PessoaBrain
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pessoabrain.bsky.social
PessoaBrain
@pessoabrain.bsky.social
9.3K followers 690 following 2.2K posts
Luiz Pessoa, University of Maryland, College Park
Neuroscientist interested in cognitive-emotional brain
Author of The Entangled Brain, MIT Press, 2022
Author of The Cogitive-Emotional Brain, MIT Press, 2013
Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon (YouTube)
Posts Replies Media Videos
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pessoabrain.bsky.social
PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · Nov 10
Reintroduction...
I'm a neuroscientist interested in emotion-motivation-cognition interactions.
Interested in conceptual/foundational issues.
I also wrote a book for general audience readers called The Entangled Brain that is open access at MIT Press.
mitpress.mit.edu/978026254460...
#neuroscience
The Entangled Brain
A new vision of the brain as a fully integrated, networked organ.Popular neuroscience accounts often focus on specific mind-brain aspects like addiction, cog...
mitpress.mit.edu
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
This paper from Biological Theory looks great (but haven't read it yet).
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#philosophy #biology
November 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
dieworkwear.bsky.social
how it feels to do physical activity after the age of 35
October 29, 2025 at 11:50 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
Research statement for postdoc positions.
Any good resources on this? Samples people would be willing to share?
@neural-reckoning.org @kordinglab.bsky.social @gunnarblohm.bsky.social
November 22, 2025 at 10:08 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗖𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲
𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀
"...trade-off between cognitive flexibility and stability inherent to dynamical system models of varying complexity."
by S Musslick and A Bizyaeva
#neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
November 22, 2025 at 6:43 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
If you're thinking of academia in your future, you had better love writing and, yes, rewriting...
November 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 "𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲" (𝗮𝗸𝗮 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘂𝘀)?
Via Decision Formation Through Multi-Area Population Dynamics
Excellent short review.
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
#neuroskyence
November 20, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
kordinglab.bsky.social
NSF makes you say who you got conflicts (coauthored) with. We (really just Jordan Matelsky) just built you a tool for that. Literally one click: bib.experiments.kordinglab.com/nsf-coa
NSF COA | Jordan Matelsky
bib.experiments.kordinglab.com
November 11, 2024 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
mollycrabapple.bsky.social
Hey authors! Check to see if Anthropic stole your book to train their slop generator on. You’re entitled to $1500 per stolen Work.

Look up your work, and if you’re in the database, file a claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup/
Submit a Claim
secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 AM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
What are we doing when we publish 5, 10, 20 scientific papers/year
hansonmark.bsky.social Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 13d
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
neurograce.bsky.social
It is actually an incredibly frustrating time to be a theoretical neuroscientist right now imo, for this reason
markhisted.org Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 9d
Same for neuroscience. The lack of ability to measure many neurons’ activity, perturb them, and measure intracellular processes and connections is what limits understanding the brain.

The key barriers are not algorithms or AI.

🧪#neuroscience 🧠🤖 #MLSky
Anshul Kundaje @anshulkundaje Francois usually has good takes. But this suggests a bit of cluelessness about what the key barrier to progress in biology is. It's not algorithms or Al. It's still a lack of the ability to measure many important things in cells ie. assay techdev. Perturb-seq is not all u need. @ François Chollet & @fchollet • 2d The most powerful scientific instrument of the 21st century isn't the electron microscope or the particle collider. It's the algorithm. Today, a scientist in biology, physics... Show more
November 17, 2025 at 1:23 AM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗔𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀
"...support hypothesis that spontaneous spatially structured fluctuations in brain-wide physiology on timescales of seconds ... are in large part expressions of lowdimensional, organism-wide dynamical system"
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
November 16, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
wiringthebrain.bsky.social
No Evidence the Gut Microbiome Causes Autism neurosciencenews.com/asd-microbio...
No Evidence the Gut Microbiome Causes Autism - Neuroscience News
Experts reviewing decades of research conclude there is no scientific evidence that the gut microbiome causes autism.
neurosciencenews.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
wileyprof.bsky.social
Our special issue on Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness, coedited with Tecumseh Fitch and Adina Roskies, now online royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
wiringthebrain.bsky.social
Chance, Choice, and Control – Agency in Real Time www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpZS... - my talk from the ECOGS2025 conference 😊
Kevin Mitchell: Chance, Choice, and Control – Agency in Real Time (ECSU OIST)
YouTube video by ECSU OIST
www.youtube.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
djnicholson.bsky.social
I had SO much fun talking to Paul for almost 2 hours about my new book on Schrödinger & molecular biology. Easily one of the most enjoyable podcasts I've ever done. Check it out!

P.S. CUP has made the PDF of my book free to download for 2 more weeks. Get it here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...
braininspired.bsky.social Paul Middlebrooks @braininspired.bsky.social · 19d
What Is Life? A misleading title for Schrödinger's book.

What is Life? Revisited. A spot-on title for Dan's @djnicholson.bsky.social book, which happens to be a gem.

After reading it and discussing with Dan, I can only picture Schrödinger as a cartoon villain now.

braininspired.co/podcast/224/
November 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀
Not a new one but worth a read
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
#neuroskyence
November 12, 2025 at 6:17 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
AI has come an enormous way since the early days...
Amazing precision and scholarly knowledge.
GoaLPleation for one is just around the corner in neuroscience research 😱
#neuroskyence
November 11, 2025 at 3:55 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸?
In a sense yes, but does network science help us understand the brain as a complex system? Intriguing paper.
If anything the paper has 800+ refs!
#neuroskyence #complexsystems
doi.org/10.1016/j.pl...
November 10, 2025 at 6:14 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
Hidden Markov Models
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
November 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
Are all PhD student inquiries now written almost the same way by AI??? I haven't look at applications yet, but probably the research statement too.
November 8, 2025 at 9:50 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
Now that we have Hidden Markov Models do we still need correlation matrices?? 😀
For example, this looks cool.

(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
November 8, 2025 at 4:12 PM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
Neurocomputational architecture for syntax/language
Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon video.

Great presentation by @elliot-murphy.bsky.social and discussion with @wmatchin.bsky.social and @sandervanbree.bsky.social
Bonus: Check the first 17 min or so on Large Language Models
youtu.be/K5wd7nHxzNw
Brain architecture for syntax and language by Elliot Murphy with William Matchin and Sander van Bree
YouTube video by Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon
youtu.be
November 7, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
nicolecrust.bsky.social
Please help spread the word to all who will be in San Diego on Sunday, Nov. 16th. As part of SFN, SFN's scicomm arm is sponsoring an event.

It's me, Shrek Chalasani (Salk), Kumar Narayanan (UIowa) and the brainfacts.org team. Short talks; trivia; lots of fun. Join us!

It's free. Register here.
November 7, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by PessoaBrain
lswisnom.bsky.social
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
pessoabrain.bsky.social
Syntax, Language?
See you in 20 minutes
pessoabrain.bsky.social PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 20d
**CORRECTION of link**

Neurocomputational architecture for syntax/language
Neuro & Philo Salon: join our discussion with
@elliot-murphy.bsky.social with commentaries by @wmatchin.bsky.social and @sandervanbree.bsky.social
Nov 5, 10:30 am eastern US
Registration:
umd.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
November 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM