congrats!

Does aperiodic activity index neural excitability?
Single-unit and LFP recordings during optogenetic interneuron suppression show that aperiodic activity scales with firing, but it depends on context and oscillatory power. New preprint with @juliaveit.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

great work! looking at PVs, seems like they would be great candidates to disambiguate FR vs aperiodic relationship!

yep, im falling through the cracks

in intracranial recordings, 30 kHz for spike detection hehe , annoyingly large is right

Biophysical modeling to develop and test mechanistic hypotheses underlying pharmacological EEG biomarkers. Top: Modeling EEG biomarkers begins with picking a specific brain signal that is reliably different between patient populations. An example of a hypothetical EEG biomarker is an auditory event related potential (ERP) that is suppressed in post-treatment (red) relative to pre-treatment (blue). Middle: Biophysical modeling allows for testing mechanistic hypotheses that explain how EEG biomarkers emerge and change with drugs. Hypotheses about which drug mechanisms lead to distinct brain activity patterns must be constructed, and corresponding model parameters identified. Bottom: The default HNN model is used as a starting point to test hypotheses by either manually altering the values of the chosen model parameters, or using automated optimization and inference algorithms. Differences in parameter values pre-to post-treatment correspond to model-based predictions.

Happy to share a new preprint from the @hnnsolver.bsky.social team!🧠💻🎉

"Uncovering putative neural mechanisms of neurotherapeutic impacts on EEG using the Human Neocortical Neurosolver"

📝 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

cortisol spiking atm

too real

congrats!!

UCSD professors face discipline in connection with 2024 pro-Palestinian protest encampment

UCSD professors face discipline in connection with 2024 pro-Palestinian protest encampment

had an amazing time at @urochestersmd.bsky.social through the NeuroYES program which aims to provide practice for the faculty job interview, thanks to @drnathanasmith.bsky.social for hosting! their program is the only I know of that fills this gap through much-needed chalk talk practice and feedback

you cannot be this naive

Fact-checking Matt Ridley’s “Scientific Freedom Lecture” at NIH (Part I) Matt Ridley, global warming skeptic and co-author with Alina Chan of a book promoting a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2, was invited by Jay Bhattacharya, the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NI...

In March, Matt Ridley gave the inaugural "Scientific Freedom Lecture" at NIH, on a lab leak origin of COVID-19.

The talk was so full of misrepresentations, omissions, falsehoods and lies that I will need several blog posts to debunk it. Here's Part I:

pandemonium.hypotheses.org/995

🧪 #covidorigin

Some reports say over 500 schools, 55 libraries, & 25 universities hit.
You can debate the numbers, but hitting Sharif University & Beheshti is like hitting MIT & Stanford. I keep wondering: How would the scientific community respond differently if it was those universities? What’s the difference?

Christian Cazares, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow Cognitive Science University of California San Diego Thursday, April 9, 2026, 10:00-11:00 AM 3-6408- K-307 Auditorium (In-person only) Cross-scale electrophysiological biomarkers of cortical dysfunction and behavior in Rett syndrome Rett syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder mostly caused by mutations in the X-linked MECP2 gene and characterized by developmental regression in speech and motor skills, yet no reliable biomarkers capture symptom heterogeneity across scales from neurobiology to behavior. Progress has been limited in part by fragmentation across model systems and recording modalities, where findings from patient EEG and animal electrophysiology are interpreted within separate frameworks. My research addresses this by organizing across scales around a shared analytical measure: the aperiodic exponent, a physics-based feature of neural activity that can be derived from the power spectra of any electrophysiological recording, from scalp EEG to intracranial probes. I will present converging evidence establishing the aperiodic exponent as a translational biomarker of cortical dysfunction in Rett syndrome. By applying spectral parameterization to patient scalp EEG, I show that the aperiodic exponent is reduced in Rett syndrome and negatively associated with visual reception and clinical severity. Intracranial recordings in female MECP2 heterozygous mice reveal that this signature is recapitulated across cortical layers in visual cortex. These animals also exhibit impaired visual acuity, reduced contrast sensitivity, and postural and gait abnormalities. Ongoing immunohistochemistry and single-nucleus RNA sequencing will connect these electrophysiological and behavioral phenotypes to cell-type-specific molecular disruptions. By treating the same measure as a translational bridge across patients and experimental models, these findings use cross-species convergence to lay the groundwork for transforming subjective

Save the date!

Looking forward to our NEUROYES speaker, this Thursday 👇

Christian Cazares, PhD, of University of California San Diego

Talk title: Cross-scale electrophysiological biomarkers of cortical dysfunction and behavior in Rett syndrome

Learn more about NEUROYES: buff.ly/louTYM1

sad state where I'm hoping this is more market manipulation rather than genodice

What a tragic and unnecessary loss brought on by cruel policies cruelly enforced.

The broader picture is that while some of the GOP's war on science will be reversible, some won't. Never again in my lifetime will the best and brightest from around the world want to study and work in the US.

Sharif University in Tehran was just bombed

Founded in 1965, it is one the most elite science and engineering institutions in the world. Alumni include the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, first woman to win the Fields Medal

Here is the list of other alumni

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

prepping for a talk next week when we may be in a different world by wednesday

If you think 2025 was bad, 2026 is even worse. It doesn't matter what the budget was because OMB has found ways to not allow NSF and NIH spend their money.

White background. There’s a blue puzzle piece with an orange circle crossing it out. Text reads: Before you donate to Autism Speaks, Consider the facts.

White background. Text reads: Very little money donated to Autism Speaks goes toward helping autistic people and families. Only 1/10 of 1% of Autism Speaks’ budget goes towards the “Family Service” grants that are the organization’s means of funding services. Autism Speaks spent more than 188x as much on fundraising. They spent 16x as much on Facebook/ Instagram ads alone. Although Autism Speaks has not prioritized services with a practical impact for families and individuals in its budget, its rates of executive pay are the highest in the autism world: some salaries exceed $415,000 a year. Autism Speaks talks about us without us. Autism Speaks has only 2 autistic people out of a total of 27 individuals on its Board of Directors. By contrast, 16 out of 27 board members represent major corporations, including current and former CEOs and senior executives of AutoZone, Goldman Sachs, SoundCloud, White Castle, MasterCard, and S.C. Johnson & Johnson.

White background. Text at the top reads: Autism Speaks’ Budget. Source: Autism Speaks 990 Non-Profit Tax Exemption Form, 2024* There’s a pie chart with the following sections: 49.4% “Awareness” & Lobbying, 22% Fundraising, 19.4% Research, 9.1% Misc., and 0.1% Family Services. Text at the bottom reads: *“Awareness & Lobbying” figure derived from reported program service expenses on Part III, 4a & 4c less the total amount awarded in family service grants (“Family Services”) and misclassified research grants as reported in Part III, Line 4A; “Research” figure derived from reported program service expenses in Part III, 4b plus the misclassified research grant amount; “Fundraising” figure derived from reported expenses, line 25(D) in Part IX.

Blue background with white text that reads: Instead, donate to organizations that help autistic people: Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) provides support, community, and public policy advocacy, by and for people on the autism spectrum. autisticadvocacy.org Autistic Women and Nonbinary Network (AWN) seeks to share information which works to build acceptance and understanding of disability, while dispelling stereotypes and misinformation which perpetuate unnecessary fears surrounding an autism diagnosis. awnnetwork.org Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE) works to ensure that people with disabilities are treated as equals and are given the same decisions, choices, rights, responsibilities, and chance to speak up to empower themselves as everyone else. sabeusa.org

Very little money donated to Autism Speaks goes toward helping autistic people and families. This #AutismAcceptanceMonth, considering supporting groups by and for autistic people!
autisticadvocacy.org/considerthef...

🧠🧬🧪📈🔬🧫 Science friends:

If you have *any* ability to accept student researchers in your lab this summer, please do. 🙏

Opportunities are desperately sparse. I just received 173 applications for an unpaid summer internship.

I'm worried we're going to lose a generation of young scientists. 💔

The Orange Cat Brain Atlas is here. 🧠🐈

Today, we published the first comprehensive cellular map of the orange cat brain. The new atlas reveals a single, specialized neuron responsible for behaviors like staring at walls, knocking objects off tables, and the 3am "zoomies."

take me back to when videogames looked like this

Transgender rights = human rights.

In many countries around the world, the rights of trans people are under attack.

This International Transgender Day of Visibility, we continue to work for a world where all people can enjoy their rights fully.

Screenshot of title and author list: A strong start for sustained success: inclusivity through a national group mentorship program for first-year graduate students Sergio R. Labra1,2,*, Valerie A. Tornini3,4,5*, Maria Pia Rodriguez Salazar6, Daniela M. Cossio7, Rebekah A. Gelpí8,^, Bryan E. Rubio Perez9, Yanitza M. Rodríguez10, Gerardo Leana Sandoval11, Kimberly Hernandez12, Olivia V. Goldman13,*,#, Robert W. Fernandez14,#,†

Happy to share our article on @cientificolatino.com's GSEC program: a national mentorship program for 1st-year STEM grad students, geared for those from underrepresented backgrounds.

We review why programs like this are urgently needed & what we learned while running it 🧵

doi.org/10.64898/202...

IMPACT OF PARENTHOOD ON UNIVERSITY EMPLOYMENT. Line graph shows how the probability of holding a research position changes from four years before to seven years after having children.

Becoming a parent is much more detrimental to women’s academic careers than it is to men’s

Read the full story: go.nature.com/4v4rxmQ

i think one of the roughest parts is that I dont really know what to change about the proposals, only thing I got feedback was on the K99 and that was just "publish more"

didnt advance to interview for Burroughs Wellcome Fund CASI, I struck out with all my transition grant apps this year, aaaaa

Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences The success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English,...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... see also !