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pattonmatt2.bsky.social
Matt Patton
@pattonmatt2.bsky.social
450 followers 950 following 120 posts
Annapolis, Maryland, USA
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Reposted by Matt Patton
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Reported to @pnas.org in Feb 2016.
Asked again in Sept 2017.
Journal replied: "The authors have provided a response, and the Editorial Board is deciding how to proceed."

They are still deciding, apparently 🦗

pubpeer.com/publications...

#ImageForensics
Figure from a scientific paper labeled Figure 1E. It shows 6 panels in 2 columns, 3 rows. Each shows white worm-like cells on a darker grey background. Two panels overlap, marked with red boxes.
January 23, 2026 at 12:33 AM
pattonmatt2.bsky.social
Perfect article for anyone teaching correlations this week. www.nbcnews.com/health/menta...
Using AI for advice or other personal reasons is linked to depression and anxiety
A new survey found that people who spend more time with chatbots for social interactions or emotional support were likelier to report mental health symptoms.
www.nbcnews.com
January 22, 2026 at 3:46 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
“Our findings suggest industry influence in social media research
is extensive, impactful, and often opaque.” @jbakcoleman.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com et al.

arxiv.org/abs/2601.115...
Industry Influence in High-Profile Social Media Research
To what extent is social media research independent from industry influence? Leveraging openly available data, we show that half of the research published in top journals has disclosable ties to indus...
arxiv.org
January 21, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
Our machine learning competition on forecasting depression is online! We'd love for as many people as possible to participate. Please share in your respective networks — thank you :).

www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl/announcement...
Machine-learning competition on forecasting depression in young adults - Leiden University
After nearly 5 years of work, the research team led by Eiko Fried has finished data collection in the ERC-funded WARN-D project on building a personalised early warning system for depression. But just...
www.staff.universiteitleiden.nl
January 12, 2026 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
scientificdiscovery.dev
The resolution of microscopes has increased over 10,000 fold over the last 200 years.

It's allowed scientists to examine not only cells, but bacteria, then viruses, their protein structure, and, eventually, the individual atoms that comprise them.
showing how microscope resolution has improved more than 10,000× over the past 200 years. The horizontal axis shows year (1800s to 2025). The left vertical axis shows feature size, from 1 micrometer (small bacteria) down to 0.01 nanometers (atomic nuclear structure). The right vertical axis shows resolving power in inverse angstroms. A blue curve at the bottom represents light microscopy, limited by visible-light diffraction to about 200 nanometers. A tan curve rising sharply in the mid-20th century represents electron microscopy, reaching nanometer-scale resolution. A red region near 0.1 nanometers shows aberration-corrected electron microscopy surpassing the electron diffraction limit. A blue region at the top shows ptychography achieving the highest resolving power through overlapping diffraction patterns and computation. Dots label key scientists and institutions at milestones. Overall trend shows steady, then dramatic gains in resolution over time.
January 7, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
scientificdiscovery.dev
NEW article by me!

We can now visualize pathogens down to atoms; design vaccines in weeks; manufacture them in microbial factories; engineer them more precise than ever before.

We're living through a golden age of vaccine development, but only if we continue to invest in them.
The golden age of vaccine development - Works in Progress Magazine
The first vaccine was a lucky accident. Now we can design new vaccines in weeks, atom by atom.
worksinprogress.co
January 7, 2026 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
kph3k.bsky.social
#4- We published two papers on how DNA-methylation changes longitudinally with child development. And we submitted papers on how DNA-methylation responds to an anti-poverty intervention....stay tuned for results in 2026.

academic.oup.com/chidev/artic...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Stability of Aging- and Cognition-Related Methylation Profile Scores Across Two Waves in Children and Adolescents
ABSTRACT. DNA-methylation profile scores (MPSs) index biology relevant for lifelong physical and cognitive health, but information on their longitudinal st
academic.oup.com
December 29, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
scientificdiscovery.dev
New post!

There was a lot of innovation in medicine and biomedical research this year, and I've tried to summarize the biggest ones in this blogpost.

Medical breakthroughs in 2025. Plus a serious note at the end.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-br...
Medical breakthroughs in 2025
... and a happy new year.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev
December 28, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
sabrinanorwood.bsky.social
Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)?

Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"
Text reads: About synthetic panels Recruiting the right participants for a study can be difficult. You may not get the exact demographics you need, and the shorter the deadline, the less sure you can be that everyone will answer on time. One possible solution can be to use synthetic panels. Synthetic panels are powered by a first party proprietary AI model developed here at Qualtrics. Our synthetic panel is trained on thousands of responses from a variety of demographic backgrounds in order to more accurately predict how certain populations would respond to a survey. Our synthetic panel is based on the United States General Population, and is only available in English. This panel comes with ready-made quotas and target breakouts in order to represent your chosen population and make it easy to launch your survey right away. Text reads: Question-writing best practices To get the most reliable and actionable results from synthetic audiences, consider these question-writing best practices: Ask forward-looking and attitudinal questions. Synthetic panels perform best with perceptions, preferences, and intent-based questions. For example, “How likely are you to try…?” Synthetic panels are less applicable for studies on past behaviors, detailed recall, brand recall, or awareness questions. For example, “When did you last visit…?” Text reads: Discussion The current study aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of the TPB when applied to health behaviours which addressed the limitations of previous reviews by including only prospective tests of behaviour, applying RE meta-analytic procedures, correcting correlations for sampling and measurement error, and hierarchically analysing the effect of behaviour type and sample and methodological moderators. Some 237 tests were identified which examined relations amongst model components. Overall the analysis indicated that the TPB could explain 19.3% of the variance in behaviour and 44.3% of the variance in intention across studies. This level of prediction of behaviour is slightly lower than that of previous meta-analytic reviews which have found between 27% (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Hagger et al., 2002) and 36% (Trafimow et al., 2002) of the variance in behaviour to be explained by intention and PBC.
December 16, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
tkaiser.science
The accuracy of sleep trackers varies strongly and the accuracies are never good enough to interpret the results as actual sleep duration…
OSF
doi.org
December 15, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
Our new paper "Inconsistent outcome measurement in depression psychotherapy trials: A systematic historical and meta-analytic review over the past 50 years" led by @antoniasprenger.bsky.social is out now in JAD.

🧪 #PsychSciSky

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
December 11, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
scientificdiscovery.dev
Big new blogpost!

My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.

--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
screenshot of my post
December 9, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
simine.com
Preparing this talk gave me an opportunity to reflect on what lessons I've learned from psychology's replication crisis and credibility revolution, and what advice I would have for other fields. We've come a long way!
Video: youtu.be/_vb1CNwC3CM?...
Slides : osf.io/cuj62/files/...
December 3, 2025 at 10:50 PM
pattonmatt2.bsky.social
Thanks for all you’ve done, @simine.com ! ❤️🥳
December 2, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
In the 2021 'international expert opinion' Ketamine paper, 19/25 authors have a combined 2100 words of conflicts of interests.

html version of paper does not show COI, PDF does.

Is that not a massive problem?

html: psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/...
pdf: psychiatryonline.org/doi/epdf/10....
December 1, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
1/2

New open access paper in which we apply the Nyquist-Shannon thereom from signal processing to 2 EMA datasets to figure out the optimal sampling frequency for EMA assessments.

🧪 #psychscisky #statssky

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Optimizing the frequency of ecological momentary assessments using signal processing | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core
Optimizing the frequency of ecological momentary assessments using signal processing - Volume 55
www.cambridge.org
November 27, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
Calling this "challenging scientific orthodoxy" is a wild euphemism, NYT.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Nov 21
Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.
RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website
In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.
nyti.ms
November 22, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
Anyone planning to go to APS 2026 working on clinical prediction models? We have a nice preprint on predicting depression severity in n~1700 using smartphone & smartwatch data, and would love to join a symposium or help putting one together :)

www.psychologicalscience.org/conventions/...
November 19, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
kph3k.bsky.social
This paper clearly articulates what is, in my opinion, one of the major ethical problems with polygenic embryo testing companies--that they are *companies* that sell health as a private commodity. from @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social & @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social

www.fertstert.org/news-do/embr...
Embryo selection based on polygenic prediction risks reinforcing social inequality
The rise of companies offering embryo selection based on genetic testing has triggered heated debate about ethical acceptability, as well as the accuracy and scientific validity of these techniques. W...
www.fertstert.org
November 13, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
lindaskitka.bsky.social
Hmmm. Anyone think we’ll now get the punditry class to engage in weeks long debate about the need for the right to moderate and move more to the center to improve its electoral chances? …Anyone??
November 5, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
deevybee.bsky.social
@bmj.com Please look at PubPeer comments on an article you published last week. pubpeer.com/publications...
I think your research integrity dept shld act swiftly on this one, given clinical significance.
I'm aware of even more evidence of problems so let me know if this is not sufficient.
PubPeer - Prevention of acute myocardial infarction induced heart fail...
There are comments on PubPeer for publication: Prevention of acute myocardial infarction induced heart failure by intracoronary infusion of mesenchymal stem cells: phase 3 randomised clinical trial (P...
pubpeer.com
November 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
deevybee.bsky.social
hopeless autism study still up in J Pers Med despite
promise to retract it www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...
This is how @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social pollutes the literature with junk
Opinion | A Journal Promised to Retract a Flawed Autism Study. It's Still Online.
Junk science leaves an indelible mark
www.medpagetoday.com
November 2, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
eikofried.bsky.social
Eye-opening work on heterogeneity among depression scales. Also, I’m a pluralist and everything, but … do we need 27 youth depression scales? Why have researchers not updated and further developed them? What does this say about the state of our field?
hcp4715.bsky.social Hu Chuan-Peng @hcp4715.bsky.social · Oct 31
Great to see our content analysis of 27 Chinese youth depression scales finally out!

Following @eikofried.bsky.social excellent work on depression scales, we included 27 scales and quantified the heterogeneity by analyzing data from 12,000 youth who completed 4 of them.

Comments are welcome!
November 1, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Reposted by Matt Patton
How do you suppose the global homicide rate has changed over the last quarter century? (Hint: Another example of good things happening in our seemingly depressing world.) data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC...
World Bank Open Data
Free and open access to global development data
data.worldbank.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Matt Patton
elisabethbik.bsky.social
Another example of institutional investigations conducted in secret, without a public report, for 'privacy reasons'.

Investigation found UBC researcher fabricated data, gave spinal patients 'false hope.' The public was not told.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
False hope, fabricated data: No public notice after UBC uncovered serious misconduct in medical study | CBC News
A celebrated Vancouver researcher used fabricated data and hid evidence of infected wounds to falsely claim his patented skin treatment could heal years-old bed sores in a matter of weeks, according t...
www.cbc.ca
October 24, 2025 at 6:40 PM