Zero-Noise Lab

https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/news/2021/um-school-of-medicine-study-shows-that-psychedelic-experience-may-not-be-required-for-psilocybins-antidepressant-like-benefits.html

1/4 The effect of psychedelics on animal models has been studied the WRONG way. .

Here they analyze 109 studies with psychedelics in rodents (from 2019 to 2024). In the vast majority of studies, the “set and setting” is the same as that which would be used in humans to cause a bad trip.

Absolutely love this work - and the article communicating it! 🤩🤩

Super excited for this collab! Reusable probe implants for all! 😁✊️

Amazing, thanks lots!😊🙏

Check out @catrinahacker.bsky.social's #CCN2025 poster this afternoon!

We've long worked with spikes. Here we ask: would we have made the same inferences about memory with the signals often recorded in human neurosci (iEEG, LFPs)? The answer surprised me. Not only yes! but with 3-fold *less* data.

Wow, that's fascinating!! Gotta check that out in our data....

Also there can be a lot of joy in the not knowing - which usually takes up the majority of the time after all. 😅

Aaaand we have our final line-up for ESI-SyNC 2025! Check it out! :)
Join us for two exciting days of figuring out what altered states of consciousness do to your brain!
More info:
esi-frankfurt.de/newevent/
Go register (100 Euro, free for junior researchers):
survey.academiccloud.de/index.php/18...

Watch What Happens When a Crocodile Walks Into a Herd of Hippos | Nat Geo Wild YouTube video by Nat Geo Animals

Hippo pool? ;) (Imagine the crocodile as reviewer 2)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLZH...

I have the pleasure of speaking at ESI-SyNC this year about the neurophenomenology of breathwork and DMT 🧠✨

Do come if you can!

No evidence for a link between mental health symptoms and pain thresholds Previous studies have suggested associations between pain perception and psychological factors such as mood, distress, fatigue, and quality of life. However, these factors and their relationship to...

Does sensitivity to acute pain correlate with mental health?
In our new paper led by @rebeccaboe.bsky.social & @francescafardo.bsky.social we analyzed thermal pain thresholds in 565 adults and found no link to mental health symptoms.
👉 doi.org/10.1080/1061...

Delighted to be back to Ernst Strüngmann Institute to learn and present at what should be an amazing meeting on psychedelics and consciousness

www.esi-frankfurt.de/newevent/

Registration is 100 Euro (free for PhDs & postdocs).
Find out more!
esi-frankfurt.de/newevent/

Go register!
survey.academiccloud.de/index.php/18...

@mikaelpalner.bsky.social @torbenott.bsky.social @bita137.bsky.social @marcwittmann.bsky.social @evanlhealey.bsky.social @christimmermann.bsky.social

What shifts in our brain when our consciousness shifts? On Sept 8-9, we will explore this question at ESI-SyNC 2025 - with exciting talks, posters and discussions on the neural dynamics of altered consciousness, from psychedelics to breathwork, near-death experiences and meditation.
(1/2)

“Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience: overcoming the clash of research cultures”
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Small contribution in this piece by @frosas.bsky.social and colleagues on how we need both types of research culture in neuroscience.
#neuroskyence

Structure uncovered: understanding temporal variability in perceptual decision-making Studies of perceptual decision-making typically present the same stimulus repeatedly over the course of an experimental session but ignore the order o…

Sweet, sweet review by the awesome @anne-urai.bsky.social on the beautiful mess that is behaviour.
Also, best abstract ending I've seen in a long time:
'There is probably no such thing as stable behavior.'
Check it out!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

😂😂

A study of rhesus macaques in July found that those who communicated more clearly with their facial expressions made better leaders: phys.org/news/2024-07...

Couldn't help but think of how this guy must be a great leader.

As highlighted by @altmetric.com, #Bluesky keeps trending up, regularly beating #X/Twitter for research sharing, all with just 36M users compared to X's claimed 600M. Imagine achieving that without the spam and toxic mess. Honestly, what are you waiting for?
#ResearchSky #AcademicSky #SocialMedia

Or in German: 'Studentenfutter' (student feed) 😅

Excited to share this project specifying a research direction I think will be particularly fruitful for theory-driven cognitive science that aims to explain natural behavior!

We're calling this direction "Naturalistic Computational Cognitive Science"

Super kick-ass talk by @anna-beyeler.bsky.social on dopamine signalling and anxiety just now at the 12th SBDM (Symposium on the Biology of Decision Making)! 😱🤯🥳

Yaaay, congrats Alex! 🤩

Did their own hand feel rubbery?
#catchtrials
#demandcharacteristics
:-)

a man with a mustache is wearing a blue shirt and a blue jacket and says `` team work make the dream work '' . ALT: a man with a mustache is wearing a blue shirt and a blue jacket and says `` team work make the dream work '' .

Shout-out to the kick-ass team that made this project such a joy: Model magician Alejandro Tlaie, video wizard @hummuscience.bsky.social , mouse & monkey whisperers Rob Taylor, Katharine Shapcott and PA Ferracci, VR maven Mina Glukhova and master of neurobehavioural math @jpillowtime.bsky.social .

The one clear difference we found between species? Monkeys stick to each face state more consistently, while mice bounce around between states more often and more randomly. (6/7)

This relation held on a single-trial level: Just by looking at their faces, we could predict reliably if mice and monkeys were going to succeed in the upcoming trial - and how fast they would do so (5/7)

Over time, different facial features were most predictive, forming alternating ‘face states’. Amazingly, these face states mapped neatly onto trial success, even though the model didn’t know trial outcomes! In short: Facial expressions track cognitive performance states (4/7)

We then analysed their facial expressions pre-trial to predict their reaction speed per trial. First things first: it worked! Facial expressions predicted upcoming reaction times - in monkeys and in mice! (3/7)

The way we process the world keeps spontaneously shifting - from focused, to daydreaming, to hasty, and so on. How do such spontaneous cognitive shifts operate across species? To find out, we let mice and monkeys play the same immersive VR foraging task. (2/7)