Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · 5d

@fabbs.org wants to hear from you about the recent NSF Graduate Research Fellowship announcement and its impacts on scientists in clinical psychology!

Current or past NSF grad fellow in Clinical Psychology? tinyurl.com/36r9znke

Current student who hoped to apply? tinyurl.com/yhbz3d5u

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has finally released the solicitation for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) for fiscal year 2026. The new solicitation includes two significant chan...

tinyurl.com

Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · 8d

New eLife preprint from Tan Nguyen—Pattern-based functional MRI and computational modeling show evidence for multiple signals contributing to updating the brain's representations of events: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Multiple event segmentation mechanisms in the human brain

elifesciences.org

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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 13d

Baccarelli was paid $700/hour for his work on a case against Tylenol. I will charge $0/hour to tell courts, FDA, and everyone else that correlations can arise from latent variables in the absence of a direct causal relationship.

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Harvard’s Public Health Dean Was Paid $150,000 to Testify Tylenol Causes Autism | News | The Harvard Crimson

Harvard School of Public Health Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli received at least $150,000 to testify against Tylenol’s manufacturer in 2023 — two years before he published research used by the Trump admini...

www.thecrimson.com

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Reposted by Jeff Zacks

Dr. Cheri A Levinson @cherilev.bsky.social · 12d

The @nsf has also decided that clinical psychology is not eligible for NSF.

This is a crock of 💩

Clinical psych (actually clinical science) is a RESEARCH degree. Let’s just completely not support research training in mental health then.

Bad bad bad bad decision

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Hayoung Song @hayoungsong.bsky.social · Sep 5

How does the brain🧠 make causal inferences and use memories to understand narratives🎬?

We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do!

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

w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇

A neural network with episodic memory learns causal relationships between narrative events

Humans reflect on past memories to make sense of an ongoing event. Past work has shown that people retrieve causally related past events during comprehension, but the exact process by which this causa...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Sep 4

Short videos highlighting the science that is not getting done due to federal science cuts:
www.youtube.com/shorts/2J_BW...
Share them!
(Thanks to Timothy Wilson and his collaborators for making these!)

Preventing Misinformation @science

YouTube video by What We'll Never Know

www.youtube.com

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Aug 25

New preprint from Yining Ding @liliand.bsky.social! People use semantic event knowledge and grouping to remember the temporal order of events.
osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Aug 15

The Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (@fabbs.org) is searching for a short-term technology policy fellow. Great opportunity for a new PhD interested in policy, maybe before a research postdoc or faculty position:
fabbs.org/news/2025/08...

We’re Hiring: Technology Policy Fellow – FABBS

Location: Washington, D.C. (hybrid) Salary: Approximately $7,000 per month Start Date: September 15, 2025 Duration: 3 months, with potential for longer Position

fabbs.org

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Black In Neuro @blackinneuro.bsky.social · Aug 14

It’s been 5️⃣ years of #BlackInNeuro! 🧠✨

Join the annual #BlackInNeuroRollCall on September 10th and tell us where you were in 2020, and where you are now!

New role? New city? New degree? We want to hear it!!
Post your video + use #BlackInNeuroRollCall so we can celebrate YOU!! #5YearsOfBIN

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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · Aug 11

I live in rural Missouri, population 480. I travel to DC a few times a year.

The President is lying.

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Reposted by Jeff Zacks

Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · Aug 7

The Supreme Court is reviewing a vitally important NIH case on its shadow docket.

It is likely that the Court will back Trump, and say his (illegal) grant terminations are ok.

We must speak up now.
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Tell the Supreme Court: No Stay. Hands off NIH

The Supreme Court is poised to allow Trump to illegally terminate NIH grants. Let's speak out. There is not much time.

scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com

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Alt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · Jul 29

🚨ATTENTION CDC AND ALLIES!🚨 Our genes/jeans are GREEN tomorrow
To see our strength and build community, we ask that you wear something 💚green💚 to work on WEDNESDAY (tomorrow) to show solidarity and readiness to defend public health. Spread the word! #courageiscontagious #spreadthecolor #wearthecolor

a man in a green lantern costume is standing in a hanger with a helicopter in the background .

Alt: Ryan Reynolds suiting up as Green Lantern. While better known for his role as Deadpool, Ryan will always be Green Lantern to us. Sorry not sorry, Ryan. This will haunt you forever.

media.tenor.com

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Jul 25

New review paper with Maverick Smith on improving memory for stuff people actually want to remember:
doi.org/10.1177/0963...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

doi.org

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Reposted by Jeff Zacks

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jul 18

New update today (on Senate version, House version is worse):

👎 Though overall NSF budget would remain flat, STEM education would still see a 15% cut:

$1,172 --> $1,000 million

From a bill report out today after the bill passed in committee yesterday: www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

STEM EDUCATION
Appropriations, 2025 ............................................................................. $1,172,000,000
Committee recommendation ................................................................. 1,000,000,000

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · Jul 11

Another (small) update today:

The analogous subcommittee in the House will now meet next Tuesday, July 15, also about NSF/NASA/NOAA budgets (link below).

House has recently been more hawkish on $ than Senate, so will be interesting. Here's who to call: appropriations.house.gov/subcommittee...

Subcommittee Markup of Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Bill

appropriations.house.gov

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Jul 17

Agree. But my lab is so good at making fun of me that I don't think AI will put them out of a job just yet.

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Adrien Peyrache @apeyrache.bsky.social · Jul 16

Brenda Milner just turned 107. Happy birthday!
On my very first day as a PI at the MNI, she was right in front of me in the cafeteria line.
She was already nearly 100, and still coming to work.
What a legend.

Le Neuro (Institut-Hôpital neurologique de Montréal) @theneuro.bsky.social · Jul 15

Happy 107th Birthday, Brenda Milner! Her contributions to neuropsychology shaped the way we understand the human brain. From surviving two world wars and two pandemics, to paving the way for future generations of researchers, Milner’s legacy continues. @mcgill.ca @cusm-muhc.bsky.social

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Jul 12

The Center for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience at WashU is recruiting postdoctoral fellows. The Center offers a unique opportunity to craft a transdisciplinary research program with an unusual degree of independence.

ctcn.wustl.edu/postdoc-fell...

Postdoc Fellows

The CTCN funds a cohort of outstanding Postdoctoral Fellows to work at the interface between theoretical and experimental labs and help forge new collaborations. Application deadline August 1st, 20…

ctcn.wustl.edu

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Jun 30

Thoughtful column by @marccoutanche.bsky.social about parallels between the current federal challenges to science and the history of Soviet science:
www.post-gazette.com/opinion/gues...

Marc Coutanche: The president and DOGE repeat the Soviet's big mistake

America went to the moon. The USSR starved. The difference was that America promoted science over politics. Getting to the moon remains one of the greatest...

www.post-gazette.com

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Jun 6

There's one day left to submit a comment on the Trump administration's proposal to reclassify career civil service employees--including at NSF and NIH--as "at-will" political appointees. Read the @fabbs.org comment here and submit your own: fabbs.org/news/2025/06...

FABBS Responds to Proposed ‘Schedule F’ Rule – FABBS

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently proposed a new rule which claims to “increase career employment accountability.” FABBS previously reported on

fabbs.org

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · Jun 4

I too was troubled by Ono's abrupt about face. That degree of moral flexibility seems an unfortunate characteristic for an institutional leader. Inside Higher Ed found your comment apt as well: www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...

Florida Board Rejects Ono for UF Job

The Florida Board of Governors decided against confirming Santa Ono as president of the University of Florida in a contentious vote focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.

www.insidehighered.com

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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · May 30

If you haven't been looking recently at the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (oecs.mit.edu), here's your reminder that we are a free, open access resource for learning about the science of mind.

Today we are launching our new Thematic Collections to organize our growing set of articles!

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · May 31

Thanks @davideagleman.bsky.social for bringing me on Inner Cosmos to talk about the cognitive neuroscience of movies!

David Eagleman @davideagleman.bsky.social · May 30

Why are brains so easily pulled into the unreal world of movies? What does film teach us about the brain's approach to making sense of the world? Join me on Inner Cosmos to discover the strange relationship between neuroscience and the silver screen.
eagleman.com/podcast/106
#brain #movies

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Jeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · May 30

Chad Freidrichs' documentary, The Cinema Within, got a very nice review in the @nytimes.com:
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/m...

Three Great Documentaries to Stream

www.nytimes.com

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Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · May 21

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees

Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday

📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful

Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

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