HB Lab

@[email protected]
388 Followers
307 Following
290 Posts
Trying to understand brain learning and memory by means of physics. The whole is greater than the sum of parts. Twitter @hb_cell https://twitter.com/hb_cell?t=CXV1KkajXixXzLr0_KAwSQ&s=09
HB LabJul 21, 2023
Matteo CarandiniJun 21, 2023
We are looking for a postdoc to to help us reveal how neural activity is structured in brainwide patterns to support behavior in mice. The postdoc will study the activity of large populations of neurons in the mouse brain using combined techniques such as #Neuropixels recordings and optogenetics, or rabies tracing and two-photon microscopy. It's an exciting opportunity for research at the interface of computational and experimental #neuroscience. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/cortexlab/positions. Deadline is 29 July.
Positions

Our lab offers a friendly and multidisciplinary environment

Cortexlab
HB LabFeb 25, 2023
Show threadSpencer LaVere SmithFeb 25, 2023
@NicoleCRust @DiedrichsenJorn David Poepple has spoken about “conceptual resolution” (akin to spatial and temporal resolution, not resolution like “solution”). It’s a nice tool because it allows for degrees, rather than stark categories like “idea”“theory” or “model”. https://join.substack.com/p/will-we-understand-our-brains
Will We Understand Our Brains?

An interview with David Poeppel.

Join Andrew
HB LabFeb 22, 2023
Stephanie Rossit 🧠👀🖐Feb 22, 2023
RT @MonacoSimona
I am hiring a post-doc! Come work with me at CIMeC @cimec_unitrento in Italy to figure out the neural mechanisms of predictions for action execution. I am looking for expertise in brain imaging, ideally MEG or EEG. Please RT!
HB LabFeb 22, 2023
Nicole RustFeb 20, 2023

On the "aha moment"

As a scientist, I've had the privilege to experience the big "aha" moment a handful of times. Each time, I was struggling to make sense of something and the "aha experience" happened the moment I figured it out. What's remarkable about those moments is how vividly I remember the details of the moment: the color of the paint on the walls; how the room was configured; if I was talking to someone else, exactly where they were sitting ...

I've had other equally compelling findings emerge from my research program that I did not experience in the same way, because the "aha" was figured out by someone else (like a PhD student) and later explained to me. I was as befuddled by those questions, as curious to know their answers and as excited to see those answers figured out! However, I did not experience them in the same way insofar as today I can tell you the answers but not much about the moment I first learned them.

I anticipate that this experience is something universal (and not unique to science). Eve Marder discusses it as something to be cherished (and I agree):
https://elifesciences.org/articles/80711

Does this description of the "aha moment" (also called "Eureka") resonate with you?

Living Science: Maintaining the joy of discovery

Changes in science over the past 50 years have reduced the chances of trainees experiencing the joy of discovery.

eLife
HB LabFeb 22, 2023
Marcia PetytFeb 20, 2023
Finlay Brown and Djamil Vahidassr The man that lost (part of) his mind https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5847910/pdf/bcr-2017-222892.pdf
HB LabFeb 19, 2023
Kevin MitchellFeb 19, 2023
Massive Multiplexing of Spatially Resolved Single Neuron Projections with Axonal BARseq https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.02.18.528865v1 - awesome work from Tony Zador and colleagues!
HB LabFeb 10, 2023
Show threadNicole RustFeb 8, 2023

@bwyble @DrYohanJohn @christakou

So what do we do? I guess we begin by explicitly stating what those assumptions are for swaths of the field so we can discuss? A bit like the spirit of this very controversial article?

https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(22)00332-1

HB LabFeb 10, 2023
ClariceDAielloFeb 9, 2023

Big Quantum Bio Meeting featuring Google's Hartmut Neven exceptionally MOVED to Tue, Feb 14, 7am PST in the same zoom room, 617 710 5261!

Hartmut will talk about: Google's hardware efforts towards building a quantum computer + progress on some flavors of quantum computing algorithm + deep questions about how physics intersects with biology, e.g., quantum resources in biology as related to neurological processes.

Exciting! Come learn about #QuantumBiology

HB LabFeb 5, 2023
Show threadrustyFeb 4, 2023

@kcarruthers see Stage 2

©Marketoonist

HB LabJan 31, 2023
Björn BrembsJan 31, 2023

@NeuroSchnell @schoppik @NicoleCRust @albertcardona

Interesting way of putting this. It is something one hears over and over again, so I guess people really mean it, despite the fact that the evidence seems to show the contrary: the more journals filter and select, the worse the science published there gets:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00037/full

I have an hypothesis why intention and results go in opposite directions, but I'd like to know what your inside perspective is?

Prestigious Science Journals Struggle to Reach Even Average Reliability

In which journal a scientist publishes is considered one of the most crucial factors determining their career. The underlying common assumption is that only the best scientists manage to publish in a highly selective tier of the most prestigious journals. However, data from several lines of evidence suggest that the methodological quality of scientific experiments does not increase with increasing rank of the journal. On the contrary, an accumulating body of evidence suggests the inverse: methodological quality and, consequently, reliability of published research works in several fields may be decreasing with increasing journal rank. The data supporting these conclusions circumvent confounding factors such as increased readership and scrutiny for these journals, focusing instead on quantifiable indicators of methodological soundness in the published literature, relying on, in part, semi-automated data extraction from often thousands of publications at a time. With the accumulating evidence over the last decade grew the realization that the very existence of scholarly journals, due to their inherent hierarchy, constitutes one of the major threats to publicly funded science: hiring, promoting and funding scientists who publish unreliable science eventually erodes public trust in science.

Frontiers