#cognitive studies

[russellmoreton]

Temporal Self : Light Laboratory Canterbury by Russell Moreton

[stemgirlchic]

why neuroscience is cool

space & the brain are like the two final frontiers

we know just enough to know we know nothing

there are radically new theories all. the. time. and even just in my research assistant work i've been able to meet with, talk to, and work with the people making them

it's such a philosophical science

potential to do a lot of good in fighting neurological diseases

things like BCI (brain computer interface) and OI (organoid intelligence) are soooooo new and anyone's game - motivation to study hard and be successful so i can take back my field from elon musk

machine learning is going to rapidly increase neuroscience progress i promise you. we get so caught up in AI stealing jobs but yes please steal my job of manually analyzing fMRI scans please i would much prefer to work on the science PLUS computational simulations will soon >>> animal testing to make all drug testing safer and more ethical !! we love ethical AI <3

collab with...everyone under the sun - psychologists, philosophers, ethicists, physicists, molecular biologists, chemists, drug development, machine learning, traditional computing, business, history, education, literally try to name a field we don't work with

it's the brain eeeeee

[studentbyday]

{ 06.11.24 } · { 50 days of routine } · { day 8 }

i have to fill in a daily activities sheet for four days as part of the CBT workbook 😑 so for the next four days, you'll be suffering along with me, seeing my messy handwriting 😂

as you can see, i probably used my phone way too much today compared to the amount of stuff i have to do 🙃🥲🥲🥲 idk, what do you do when your brain needs a break and your body just really doesn't want to do anything either? 😅 i fear if i lay in bed to decompress, i will never want to leave it lol 😂

also. i have reached a new record. 90 tabs on my laptop browser. 🥲 (dw, i expect a good chunk of it will go away when i'm done with the global health assignment...only to go back to an insane number when i start the next one soon)

🎧 yesterday once more / i won't last a day without you – the carpenters

[lewis-winters]

I still remember that poll I did where I was like "who's the bigger war criminal speirs or snafu?" and then speirs won.

[mad-hunts]

barton employing his ' dad voice ' whenever someone comes in because that seems to be, by far, the best way to calm someone down whenever they come into his clinic in AGONIZING pain + with an injury that needs dire attention is... idk. i have many feelings about it okok but whenever i say ' dad voice, ' i mean this very specific tone that barton used to use and sometimes still uses whenever his kids are just completely inconsolable that sounds like the gentlest thing ever while he's telling them that ' everything's going to be alright. i'm not going to let anything happen to you. ' 😭

and yes, this would apply to other rogues as well, especially if they have something that requires them to be put under anesthesia. because if you go under anesthesia whenever you're frightened... it's likely that you're going to wake up that way, too, which is something that he doesn't want. but yeah just thinking about this makes my heart kind of sad but happy at the same time bc barton actually is a GOOD doctor (with his bedside manner being surprisingly positive whenever it comes down to it and stuff ) ,, if only he were good all around

[successblueprints]

How I Deal with Tough Days When My Brain Won't Let Me Work

We all have those days where productivity feels impossible. It’s like no matter what we do, we just can’t seem to get started. I’ve come to realize that, for me, these days aren’t just about laziness or lack of motivation—it’s more complex. When I procrastinate, it’s often my creative brain, or what I like to call my “inner child,” throwing a tantrum.

Step 1: Understanding the Procrastination

The first thing I do is pause and try to understand what I’m running away from. Is it the overwhelming amount of work? In that case, I break it down into smaller, manageable bits. When the material feels boring, I add some fun—by creating colorful and funny interpretations of definitions or concepts. I turn words into weird characters, almost like a cartoon in my mind. Sometimes, I’ll turn it into a game, like seeing how many questions I can get right, or even trying new study techniques like rewriting a sentence or reading it out loud.

I find that when I’m bored, it’s a perfect opportunity to experiment. I might try drawing funny sketches of the material or use quirky interpretations to make it more interesting. The key is that I have to figure out what’s causing the procrastination—is it fear, perfectionism, or just the sheer volume of work?

Step 2: Naming My Inner Child

Once I understand what’s happening, I like to give my inner child a friendly name. This helps me communicate with it when things get tough. Every time I mess something up and feel like quitting, I know that it’s just my inner child reacting to the idea of perfectionism. Naming it makes it less scary, and I feel more in control of the situation.

A perfect example would be the time I noticed that my inner child shows up in my skincare routine, but not because I’m lazy—it's because I feel unmotivated when I don’t have enough of those colorful, trendy products, like the ones all over TikTok. You know, the Drunk Elephant skincare, with its fun packaging that every influencer seems to have. It taps into the same idea as “Sephora kids,” where even as adults, we’re drawn to overconsumption of things we don’t actually need, just because they’re colorful or trendy or aesthetically pleasing.

But I’ve realized that I don’t need fancy, colorful products to wash my face before bed. My inner child might crave those items, but recognizing that helps me let go of the unnecessary pressure to follow trends. I focus on the routine itself, rather than what’s missing from my shelf.

Step 3: Clearing the Distractions

Next, I clear my desk. Anything that’s not a school supply or a tool I need for work can be a distraction, especially if it’s colorful or unrelated to my task. I set a 5-minute timer and start working, just to show my inner child that it’s really not that scary. Once the timer’s up, I double it, taking short breathers in between. I repeat this until I feel like I’ve done enough for the day.

Step 4: Knowing When Enough Is Enough

After a certain point, I trust my own judgment. I ask myself honestly, “Is this enough for today?” If I feel like I’ve given it my best shot, I let go of the need to do more. I accept that some days will be harder than others, and that’s okay. The important thing is that I’m not fighting my inner child, but working with it.

It’s a simple process, but it’s effective. Instead of battling myself, I’ve learned to communicate with that part of me that gets overwhelmed, bored, or perfectionistic. By understanding and breaking things down, I can get through even the toughest days without feeling like I need to drop everything.

P.S.: I’ve struggled to stay productive most of my life, and a part of that was because I didn’t grow up in one of those aesthetically pleasing, western-style homes you always see on social media. I live in the Balkans, and my bedroom looked nothing like that. It wasn’t perfectly curated or full of trendy decor, but over time, I grew to love my culture and my surroundings. Even though I wasn’t the richest or living the most "aesthetic" lifestyle, I’ve learned that what I have is enough, and it doesn’t define my ability to be productive or happy.

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

The other day I was having a "struggle day" with writing. Nothing I write is coming out fluid, it is sluggish and stilted. I spent a majority of my time writing outlines, trying to tether abstract images that flicker like a distorted slideshow across my brain to a more concrete tangible form.

But if I was to tell certain people in my life this, their first suggestion would be, "If you're struggling with writing, you should use ChatGPT to help you!"

Pushing past the ethics debacle aside for a moment, I don't know how to describe how much that doesn't help with my plight. As much as I dislike creating a rough draft, it is where the idea takes birth. It's through writing the initial scene where I discover a character's motivation or a facet of the world that never crosses my mind until I begin carving away at its rough edges.

The machine doesn't understand the way I'd take a plot point and expand upon it. The machine can't capture my exact phrasing. Technology hasn't developed enough to take a vague idea sloshing inside my skull and glimmer it into existence in front of me in exactly the way I wanted it to be.

I don't always enjoy the rough draft process, but it is a crucial part of the process. I don't want a "paint by numbers" experience. I want to start with a blank canvas and finish with a nauseating, illustrative kaleidoscope of my innermost thoughts and feelings. I want my hands to be stained by the ink and sweat of my own efforts.

I don't care if I get "lost in the past" for wanting that, I'd rather let my words be unfettered and untainted by the uniformity of what a machine thinks is the most "right" way of phrasing words based on trillions of words unrightfully seized by avarice.

[20lerde30]

Hello after a long time :) Even though I was working hard, I wasn't posting here. I hope there will be more, let this post be a step.

An update: I started my master's degree in neuroscience :'

{Ladin}

[szappan]

university.. university leave me alone

[chamerionwrites]

Also a lot of people simply have terrible taste. But that is much easier to shrug off as people simply having terrible taste

[pandemic-info]

COVID-19 vaccine refusal is driven by deliberate ignorance and cognitive distortions | npj Vaccines

Abstract Vaccine hesitancy was a major challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. A common but sometimes ineffective intervention to reduce vaccine hesitancy involves providing information on vaccine effectiveness, side effects, and related probabilities. Could biased processing of this information contribute to vaccine refusal? We examined the information inspection of 1200 U.S. participants with anti-vaccination, neutral, or pro-vaccination attitudes before they stated their willingness to accept eight different COVID-19 vaccines. All participants—particularly those who were anti-vaccination—frequently ignored some of the information. This deliberate ignorance, especially toward probabilities of extreme side effects, was a stronger predictor of vaccine refusal than typically investigated demographic variables. Computational modeling suggested that vaccine refusals among anti-vaccination participants were driven by ignoring even inspected information. In the neutral and pro-vaccination groups, vaccine refusal was driven by distorted processing of side effects and their probabilities. Our findings highlight the necessity for interventions tailored to individual information-processing tendencies.

[studentbyday]

{ 05.11.24 } · { 50 days of routine } · { day 7 }

I was never “popular” at school. Not that I ever cared to be. I don't have the personality for it. And I don't really care to have the personality for it either. I'm not and never will be That Girl™ material, a “high-value woman”, or whatever feminine persona is trendy on TikTok these days (and i'm not even ON TikTok, but ofc the trends spread everywhere like wildfire) because I don't look the part (nor do I want to...i quite like my personal style) or think or speak or act the way she would if it goes against my values and/or it won't actually improve my wellbeing. I say I don't care. And I really truly don't because a lot of it and what it leads to is straight-up problematic for my personal case, running counter to the life I want to live and all my reasons why. But as with anything, being yourself has its pros and cons.

Sometimes I still feel like it's hard to truly belong anywhere...even the places I make for myself like this blog... Sometimes when I feel like this, I feel like the only place I most belong is in my head. It's not good. That's not where I need to be, nor do I need to be much concerned about trends on social media and what drives people to follow them. And I certainly don't need to compare myself to anyone else. I need to be in the real world and focused on my work only because I think it's worth it and because I think I'm worth it as I am.

I'm not sure why I felt like saying this.

~~~Friendly PSA: STOP 🖐🏻 scrolling social media of any kind when feeling low in self-esteem.~~~

got up at 7, continued filling in the CBT workbook then decided to move my answers elsewhere because the annotating feature in the ebook app is getting annoying, started my day at 8 with the usual minimalist morning routine

10/30 mins of the same beginner pilates workout i did a few days ago except i forgot to breathe and ended up so light-headed i couldn't go anymore...

filling in CBT workbook because i can't get the reflection questions out of my head until i answer them... 😣 so far, nothing new has been revealed to me, but in the busy-ness of the day-to-day, i tend to neglect ALL the other dimensions of my life and then forget that that's why i feel so shitty and the problem is the self-prompted reflection i tend to do at this time carries a lot of negativity and pessimism and comparison and judgment and it's not very organized, it's actually not organized at all, it's always just a word vomit. but when i do it now, with the tone of the categorized prompts not being judgy at all, i'm able to look at my problems more objectively and holistically and like "oh okay, i'm not doing as bad in this dimension as i thought and the REAL problem is this other dimension of life and all the specific things you mention are lacking here" and idk, sometimes i think it's weird that my brain works this way, it's like i was looking at the same picture the entire time and all i had to do was turn it a bit to the left for it to make sense. is this how brains normally work? 😅

finished last week's microbio module

researching for global health assignment...will begin writing tmr 😅👍

finished section 1/2 of last week's immunology module and started the loooong second section 🥴👍

🎧 some nights – fun.

@zzzzzestforlife tagged me to do this picrew! it was fun. and it's so coincidental that i've been thinking about ghosts lately! the past versions of us that we follow without question when they tell us what to do, what not to do, and what we should aspire for... ☁️ sometimes those ghosts are right...and sometimes they're just plain toxic.

tagging @whenmemoriesfrost @chemblrish @ecologie-txt @winryrockbellwannabe @obakanosandoitchi if you want to :)

[usa-journal]

Breakthrough in Fly Brain Research Paves Way for Understanding Human Cognition

Scientists have achieved a monumental breakthrough by mapping the fly brain, revealing the position, shape, and connections of all its 130,000 cells and 50 million intricate connections. This research represents the most detailed analysis of an adult animal's brain to date and is being hailed as a "huge leap" in understanding human cognition.

The fly's brain, though tiny, supports a range of complex behaviors, including walking, hovering, and even producing mating songs. Dr. Gregory Jefferis, a leader in the research from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, emphasizes that this mapping could illuminate the mechanisms behind thought processes in humans. He noted the lack of understanding about how brain cell networks facilitate our interactions with the world.

Despite humans having a million times more neurons than the fruit fly, the new wiring diagram, or connectome, will aid scientists in deciphering cognitive functions. Published in the journal Nature, the imagery showcases a stunningly complex structure that reveals how a small organ can perform powerful computational tasks.

Dr. Mala Murthy, co-leader of the project from Princeton University, stated that this connectome will be transformative for neuroscientists, allowing for a better understanding of healthy brain function and the potential to compare it with malfunctioning brains.

Dr. Lucia Prieto Godino from the Francis Crick Institute supports this view, highlighting that while simpler organisms like worms and maggots have had their connectomes mapped, the fly’s intricate wiring is a significant achievement. This success paves the way for mapping larger brains, potentially leading to a human connectome in the future.

The research team has successfully identified separate circuits for various functions, illustrating how movement-related circuits are positioned at the base of the brain, while those responsible for vision are located on the sides. The study not only identifies these circuits but also explains their connections, enhancing our understanding of neural processing.

Interestingly, researchers are already applying these circuit diagrams to understand why flies are so hard to catch. The wiring related to vision quickly processes incoming threats, sending signals to the fly's legs to jump away faster than conscious thought.

To create the wiring diagram, researchers used a technique involving slicing the fly brain into 7,000 incredibly thin pieces, photographing each slice, and digitally reconstructing the whole. They employed artificial intelligence to analyze neuron shapes and connections, correcting over three million errors manually.

Dr. Philipp Schlegel from the Medical Research Council highlights that this data serves as a comprehensive map of brain connectivity, akin to a detailed Google Maps for the neural networks. This combined information will facilitate countless discoveries in neuroscience in the coming years.

While a human connectome remains elusive due to the complexity of the human brain, researchers believe that advancements in technology may allow for such mapping in about three decades. The fly brain research marks a significant step toward unlocking the mysteries of human cognition and understanding our own minds better.

The study was conducted by the FlyWire Consortium, an international collaboration of scientists dedicated to advancing neuroscience.

[unhealthyloreeater]

Also, I *did* draw Gojo but I used him to practice cognitive drawing :)

It is so funny because I could not remember what he looked like AT ALL from memory the first time, who is that man? Idek

I meant to practice more but I am still low energy so this is as far as I got yippee

[prussianmemes]

you should kill yourself if you spend 12 minutes sorting around your notes on your desk, making sure they look messy but also the prettiest ones are on top, posing your textbook open and having the most "academia" looking web page or lecture slides on your laptop screen before taking a picture and posting it on your social media story while quietly scrolling through songs to put with it.

[visenyaism]

Ever since I watched HOT D I have felt conflicted about Alicent's character because I can't figure out her motivation. At the beginning it's clear she's only doing what Otto wants but later on... What is the reason she wants her son to be on the throne so bad ? ( When it doesn't seem to me like she cares about having power )

The only thing that I see is that she is extremely bitter and angry that she had to be this perfect woman when she was still a child and marry and have children with and old man. Meanwhile her friend is just fucking around not respecting any of the value she has to uphold.

But idk is it really only anger at Rhaenyra that makes her want this ?

one of the reasons I like alicent as a character so much is the 8 layers of cognitive dissonance she processes everything through at all times. She’s constantly trying to convince herself everything will be fine and also not allowing herself to really want anything for herself. She’s not a rational actor because she was robbed of the ability to emotionally mature past the age of 15 in a lot of respects, but it makes her a compelling (and confusing!) character.

I think it’s safe to say that on a fundamental level she at least wants a) to be close to Rhaenyra b) for her family to be safe and for her father to be proud of her and c) for someone to acknowledge her suffering (she cannot conceptualize a world where what she went through didn’t have to happen, she just wants anyone to recognize it as painful.)

She thought that Rhaenyra was also going to be suffering in a loveless marriage alongside her, and they’d have that in common. To see her “breaking the rules” that have made Alicent’s entire life completely miserable is just too much. She got her life destroyed by this system and by Viserys wanting sons, and he doesn’t even care about them OR about her, he only loves his eldest daughter even though SHE “breaks” all of these “rules.” That’s super emotionally devastating, and Alicent decides to pin that on Rhaenyra instead of her father or Viserys because if she did that, she would actually have to deal with the years of emotional trauma and violence that she’s been repressing. She can’t see a way out, so she just projects the rage she cannot internalize onto Rhaenyra.

Her father spent decades trying to convince her that Rhaenyra was going to be a threat to her family in the event of a succession, an idea he stood to gain a lot from, but it also isn’t totally crazy. Aegon Aemond and Daeron WERE threats to Rhaenyra’s claim. Putting Aegon on the throne was the only pathway that Alicent had been drilled to envision for decades, and the only one she thought would keep her kids safe. Also- if one in her life is going to acknowledge what happened to her was horrible and wrong, then at least everything she’s went through has to be worth something. Aegon’s coronation was also the culmination of that idea for her.

She doesn’t want power because she cannot even conceptualize having power as an option for herself- she’s never pictured herself on the throne, and she’s only trying to make a window in the wall of her prison. I don’t think she ever envisioned what her life would be like after she got Aegon on the throne, so I’m real excited to see what she’s going to be doing in season 2. TLDR it’s not about getting specifically Aegon on the throne that’s important, but more about following the rules she’s been taught will make her happy and safe and successful, even though on some level she knows that all it’s ever done is hurt her. Free alicent from the narrative she knows what story she’s in and she knows there’s no way out💚💔