@NicoleCRust@neuromatch.social avatar

NicoleCRust

@NicoleCRust@neuromatch.social

Professor (UPenn). Brain researcher. Author (nonfiction). Advocate for community based progress & collective intelligence.

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NicoleCRust, to random
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Starting a list of all the amazing early career researchers that have made the wise decision to join us on this worthy platform (but might also take an exposure hit for that). Let's all boost and follow!

Let me start with two:

@WorldImagining

@kinleyid

Please add two more (maybe yourself and 1 other?)

NicoleCRust,
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@WorldImagining @kinleyid
More of my recommended ECR follows:

@lili
@axoaxonic
@jonny

Yours?

NicoleCRust,
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@albertcardona @csdashm @lena_r @uni_matrix @ajuergensen @Jan_Ache @k4tj4 @clbarnes @bruvellu @Corralesmarc
Excellent! Followed all. Now: what to discuss? What intriguing thread unites this group? Connectomics? Tractable systems? (Brains? Everyone on the list is curious about them …)?

NicoleCRust, to random
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Not judging but rather really curious:

Honestly; the calculus is complicated and we all weigh things differently. But … Is there a line that Musk could cross that would trigger our colleagues and friends to quit twitter?

Musk has done A LOT over there. If the line isn’t hosting and promoting the guy that even Fox fired, I do wonder: what might it be?

NicoleCRust,
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@neuralreckoning
Thank you for engaging/explaining! I know you’re on a mission for change (which I respect a lot). Is the calculus something like: the good of the mission exceeds whatever ethical costs are in play here? Or is it: twitter is no more questionable than eg visiting a grocery store. Or both? Again, not judging (really!) Just curious and trying to understand. And I know you aren’t in it to sell tshirts, collect ❤️​ or whatever.

NicoleCRust,
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@nitpicking
Interesting. I’m hearing this a lot; variants of ‘I consider it part of my job’

NicoleCRust,
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@vbuendiar @neuralreckoning
I’m fascinated by the subjectivity of it all. As scientists we are always evolving what we are doing - we never stuck with one specific problem/approach/way for very long, and I think of social media like that - over here; over there; new adventures are good. But I understand the idea of investments and payoffs.

I do also wish everyone was in the same place - there was a golden age of twitter in which big conversations happened and those aren’t happening anymore, anywhere.

NicoleCRust, to random
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Curing the broken brain model of addiction

Ideas about viewing addiction as a complex system are gaining traction, and they strike me as tremendously sensible (and a good path forward). Here, addiction is viewed as emerging from the interactions of multiple biological, psychological and environmental causal influences. The research question then becomes: how do these influences interact and where can we best intervene? It's described here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460320307322

This position resolves some of the polarized debates between two extreme positions:

  1. the cause of addiction is a pathologically disordered brain
    https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra1511480

  2. the brain disease model of addiction is wrong.
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0055

Thoughts, insights or concerns?

NicoleCRust,
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@ngaylinn @Rhyothemis
Well said!

NicoleCRust, to random
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What Might Cognition Be, If Not Computation?

Rather than computers, cognitive systems may be dynamical systems; rather than computation, cognitive processes may be state-space evolution within these very different kinds of system

With a wonderful illustration via "The Governing Problem"

Tim Van Gelder, 1995

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2941061

NicoleCRust, to random
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On the art of nonfiction, David Shenk.

This article and its 3 challenges to writing nonfiction resonates with me. It also highlights the difference between scientific practice versus science writing of other types (with a surprising insight for science practice).

The second challenge is the one that both scientists and science writers do a lot of: figuring out how to navigate complex information. It's the core of the job, whether you are practicing science or writing about it.

The first challenge is the one that most scientists don't do much of: storytelling science. For the scientists that want to do it, that's great. But it's also really hard. While tremendously valuable to the whole, I'm not sure it turns individuals into better scientists; it's a different (valuable!) thing. Of the 3 challenges, this one differentiates science writers vs scientists. (The analog in science would be the experiments and such).

The third challenge is the one that is less obvious: Stepping back from the trees to view the forest from 10,000 feet to get a fresh perspective. I agree with Shenk that most scientists don't do it. It's one I'd like to see more scientists engage in; I suspect it would lead to better science.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/11/on-the-art-of-non-fiction/30107/

NicoleCRust, to random
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Tis the era of ‘be very careful of what tech you adopt …’

And that’s exhausting. It’s also a very nice thing about here, for sure.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/5/23712440/gmail-ads-more-annoying-middle-inbox

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/06/1174468793/amazons-affordable-healthcare-service-has-a-hidden-cost-your-privacy

NicoleCRust, to random
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One of my new favorite brain researchers: @lucaspinto.

https://www.pintolab.org/lucas/

NicoleCRust, to random
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So excited to hear what @neuroamyo has been up to and see her shine (she’s one of the best speakers in the biz) at the nexus of foundational and translational brain research.
https://www.simonsfoundation.org/people/amy-orsborn/

I’m especially in awe of her group’s progress across the pandemic. Those of us who were more established PIs had the privilege of data on our hard drives. Not true for those who were just starting up. Double awe is in order here.

NicoleCRust, to random
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The troubled history of psychiatry, summarized:

Disturbing, fascinating, & enlightening, all at once.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/27/the-troubled-history-of-psychiatry

Summary of this book, by Anne Harrington (Historian of Science, Harvard)
https://wwnorton.com/books/Mind-Fixers/

neuroecology, to random

Thinking of making another weak attempt to be here. Who should I follow that isn't active on Twitter?

NicoleCRust,
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@knutson_brain @neuroecology
Thanks! I like the dominos. Not sure who isn’t on Twitter anymore, but @Neurograce is active and thoughtful here.

NicoleCRust, to random
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Big welcome to @kendrick, a mover & shaker in all things visual cognition.

Recommended follow!

NicoleCRust, to random
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Explaining Behavior: Reasons in a World of Causes
Fred Dretske

Any fans? It's about the tension between brain-based and psychological-based causes. I missed it (published in 1991) and I'm just starting.

It is the business of this book to show how this apparent conflict, a conflict between two different pictures of how human behavior is to be explained, can be resolved. The project is to see how reasons- our beliefs, desires, purposes, and plans- operate in a world of causes, and to exhibit the role of reasons in the causal explanation of human behavior. In a broader sense, the project is to understand the relationship between the psychological and the biological- between, on the one hand, the reasons people have for moving their bodies and, on the other, the causes of their bodies' consequent movements.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262540612/explaining-behavior/

NicoleCRust,
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@elduvelle
That’s the question: how to relate what brains do with what minds do (think: processes).

NicoleCRust,
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@elduvelle
I don’t believe the question is if, but rather how (but I haven’t read it).

NicoleCRust,
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@elduvelle
There is however this, which I just learned about: property dualism. I don’t think it has anything to do with this book, but speaks to the notion that minds might have properties that won’t be reducible to brains (even though the arise from them):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Property_dualism

mtarr, to random

What is Mastodon for? Self promotion or constructive engagement? I wonder about scientists that discuss/critique other's work in their own work, but then won't engage when queried about it here. Or journals/editors that promote their journals/positions in Mastodon, but then won't engage in any discussion that challenges any of their policies, etc? Maybe there should be a separate Mastodon server instance entitled something like "neuromatch.promotion" or "scientific.promotion" where they understanding is that authors, journals, etc can post their self-promoting toots without any expectation of responding to comments, questions, etc. Then we can decide who or what we want to follow on that server, but for the .social instances, we can focus on actual discussion?

NicoleCRust,
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@mtarr
Engagement is certainly the most fun, and I’d love to see more of it.

NicoleCRust, to cogneurophys
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Now that I'm moved to neuromatch.social, a new .

I’m a professor at UPenn who studies memory. I work at the nexus of brain research and computation. I’m also writing a book: When it comes to understanding the brain, what are we trying to achieve? What’s our plan to get there? What challenges do we face?

Writing has deepened my appreciation for community-based progress. I'm excited to be here to participate in, and benefit from, collective intelligence.

I'm also committed to restraining myself from the power of 10K characters. But I will Edit - that is the superpower that we all deserve.

@cogneurophys @complexsystems

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