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royesal.bsky.social
Roy Salomon
@royesal.bsky.social
1.9K followers 480 following 150 posts
Prof. University of Haifa.
Connoisseur of Consciousness and its varieties

https://salomonlab.org/




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royesal.bsky.social
Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · Sep 16
Just published in World Psychiatry our study "Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing" . Amazing work led by @ophirnetzer.bsky.social with the brave survivors of the Nova festival attack. Huge team effort, thx to all!
👉 doi.org/10.1002/wps....
Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing
Click on the article title to read more.
doi.org
Reposted by Roy Salomon
hansonmark.bsky.social
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 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
royesal.bsky.social
Yes pls
November 9, 2025 at 10:05 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Somehow I love these scientific sleuth stories.
November 9, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
greatdismal.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
carlbergstrom.com
It’s a good night for it.
Interior of the Funhouze in Seattle with a can of Nazi Punks Fuck Off beer.
November 5, 2025 at 4:57 AM
royesal.bsky.social
Honored to speak at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin on Breaking the Walls of Trauma: Psychedelics and Recovery with Dr. Dimitris Repantis and Prof. Eric Vermetten discussing the opportunities and challenges psychedelics bring to trauma and PTSD recovery. falling-walls.com/programme/br...
Breaking the Walls of Trauma: Psychedelics and Recovery
Trauma and mental health challenges are increasingly examined through the lens of psychedelic-assisted therapies. Insights from research and clinical practice highlight the potential of substances suc...
falling-walls.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:48 AM
royesal.bsky.social
Now, Prof Bessel Van der Kolk discussing how trauma is encoded in the mind and body. Stressing the importance of agency and action during the TE for better post traumatic recovery.
October 29, 2025 at 1:10 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Then the outstanding Rick Dublin showed the efforts to advance MDMA assisted therapy for PTSD in many areas of conflict around the world.
October 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Honored to be presenting at the SafeHeart conference on trauma, psychedelics and therapy during wartime. Showed our results of two years work with the Nova survivors.
October 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Amazing conference in Dresden on the Multidimensionalty of Trauma. Amazing morning lineup: Carmen Sandi, Talma Hendler, Eric Vermetten & Hermona Soreq. From tRNA to psychedelic treatments of PTSD stress and trauma effects evident at all levels of neurobiology and cognition.
October 22, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
micahgallen.com
Check out our latest paper, a collaboration with @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social using gamified computational psychiatry measures to explore brain-behavioral correlates of decision making!
ashleytyrer.bsky.social Ashley Tyrer @ashleytyrer.bsky.social · Oct 15
1/ To explore or to exploit? I’m excited to share my new preprint with @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social and @micahgallen.com, correlating variations in cortical microstructures with individual differences in exploration-exploitation behaviours, using a gamified task! 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 15, 2025 at 12:10 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Yesterday, my heart was filled with hope as all live Israeli hostages returned home. Yesterday was also the funeral of Roee Shalev, Nova survivor suffering from PTSD who committed suicide this week. The trauma suffered on both sides is tremendous and there is much work ahead for this to be healed.🙏
October 14, 2025 at 1:35 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Tomorrow will be two years since the attack which began this terrible war. I have lived through several wars, but this one has changed me. I don't believe in an interventionist God, but I am not above praying for peace.... Hostages back home, this war can be over. Amen 🙏
October 6, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
ophirnetzer.bsky.social
Our World Psychiatry paper is out! we studied responses to trauma experienced under different psychoactive substances and found distinct patterns across substances. Immense gratitude to our collaborators and above all, to the survivors❤️‍🩹
royesal.bsky.social Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · Sep 16
Just published in World Psychiatry our study "Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing" . Amazing work led by @ophirnetzer.bsky.social with the brave survivors of the Nova festival attack. Huge team effort, thx to all!
👉 doi.org/10.1002/wps....
Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing
Click on the article title to read more.
doi.org
September 16, 2025 at 8:01 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Just published in World Psychiatry our study "Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing" . Amazing work led by @ophirnetzer.bsky.social with the brave survivors of the Nova festival attack. Huge team effort, thx to all!
👉 doi.org/10.1002/wps....
Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing
Click on the article title to read more.
doi.org
September 16, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
hugospiers.bsky.social
Impressive data set with interesting findings:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Dose-response relationship between accelerometer-measured physical activity and depression: evidence from the UK Biobank - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Dose-response relationship between accelerometer-measured physical activity and depression: evidence from the UK Biobank
www.nature.com
September 1, 2025 at 10:37 AM
royesal.bsky.social
Flagged for possible image duplication
August 31, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
richharidy.bsky.social
This is a fascinating article. Well-researched. And while it doesn't interrogate the reasons why the FDA knocked back the MDMA application at least it reasonably accepts the rejection was based on problems with the science and not solely the result of a tiny "activist" group.
How Elon Musk’s billionaire Doge lieutenant took over the US’s biggest MDMA company
Antonio Gracias is part of the growing movement among Silicon Valley’s right wing enamored with the therapeutic and commercial potential of drugs like MDMA
www.theguardian.com
August 28, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
dengpan.bsky.social
🚨We believe this is a major step forward in how we study hippocampus function in healthy humans.

Using novel behavioral tasks, fMRI, RL & RNN modeling, and transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), we demonstrate the causal role of hippocampus in relational structure learning.
August 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
royesal.bsky.social
The situation in Israel is not good. A crazy government extending a terrible war to retain power while reducing freedoms. Despite the violence against protestors we will continue to stop the war, return the hostages and seek peace.
August 16, 2025 at 8:09 PM
royesal.bsky.social
This week I came for my last day at the university before setting off for a 1 year sabbatical at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The amazing students in my lab surprised me with a goodbye party. So lucky to be working with such talented and kind people! Thanks salomonlab.org
August 16, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
ajshackman.bsky.social
Dopamine induces fear extinction by activating the reward-responding amygdala neurons | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Dopamine induces fear extinction by activating the reward-responding amygdala neurons | PNAS
The extinction of conditioned fear responses is crucial for adaptive behavior, and its impairment is a hallmark of anxiety disorders such as posttr...
www.pnas.org
August 16, 2025 at 7:40 PM
royesal.bsky.social
Very interesting case. Hope this is indeed a framework for future translation of cog-neuro into clinical improvements
drdamienfair.bsky.social Damien Fair @drdamienfair.bsky.social · Aug 10
I still get chills

Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts

Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE

see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
August 11, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Roy Salomon
xavierjob.bsky.social
📣 New preprint 📣

The brain attenuates self-touch, but how does this unfold at the neural level before the touch? We used MEG to find out 🧠 👉👈
Motor prediction reduces beta-band power and enhances cerebellar-somatosensory connectivity before self-touch to enable its attenuation
Prevailing theories suggest that the brain uses an internal forward model to predict tactile input during voluntary movements, thereby reducing the intensity of the reafferent tactile sensation, a phe...
www.biorxiv.org
July 31, 2025 at 10:02 AM
royesal.bsky.social
We all know that something is deeply broken in the publishing system, but this is amazing to see the scope of the problem... Well done to all the authors!
reeserichardson.bsky.social Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · Aug 4
Today, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community.

reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
A do-or-die moment for the scientific enterprise
Reflecting on our paper “The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”
reeserichardson.blog
August 5, 2025 at 8:04 AM