Howdy

no theme, no coherence. just a grad student bloggin random stuff.

[trainwiz]

I have replaced the dragons in Skyrim with the state of Ohio.

[veryangrysandwich]

I'm submitting two first authored papers in the next few days. What ritual do I have to complete to make sure neither are desk rejected. Thnx

[veryangrysandwich]

Them shits got desk rejected on the same day.

One has been desk rejected twice LMAO.

[veryangrysandwich]

I'm submitting two first authored papers in the next few days. What ritual do I have to complete to make sure neither are desk rejected. Thnx

[veryangrysandwich]

Serious, scintillating science update:

No one tells an undergrad psychology student interested in cognitive neuroscience that 98% of your work is programming while in grad school.

I've been staring at nothing but bash scripts and terminal windows for the past two days while working on a MRI dataset. Much of this work was facilitated by old Jerma985 commentaries.

Naturally, each script written during this time has been tagged with Evil Jerma.

[dearimasu]

[mangonetics]

your stomach acid is lonely feed it entire french press full of undiluted cold brew

[podcastwizard]

[veryangrysandwich]

Just submitted an abstract yesterday that was written in one day and revised twice. We're happy with it, but golly gee that level of stress is something I don't want to feel again.

Anyway, I expect to be in the same situation for the next conference woopsies

[butchindie]

[space-pics]

My best shot of Saturn so far, taken with an 8" telescope from my backyard in Sacramento. [OC]

[feralisa-deactivated20241027]

[funnytwittertweets]

[bunneis]

Photo by Linda Marie Anson

[veryangrysandwich]

Straight up listened to this song for, like, 4 hours straight today while preprocessing MRI data. $10 bucks that I'll do it again tomorrow and then not listen to the song for about 4 months

[neurosciencestuff]

It´s the rhythm that counts

Focusing on what's important - this is one of the main tasks of our brain. After all, countless amounts of information are constantly flooding our senses. But how do we manage to separate the important from the unimportant? It has long been known that oscillatory neural activity is a key factor for this attentional selection in the mammalian brain. Scientists from the German Primate Center in Göttingen and the University of Melbourne have now investigated how this works. They found that coupling lower frequencies of oscillations with higher ones allows fine-tuning the brain and is thus the basis for higher cognitive functions, such as selective attention (Trends in Neurosciences). Contrary to our intuition, the precision with which we perceive the real world is not stable in time, rather it rhythmically fluctuates between high precision and low precision states several times per second. These fluctuations follow rhythmic electrical activities in the brain. Electrical rhythms of the brain range across different frequencies, from 1 to 250 hertz. Using these different frequencies the brain regulates how relevant information is transmitted between different brain regions. A group of neuroscientists from the German Primate Centre, Goettingen, Germany and the University of Melbourne, Australia has critically reviewed the evidence on this subject and shows how these frequencies may determine fundamental perceptual processes in the brain.

Cross-frequency coupling enables selective attention

One basic phenomenon observed throughout brain areas is that slower rhythms (approx. 4 to 8 hertz) modulate the strength of a faster rhythm (approx. 40 to 80 hertz). This is known as cross-frequency coupling. The pair of frequencies coupled to each other varies, based upon the cortical area and its function for behavior. In some instances, attention may cause nerve cells to become de-synchronized, allowing them to carry different informations, like when one string instrument plays a different melody from the rest of the orchestra. In others, attention may lead to the activation of large numbers of neurons to maximize their impact. ”These two different functions may be organized in the brain through cross frequency coupling,” says Moein Esghaei, one of the authors. Distinguishing between different types of information

The simultaneous existence of different frequency bands in the brain also helps tagging different modalities of information arriving at the same brain region. For example colour and direction of a hang glider flying in the sky. “Our brain routes information about color and motion through different frequencies to higher order brain areas, just like telecommunication systems transmitting different types of information to the same receiver,” says Moein Esghaei. Understanding neurological diseases

“The rhythmic activity of neuronal networks plays a critical role for visual perception in humans and other primates,” summarizes Stefan Treue, head of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the German Primate Center as a co-author. “Understanding how exactly these activity patterns interact and are controlled, not only helps us to better understand the neural basis of perception, but also may help to elucidate some of the perceptual deficits in neurological conditions, such as dyslexia, ADHD, and schizophrenia.”

[veryangrysandwich]

I am truly amazed with myself.

Although terrifying, I've started adopting a mentoring role as a research scientist in training. As I depart my old lab, I'm helping a very smart and talented undergraduate student become a project leader as I establish a program of research.

With these developments, I can't help to reflect back to my undergrad days were I was a shy, scared, and self-depreciating research assistant. Back then, I was convinced I would amount to nothing. Every day provides further proof of how wrong I was.

[veryangrysandwich]

Error warning at the top-left proves my point.

[reesewith-outherspoon]

You've heard of duck duck goose. Get ready for the third major recession within our lifetimes.

Ugh I’d much rather stick with duck duck goose