This week is National #CareersWeek
Why not take a look at some of these inspiring resources I’ve collated to weave careers into STEM teaching and learning (link in comments, or follow link to blog in bio)👇
#ScienceIsEverywhere #BeCurious #DrJoScience #STEMCareers
Graphic with a dark teal background featuring the title “Broadening Participation in Cognitive Science” in large white text. Below it, in bright lime green text, the tagline reads: “Supporting diverse voices to build a more inclusive and representative field.” Decorative lime green horizontal lines appear on the left, and curved, parallel lime green lines frame the right side of the image.
Cognitive Science is stronger when more voices are included.
The Broadening Participation initiative funds projects that engage underrepresented communities, bridge disciplines, and create lasting outreach impact.
Deadline: April 15 🗓️
Learn more & apply: cognitivesciencesociety.org/broadening-p...
A promotional blog graphic with the title Academic overwhelm and the message You are not the only one displayed beside progress bars representing workload. The image includes a portrait of Dr Becky Carlyle, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, alongside Dementia Researcher branding.
Academic life can be brilliant & exhausting! Deadlines stack up. Teaching prep takes longer than expected. Emails multiply.
Dr Becky Carlyle shares her experience of academic overwhelm & reminds us that feeling stretched doesn't mean you're failing. It means you are human.
buff.ly/cri1x4X
Want to improve your writing? Blogging genuinely taught me not only how to write better, but that I also have interesting things to say! Who knew?
If you've ever considered blogging - why not just give it a whirl? You might learn something about yourself 🤔
#academicsky #neuroskyence #scicomm
Fancy a forray into policy? 🗣
Specifically, are you an ECR that thinks its too early to engage with policy? To thee I say "pfft" - its never too early! Get used to communicating science now and I guarantee it will pay off later 😉
#academicsky #scicomm
www.csap.cam.ac.uk/case-studies...
Six Blogs you may have missed in 2025 - thanks to Dr Becky Carlyle, @dryvonnecouch.bsky.social, Dr Lindsey Sinclair, @beccasue99.bsky.social, Dr Cliona Farrell & Dr Peter Connelly
www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/collections/...
Reading “The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing”
theconversation.com/the-5-stages...
Apathy in dementia is common but poorly understood. Join Rebecca Williams @beccasue99.bsky.social to explore a new way of thinking about apathy and what it means for research and care. Wed 14 Jan 8pm GMT.
communities.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/c/events/res...
❗️NEW OPINION PIECE 🗨
Want to find out how apathy might be more than evaluating cost and benefit? ⚖️ Then read on!
V excited for the release of my first opinion piece on #apathy as a failure of active inference in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social with thanks to my co-author @cambridgeftd.bsky.social 😊
Its not all smooth sailing - and that's why I recommend getting yourself a might fine crew for the journey 🏴☠️😄
Some of my reflections on the final stretch of #PhD life which I hope might be helpful to those coming along next!
#academicsky #WomeninSTEM
#BeckyandtheBrain is back! 😄🧠
After a little break to submit my PhD I'm back to talk about the rocky road to submitting, how I got there and whether a #PhD might even be for you
#neuroskyence #scicomm
youtu.be/lHo2M3kzDeI
Happy LGBTQ+STEM Day! To mark the occasion, LGBTQ+ and ally scientists alike introduced our new pride flag to the @mrccbu.bsky.social
Reflections on a fab session at #CCN25 - how might gamification fit into #dementia research? 🎮
Would love to hear others' thoughts on this one 😊
#neuroskyence
Thank you! Looking forward to the next steps now 😊
Happy belated Halloween 👻🎃
I'm dressed as the scariest thing of all - a PhD thesis! Proud to say that as of Wednesday mine no longer haunts me haha
Thanks to the whole @cambridgeftd.bsky.social team for their support!
#academicsky #womeninstem #neuroskyence
🎃 Halloween meets sleep science💤:
Our ECSM team's “Polysomnography Pumpkin” brought sleep science to the spooky season - earning second place at Oxford’s Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Building Games!
Brains, electrodes, and a few spiders included.🧠
Come listen to John Duncan and myself discussing his new book on 25 Nov. So much insight into the human condition. Definitely not an event to miss!
🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Huge thank you to my co-authors (including @michellenaessens.bsky.social) and all our wonderful volunteers 🥰
I feel old - does that count? 😂
We did also find an age effect with older individuals having higher levels of precision. This ties in with past research to suggest that older groups rely more on their prior beliefs.
I certainly think this makes sense as they've had more years to compile evidence that their beliefs are correct 😄
Thank you! We're hoping it may certainly open up some new avenues to treatment for individuals with clinical levels of apathy (both behavioural and pharmacological).
Or would you sit, apparently indifferent to the cold? ❄️
This idea is slightly different to existing cognitive theories which focus on apathy as a result of being insensitive to reward or effort avoidant.
In a way - we propose that a lack of precise beliefs about how our actions influence the world around us leads to apathy. As an example, if you had no confidence (an imprecise belief) that putting on a jacket would make you warmer - would you bother putting on the jacket?
[5] This study provides evidence that apathy may be caused my imprecise prior beliefs on action outcomes and opens new avenues to understand and treat apathy in clinical conditions 💊
[4] Using dynamic causal modelling of task-based MEG, we also find evidence that lower levels of prior precision are associated with lower levels of prefrontal superficial pyramidal gain AND slower (higher) GABA time constants.
[3] Our study finds strong evidence for a correlation between the precision of prior beliefs on action outcomes and apathy in healthy adults, such that higher levels of trait apathy are linked to lower levels of precision.
This relationship is primarily driven by behavioural apathy.
[2] We predict that precision of prior beliefs on actions is reflected in connectivity across the prefrontal-motor decision-making hierarchy.
This dysconnection may be driven by a loss of self-regulation (gain) on prefrontal superficial pyramidal neurons - important for tuning neural oscillations.
