NicoleCRust

NicoleCRust, 7 months ago to random

Thrilling developments toward understanding mood

Of all of the brain's functions, mood is among the most mysterious. Mood is an ever-present feeling that we continuously experience, characterized by states like: happiness, sadness, anxiousness and calmness. It typically fluctuates slowly, subject to a multitude of disparate forces that we cannot always pinpoint; somedays we just wake up in a better (or worse) mood and we are not sure why. Mood is often differentiated from acute emotions that are more often targeted at something; for instance, we are afraid of tigers and we are disgusted by feces but more often than not, mood isn't directed at a specific thing. The general idea that's been floating around for awhile now is that mood is something akin to a running average about our overall well-being that exists to help motivate us to make good choices.

A groundbreaking paper in 2014 led by Robb Rutledge (now at Yale) demonstrated that this idea about mood isn't quite right insofar as mood tracks not with overall goodness (rewards) but rather unexpected goodness (reward prediction errors). In the context of a gambling task in which individuals had to choose between certain rewards and gambles, happiness tracked with unexpected wins (averaged over about 10 trials):
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407535111

That finding has been extended to the notion that mood reflects a sort of momentum that informs us about when things (like our environment) are changing in ways that make rewards more or less available. And the purpose of mood is to make learning efficient. Under stable conditions, reward-based (reinforcement) learning is a great way to learn, for example, what trees have fruit if you are a monkey searching. However, it's an inefficient way to learn if it's spring or fall and the overall amount of fruit is changing (in that case, you don't want to learn every tree individually). Instead, it makes sense to update your expectations about those changing conditions; this is what mood is thought to be for:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703769

What's most exciting to me is the formalization of this tremendously important but very slippery thing we call mood into mathematical models that can be tested. This article does a beautiful job describing how that type of approach can be used to formalize: happiness as an emotion versus a mood; the difference between happiness and pleasure; and the difference between depression versus anxiety.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2021.01.007

NicoleCRust, 2 months ago to random

Fascinating first person account by a psychologist who faked data

The scientist: Diederik Stapel. A Dutch social psychologist. He wrote a book explaining the context and how one thing led to another until he was caught. Nick Brown translated it into English. Freely available here:

http://nick.brown.free.fr/stapel

Page 101:

I also became increasingly skilled in the use of techniques that could put a healthy-
looking shine on otherwise mediocre results. If I didn’t get the effect I wanted across all the
different measures I’d used or the questions I’d asked, I would use the ones that did show
that effect. If an effect was present in an experiment, but not strongly enough to be tapped
by all of the types of measurements I’d used, I would make it stronger by combining the measures where the effect seemed to be only partly working. ...

Page 102:

After years of balancing on the outer limits, the gray became darker and darker until
it was black, and I fell off the edge into the abyss. I’d been having trouble with my
experiments for some time. Even with my various “gray” methods for “improving” the data,
I wasn’t able to get the results the way I wanted them. I couldn’t resist the temptation to go wanted it so badly. I wanted to belong, to be part of the action, to score. I really, really wanted to be really, really good. I wanted to be published in the best journals
and speak in the largest room at conferences. I wanted people to hang on my every word
as I headed for coffee or lunch after delivering a lecture. I felt very alone.

p103

I was alone in my tastefully furnished office at the University of Groningen. I’d taken
extra care when closing the door, and made my desk extra tidy. Everything had to be neat
and orderly. No mess. I opened the computer file with the data that I had entered and
changed an unexpected 2 into a 4; then, a little further along, I changed a 3 into a 5. It
didn’t feel right. I looked around me, nervously. The data danced in front of my eyes.
When the results are just not quite what you’d so badly hoped for; when you know that that
hope is based on a thorough analysis of the literature; when this is your third experiment
on this topic and the first two worked great; when you know that there are other people
doing similar research elsewhere who are getting good results; then, surely, you’re entitled
to adjust the results just a little?

NicoleCRust, 8 months ago to random

A wow prescient quote from 1865 that will resonate with my anti-reductionist friends

“Physiologist and physicians must never forget that a living being is an organism with its own individuality. Since physicists and chemists cannot take their stand outside the universe, they study bodies and phenomena in themselves and separately, without necessarily having to connect them with nature as whole. But physiologists, finding themselves, on the contrary, outside the animal organism which they see as a whole, must take account of the harmony of the whole, even while trying to get inside, so as to understand the mechanism of its every part. The result is that physicists and chemists can reject all idea of the final causes for the facts that they observe; while physiologists are inclined to acknowledge a harmonious and pre-established unity in an organized body, all of whose partial actions are interdependent and mutually generative. We really must learn, then, that if we break up a living organism by isolating its different parts, it is only for the sake of ease in experimental analysis, and by no means in order to conceive them separately. Indeed, when we wish to ascribe to a physiological quality its value and true significance, we must always refer to this whole, and draw conclusions only to its effects in the whole.”

Claude Bernard, 1865

Stumbled upon via this excellent take about homestasis (and how it's anti-reductionistic)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7076167/pdf/fphys-11-00200.pdf

NicoleCRust, 7 months ago to random

How do we support the Katalin Karikó's?

There's a lot of reasonable outrage today around how Katalin Karikó was treated throughout her career (full disclosure: by my employer, UPenn). Obviously a number of someones made a huge mistake by not recognizing the brilliance and potential of her work - no question there!

What I've been thinking about and I'd love to get some scenius input on: how could we, as an academic community, do better?

Here's one summary of what happened:
https://billypenn.com/2020/12/29/university-pennsylvania-covid-vaccine-mrna-kariko-demoted-biontech-pfizer/

Taking seriously the notion that 1) we want to support the Katalin Karikó's, 2) high-risk, high-reward research takes time, and 3) everyone needs to go through a job evaluation at some point, here are a few ideas:

*) Better support to help geniuses communicate (and fund) their ideas.
*) More funding for high-risk, high-reward projects
*) A longer evaluation period for individuals engaged in high-risk/high-reward research

What would you add/change?

NicoleCRust, 6 months ago to random

Breaking news: "The Transmitter" launches!

https://www.thetransmitter.org

I'm excited about this development.

A new publication for the neuroscience community, The Transmitter offers up-to-date news and analysis of the field, written by journalists and scientists.

NicoleCRust, 3 months ago to random

Wow! I just learned the story of an amazing colleage:

https://chasingmycure.com/

I'm a patient with a deadly illness that has nearly killed me five times, and I'm also a physician-scientist racing to discover a cure before my time runs out.

Thanks to a drug that I discovered to treat my disease and began testing on myself, I'm currently in my longest remission ever and was able to have a beautiful daughter (2018) and son (2021) with the love of my life.

I dedicate my life to advancing cures for Castleman disease and many more diseases through Every Cure, spreading our innovative approach to other diseases.

NicoleCRust, 8 months ago to random

Provocative

As a young psychologist, this chills me to my bones. Apparently is possible to reach the stratosphere of scientific achievement, to publish over and over again in “high impact” journals, to rack up tens of thousands of citations, and for none of it to matter. Every marker of success, the things that are supposed to tell you that you're on the right track, that you're making a real contribution to science—they might mean nothing.

(I agree: time to rethink the idea that any individual is how this works).

I’m so sorry for psychology’s loss, whatever it is

https://www.experimental-history.com/p/im-so-sorry-for-psychologys-loss

NicoleCRust, 7 months ago to random

How do you stay connected with curiosity and awe?

I suspect most researchers experience ups and downs. I periodically find myself disconnected from curiosity and awe and I need to find that compass again. (Writing a book like I’m doing now is arguably an overindulgence there).

I worry that researchers are globally a bit disconnected from it, coming out of the pandemic coupled with increasing pressures to produce.

One impression I have is that the special swath of researchers who inhabit this furry elephant are particularly in touch with curiosity and awe.

How do y’all stay connected to it?

NicoleCRust, 10 months ago to science

Metaphors in science - know any?

I’m fascinated by the role that metaphors play in scientific discovery. Like Darwin’s “tree” of life. When we shift how we think about what we’re working on, sometimes it inspires us to see it in a whole new way that clicks.

Know any good accounts of metaphors in science - others or your own?

#science #metaphor

NicoleCRust, 8 months ago to Neuroscience

Material for how to study for STEM/biology university courses?

I'm looking for any and all references and tips on this topic.

I teach Intro to Neuroscience; typically to freshman/sophomores. Their experience in this class can be important for their next steps. But some students show up better prepared than others and we want to find better ways to rectify that. It's a really hard problem.

As an experiment this year, we are tacking on an optional weekly "bonus session" for any students who feel they could benefit from a bit more instruction/practice wrapping their head around what we are expecting of them (and how to achieve it). Things like: we don't just want students to memorize facts but also generalize knowledge and solve problems - but what does that look like and how do you prepare for it? I'm looking for material to develop that type of 'how to study' curriculum, including material that targets a diversity of learning styles and approaches.

Any leads?

#neuroscience #teaching #science

NicoleCRust, 8 months ago to random

Wow! 124 brain researchers call out what journalists call the "leading theory of consciousness" (integrated information theory, IIT) as pseudoscience.

https://psyarxiv.com/zsr78/

💯​: We need testable theories about the brain to move forward. Every theory starts as a proto-theory (and that's fine). But when theories are not even wrong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong
we must acknowledge that.

Especially when the stakes are as high as they are here, with big ethical implications (eg for organoids and coma patients, as the authors describe).

NicoleCRust, 1 year ago to random

Can We Survive Technology?
John von Neumann (1955) Fortune

A few reassuring words from the past:

The crisis will not be re­ solved by inhibiting this or that apparently particularly obnoxious form of technology. For one thing, the parts of technology, as well as of the underlying sciences, are so intertwined that in the long run nothing less than a total elimination of all technological progress would suffice for inhibition.

The one solid fact is that the difficulties are due to an evolution that, while useful and constructive, is also dangerous. Can we produce the required adjustments with the necessary speed? The most hopeful answer is that the human species has been subjected to similar tests before and seems to have a congenital ability to come through, after varying amounts of trouble. To ask in advance for a complete recipe would be unreason­ able. We can specify only the human qualities required: patience, flexibility, intelligence.

https://geosci.uchicago.edu/~kite/doc/von_Neumann_1955.pdf

NicoleCRust, 5 months ago to Neuroscience

My new piece for @thetransmitter. Why is treating brain dysfunction so ENORMOUSLY challenging?

Because it amounts to controlling a complex system.

Drawing from the history of weather research, I pose the question: Can it even be done? And 14 experts in complex systems chime in. Would love to hear your thoughts as well!

https://www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neuroscience/is-the-brain-uncontrollable-like-the-weather/

#neuroscience #complexity

NicoleCRust, 1 year ago to random

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, 9 months ago to random

The moving story of Carol Jennings, APP and Alzheimer's

In all my years as a brain researcher, I didn't think to sit down and learn the stories of individuals afflicted with brain dysfunction until I sat down to write a book. Learning their stories has been one of the most impactful parts of this experience.

Among them: Carol Jennings. In an era in which the causes of Alzheimer's were not thought to be genetic, Carol's father and four of his siblings were all diagnosed with the disease at the ages 54-58. She started writing letters to Alzheimer's researchers wondering if her family could contribute to some type of study. One of those letters was written to John Hardy and it set off a chain of events that changed the course of Alzheimer's research for the next 30 years.

"Dear Sir, I was very interested to read of your research in the Alzheimer’s Disease Society News and think my family could be of use ... please contact me at the above address if you think we could be of help." April, 1986.

That letter led to the discovery of a single point mutation in the gene APP that leads to the protein beta-amyloid. It was a key step toward Hardy and others launching the amyloid cascade hypothesis, which in turn led to the new Alzheimer's drugs. (While their effectiveness thus far is questionable, they are a necessary step).

Carol spent the next 30 years as a patient advocate. She refused to be tested for the gene herself absent a cure. Tragically, she was diagnosed with the disease in 2012.

Here's more about Carol and her devoted husband and caregiver, Stewart.
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/honouring-couple-dementia-their-contributions-research
(Watch the short video. Have tissues ready).

NicoleCRust, 4 months ago to random

Done writing the book.

(Deep inhale).

~90K words. A few years of work. A transformative journey that did not end at all as I thought when I started. I'm grateful to have done it - what a privilege. A much bigger conceptual project than anything I've done up to this point.

I got to think intensely for a better part of a few years (in parallel to running a lab and teaching as a professor). Somehow there was not time for that before. I'm not exactly sure where I found it; I just did.

There will be many revisions going forward. And it won't hit the shelves anytime soon. But I'm going to pause and celebrate this moment, where every one of the bits are finally in place. I learned so much along the way. Even today, on the last day, I was fascinated, and I'm grateful. (That said, I'm also a bit tired).

What's the book about? A slice of the spirit behind it is captured here: https://www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neuroscience/is-the-brain-uncontrollable-like-the-weather/

NicoleCRust, 4 months ago to random

Should neuroscientists stay on X or go? Let’s ask a bunch of people who have decided to stay. Voices are missing here.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejn.16236

NicoleCRust, 4 months ago to random

Virtually all the protein molecules in our body are replaced during the course of a year.

A fun fact with philosophical implications (ala: Where is the "you")?

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/biological-thermodynamics/8FC8CAB10BFF5A4391B14FB171D7D351

NicoleCRust, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to random

Hey @grammargirl: I remember you talking about semantic satiation recently; it just won an Ig Nobel Prize!

https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/award-for-study-into-the-the-the-the-strange-feeling-of-finding-words-unfamiliar/

NicoleCRust, 2 months ago to random

Declaration ❤️ 🦣

Finally updated my website (that was overdue!). And declared to the world that y’all are my favorites.

https://www.nicolerust.com/

NicoleCRust, 1 month ago to random

Brainstorming corrections for scientific myopia

I’m convinced that we’ve inadvertently created a scientific culture that disproportionately dissuades high-level, big-picture thinking. How do we rectify that?

A few venues I know. Please add to this list!

We write at a high-level. Venues: perspective pieces of journals, thetransmitter.org, aeon.org, etc

We hold workshops to discuss things, at a high-level. Venues like https://www.tfi.ucsb.edu/ & https://esforum.de/ have interesting models.

We devote some time to this at conferences (I’ll be trying that here: https://2024.ccneuro.org/; let’s see how it goes). Know any other examples?

We write, read and discuss books.

I understand astrophysics does something organized (given shared resources): everyone is polled; plans are discussed; reports are written.

NicoleCRust, 19 days ago to random

Many know about amyloid, the gene APP and its relationship to Alzheimer's. But how many know the backstory? It all began with a letter from Carol Jennings to John Hardy .... Wonderful tribute and retelling here in @thetransmitter.

Much gratitude, Carol Jennings. RIP.

https://www.thetransmitter.org/alzheimers-disease/carol-jennings-whose-familys-genetics-informed-amyloid-cascade-hypothesis-dies-at-70/

NicoleCRust, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Another great @PessoaBrain salon: 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀?

Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon discussion with Anneli Jefferson & @awaisaftab, plus @eikofried, Alexey Tolchinsky & yours truly 😊​ chiming in.

Mar 21, 12pm US-east

Register here:
https://umd.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vc-6hpjwoHt3QkJSC7gmndwYYUiaf5S2F#/registration

NicoleCRust, 23 days ago to random

Summer reading recs?!

I’m looking to compile a big pile of IRL books for summer beach reading.

Big fan of scifi, specfic, murder mysteries. Strong female characters = bonus points. Can’t deal with darkness. Nothing high brow or tedious. Nonfiction lover but that list is already bursting at the seams.

I also love long series - 3 body problem, wheel of time, foundation … those waves all have good memories attached.

If that brings anything to mind, please send the rec!!