Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
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markgbaxter.bsky.social
Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
@markgbaxter.bsky.social
Neuroscientist (PhD) interested in brain mechanisms of learning and memory. NHP anesthesiologist. Associate stats gay. 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans rights are human rights. No LGB without the T. He/him. 🏳️‍🌈
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
It's flu SZN, people
November 25, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
Things I currently think you should be considering in your proposals. Although this thread will be NIH-centric, my guess is that some of this applies to NSF, etc. Much is synthesized from public information. Much of this is what we've advised all along, just with, um, more emphasis.

Here we go:
November 25, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
no thread mentioning thanksgiving turkeys complete without bsky.app/profile/cpsc...
There is a post circulating on Bluesky encouraging the moving of a frozen turkey straight into a pot of hot oil. We are combating this misinformation the best way we know how - through the power of dance music.
November 25, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
‘All’s Fair’ has been renewed for a second season on Hulu.
November 24, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
Updated guidance on NIH grant application due dates (10/1/2025-12/5/2025), along with some other Info. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
NOT-OD-26-012: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Updated Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities Following the October 1, 2025 - Lapse in Appropriations NOT-...
grants.nih.gov
November 24, 2025 at 5:54 PM
was just dubbed a "meeting top" and forwarded this skeet in explanation 😆😆
My spiciest office opinion is that lots of bad meetings happen because no one wants to meeting top
November 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
My spiciest office opinion is that lots of bad meetings happen because no one wants to meeting top
November 19, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
Patients who took a daily semaglutide pill for 2yrs did not demonstrate a significant difference from those given placebo on a commonly used Alzheimer’s disease (CDR-SB) rating scale despite improving AD- biomarkers. Betting on MOA is > than chance.
endpoints.news/novo-nordisk...
Novo Nordisk's semaglutide misses in closely-watched Alzheimer’s trials
Novo Nordisk's semaglutide fails in two late-stage Alzheimer's trials, causing 9% stock drop. Drug didn't delay disease progression despite improving biomarkers.
endpoints.news
November 24, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
So many “new” ideas are old repackaged ones using updated terms based on current technologies.

Either folks need to read papers from > 5yrs ago. Or they need to cite them so readers & the public see the slow plodding incremental nature of discovery science.

#AcademicSky
November 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
short sighted at best....NHP research has been instrumental in the development of new treatments for human conditions (as well as other animals conditions/diseases as well).
EXCLUSIVE: CDC to end all monkey studies. Decision handed down by recent college grad and former DOGE employee who is now deputy chief of staff at the agency. Animals were being used in studies of HIV prevention. Some may be euthanized. My latest for @science.org
Exclusive: CDC to end all monkey research
Studies related to HIV and other infectious diseases will be phased out, sources say; fate of the agency's animals remains unclear
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
I wonder the extent to which formal public health recognition of the link between common viral infections and dementia/AD is being held back by the regulatory obligation it creates for things like clean indoor air and managing risk of infections we currently view as relatively benign annoyances.
I was fine after getting both shingles shots, although my husband had flu-like symptoms after each of the 2 doses. Still, that seems a small price to pay to reduce your dementia risk.

Shingles vaccine most promising common drug to potentially prevent Alzheimer's, medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11...
Shingles vaccine most promising common drug to potentially prevent Alzheimer's
A new study has identified three existing medications that could be repurposed to treat or prevent Alzheimer's disease.
medicalxpress.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
I don't even own any pajamas but this guy's pitch has inspired me to buy some for when I fly to SLC to start tour next week
Trump's Transportation Secretary on how to improve air travel:

"People dress up like they're going to bed when they fly... We want to push people as we come into a really busy travel season, help people out, be in a good mood, dress up"
November 21, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
November 20, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
How do changes in context influence how we organize our memories in time?

Faster contextual changes are associated with faster drift in hippocampal activity and reduced temporal clustering in recalled memories.

Elegant work led by @lindsayrait.bsky.social!

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Hippocampal Drift Rate Reflects the Temporal Organization of Memories
When freely recalling past events, individuals tend to successively remember stimuli that were studied close together in time—a phenomenon known as temporal clustering. Temporal clustering is thought ...
www.jneurosci.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
We are thrilled to announce that the preliminary program for the 2026 GRC on the Frontal Cortex is now live!
www.grc.org/frontal-cort...
Registration is now open for both the GRC and our GRS, chaired by @albitc.bsky.social and @jorge-miranda.bsky.social!
2026 Frontal Cortex Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Frontal Cortex will be held in Holderness, New Hampshire. Apply today to reserve your spot.
www.grc.org
November 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
what in gay hell
Cognitive and brain function enhancement in Gen X group after personalized, AI supervised EEG-neurofeedback training https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.17.688986v1
November 18, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
*tapping the sign*
Folks at SfN come see the first Fraser Lab poster ever at FF6 on Tuesday Nov 18, 8am. Serena Miller has oodles of data to share on a new direction for us. Also, that day happens to be my birthday so you have to come say hi or else
November 18, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
AI slop gracing the cover of Royal Society B. Not only in AI yellow but scientifically nonsensical. Come on. I'm certain human photographs and artworks were ignored to platform ... this.
November 18, 2025 at 10:49 AM
"Draw a clock" probably the single most sensitive neuropsychological test for dementia.
I don’t really like showcasing AI. Ironic usage is still usage. The clocks this one is putting out though are just so spectacularly fucked.

And people think these things are going to save the world. My god. Come onnnnn.
November 17, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
I don’t really like showcasing AI. Ironic usage is still usage. The clocks this one is putting out though are just so spectacularly fucked.

And people think these things are going to save the world. My god. Come onnnnn.
November 17, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
This piece by @sramach.bsky.social and @cbo.bsky.social does address Watson's real legacy.

"We need not dig too deep to figure out why the words 'James Watson' were written above the trigger of the AR-15 stock carried by the white supremacist shooter in Buffalo"
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 16, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
How our foray into acute neural recordings from the frontopolar cortex started. Check out Kati Rothenhoefer’s LBP028 poster this afternoon (11/16) to learn about how it’s going. #sfn25 #sfn2025
November 16, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
November 15, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Now that people are in San Diego or on their way for SFN, I, like a Tye Lab mouse, am experiencing a bit of FOMO
November 14, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Mark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈🧂
Going to #SFN2025. Check out the Costa Lab posters on Sunday and Monday afternoon!
November 14, 2025 at 11:17 PM