"Besparen op internationale studenten? Vlaanderen ruilt wereldambitie in voor zelfgekozen achterstand."
Lees het opiniestuk in Knack, namens de Jonge Academie, door Nicolas Baeyens en Wim Van Lancker - @wvlancker.bsky.social
www.knack.be/nieuws/belgi...
Thread of French and Dutch research institutes slowly unsubscribing from web of science (and thence impact factors).
Fahimeh built upon her previous work on the spectral slope as a marker of E/I balance in MS during rest: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... and its modulation during a working memory paradigm: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Great work by Fahimeh Akbarian on task-induced 1/f slope modulations in #MultipleSclerosis!
#Neuroscience #MultipleSclerosis #Cognition #Biostatistics
Conclusion:
Dichotomization has its place in clinical decision-making, but for research, let’s keep the richness of the data intact. It’s a smarter path to sensitive, specific, and mechanistically meaningful cognitive biomarkers.
Rich, domain-focused continuous measures can better detect treatment effects, map brain–cognition links & guide targeted rehab—especially with small MS study cohorts.
Key points:
• Continuous scores catch subtle effects
• Domain-specific analysis reveals unique deficits & neural links
• Collapsing across domains masks key patterns
In our simulations (N=50, r=0.3), continuous analysis had 28.1% power vs 15.7% after dichotomizing—a ~44% loss. This can obscure real effects & waste precious sample size in MS research.
New in MS Journal: “Lost in dichotomization” — reducing MS cognitive scores to “impaired” vs “intact” slashes statistical power & hides patterns. 🧠📊 doi.org/10.1177/1352... #MSResearch #Neurology #Biomarkers
We are delighted to announce the appointment of the new Young Academies Science Advice Structure (YASAS) Board, and we look forward to their contributions in shaping the future of science advice in Europe. Discover the new board: scadv.eu/SEDd6eP
the level of misinformation sparked because of this bananas EEG preprint is just really tragic.
By the way if you think that a researcher caused cognitive decline to happen to participants in a study you should probably be freaked out by that
This is what the science machine does. No massive breakthrough. No single cure. Just lots and lots of cumulative knowledge that makes things better…
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
We hebben 10 nieuwe leden verkozen!
Ontdek ze hier 👉 www.jongeacademie.be/nieuws/nieuw...
Science meets Parliament logo
Er hangt vandaag #liefde in de lucht bij de Jonge Academie.
We koppelen vandaag 25 parlementsleden met 26 wetenschappers.
Niet voor een #onenightstand, maar voor een #serieuze #relatie.
Ontdek alle koppels van #ScienceMeetsParliament op onze website: www.sciencemeetsparliament.be
#SmP2025
Read more: www.jmir.org/2025/1/e53503
Congrats to Stijn Denissen! 🙌
#MultipleSclerosis #DigitalHealth #CognitiveScreening
4️⃣ What’s next?
We're integrating icognition into a digital health platform with brain imaging & patient-reported outcomes. This could revolutionize MS care by enabling remote cognitive monitoring!
3️⃣ What did we find?
✅ icognition correlates well with paper-and-pencil equivalents
✅ It’s reliable (good test-retest stats)
✅ Shows potential for real-world use in MS
2️⃣ What's icognition?
We developed a smartphone-based screening battery with 3 tests:
Symbol Test: Info processing speed
Dot Test: Visuospatial memory
vBDS: Working memory
Each is based on validated gold-standard tests but adapted for remote use.
1️⃣ Why does this matter?
Cognitive decline is common in MS but often difficult to track due to reliance on traditional paper-and-pencil tests. These are time-intensive, costly, and not easily accessible. Remote monitoring could change this!
🌟 Exciting news! Our new article, "A New Smartphone-Based Cognitive Screening Battery for Multiple Sclerosis (icognition): Validation Study", is now published! 🧠📱 Here's a quick summary:
Time for this to happen everywhere.
Stel je kandidaat voor Science meets Parliament.
In 2025 koppelen 🔗 we voor de derde keer een wetenschapper met een parlementslid.
De Jonge Academie wil weer 20 koppels samenstellen. Doe dus mee, schrijf je in tot 13 december via onze website (sciencemeetsparliament.be)
#SmP #ScienceMeetsParliament
Met de Jonge Academie zetten we (bijna) elk jaar een pairing scheme op tussen wetenschappers en politici. Het doel? Elkaars leefwereld beter leren begrijpen door elkaar een dag lang te volgen. Wetenschapper met interesse? De inschrijvingen voor 2025 staan open: www.sciencemeetsparliament.be
