Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Mara Mather

Florian Bublatzky @fbublatzky.bsky.social · 12d

Just came across this face image database that lists different databases from A-Z libguides.princeton.edu/facedatabases A very nice collection, thanks to
@mtesterman.bsky.social

Research Guides: Face Image Databases: Databases (A-Z)

An A-Z directory of databases of face stimulus images for use in behavioral research

libguides.princeton.edu

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · 13d

Great to see more steps towards eliminating dependence on journals that charge large fees.

Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 14d

Link to HHMI preprint mandate hhmicdn.blob.core.windows.net/policies/Imm...

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Janel Comeau 🍁 @verybadllama.bsky.social · 16d

I have taken
the Tylenol
that was in
the medicine cabinet

and which
they think probably
is the reason
you like trains

forgive me
but that’s bullshit
you got autism
from your dad

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Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 17d

I strongly second this! 👏🏾

When talking about science communication, I also always stress that *all* forms and forums of communication matter 🔄

Whether it’s a big, factually correct but details-lite TV show or movie…or just chatting to granny or your mates in a pub 🗣️

Tracy Bale @thebalelab.bsky.social · 20d

Fantastic piece in Nature Reviews Neuro by @nicolecrust.bsky.social on the importance of science communication. My take? Everything matters - just do something. It will make a difference for how science is valued and trusted, how community understands. Let's get out there and communicate! 👏

The unexpected value of communicating science to the public

Nature Reviews Neuroscience - As a group, our scientific community has a responsibility to unpack the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind our work for the public, not least because much...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 18d

Look at academia giving me a little hope

Scott L Greer @scottlgreer.bsky.social · 18d

“52% of all autocratization episodes become U-Turns, which increases to 73% when focusing on the last 30 years. The vast majority of U-Turns (90%) lead to restored or even improved levels of democracy”

V-Dem data

When autocratization is reversed: episodes of U-Turns since 1900

The world is in a “wave of autocratization.” Yet, recent events in Brazil, the Maldives, and Zambia demonstrate that autocratization can be halted and reversed. This article introduces “U-Turn” as ...

www.tandfonline.com

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · 23d

We are hiring a full time project assistant! Please forward to any bright, curious team players you know who might be interested in applying:

usc.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/ExternalUSCC...

Project Assistant (Fixed-Term)

The University of Southern California (USC), founded in 1880, is located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles and is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. USC is consistently ranked...

usc.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Marta Gerosa @martager.bsky.social · 26d

Check out our new article for young readers (ages 8-15) on heart-brain interactions and interoception! 🧠🫀

I had so much fun co-writing this with @agatapatyczek.bsky.social @el-rei.bsky.social with the support of @michaelgaebler.com ✍️

👉 Share it widely with curious young minds
Yay for #scicomm ✨

Mind-Body-Emotion Group @mbe-lab.bsky.social · 26d

🧠🫀 New from our lab on Frontiers for Young Minds:

Ever wondered how the heart and brain communicate? Think the heart as the drummer 🥁 & the brain as the singer 🎤 keeping the body's band in tune!

Read here (for ages 8–15): kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2025.1536787/full
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The Body’s Band: How Heart and Brain Communicate

Illustration of a person with vitiligo practicing yoga, sitting cross-legged and stretching an arm over their head. In a thought bubble, a smiling brain sings into a microphone and a heart plays a dru...

www.frontiersin.org

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Reposted by Mara Mather

jeanette-mumford.bsky.social @jeanette-mumford.bsky.social · 27d

Do you ever wish you could just use python to pull together the files and code for running FSL's randomise? Me too! I made this: github.com/jmumford/ran... It will even replace the numbers in the file outputs with contrast names of your choosing (and replace corrp with 1minusp).

GitHub - jmumford/randomise-prep: Generate design matrices, contrasts, and scripts to set up FSL randomise analyses.

Generate design matrices, contrasts, and scripts to set up FSL randomise analyses. - jmumford/randomise-prep

github.com

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · 27d

Here is an informative report on the current status of NIH's budget for next year.

fabbs.org/news/2025/09...

House LHHS Subcommittee Approves FY26 Budget for NIH, IES – FABBS

Upon returning from the August recess on September 2, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

fabbs.org

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · Aug 22

This is harassment! Checking the tennis scores on ESPN and look at the presumably personalised banner ad.

IJFMR -Academic Journal
Submit Paper for Publication

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Daniel Lakens @lakens.bsky.social · Aug 15

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Natalie Peluso 🧠🫁😊 @nataliepeluso.com · Jun 9

This simple visualisation is great for understanding one reason why LLMs provide completely wrong answers. (I don't recall the source for this, AI would probably know ironically)

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Paul Bogdan @pbogdan.bsky.social · Apr 9

🚨New paper!🚨

Meta-analysis on 4M p-values across 240k psych articles: How has psychology changed since the replication crisis began? How is replicability linked to citations, impact factor, and university prestige? 🧵

Paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Interactive: pbogdan.com/meganal

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Papouin Lab @ WashU @papouinlab.bsky.social · May 16

Thought this would be a nice way to enter the bsky community👇Delighted for Katie (now in Chris Dulla's lab at Tufts). Thank you to our collaborators, to the reviewers and to Cagla Eroglu for the highlight!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Norepinephrine signals through astrocytes to modulate synapses

Locus ceruleus (LC)–derived norepinephrine (NE) drives network and behavioral adaptations to environmental saliencies by reconfiguring circuit functional connectivity, but the underlying synapse-level...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Zen Faulkes @doctorzen.net · Apr 13

For anyone concerned about tenure and promotion, there is a global movement of responsible research assessment that you may want to connect to.

You may want to check out DORA and try to get your department or university to sign.

sfdora.org

Home | DORA

The Declaration on Research Assessment recognizes the need to improve the ways in which the outputs of scholarly research are evaluated.

sfdora.org

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Apr 10

I don’t think they ruled out that latter possibility.

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Apr 10

My paper reviewing how different neurodegenerative diseases affect autonomic function was just published.

Nature Reviews Neuroscience @natrevneuro.nature.com · Apr 9

Autonomic dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease — a Review by Mara Mather

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@maramather.bsky.social

#neuroscience

Autonomic dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Neurodegenerative disorders are commonly associated with autonomic dysfunction as well as the more well-known cognitive and motor effects. In this Review, Mather describes how properties of neurons in...

www.nature.com

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Apr 7

Effects were stronger in women than in men. But one open question is whether the effects are specific to the older live-attenuated herpes zoster vaccine that was given to those in the analysis, or whether they will extend to the current preferred recombinant vaccine.

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Apr 7

Wales rolled out their shingles vaccine with a strict birthdate cutoff. Interestingly, those born immediately after the cutoff were 20% less likely to get diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the next 7 years than those born immediately before the cutoff. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia - Nature

Using a natural experiment that avoids common bias concerns, this study finds that the live-attenuated shingles vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis within a follow-up period of...

www.nature.com

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Apr 2

Congrats Nanthia! We will miss you in LA.

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Reposted by Mara Mather

Altmetric @altmetric.com · Mar 27

THREAD

The numbers are in. @bsky.app research sharing volumes vs X Formerly Twitter

In March 2024, on most days, Bluesky hosts more posts linked to research published in 2025 than X.

By quite a lot.

Release the Kraken...

#AcademicSky #HigherEd #Altmetrics
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medRxivpreprint @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social · Mar 13

Daily mindfulness practice with and without slow breathing has opposing effects on plasma amyloid beta levels https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.10.25323695v1

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Mar 13

The findings suggest that different meditative practices could have different effects on Alzheimer's disease pathways.

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Mar 13

This follows up on our prior findings that daily practice of slow paced breathing decreases plasma Aβ levels while a meditative state without slow breathing increases plasma Aβ levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

bsky.app

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Mara Mather @maramather.bsky.social · Mar 13

New preprint! We found that, in meditation novices, daily practice of mindful attention to breath vs. the same mindfulness practice paired with slow breathing had opposing effects on plasma amyloid β (Aβ). www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Daily mindfulness practice with and without slow breathing has opposing effects on plasma amyloid beta levels

Prior research suggests that meditation may slow brain aging and reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, we lack research systematically examining what aspect(s) of meditation may drive ...

www.medrxiv.org

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