Deadline to submit your abstract to E.A.R.S. Early Career session is fast approaching!

My NIH update Let me start by saying again how glad I am that NIH is now posting these curves on the Reporter front page. It is satisfying that leading by example from outside has led to this change and (I hope) reflects a commitment for NIH_leadership™ to hold itself accountable for this. 1/6

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

Applications to present in the Early Career Session for the E.A.R.S. seminar series now open! www.med.upenn.edu/pennhearing/... The Early Career Seminar will feature four presentations, selected by the EARS organizing committee from submissions. Deadline: March 31: forms.gle/ScNp8exjEQ3A... .

New paper from the Geffen and @labhaas.bsky.social Laboratories just published! We find that the enigmatic thalamic reticular nucleus exerts bi-directional cell-specific control over sound processing. The super-thin sheet of inhibitory neurons is rather mighty and highly computationally relevant!

Which is why we are rallying NATIONWIDE TODAY!!! Visit standupforscience.net/march7 to attend your local National Day of Action Rally or host a pop-up rally if there is no rally near you! LET'S GET OUT THERE!!! #March7 #standupforscience #science #savescience #rally

Coolest class demo ever. What were the results?

Really enjoyed hosting the Daedalus Quartet for our systems neuroscience class and doing a mini experiment with them. We tested whether the musicians’ brains synchronized differently while playing music under different conditions (e.g. playing with metronome, while marching or just playing).

The deadline to apply for the Brain Prize Cajal summer course in Computational Neuroscience has been extended to March 9! We’re excited for you to join us in sunny Lisbon! Please do not hesitate to send in an application and learn about computational neuroscience! @gjorjulijana.bsky.social

Our protocol for a multi-laboratory adversarial collaboration to test multiple theories of consciousness is published! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... with @alleninstitute.org @fanispa.bsky.social

@zabj.bsky.social and I had a lot of fun testing whether our brains are synchronized. We’re practicing for my lecture next week on auditory neuroscience featuring the Daedalus Quartet.

In Cambridge in the 1970s, my dad, Colin Blakemore, worked and lectured on sensitive periods of sensory development. In my Cambridge undergrad lectures on this topic, I show a clip from one of his TV shows, which describes sensitive periods for sound categorisation, and features Prof Janet Werker:

A special year for the Cajal Course in Computational Neuroscience: the BRAIN Prize winners Haim Sompolinsky and Larry Abbott will join us as keynote speakers. And we will bring you the same great roster of instructors as every year. Applications are now open! cajal-training.org/on-site/comp...

Question re new biosketch format on sciEnv: under the previous nih biosketch format, we could list 5 references under personal statement and then additional 4 references per contribution to science (up to 25 references total). It seems that now it’s down to 10 references total. Is that right?

While I’m a big fan of new technologies that help us study human biology…there’s still no replacement for animal research! See my article in Gen News. www.genengnews.com/topics/trans...

#NIH colleagues fight for true #HHS leadership. Health has no political affiliation. Sign the #BethesdaDeclaration if you agree.

NEW: Democracy is alive in Philly! Amazing scenes in Philadelphia as thousands hit the streets for the anti-Trump protest. #NoKings #50501Movement

A great deal of hope in these uncertain times for the autism community— Jeffrey Lurie and family announced a large gift to create the Penn-CHOP Lurie Autism Research Institute to support cross-disciplinary and collaborative research. Let’s go do it! www.inquirer.com/health/upenn...

Thank you @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social for standing up. We all appreciate you and your colleagues for your courage!

Today, my NIH colleagues and I did something scary but really important. We spoke up about egregious harms we are seeing happen to research participants and public health through thoughtless and politicized policies at NIH. 🧵1/3 apnews.com/article/nih-...

"We are speaking on behalf of hundreds of NIH staff who are standing up together to say: WE DISSENT. I am so scared about doing this but I am trying to be brave for my kids because it's only gonna get harder to speak up." Thank you to Dr. Jenna Norton and NIH scientists for your courage!

If you weren't angry enough already, here are the rates of non-competitive renewals through May. 4008 Non-competitive renewals were due to be funded in May. The total funded was 99! Some is due to terminations, but most is due to slow grant making due to DOGE review and other impediments. 1/2

Sign on to support the NIH staff in their demand to restore funding and infrastructure for life-saving research!

Also—I direct the science communication nonprofit @your.neighborhoodscientist.org ! Check us out at neighborhoodscientist.org 😊

Huge thanks to all my colleagues for your generous contributions! The Eagles Autism Challenge 5K was a blast! It was amazing to end the run at the stadium. And it’s not too late to donate to the foundation that does so much for autism research and accommodations through the link below!

So sad to hear this @hhmi.org program that supports talented young scientists is cancelled, especially after the application deadline. Audrey came up with a really exciting project and worked so hard on her application!

Thanks for another fabulous EARS season. As we're preparing for next year's edition, we are soliciting feedback and suggestions. Please fill out this survey with your suggestions by 5/20/25: forms.gle/R64F9V3Wz7uf...

Tune it at 1 pm ET today!

EARS seminar tomorrow, Tuesday, May 13 1 pm ET: Maria Chait (the Ear Institute, UCL) @mariachait.bsky.social “Inferring Instantaneous Auditory Attention from Ocular Dynamics” pennmedicine.zoom.us/j/96672201477.

Everybody has that one VIP friend who boosts you up by dragging all your other buddies down.

Excited to share my PhD paper is out! We studied how motion vision is processed beyond the optic lobes to help flies walk straight. It has been a wonderful collaboration with @michaelreiser.bsky.social, @dddavi.bsky.social and many others not in bluesky! Paper + digest here: bsky.app/profile/cham...

Congratulations to Adrienne Fairhall, Prof. of Neurobiology and Biophysics, Adjunct Prof. of Applied Mathematics, and Adjunct Prof. of Physics, who has just been elected to the National Academy of Sciences! 🍾 🎉

Please support me in the 5K to benefit the Philadelphia Eagles Autism Foundation and help me reach my goal! The Eagles Foundation supports neuroscience research and sets up wonderful initiatives around Philly to help children like my son. fundraisers.eaglesautismfoundation.org/maria-geffen

Censoring mis/disinformation research is just the beginning. All scientific research in the US is under threat. Now is the time for scientists in all fields to act. Some small steps each of us can take:

As a mother of a wonderful, talented, and quirky autistic child and as a circuits neuroscientist, I am immensely grateful to the Simons Foundation for the opportunity to launch a research program on identifying the neuronal circuits that underlie auditory processing differences in autism.

ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years. 1/n

We are excited to announce our new Simons Collaboration on Ecological Neuroscience (SCENE)! This program will unite experts in experimental and computational #neuroscience approaches to investigate how the brain represents sensorimotor interactions. www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s... #science

The canceled grands are shock and awe, but the real damage will come from the long-term (massive) reductions in funding to the entire US research ecosystem and the defunding of entire fields and initiatives for training, growing, and diversifying the research workforce.

Celebrating two PhD defenses this week: Congrats, Dr. Ding and Dr. Collina! You both did a terrific job and I feel very grateful for the privilege of serving as your mentor!

An autism "registry" culled from private medical records could potentially violate federal privacy laws and runs the risk of abuse. It also harkens back to a time when disabled people were labeled, segregated, and excluded. We won't go back.

Non-Competitive Renewals Rate for FY2025 now looks similar to FY2024 but no evidence to making up the gap 2/2

Updated funding curves... Data downloaded today, but plotted through 4/15 to correct for NIH Reporter lag time). New and Competitive Renewal Awards first Awards being made but the rate remains lower than normal 1/2

This work with Alan Stocker, @lingqiz.bsky.social, and Jiang Mao is now in print. We benefited from very thoughtful reviewers. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

“A groundbreaking microscope at Harvard Medical School could lead to breakthroughs in cancer detection and research into longevity. But the scientist who developed computer scripts to read its images and unlock its full potential has been in an immigration detention center for two months”

If you, like me, have spent some time squinting at the leaked NIH reorganization plan, squint no more! Here is a summary of the proposed reorganization courtesy of chatGPT. www.science.org/do/10.1126/s...

Was just pointed to this important preprint from @minsanally.bsky.social : www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4... tl;dr: classically "non-responsive" cells are preferentially recruited by top-down inputs and are critical for learning. So, my neuro-friends: Don't ignore untuned cells!!!! 🧠📈 🧪

RFK Jr.’s lies about autism are disgraceful — and I won't share them to spread misinformation. He consistently undermines public health and reinforces dangerous myths. In Illinois, we stand with those with autism, and I’ll keep fighting for inclusion, science, and the truth.

This was me. Terminated from #NIMHBSC with no explanation. Complete gov interference in the #NIH intramural research program oversight and review - telling NIH researchers what science they can do and who can do it. Not a positive outlook for scientific discovery, innovation, or health. 👇👇