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PessoaBrain

@pessoabrain

Luiz Pessoa, University of Maryland, College Park Neuroscientist interested in cognitive-emotional brain Author of The Entangled Brain, MIT Press, 2022 Author of The Cogitive-Emotional Brain, MIT Press, 2013 Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon (YouTube)

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Latest posts by PessoaBrain @pessoabrain

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๐——๐˜†๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐˜€๐˜†๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜†
Another mega paper that deserves close attention.
Lots of implications, including emergence and evolution
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
#complexity

04.03.2026 18:10 ๐Ÿ‘ 32 ๐Ÿ” 5 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Javascript code for a noncentral t cdf produced by Claude. It is simply a call to the normal CDF, which is not correct (though will be a decent approximation with large N).

Javascript code for a noncentral t cdf produced by Claude. It is simply a call to the normal CDF, which is not correct (though will be a decent approximation with large N).

I've been testing Claude to see how well it can "vibe out" a stat. power app that I've already coded completely myself - so I know what I want. It mostly gets things right with animations (those are easily verifiable) but looking into the backend stats code is nightmare inducing (see pic).

28.02.2026 09:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 79 ๐Ÿ” 23 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4 ๐Ÿ“Œ 11
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The Dream of the Butterfly

28.02.2026 10:51 ๐Ÿ‘ 510 ๐Ÿ” 154 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 5
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๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฑ๐˜†๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐˜€๐˜†๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ๐˜€?
Interesting paper tackling this difficult question.
Answer (in part): it's complicated!
The same fixed system can be interpreted as implementing many (even infinitely many) computations depending on the chosen decoding map.
doi.org/10.1088/2632...

27.02.2026 17:04 ๐Ÿ‘ 60 ๐Ÿ” 14 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐—”๐˜๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐˜†๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป
Looks like a very cool paper about the dynamics of large-scale networks in the mouse brain.
Starting to be all about dynamics!
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
#neuroskyence

25.02.2026 17:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 25 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Should biology put complexity first? The dictum โ€œEverything should be made as simple as possible, but no simplerโ€ poses a problem for biology. How simply can it be told without doing damaโ€ฆ

Should biology put complexity first? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - excellent essay by @philipcball.bsky.social. I would add epistasis to polygenicity and pleiotropy as a ubiquitous and fundamental phenomenon, not some optional complication that we can try to account for afterwards

24.02.2026 17:45 ๐Ÿ‘ 99 ๐Ÿ” 32 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 9 ๐Ÿ“Œ 9

๐Ÿค—

25.02.2026 13:56 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

That's basically my point in that piece I wrote, but didn't address genetics directly

25.02.2026 13:54 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Interesting. What if the landscape is "too wobbly" , keeps moving around?? ๐Ÿ˜…
But I'll definitely take a look

23.02.2026 21:08 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Amazing

23.02.2026 21:00 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
OSF

I reviewed 5+ fMRI papers on response inhibition within roughly the last year, and the same points come up over and over again. So I wrote a short note last week entitled "The unique limitations of BOLD-fMRI in the study of response inhibition". You can read it here.
osf.io/preprints/ps...

21.02.2026 14:58 ๐Ÿ‘ 64 ๐Ÿ” 19 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

That's really too bad and "wrong" for BBS to demand so, imho.

22.02.2026 21:06 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ-๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐—ก๐—ก๐˜€
Interesting paper looking at "spatially embedded" recurrent networks and function.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#neuroskyence

22.02.2026 17:27 ๐Ÿ‘ 24 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

ah, will check that option

22.02.2026 17:27 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's the abyss...

22.02.2026 13:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Undergrad level right?? Will definitely take a look but at a state university not sure I can use it at $140... ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

22.02.2026 13:18 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

For sure the forum if not elsewhere!

21.02.2026 20:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

make it stop!! ๐Ÿ˜ฒ

21.02.2026 16:52 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Worse even.
I *very* often bump into narratives about Brain This or That and after pages it becomes apparent that it's all about behavior/mind (eg education?). Journalists and authors need to find ways to show behavior in attractive ways. A colorful MRI image should not be necessary!

21.02.2026 13:35 ๐Ÿ‘ 12 ๐Ÿ” 1 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Brain death?? ๐Ÿ˜…
Haven't read it yet...

21.02.2026 13:28 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

makes sense, amazing

19.02.2026 22:37 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Share the prompt!

19.02.2026 20:17 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜
Circuits and networks can shift "computations" quite dramatically.
Check this computational model of the role of neuromodulators.
#neuroskyence
doi.org/10.1162/Neco...

18.02.2026 16:41 ๐Ÿ‘ 47 ๐Ÿ” 14 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿšจ New Paper from UP NExT (Univ. Pitt NeuralEngineering Cross-Translation): We discovered that microglia the brainโ€™s immune cells, aren't just a "cleanup crew". During brain stimulation, they act as hidden neural modulators, actively monitoring and contacting neurons to help manage circuit stability.

16.02.2026 23:21 ๐Ÿ‘ 31 ๐Ÿ” 10 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

What should I read please?

16.02.2026 13:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I'm very much enjoying it!

16.02.2026 12:02 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐—จ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜„๐˜๐—ต
Beyond Kuhn and Feyerbend.
Still in chapter 2 but this looks great.

15.02.2026 17:11 ๐Ÿ‘ 45 ๐Ÿ” 5 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5 ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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๐—ง๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป
"Cortical traveling waves in time and space: Physics, physiology, and psychology" is going to the top of the list!
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
#neuroskyence

09.02.2026 22:55 ๐Ÿ‘ 41 ๐Ÿ” 10 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐—›๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜๐˜† ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜?
In part via interactions between temporal and frontal cortex.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
#neuroskyence

09.02.2026 18:44 ๐Ÿ‘ 21 ๐Ÿ” 2 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ-๐—˜๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป
My book from 2013 might be of interest to students of how emotion interacts with perception, cognition, and motivation. But note that it's not written with a general reader in mind.
(unfortunately not open access)
mitpress.mit.edu/978026201956...
#neuroskyence

07.02.2026 17:13 ๐Ÿ‘ 21 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0