xkcdbottitle text: If you think curiosity without rigor is bad, you should see rigor without curiosity.
(https://xkcd.com/3101)
(https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3101)
| https://nicolecrust.com/ |
Nicole Rust
@NicoleCRust@neuromatch.social
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Professor (UPenn). Brain researcher. Science advocate. Book: Elusive Cures (Spring 2025). https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures
The TransmitterIn her new book, published today, neuroscientist @NicoleCRust takes a bird's-eye view of where the neuroscience community is currently and where it needs to go to solve some of the field’s biggest questions.
‘Elusive Cures: Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Solved Brain Disorders—and How We Can Change That,’ an excerpt
In her new book, published today, neuroscientist Nicole Rust takes us on her personal quest to spell out the brain research community's "Grand Plan."
It's publication day for 📘Elusive Cures. What a moment!
This is my 1st book & my 1st time on Mindscape (one of my favorite podcasts).
Here, @seanmcarroll and I have a wide-ranging conversation about the brain, including: Why are brain and mental disorders so hard to understand and treat?
The book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures
My new piece in Nature Human Behavior: "We need to fight for the next generation of US researchers"
All trainees need 3 things to thrive. In the US, those things have been ripped away. Let's brainstorm and fight to get them back.
My hope is that Elusive Cures will help shift the current narrative (from scientists as selfish & corrupt data falsifiers). Most scientists I know are impassioned individuals throwing their best at complicated challenges that matter for society; this is how Elusive Cures describes them.
I'm humbled by this review.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780691243054
I hope Senator John Fetterman and his team enjoy nonfiction books (or at least this one).
Nearly everyone is either themselves afflicted with a brain or mental condition, or knows someone who is. We must do better for those individuals! To achieve that, we need federal support of science.
This! This the type of work that makes me so optimistic that the next 3 decades of brain research will be more impactful that the last for understanding/treating mental conditions. We finally have the right measurement tools & analyses (eg for emotion).
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt3971
Treating the brain as a complex dynamical system where emotions are persistent, emergent properties is key to understanding emotion.
This is what we'll look back on in 30 years and point to as the genius of this era.
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures
And this type of cross-species comparative work enables exactly the types of causal perturbation experiments that some are grumbling haven't been done yet. Like this ⬇️
Dan GoodmanIt would be great if UK and other European universities could consider waiving requirements for a completed master's degree for students who have been de-enrolled from Harvard. It's both a good thing to do and a great opportunity to pick up some top students who would otherwise have stayed in the US
Capping off a terrific-but-whirlwind of a week - an advanced review of Elusive Cures!
Today: A weekly digest 🧵 . A great way to glimpse the tremendous opportunity of this era is to see this alternation between big breakthroughs about the brain and the vast unmet needs for brain and mental disorders. It really helps build the intution about what's what.
Day 30 (breakthrough): Recording tech. The brain is a complex system in which its parts need to be studied simultaneously because its emergent properties follow from their interactions. We can now do that for the first time in history. And this is leading to ways to measure things we've never been able to before. Like how activity in the hypothalamus of a mouse gets sucked into a persistent "line attractor" to drive aggression. Understanding that is a step toward understanding emotion in humans. https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114489108188614165
Day 29 (need): For a taste of what Parkinson's is like, read the advocate Benjamin Stecher blog https://tmrwedition.com or his recent book "Reprogramming the Brain". We can treat but not slow Parkinson's. It's heartbreaking. I admire Ben a lot - he's feisty & reminds researchers what's at stake.
https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114494400904272529
Day 28 (breakthrough): The brain's memory "engram" - a tremendous cumulative brain research accomplishment that unfolded across a century, including multiple Nobel prizes. We know where and how memories are stored in the brain; we can even reactivate, erase and implant memories (at least in mice). It's a terrific test case for the question: How does progress in (neuro)science happen?
https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114500343226674217
Day 27 (need): We don't know what causes most brain disorders. For 3 caused by single-gene mutations (Huntington's, Fragile X, and a rare Alzheimer's), we've known the cause for over 30 years. We still cannot cure any of them. Why not? There's a lot more to cures than "find the gene".
https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114505869401430507
Day 26 (breakthrough): AI. "Building" was once held up as a test of understanding. With AI, we can build without it. AlphaFold is an AI model that predicts protein structures from DNA, created without understanding the principles of protein folding. AI changes the game.
https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114511546913459068
Day 25 (need): Psychiatric conditions are diagnosed based on symptoms rather than biological tests like brain scans or blood tests. We do not yet know enough about what's happening in the brain of someone experiencing a depressive episode or psychosis to create such a test.
https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114517208460500690
Day 24 (breakthrough): The BrainGate brain computer interface enables individuals with extreme paralysis to move. It's the product of decades of scientific discoveries & engineering. For one man, he imagines writing letters and it's transformed into text. It's remarkable!
https://neuromatch.social/@NicoleCRust/114523105437943759
https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures
Nicole Rust (@NicoleCRust@neuromatch.social)
30 days to the launch of Elusive Cures! I learned so much writing it, and I want to share it. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures For the next 30 days, I'll post brain & mind research breakthroughs on odd days, and highlight unmet needs on even ones. #ElusiveCures30 First breakthrough: Recording tech & why it matters. The brain is a complex system in which its parts need to be studied simultaneously b/c its emergent properties follow from their interactions. We can now do that for the first time in history. Up to 1 million neurons in mice! https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(24)00121-1 And this is leading to ways to measure things we've never been able to before. Like how activity in the hypothalamus of a mouse gets sucked into a persistent "line attractor" to drive aggression. Understanding that is a step toward understanding emotion in humans. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07915-x