from a #meta-theoretical standpoint, and we argue that there is an ongoing process of #schismogenesis in consciousness science. [1/n] www.researchgate.net/publication/...

"I'd accepted losing my husband, until others started getting theirs back" open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

Melbourne people, I'll be giving a talk at the @wheelercentre.bsky.social tomorrow. It's part of the Now or Never festival's theme this year: "I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE" - very on topic for my book! nowornever.melbourne.vic.gov.au/event/twc-ta...

However much you appreciate sewers, it's not enough. Great piece on how our lives have gotten less shitty throughout history. www.asimov.press/p/sewers?r=4...

@spencrgreenberg.bsky.social grilled me on: 1. Why do humans live 80 years, instead of 20 or 300? 2. How has the understanding of death changed over time? 3. If someone walks into a teleporter, who comes out the other end? Was a great discussion! podcast.clearerthinking.org/episode/276/...

Eating a delicious lunch is definitely the right place to make the case for an unlimited lifespan. Great piece by Cass Knowlton in @theageaustralia.bsky.social on my work and how it might help people enjoy great food indefinitely www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

"The treatment works like this: doctors use a modified teleporter that targets just one cubic centimeter of brain tissue at a time. That tiny chunk gets scanned, disintegrated, and instantly rebuilt in the exact same spot - minus any disease proteins." open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

Awake, asleep or drugged? This #PreRegistered study in flies by @naotsuchiya.bsky.social &co uses a data-driven approach to search for markers that can determine the individual performance of time-series features in distinguishing levels of #consciousness @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/44xzIeE

Do synapses come in analog or binary strengths? Come discuss tomorrow!

If proponents of brain preservation/biostasis/cryonics want the field to become mainstream science, we need standards for what counts as a well-preserved brain. To become mainstream medicine, we need 3rd-party reviews and accreditation. The Brain Preservation Foundation wants to make this happen 1/n

Join tomorrow 3 pm PDT! Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry - carboncopies.org/Events/Journ... #neuroscience #memory #decoding #hippocampus #consolidation

New paper showing cryopreservation & subsequent functional/electrophysiological recovery in both 1. hippocampal slices 2. partially in whole mouse brains (!) Great discussion of how to deal with osmotic shrinkage too www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

What do neuroscientists think is the physical basis of long-term memory? Could memory theoretically be read out from a static snapshot of brain structure? Our survey of hundreds of participants has just been published! 1/🧵

Melbourne people, On Wed 27 Aug, I'll be giving a talk at the State Library (Wheeler Centre) about: -why we die -how by preserving someone's brain, we can stop them from dying -many other weird and fun things from my new book nowornever.melbourne.vic.gov.au/event/twc-ta...

Vale @helendecruz.net open.substack.com/pub/helendec...

"How much delay could the brain withstand between the moment of death and the moment perfusion started? ...After hundreds of experiments on rats and mice, I found my answer: 12 minutes." @asteriskmag.bsky.social asteriskmag.com/issues/10/br...

"How much delay could the brain withstand between the moment of death and the moment perfusion started? ...After hundreds of experiments on rats and mice, I found my answer: 12 minutes." @asteriskmag.bsky.social asteriskmag.com/issues/10/br...

Come discuss how the cortex stores long-term memories with @aspirationalneuro.bsky.social on Tuesday when we discuss 'Neocortical synaptic engrams for remote contextual memories' by Lee et al (2023). Details here: aspirationalneuroscience.org/nlm-journal-...

Join us at the Memory Decoding journal club! "Structure and function of the hippocampal CA3 module" June 3 - carboncopies.org/Events/Journ... #aspirationalneuroscience, #memorydecoding, #hippocampus, #EM, #reconstruction

Join us at the Memory Decoding journal club! "Structure and function of the hippocampal CA3 module" June 3 - carboncopies.org/Events/Journ... #aspirationalneuroscience, #memorydecoding, #hippocampus, #EM, #reconstruction

Are you a memory/engram researcher or know someone who is? Consider nominating a paper for one of the Aspirational Neuroscience's $25,000 Annual Research Awards given "To honor and highlight research into how learning and memory are physically encoded in the brain." aspirationalneuroscience.org

"How sure are we that each of the green-colored structures are axons as opposed to dendrites, or microglia, oligodendrocyte, or astrocyte processes? 95% sure? 99%? 99.9%?" neurobiology.substack.com/p/action-pot...

Highlights from Biostasis Week at Vitalitist Bay, including: 1. Problems with brain shrinkage in humans 2. Success with cryo-only methods in mice 3. Nectome's plans for perfect preservation Great to see so many people working on stopping ageing and pausing death! open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

Just got to SFO and excited to give a talk and hear from others at Biostasis Week! Going to be presenting survey data on what probabilities neuroscientists assign to the possibility of decoding memories from preserved brains. www.vitalistbay.com/biostasis

If decoding memories from preserved brains seems like science-fiction by today’s standards, consider that these guys have now (partially) figured out how to read a burned and buried scroll from two thousand years ago by cleverly analysing 3D X-rays of the still-rolled-up scrolls tinyurl.com/3p8y7w73

"a protocol that physically expands brain tissue while preserving structural integrity, and at the same time chemically labels all proteins in order to provide the image contrast necessary for tracing neurons and detecting other cellular structures such as synapses." goo.gle/4maUNUs

My 'Australian Federal Election Policies Spreadsheet' makes a return for 2025, as requested by some of you. It includes a "make your own how-to-vote" creator on the second tab. If you spot any egregious errors or have any comments, please let me know. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Memory Decoding Journal Club tomorrow with @AspirationNeuro "Fear learning induces synaptic potentiation between engram neurons in the rat lateral amygdala" by Abatis et al., presented by @KennethHayworth April 22 10:00 PM UTC carboncopies.org/aspirational... All welcome!

Claim that people can see color outside of the usual human gamut through laser-induced activation of solely M cones. Cool study, with color-matching results to back it up. But all they provide for subjective reports are "hue naming and saturation reports" :( www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"...the hypothalamus is often still mostly working in patients otherwise declared brain dead. While not at all compatible with the legal notion of ‘whole-brain’ death, this is quietly but consistently ignored by the medical community." open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

"...the hypothalamus is often still mostly working in patients otherwise declared brain dead. While not at all compatible with the legal notion of ‘whole-brain’ death, this is quietly but consistently ignored by the medical community." open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

If you're in Brisbane, come have a drink and a chat with me and some other scientists tomorrow!

Everyone dies... ... until Joseph doesn't. Until Anne doesn't. Until Clyde doesn't. Until Ashanthi doesn't. Until Moisés doesn't. Until Emily doesn't. open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

Everyone dies... ... until Joseph doesn't. Until Anne doesn't. Until Clyde doesn't. Until Ashanthi doesn't. Until Moisés doesn't. Until Emily doesn't. open.substack.com/pub/preservi...

A short paper in AP&P - from yours truly - on a study of partial-reporting of positions in random dot displays: rdcu.be/eehcH

Great Kurzgesagt video on predicting reality & cognitive neuroscience youtu.be/wo_e0EvEZn8?...

I was on Australian radio for an hour today with the ABC's Conversations show: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

I'm going to be in Japan in April. Anyone want to meet up? Any suggestions for fun things I should do and that aren't obvious tourist attractions?

"Modern medicine's seemingly paradoxical stance - simultaneously declaring death 'healthy' while working tirelessly to prevent it - parallels the cognitive dissonance of some 19th century surgeons." Eli and I argue doctors should acknowledge desires for longer lives www.amjmed.com/article/S000...

The Memory Decoding Challenge: A $100,000 prize for decoding a "non-trivial" memory from a preserved brain Read about it here: open.substack.com/pub/preservi...