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Reposted by Nicole Rust

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 18h

repost this if an editor has ever saved you from yourself

violent alien @blipstress.bsky.social · 19h

An actual hot take: Too many authors are afraid of editors watering down their voice or whatever and not afraid enough of editors letting you put any old slop on the page.

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Reposted by Nicole Rust

Martin Wiener @martinwiener.bsky.social · 18h

POSTDOC Opening: I'm hiring a postdoc to work with me, @ayeletlandau.bsky.social, and Yuval Benjamini on a 4-year NSF funded project to understand timing and memorability in the visual system. fMRI, EEG, eye-tracking all included.

If interested, please DM or email me for more information!

Martin Wiener @martinwiener.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thanks to NSF and BSF, we've received a CRCNS grant!! 🎉

I'll be working with the amazing @ayeletlandau.bsky.social and Yuval Benjamini to explore and understand how our sense of time and image memorability are linked. ⌛🧠

We have 2(!) post-doc opportunities available - details coming soon!

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Reposted by Nicole Rust

NYU Center for Data Science @nyudatascience.bsky.social · 1d

CDS Asst. Prof. @neurograce.bsky.social has launched a YouTube channel, “5 Minute Papers on AI for the Planet,” translating climate-AI research into short video explainers, inspired by her course at CDS, “Machine Learning for Climate Change.”

nyudatascience.medium.com/cds-grace-li...

CDS’ Grace Lindsay Launches YouTube Channel on “AI for the Planet”

Grace Lindsay’s new YouTube series turns climate-AI research into five-minute videos for a wide audience.

nyudatascience.medium.com

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 17h

Wonderful! Thank you for it.

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Reposted by Nicole Rust

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 18h

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 17h

bsky.app/profile/hadi...

Hadi Vafaii @hadivafaii.bsky.social · 22d

What drives behavior in living organisms? And how can we design artificial agents that learn interactively?

📢 To address these, the Sensorimotor AI Journal Club is launching the "RL Debate Series"👇

w/ @elisennesh.bsky.social, @noreward4u.bsky.social, @tommasosalvatori.bsky.social

🧵[1/5]

🧠🤖🧠📈

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 17h

Wonderful to see this high-level conversation about reinforcement learning happen not just “at the top” but across many professional levels (including trainees). 👏👏👏 to everyone involved. Such a thoughtful way to expedite progress. I look forward to following along.

Eli Sennesh @elisennesh.bsky.social · 6d

We started our RL debate series!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0A0...

RL Debate Series: Eli "abolish the value function" Sennesh

YouTube video by Sensorimotor AI

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Nicole Rust

Larry Hunter @proflhunter.bsky.social · 1d

This is a very cool paper, both in the results and the methodology. And Nicole put it up again (I missed it the first time) because she is recruiting students to do more of this....

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

And here's a preprint:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The representation of mood in primate anterior insular cortex

Understanding how the brain reflects and shapes mood requires resolving the disconnect between behavioral measures of mood that can only be made in humans (typically based on subjective reports of hap...

www.biorxiv.org

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 19h

Anyone curious to learn more about why what @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social is up to is so exciting - you might click on the Columbia profile, or start here. These ideas; this pursuit - it's quite genius, I think.

www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...

Naked mole rats lead a bustling, if unilluminated, life. The members of a colony—a queen, one to three breeding males, and dozens of nonreproductive workers—constantly bump into each other in the dark in their underground tunnels as they work together to dig, move food and care for their young.

“They’re arguably the most social animals in the entire mammalian kingdom,” says Ishmail Abdus-Saboor. Yet the mole rats don’t recognize one another like other mammals do: They are blind and don’t hear or smell very well. They do, however, have an extraordinary sense of touch—and for that reason, “we think that the mole rats can teach us how you can use touch as a way to communicate with others,” Abdus-Saboor says.

The mole rats’ somatosensory cortex proportionally takes up three times as much cortical space as the same region in other mammals, Abdus-Saboor notes. Plus, their entire bodies are covered in whiskers so sensitive that the animal can respond to a single deflection, he adds. Face touches may help the animals recognize and remember one another, Abdus-Saboor and his team reported in a preprint in February. And because they are hairless, apart from their whiskers, the touch neurons innervating their skin may more accurately model tactile sensations in people than the neurons innervating the furry skin of a mouse.

Abdus-Saboor started the colony in his lab about three years ago and says he hopes the mole rat work will intersect with his team’s ongoing mouse studies. Findings from the “extreme case” of the naked mole rat that are corroborated by mouse experiments could yield insights into more general somatosensation principles, he says.

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 19h

I needed this. Gratitude.

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 20h

YES!!! So incredibly well deserved. Cheers to you and your team 🎉

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Reposted by Nicole Rust

Ishmail Abdus-Saboor @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social · 20h

I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!

Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations to @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social on receiving the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, celebrating “scientists with outstanding records of creativity.” His lab will explore how the sense of touch can help build relationships. 🫶🧠💡

See zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/zuckerman-in...

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 23h

Good pick!

Reposted by Nicole Rust

Dean, School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pennsylvania @pennsasdean.bsky.social · 1d

We all have theories about why we are the way we are. But for psychologists, this becomes a scientific exploration. In my third episode of the Ampersand Podcast, I discuss this connection between self and subject with Associate Professor of Psychology Rebecca Waller. buff.ly/CR4LFH7 @sas.upenn.edu

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you!

Reposted by Nicole Rust

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

Please spread the word! I am recruiting a PhD student this cycle (Fall 2026 start) to join my team in a new venture: the neuroscience of mood.

If you are curious to learn more, this short talk provides a good overview of why, what and how.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjIK...

Nicole Rust - The representation of mood in the primate insula (May 6, 2025)

YouTube video by Simons Foundation

www.youtube.com

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

Gratitude to all those who have reached out with interest in pursuing a PhD on the neuroscience of memory. While fascinating, my group won't be starting new projects in that realm. In this next phase, we're going all in on a new big mystery. (And I'm excited!).

www.nicolecrust.com/mood

Back of a woman with a straw hat in a field of sunflowers and bubbles

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

More info on the terrific @upenn.edu Psychology PhD program here:

psychology.sas.upenn.edu/graduate/inf...

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

And here's a preprint:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The representation of mood in primate anterior insular cortex

Understanding how the brain reflects and shapes mood requires resolving the disconnect between behavioral measures of mood that can only be made in humans (typically based on subjective reports of hap...

www.biorxiv.org

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 1d

Please spread the word! I am recruiting a PhD student this cycle (Fall 2026 start) to join my team in a new venture: the neuroscience of mood.

If you are curious to learn more, this short talk provides a good overview of why, what and how.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjIK...

Nicole Rust - The representation of mood in the primate insula (May 6, 2025)

YouTube video by Simons Foundation

www.youtube.com

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 2d

Let this be a motto for all of us, when we peer review:
“Review the manuscript in front of you, not the one you wish existed.”
@earlkmiller.bsky.social

JoCNForum @jocnforum.bsky.social · 2d

New post in @jocnforum.bsky.social by Early Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social: "Principles for proper peer review"

doi.org/10.21428/8e6...

Principles for proper peer review

doi.org

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 2d

You have pioneered many ideas/results, though … (I like the association in that sense).

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 2d

On the "I felt like a manager, not a scientist" - I get that too. It's easy to land there. There are some issues, for sure, 💯.

That said, professor is a profoundly privileged position. There are options that trade-off some points on h-indexes like 79 for deep thinking. 🤷‍♀️

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 2d

At least in systems neuro, there's a strong sense of excitement. It's the opposite of "papers and research projects could have been done 15 years ago". New ways to measure things we've never been able to before - dynamical systems; connectome constraints. New ideas about how brains/minds work.

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 2d

I get it. Similar thoughts inspired me to write a book. I began pessimistic, like this author, but I came out on the other side with renewed optimism.

As a counterpoint to the blog below, this podcast could be titled, "Why Nicole Rust stayed"

www.fchampalimaud.org/news/episode...

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