Neuroscientist in training @cerebellum-lover - Tumblr Blog

On the one hand, reading research is fun and exciting and I get to learn new things and do science and junk. Then on the other hand.... I have to read the research

honeebeeyellow

On the one hand, reading research is fun and exciting and I get to learn new things and do science and junk. Then on the other hand.... I have to read the research

literallymechanical

This is a contender for my new favorite fusion paper. How does it feel to be the realest god damn scientist on the planet Dr. Smiet

wtf-scientific-papers

“The research for this paper was completed in 1972, and Jim and I began writing it in that same year but then got distracted for several decades by other projects. In 2000, Jim completed a first draft and gave it to me with some public fanfare on the occasion of my 60th Birthday Symposium. I then let it languish until Jim‘s 80th Birthday Symposium in 2019, when I gave him a second draft with similar public fanfare.” (Hartle, James; Thorne, Kip S. Slowly Rotating Relativistic Stars: VII. Gravitational Radiation from the Quasi-Radial Modes. https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.05436)

[Submitter’s note: While this paper isn’t technically peer-reviewed, I have decided to submit it anyway due to the length of time the paper was in progress and the notability of the authors. Up to the mod whether this posts.)

Ed.: We’ll allow this one.

erbiumspectrum

I know my professor is a master of not responding to emails but he is currently outperforming himself and I am 🤏 about to set outlook to automatically send him an email every 15 minutes just so he has to say SOMETHING, even if it's only "miss Lena for fuck's sake" just so I know he's alive and I don't have to start looking for a new thesis supervisor

erbiumspectrum

Bestie said to spam email him memes, where's that tiktok ss that goes "baking because killing your thesis supervisor is wrong"

erbiumspectrum

Him: [happily ignoring my emails bc he knows classes haven't started yet so I'm back in my hometown and can't just strut to his office randomly to torment him in person]

Me who has to go to the dean's office on Thursday:

erbiumspectrum

So it is Thursday. I go to my supervisor's office on the third floor and knock on the door. Obviously, he isn't there, as predicted. I check the spectro lab on the same floor - it's closed. One last chance: the wet lab on the eighth floor, although I don't really believe it myself. But let's try! I get on the elevator and press 8. The elevator goes down to pick up somebody else, stops at the ground floor, the door slides open and lo and behold! Serendipitously! There is - not my thesis supervisor. But his PhD student! He gets in, we say hi, and I ask if he knows if our professor is alive. He says, "Oh yes, he's alive, he just came back from his vacation a week later than planned and then his computer broke down." I say, "I can't with this man. Sometimes I think it's easier to send a message telepathically and hope he receives it than through official means," which sends my academic sibling into an appreciative giggle. Surely, he knows exactly what I mean. He's going to see our professor tomorrow and remind him I'm still waiting for an answer

smokingpotatostuff

Real talk: how do trans scientists handle publishing names? Just accept professional deadnaming for the rest of their lives?

grison-in-space

Ben Barres treated it like a change of name from marriage, IIRC, and simply wrangled publications under both names on the same CV and expected other people to follow along. I believe Joan Roughgarden did similarly. Some people just keep their initials the same and go by that professionally. Some people do just keep the same legal name forever, but ime that's generally not people who go by a totally different name.

starfoozle

You do not need to accept permanent academic deadnaming! I personally publish under my chosen name, which luckily for me has the same initials as my birthname and thus helps avoid some degree of professional confusion. Many of my women scientist friends who have changed their last names through marriage go on to be published under their new last names and simply group their publications together in their CV — this is why persistent identifiers like ORCID are very helpful!

Depending on who you published your research with, sometimes journals will allow “invisible” name changes where they can change your name on the papers you contributed to in digital versions without any notice of correction. Some publishers will issue corrections, which may draw unwanted attention if you are invested in being stealth, but it’s a case-by-case thing and worth asking journals about if you’d like to make retroactive corrections.

myjetpack

My latest cartoon for New Scientist

porterdavis

magdalyna

On Tuesday, scientists held an event organized by House Democrats in which they stood in front of posters outlining their work — and the fed

galileosballs

Academics work so hard to be taken seriously that we can't even acknowledge the fact that one of the biggest and most important science journals is called PNAS. We just need to keep submitting to PNAS and citing PNAS and doing review work for PNAS as if it's nothing.

intothetr33s

i was waiting for something in the lab for like 25 minutes and i did not take my adhd meds so this shitty notebook paper zine thing happened and i decided you need to see it too

***this is not scientific advice***

As you can tell. I have had more productive work days in my life. Oh well.

wilwheaton

radhexx

This is great especially for women in the workplace who have learned kinda self-demeaning patterns of behavior in order to not be seen as a bitch. I started communicating this way in my VERY male dominated field and people definitely started taking me at least slightly more seriously. If that makes sense

darth-snuggles

Even in my heavily female-dominated industry (and office), using this kind of phrasing sees me taken more seriously by management, HR, and clients. I also find that for things like requesting PTO or schedule flexibility, I’m more likely to get uncomplicated agreement from the company if I phrase it as a statement of intention rather than a request for permission. This also goes for asking for accommodations; “X is not going to work, I need Y and Z” is a lot more effective than “I would like Y and Z, if it’s not too much trouble.”

hiruma-musouka

I highly recommend these phrases for any individual. When utilized with good context that avoids adding passive aggressiveness, these phrases convey confidence, assurance, and capability. Those qualities are admirable so people respect you more if they believe you have them, even if you’ve made an error because you’re also taking accountability and proceeding without groveling or getting defensive.

If you speak like you know what you’re doing, people are going to give you a good faith take that you are correct. Likewise, if you apologize frequently for yourself for insufficient reasons or act insecure in your desires or proposals, people presume you have reason to be insecure or apologize.

studyblrspace

do you have any advice for reading journal papers? sometimes the material is so dense I find them difficult to read!

some of these coincide with general study tips but here's a list from my experience:

Printing out papers—I tried using a computer and it just doesn't work for me

Reading in the order of abstract—introduction—conclusion—results/discussion—methods. Reading the conclusion towards the beginning helps me connect things more easily

Having a "scrap" notebook to just jot down thoughts—It can be important stuff or just figuring out basic concepts or doodling. Allowing my brain to wander helps me process what I'm reading. Nothing needs to be neat or organized since I write up notes after anyways

Having a "scrap" notes doc for citations or links with brief descriptions of what it is. You can also use this to copy/paste important quotes and put a link/pg #. I get overwhelmed having too many tabs open—if you are not reading for a specific research project this is not usually necessary and can be too much if you are just starting to read journal papers

I recommend looking up things you are unsure of, even if they seem elementary—however if it's taking too long, just put a question mark and come back to it... Its a process to know your limits

Having a pomodoro-like timer—mine is set to 32m, with 8-16m breaks. Reading continuously makes it harder (at least for me). Sometimes I'll put it down and restart the next day if it feels like a bunch of jumble

Changing environment, being in public study spaces (e.g. library) helps me focus and other people studying puts pressure on me to not constantly check my phone

Check if your school has a journal club in your subject area. It can seem like a lot at first but it exposes you to the language and eventually you'll be able to connect the dots. Also don't be afraid to ask questions, journal clubs are specifically made for discussion of papers!

You can also ask questions to professors in that field, whether in class or by email (although a lot of professors tend to not be great at answering emails)

Trying to do too many things at once will overwhelm me so its mostly me finding ways to organize my brain. It's going to be different for everyone but hopefully some of these helps!

My current reading is centered around the same topic so I started with an overview paper (like a "review" paper) then I started reading more specific papers. Reading about the same topic goes faster since you are familiar with the language / concepts.

I will say some physicist (or some STEM people) are not... the greatest writers so it does make it a little bit more difficult to read. It's okay if it takes you a few days to read a paper, as with most things you'll get better/faster with practice.

todays-xkcd

If you think curiosity without rigor is bad, you should see rigor without curiosity.

Good Science [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[Miss Lenhart is standing in front of a whiteboard with some scribbles on it.] Miss Lenhart: I'm supposed to give you the tools to do good science.

[Miss Lenhart is now standing in front of Jill and Cueball, who are seated at classroom desks.] Miss Lenhart: But what are those tools? Miss Lenhart: Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. Miss Lenhart: What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science?

[Miss Lenhart headshot.] Miss Lenhart: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important:

[A list, presented in a sub-panel that Miss Lenhart is pointing to:] Outcome variable: • correct scientific results

Predictors: • collaboration • skepticism of others' claims • questioning your own beliefs • trying to falsify hypotheses • checking citations • statistical rigor • blinded analysis • financial disclosure • open data [presumably the list goes on, as it runs off the visible part of the panel]

[Another Miss Lenhart headshot.] Miss Lenhart: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide

[Miss Lenhart, standing, and Jill, seated at desk] Jill: Wait, why did ammonia score so high? How did it even get on the list? Miss Lenhart: ...and now you're doing good science!

compneuropapers

Interesting Papers for Week 15, 2025

Surprise!—Clarifying the link between insight and prediction error. Becker, M., Wang, X., & Cabeza, R. (2024). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 31(6), 2714–2723.

Learning enhances behaviorally relevant representations in apical dendrites. Benezra, S. E., Patel, K. B., Perez Campos, C., Hillman, E. M., & Bruno, R. M. (2024). eLife, 13, e98349.3.

Symmetry breaking organizes the brain’s resting state manifold. Fousek, J., Rabuffo, G., Gudibanda, K., Sheheitli, H., Petkoski, S., & Jirsa, V. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 31970.

Stimulus-invariant aspects of the retinal code drive discriminability of natural scenes. Hoshal, B. D., Holmes, C. M., Bojanek, K., Salisbury, J. M., Berry, M. J., Marre, O., & Palmer, S. E. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(52), e2313676121.

Dynamic responses of striatal cholinergic interneurons control behavioral flexibility. Huang, Z., Chen, R., Ho, M., Xie, X., Gangal, H., Wang, X., & Wang, J. (2024). Science Advances, 10(51).

Bridging the gap between presynaptic hair cell function and neural sound encoding. Jaime Tobón, L. M., & Moser, T. (2024). eLife, 12, e93749.4.

Reducing the Influence of Time Pressure on Risky Choice. Jiang, Y., Huang, P., & Qian, X. (2024). Experimental Psychology, 71(4), 238–246.

Broadscale dampening of uncertainty adjustment in the aging brain. Kosciessa, J. Q., Mayr, U., Lindenberger, U., & Garrett, D. D. (2024). Nature Communications, 15, 10717.

Temporal context effects on suboptimal choice. McDevitt, M. A., Pisklak, J. M., Dunn, R. M., & Spetch, M. L. (2024). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 31(6), 2737–2745.

A computational model for angular velocity integration in a locust heading circuit. Pabst, K., Gkanias, E., Webb, B., Homberg, U., & Endres, D. (2024). PLOS Computational Biology, 20(12), e1012155.

A neuronal least-action principle for real-time learning in cortical circuits. Senn, W., Dold, D., Kungl, A. F., Ellenberger, B., Jordan, J., Bengio, Y., Sacramento, J., & Petrovici, M. A. (2024). eLife, 12, e89674.3.

Eye pupils mirror information divergence in approximate inference. Shirama, A., Nobukawa, S., & Sumiyoshi, T. (2024). Scientific Reports, 14, 30808.

Inferring context-dependent computations through linear approximations of prefrontal cortex dynamics. Soldado-Magraner, J., Mante, V., & Sahani, M. (2024). Science Advances, 10(51).

Noisy Retrieval of Experienced Probabilities Underlies Rational Judgment of Uncertain Multiple Events. Spiliopoulos, L., & Hertwig, R. (2024). Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 37(5).

Evaluating hippocampal replay without a ground truth. Takigawa, M., Huelin Gorriz, M., Tirole, M., & Bendor, D. (2024). eLife, 13, e85635.

Future spinal reflex is embedded in primary motor cortex output. Umeda, T., Yokoyama, O., Suzuki, M., Kaneshige, M., Isa, T., & Nishimura, Y. (2024). Science Advances, 10(51).

The emergence of visual category representations in infants’ brains. Yan, X., Tung, S. S., Fascendini, B., Chen, Y. D., Norcia, A. M., & Grill-Spector, K. (2024). eLife, 13, e100260.3.

Cortisol awakening response prompts dynamic reconfiguration of brain networks in emotional and executive functioning. Zeng, Y., Xiong, B., Gao, H., Liu, C., Chen, C., Wu, J., & Qin, S. (2024). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(52), e2405850121.

The representation of abstract goals in working memory is supported by task-congruent neural geometry. Zhang, M., & Yu, Q. (2024). PLOS Biology, 22(12), e3002461.

Theta phase precession supports memory formation and retrieval of naturalistic experience in humans. Zheng, J., Yebra, M., Schjetnan, A. G. P., Patel, K., Katz, C. N., Kyzar, M., Mosher, C. P., Kalia, S. K., Chung, J. M., Reed, C. M., Valiante, T. A., Mamelak, A. N., Kreiman, G., & Rutishauser, U. (2024). Nature Human Behaviour, 8(12), 2423–2436.

operaghostcam

Astronomers are the funniest people on earth actually

bringmemyrocks

Hi everyone especially to New Yorkers! Gov Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams are trying to pass a mask ban with the new NY budget. For the sake of our disabled comrades, we can't let this happen!

Please contact the NY Governor's office at 518-474-8390 to voice your opposition to her mask ban (option 2 to get a human, option 1 to leave a message.) If you call, you only have to give your NY Zip Code. You can also use the form here.

Please also contact your other state representatives (state assembly and state senators)

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791; [email protected]

Assembly Health Committee Chair J. Gustavo Rivera: 518-455-3395; [email protected]

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: (518) 455-2585; [email protected]

Senate Health Committee Chair Amy Paulin (a co-sponsor!): 518-455-5585; [email protected]

Mayor Eric Adams contact form

Non-New Yorkers, contact iLoveNY: [email protected]

Anyone Jewish, please sign the Jews for Mask Rights letter

More details and links, including social media handles for the people mentioned above, at http://bit.ly/StopMaskBanNY.

Please don't let the bystander effect take over--call, email, and contact, don't just reblog.

Explain how you and your loved ones will be impacted by this mask ban--the NYC subway is full of germs, and even if you only visit once a year, a mask ban will affect you! Anyone can get COVID, and anyone can get long COVID. Masking is essential for COVID safety, especially in high-density places like NYC.

Thanks!

sleepy-bebby

There’s a scientific journal called “Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List”.

In 2005, computer scientists David Mazières and Eddie Kohler created this highly profane ten-page paper as a joke, to send in replying to unwanted conference invitations. It literally just contains that seven-word phrase over and over, along with a nice flow chart and scatter-plot graph.

An Australian computer scientist named Peter Vamplew sent it to the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology in response to spam from the journal. Apparently, he thought the editors might simply open and read it.

Instead, they automatically accepted the paper — with an anonymous reviewer rating it as “excellent” — and requested a fee of $150. While this incident is pretty hilarious, it’s a sign of a bigger problem in science publishing. This journal is one of many online-only, for-profit operations that take advantage of inexperienced researchers under pressure to publish their work in any outlet that seems superficially legitimate.

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Neuroscientist in training