Nicolas Clairis
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nclairis.bsky.social
Nicolas Clairis
@nclairis.bsky.social
200 followers 400 following 63 posts
Postdoc passionate about effort-based decision-making and the roots of effort aversiveness.

If you are on Mastodon, my profile is: @[email protected]
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
sarahgarf.bsky.social
** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)
November 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
arossotto.bsky.social
New pontification piece with @awestbrook.bsky.social and Jean Daunizeau, just out in TICS:
Why is cognitive effort experienced as costly?
(or why does it hurt to think)

never written a review paper before in my life, that was a new and unusual experience
Why is cognitive effort experienced as costly?
A widespread observation is that people avoid mentally effortful courses of action, and much recent work examining cognitive effort has explained subjective effort evaluation – and, consequently, pref...
www.cell.com
November 19, 2025 at 2:48 PM
nclairis.bsky.social
"commercial publishing is becoming increasingly detached from the needs and interests of researchers and now serve profits, not science"
November 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM
nclairis.bsky.social
Anyone understands why such a big part of internet depends on one single US-based company? That sounds like a terrible security flaw on so many levels (sovereignity, vulnerability, etc.)
November 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
dannykay68.bsky.social
EXCELLENT graphic on the drain of scientific publishing! zenodo.org/records/1759...
November 15, 2025 at 4:04 AM
nclairis.bsky.social
R.I.P. US-based research 😅
mjcrockett.bsky.social M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 12d
Just unbelievably cruel and stupid.
environmicrobio.bsky.social Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 13d
“The prohibited activities would include joint research, co-authorship on papers, and advising a foreign graduate student or postdoctoral fellow. The language is retroactive, meaning any interactions during the previous 5 years could make a scientist ineligible for future federal funding.”
November 14, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
hansonmark.bsky.social
For-profit journals are supposed to improve research quality, yet they're perversely incentivized to churn out whatever they can monetize. This was happening before AI (see Strain: bit.ly/43gJPUM), and AI will make it worse.

It's insane that we volunteer our time to help them do so.

4/n
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
nclairis.bsky.social
"Academia should resume control of publishing using non-profit publishing models (e.g. diamond open-access)"
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
arkadykonovalov.bsky.social
📢 PhD opportunity 📢

Looking for a PhD in neuroeconomics, social, or decision neuroscience? I'm looking to support an application for the MIBTP ESRC program starting Fall 2026. Details below, but please get in touch with me before applying!

Pls share!

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Cooperative Behaviour at University of Birmingham on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Neurocomputational Mechanisms of Cooperative Behaviour at University of Birmingham, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:57 AM
nclairis.bsky.social
Not super reassuring for young european researchers 😅 thank you Donald
carandinilab.net Matteo Carandini @carandinilab.net · 23d
Europe's MSCA postdoctoral fellowships are now attracting many researchers who would have gone to the US. So the payline has dropped below 10% (~1,600 fellowships to 17k applicants). Super tough situation. One more reason to double the next Horizon budget, as proposed by the EU Commission.
drtomemery.bsky.social Tom Emery @drtomemery.bsky.social · Oct 22
Applications for MCSA are up 64%! 50% now come from outside the EU. Trump effect?

The European Research market just got a hell of a lot more crowded.

EU should turn on the tap

marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-po...
November 3, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
brainapps.bsky.social
Looking for a PhD? Interested in cognitive computational neuroscience, motivation and decision-making? See our project listed in the BBSRC MIBTP competition for funding for a 4-year PhD in the @msnlab.bsky.social in the @thechbh.bsky.social. Deadline 27/11. More info: tinyurl.com/5d5vz8m7
The computational and neural dynamics of human motivation and cognitive control at University of Birmingham on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - The computational and neural dynamics of human motivation and cognitive control at University of Birmingham, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
abim-ch.bsky.social
Get ready for the biggest #ABIM yet! 🥳 We're celebrating our 20th anniversary with a special edition you won't want to miss.
🗓️ Registration & abstract submission: www.unige.ch/ABIM/partici...
💰Early bird fee ends November 9th!
#ABIM2026 #neuroimaging
The names of the speakers: Melanie Boly Ray Dolan Davide Folloni Laura Gwilliams Charles Hillman Hilleke Hulshoff Pol Jean-Rémi King Daniel Margulies Lucia Melloni
October 14, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
nicolecrust.bsky.social
Save the date 📆. On Oct 22/23, @nationalacademies.org will hold a stellar virtual workshop on brain/body interations (open to all).

www.nationalacademies.org/en/our-work/...
Title: Understanding Brain-Body Interactions to Advance Brain Health: A Workshop. Photo: picture of a transparent person with brain and nervous system illuminated.
September 26, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
rebeccasear.bsky.social
Evidence that even when LLMs produce similar results to humans, they “rely on lexical associations and statistical priors rather than contextual reasoning or normative criteria. We term this divergence epistemia: the illusion of knowledge emerging when surface plausibility replaces verification”
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 17, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
wanjawolff.bsky.social
Effort research is booming & it’s tough to keep up with how it's defined and measured.

Huge kudos to @dhprlab.bsky.social PhD student @lukas-hack.bsky.social for leading our attempt to create an impartial overview & starter guide. Great effort (pun intended 😉)!

Interested? Check it out ⬇️
lukas-hack.bsky.social Lukas Hack @lukas-hack.bsky.social · Oct 9
Exciting milestone, my first PhD preprint is out! 🎉

Together w/ @israelhalperin.bsky.social & @wanjawolff.bsky.social, we put together A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Effort 🪐

If you’ve ever asked “what is effort, and how to measure it?”, this one's for you 😎

🚀 read it here:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 10, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
francescasaviola.bsky.social
Excited to share such a career milestone 🌟 Our new @pnas.org paper shows how E–I balance drives dynamic brain adaptation.

Thanks to @jorgejovicich.bsky.social, @dimitrivdv.bsky.social, @asiaferrari.bsky.social, @bcassone.bsky.social & amazing co-authors 🙏
🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Disentangling metabolic and neurovascular timescales supporting cognitive processes | PNAS
The balance between neural excitation and inhibition (EIB), governed by glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission, is an essential mechanism su...
www.pnas.org
September 24, 2025 at 7:41 AM
nclairis.bsky.social
Just discovered (a bit late I admit) this fascinating talk from @hugospiers.bsky.social Now I really want to play that SeaHeroQuest game! Hope it gets available again soon!
How video games can help with medical research with Hugo Spiers | WIRED Health
YouTube video by WIRED Events
www.youtube.com
October 1, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
carmensandi10.bsky.social
New paper from the lab on the predictive role of prefrontal cortex metabolites in motivated effortful behavior in humans. Congrats to Arthur Barakat and @nclairis.bsky.social who led the work & to all our collaborators!
nclairis.bsky.social Nicolas Clairis @nclairis.bsky.social · Sep 29
Arthur's main & final PhD paper is finally out! In it, we show that a few metabolites (mainly glutamate, aspartate and lactate) measured at baseline with 1H-MRS in the dmPFC/dACC allow to predict inter-individual differences in the motivation to engage with cognitively effortful tasks! 1/2
Neurometabolic predictors of mental effort in the frontal cortex - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Neurometabolic predictors of mental effort in the frontal cortex
www.nature.com
September 29, 2025 at 3:20 PM
nclairis.bsky.social
Arthur's main & final PhD paper is finally out! In it, we show that a few metabolites (mainly glutamate, aspartate and lactate) measured at baseline with 1H-MRS in the dmPFC/dACC allow to predict inter-individual differences in the motivation to engage with cognitively effortful tasks! 1/2
Neurometabolic predictors of mental effort in the frontal cortex - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Neurometabolic predictors of mental effort in the frontal cortex
www.nature.com
September 29, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
lhuntneuro.bsky.social
Looking for a PhD next year? Want to come and work on the next generation of OPM-MEG/EEG biomarkers in computational psychiatry?

Apply for our MRC iCase studentship with @mkflugge.bsky.social, collabs with @lilweb.bsky.social + industrial placement at P1Vital:
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/gradua...
Development of robust, single-subject markers of predictive inference for computational psychiatry
www.medsci.ox.ac.uk
September 26, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
hunterschone.bsky.social
Now out in @natneuro.nature.com

What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed?

Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation

www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7

🧵1/18
August 21, 2025 at 9:20 AM
nclairis.bsky.social
"Springer Nature’s group revenue has risen by 6% to €926m (£800m) in the first half of 2025, while adjusted operating profit (AOP) was up by 10% to €241m (£208m)." they could at least say thanks to all of us researchers who made that waste of public money possible 🥲
August 14, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
richarddmorey.bsky.social
Not a good development
GitHub just got less independent at Microsoft after CEO resignation
GitHub will be part of Microsoft’s AI engineering team
www.theverge.com
August 12, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Clairis
eikofried.bsky.social
New paper by @bsiepe.bsky.social & WARN-D team out now in JoPACS, on the (lack of) relation between EMA selfreport and Garmin passive data.

Guardian @theguardian.com coverage:
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Paper:
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

🧪 #PsychSciSky #StatsSky #EpiSky
Smartwatches offer little insight into stress levels, researchers find
Academic study suggests devices cannot differentiate between someone being overworked and being excited
www.theguardian.com
August 11, 2025 at 10:51 AM