Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

J. Brendan Ritchie

@jbrendanritchie.bsky.social

420 followers 500 following 74 posts

Cognitive neuroscientist studying vision and cognition. Recovering philosopher. Asst Prof in the Dept of Neuro at U Lethbridge/Iniskim. Views are my own. He/him

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Apr 12

I am very happy to announce that this Fall I will be starting my position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge. I am finally returning home to Canada, and the Prairies that I love.

Aerial view of the University of Lethbridge. The modern campus buildings are tucked into the gaps between the coulees.

1 17

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 6d

Now Jeanne Marrazzo, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been fired by #RFKJr in retaliation. This administration is corrupt. Matthew Memoli: remember this man's name, MAGA grifter who scored $500M for his research. www.statnews.com/2025/09/04/n...

Two former top NIH officials say they were forced out in retaliation for objecting to grant terminations

Whistleblower complaints by two former top NIH officials offer their inside accounts of the Trump administration’s targeting of vaccine science.

www.statnews.com

7 120 250

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 3d

James Baldwin to Angela Davis in 1970, discussing white Americans:

Or, to put it another way, as long as white Americans take refuge in their whiteness— for so long as they are unable to walk out of this most monstrous of traps-they will allow millions of people to be slaughtered in their name, and will be manipulated into and surrender themselves to what they will think of-and justify—as a racial war. They will never, so long as their whiteness puts so sinister a distance between themselves and their own experience and the experience of others, feel themselves sufficiently human, sufficiently worthwhile, to become responsible for themselves, their leaders, their country, their children, or their fate. They will perish (as we once put it in our black church) in their sins—that is, in their delusions. And this is happening, needless to say, already, all around us.

4 940 2.4K

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Sam Nastase @samnastase.bsky.social · 7d

I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.

8 66 110

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Lucina Uddin @lucinauddin.bsky.social · 8d

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nih-...

NIH awarded 37 percent fewer neuroscience-related grants in 2025 than in past years

But the agency has spent nearly its entire budget for this fiscal year, which ends tomorrow.

www.thetransmitter.org

29 37

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · 9d

Accurate take on Bhattacharya from Reddit:

“Look, this guy is a lightweight, at best. Any of the brilliant, productive, long-time physician researchers in NIH intramural would share this with you if they could do so safely and without attribution. To say he is in over his head is obvious...”
1/ 🧪

Look, this guy is a lightweight, at best. Any of the brilliant, productive, long time physician researchers in NIH intramural would share this with you if they could do so safely and without attribution. He is not going to grow into this position. He has peaked in his growth cycle and in this career with this Presidential appointment. To say he is in over his head is obvious. He will avoid situations where he cannot control the players at the table, cause he would have never been invited to sit at the table before given this position. Likely he would not even have been allowed to sit at the circle around the table, as that was always for senior staff. (Anyone familiar with IC directors meetings or SD (scientific directors) meetings will
know what this means.

4 19 78

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 16d

The New York Times piece today about US science is terrible and wrong—in many ways.

I could write a whole article about this, but as one example:

“To close observers, the original crisis began well before any of this…”
No. I’m a close observer of science, and this is incorrect.

24 230 920

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

The Breakdown AB @thebreakdownab.bsky.social · 20d

“Danielle Smith has directed officials to invoke the Charter’s notwithstanding clause in amending three laws that affect transgender people”

Danielle Smith is going to revoke people’s Charter Rights.

Thats where we are.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

lethbridgeherald.com/news/nationa...

Alberta to use notwithstanding clause on its three transgender laws: memo

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has directed officials to invoke the Charter's notwithstanding clause in amending three laws that affect

lethbridgeherald.com

39 140 270

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 20d

Canada needs to extend this analysis. In the meantime, pay attention to WF smoke warnings and advisories.
"Cumulative excess deaths from smoke PM2.5 could reach 1.9 million between 2026-2055. We find evidence for mortality impacts of smoke PM2.5 that last up to three years after exposure."

Harvey J. Miller @mobileharv.bsky.social · 20d

If the planet continues to warm at its current rate, exposure to wildfire smoke will kill an estimated 70,000 Americans each year by 2050, according to new research.

Wildfire Smoke Will Kill Thousands More by 2050, Study Finds

www.nytimes.com

2 26 62

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

The Tyee @thetyee.ca · 29d

A new report details how right-wing forces are weaponizing the concept of “parental rights” to push culture-war narratives aimed at undermining public education in Alberta. @readtheorchard.org writes. #abpoli

The Right-Wing Plan to Take Over Alberta Education | The Tyee

A new report zeroes in on the forces aiming to win control of school boards in next month’s elections.

thetyee.ca

29 120 200

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · Sep 7

Today, I tried to get my COVID vaccine and was denied. Even after showing the pharmacist @govwesmoore.bsky.social 's statement that Maryland law says all Marylanders should have access to the COVID vaccine, I was still denied. They said they had to follow the box. This is RFK's fault. RFK must go.

67 510 1.5K

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Sep 7

Um, what? The risk of LC goes up with every infection and there's never been a widely available vaccine that provides long term immunity to new variants. Please don't use your platform to spread this kinda misinformation.

1 3

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Sep 3

#neurojobs

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Sep 2

Let's be colleagues! Dept of Neuro at U of Lethbridge (Canada) is hiring a TT faculty: "with demonstrated excellence in research on brain function across the life span in nonhuman animals, employing a systems-level approach and utilizing state-of-the-art methods." uleth.peopleadmin.ca/postings/8586

Faculty of Arts & Science - Assistant Professor (Neuroscience)

The Department of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant Professor. We are seeking a neuroscientist with demonstrated ex...

uleth.peopleadmin.ca

1 5 10

Reposted by J. Brendan Ritchie

Christopher Wiggins @cwnewser.bsky.social · Aug 29

“The CDC you knew is over,” Dr. Demetre Daskalakis told me today. “Unless someone takes radical action, there is nothing there that can be salvaged.”

www.advocate.com/politics/dem...

RFK Jr.’s damage to the CDC is ‘past the point of no return,’ Dr. Demetre Daskalakis warns

“The CDC you knew is over,” the infectious diseases doctor told The Advocate. “Unless someone takes radical action, there is nothing there that can be salvaged.”

www.advocate.com

4 590 1.7K

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

In this respect a lot of existing work is already pushing us in the right direction. But we believe that at this point we need to move beyond the framework of category-selectivity while continuing to build on its hard-won insights. 18/18

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

We also think that a great deal of the methodological developments in cognitive neuroscience are very well-suited to studying how visual cortex codes for behavioral relevance. 17/18

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

We suggest the same sort of model fits our emphasis on behavioral relevance, if the dimensions are derived from how we process complex environments during natural behavior rather than similarity judgments. 16/18

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

In their work using the THINGS initiative data, they suggest that visual cortex relies on widely distributed but locally sparse coding for many different visual dimensions. 15/18

1 1

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

However, our goal is not to be critical, but constructive! That’s why we go to great lengths to try and sketch an alternative model inspired by recent work of @olivercontier.bsky.social and @martinhebart.bsky.social . 14/18

1 2

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

So, we think it is ultimately both theoretically and empirically mistaken, even as a convenience, to think that the organization of visual function coalesces around these stimuli. 13/18

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

When studies have looked at much richer sampling of the visible environment (e.g. NSD dataset; THINGS), we see graded selectivity for a wide range of visual properties that cannot be grouped as just “faces” or “scenes”. 12/18

1 2

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

The problem however is that this evidential basis largely has dependent on a *presumption* of the importance of these stimuli. And we cannot infer selectivity from such selective sampling. 11/18

1 2

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

One might think: conceptually this makes sense, but there is still the vast body of empirical work that must be contended with that would seem to provide clear evidence of selectivity for stimuli like faces and scenes! 10/18

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

But instead, we study images of heads with no bodies and scenes with no people and largely ignore the visual diversity and goal dependence of behaviorally relevant signals. 9/18

1 2

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

If I am going for a jog a person on the path is navigationally relevant. If I am looking for a person who is lost in a forest, coming across foot prints is socially relevant. 8/18