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Christos Constantinidis

@cconstan.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.4K following 270 posts

Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience. Neural basis of cognition, cognitive development, deep brain stimulation. lab.vanderbilt.edu/constantinidis-l…

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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 25/09/2026
FYI to everyone submitting this October NIH cycle You need to re-certify your ScienCV AFTER Sept 26 (tomorrow) for your application or it may not be accepted. Great timing!
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 20/09/2026
Breaking News: Federal officials are drafting an executive order that would help cement President Trump’s ability to control billions of dollars in scientific grants funded by the National Institutes of Health.
nyti.ms
White House Moves to Take Control of N.I.H. Grants
Federal officials are drafting an executive order that would place grants under review by an outside panel, the latest effort to redirect billions of dollars in research spending.
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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 19/09/2026
I assume that when whoever is making it IPOs they will reveal the full lineup implied by the existence of Tilly Norwood.
Grid of logic gate options as Venn diagrams of Tilly Norwood, Tilly Orwood, Tilly Andwood, Tilly Xorwood, Tilly Nandwood, and Tilly Xnandwood
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
After last year's collapse of NIH funding rates I thought things couldn't get any worse. Shifting to multi-year awards could mean that fewer funds would be needed to pay already active grants in 2026. I was wrong. With less than a month left in the fiscal year we are on pace for a new all time low.
Graph from https://grantwitness.org/nih/analyses/agency-pulse-nih-grantmaking
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 12/09/2026
The unstoppable @mhackman.bsky.social of @wsj.com reported on this over the summer, when most of us had only heard disturbing rumors.
wsj.com
Exclusive | U.S. Weighs $100,000 Fee for Foreign Students Wanting to Work After Graduation
The proposed policy would particularly affect Silicon Valley, Wall Street and universities.
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
And there it is. As rumored, and as predicted by YHN from the gitgo, enhanced triage of NIH grants will continue. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
grants.nih.gov
NOT-OD-26-114: Continuation of Modifications to Peer Review Practices
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Continuation of Modifications to Peer Review Practices NOT-OD-26-114. NIH
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
"In a bit of circular reasoning that seemed pulled straight from the novel Catch-22, the experts said the Navy had never studied the problem, so there was no hard evidence that it existed. And since there was no hard evidence that existed, there was no reason to study it."
nytimes.com
Navy Failed to Protect Pilots From Brain Injury, House Report Says
A scathing report issued by the House Oversight Committee blamed the Navy for repeatedly failing to act, and recommended that Congress pass legislation to study and treat aviators.
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
𝕯𝖆𝖓🍂🎃🕸️ @arepublic86.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Charlotte Wainwright restoring and saving old/ancient books. www.wainwrightbookbinding.com
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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
1/3 of young scientists planning careers in academic research changed their minds in the spring of 2025, according to a new survey, with fewer expecting to remain in higher education and in the U.S. to work or feeling that pursuing a Ph.D. was the right decision. news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
news.harvard.edu
Survey of young researchers raises concerns over future of science in U.S. — Harvard Gazette
Fewer planning careers in academy, nation, and more doubt value of Ph.D. amid policy shifts in funding, international students
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Victoria Bosch @initself.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations? There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model). We have thoughts™ 1/n
cell.com
The Umwelt Representation Hypothesis: rethinking Universality
Recent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently capable systems converge on univer...
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Four patients in the Ascension hospital in Nashville were given the wrong medication during anesthesia prior to an orthopedic surgery. The Tennessee Health Facilities Commission has now released an 80-page report. It is the stuff of nightmares. www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
documentcloud.org
Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital 2567 reviewed 8262026 R
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Yasmine El-Shamayleh @elshamayleh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Excited to share the lab’s first publication, co-led by talented postdoc Chuyi Su @chuyisu.bsky.social We leveraged cell type-specific optogenetics in the macaque cerebral cortex to elucidate the role of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in visual form processing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Optotagging in primate cortex uncovers excitatory and inhibitory neuron specializations in form vision - Nature Communications
This study leverages cell type-specific optogenetics in the monkey cerebral cortex to elucidate the unique functional contributions of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in visual form processing. The ...
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
A Nashville icon
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Melanie Tschiersch @mtschiersch.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Our paper "Redundant prefrontal hemispheres adapt storage strategy to working memory demands" is finally out in Nature Communications! We combined bilateral PFC recordings, modeling and human data to ask: How do the hemispheres work together to store information?1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Redundant prefrontal hemispheres adapt storage strategy to working memory demands - Nature Communications
Neural mechanisms underlying spatial working memory are not fully understood. In this manuscript, simultaneous bilateral monkey recordings and attractor networks show how weakly coupled, redundant pre...
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Classes are starting this week. From Twitter.
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
It was floated some time ago. It seems the administration is seriously considering it now.
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vincentholst.bsky.social @vincentholst.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In 2023, @nature.com published 'Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time', receiving world-wide media attention. Our Matters Arising, published after a 32 month delay (more on that soon), shows that the reported decline can largely be attributed to dataset artefacts. 🧵
The average CD_5 index per year for Web of Science. The original Park et al. decline (top curve) becomes essentially flat (bottom curve) when removing papers with CD_5=1. Those papers largely correspond to dataset artefacts.
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
jessamyn @librarian.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I work at a public library. People who want to use AI seem to have no trouble doing so. People who don't want to use AI have a harder time. I crowdsourced and then finalized this document "How to disable or avoid intrusive AI" and then gave it a short URL: notoai.org Please pass along if it's useful
An aircraft passenger oxygen mask: a drop down passenger mask with air bag and yellow plastic mouth and nose cover, oxygen tube has been cut; Demonstration model used by flight attendant crew for passenger instruction. Has text on the side indicating that it's non-functional.
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Can't wait for my new pet www.wate.com/news/tenness...
wate.com
New law makes it easier to own a pet raccoon in Tennessee
Among the slate of new Tennessee laws that went into effect this month was a move to make it easier to own a pet raccoon.
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Kari Hoffman @karihoffman.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
📣New paper! How does the sleeping brain help us to integrate new experiences while managing memories from the past? For his PhD work, @sabbaspoor.bsky.social recorded hippocampal ensembles in freely moving monkeys and found something unexpected. 🧵1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪🧠📈👩‍🔬#OpenAccess
nature.com
Experience reorganizes content-specific memory traces in macaques - Nature Neuroscience
In macaques, old memories, relative to new ones, are supported by more stable and interconnected cell assemblies. New-biased and old-biased assemblies reactivate during overnight sleep and can sometim...
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Dr. Jan Zimmermann @janzimmermann.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Zapping without mapping = no bueno ! Cool paper www.science.org/doi/full/10....
science.org
Focused ultrasound blood-brain barrier opening reveals a paradoxical remote metabolic response in the primate brain
Using focused ultrasound to open the BBB paradoxically induces metabolic stress in distant brain regions.
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Watching the Odyssey with the lab
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Ahead of a hearing before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee tomorrow, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a 120-pg report, "Science: A New Golden Age" www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u... Here's the summary from the press release:
The report organizes its recommendations to government, industry, academia, and philanthropy around four key pillars:

1. Revitalize America’s Science and Technology Enterprise
The R&D enterprise should refocus support on individual scientists rather than legacy institutions, diversify funding mechanisms beyond slow consensus peer review, create agile new research organizations such as X-Labs and expanded ARPA-like entities, and establish metascience units to institutionalize continuous improvement.

2. Secure U.S. Dominance in Critical and Emerging Technologies
Federal R&D should prioritize national mission-driven scientific initiatives that unite government, industry, academia, and philanthropy around ambitious goals. These include the Genesis Mission to double the productivity of American research through AI; the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS); commercial fusion power demonstration by the mid-2030s; crewed lunar return and lunar base development; and next-generation semiconductor technologies.

3. Launch a New Golden Age Powered by AI for Science
The Federal government should fully fund and scale the Genesis Mission as the flagship national AI-for-science initiative to dramatically accelerate discovery; develop domain-specific scientific foundation models and high-value datasets, invest in AI-enabled verification infrastructure and autonomous laboratories; and begin transitioning toward AI-native scientific institutions better suited to an era of machine-augmented research.

4. Ensure That Science and Technology Better the Lives of All Americans
Federal agencies should integrate hands-on technical training and apprenticeships into STEM education, open scientific careers to skilled craftspeople and practitioners, build dense regional innovation clusters that link research with advanced manufacturing, and ensure that the economic returns of discovery reach every region and community in the country.
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
'I think it should go without saying that if removing amyloid deposits from the brain really helped Alzheimer’s patients that you would expect much more benefit than this, because there seems little doubt that these antibodies do accomplish that.' @dereklowe.bsky.social
science.org
Tau In the Clinic, Again
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
For those who may be wondering: Google Gemini is still not conscious.
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Philip Bump @pbump.com · 18/07/2026
Visualized.
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Josh Gondelman @joshgondelman.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
“I’ll pass on the salad and just have those fries. I’m trying to eat healthy.” - instant hall of fame dad joke thanks to cyclospora
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David Grimm @david-grimm.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
A lack of financial support from the NIH may have doomed a plan to convert the Oregon National Primate Research Center--one of the largest monkey facilities in the country--into a sanctuary where no research is done. My latest for @science.org
science.org
Plan to turn major monkey research facility into sanctuary may be dead
Lack of federal funds may have forced Oregon university to drop idea of converting national primate center into science-free refuge
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Jan Drugowitsch @jdrugowitsch.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
🚨 Big news 🚨 After 10 years at Harvard, my lab is moving to Barcelona in Spring 2027 to join @cbc-upf.bsky.social and the Department of Engineering at @upf.edu. 1/4
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
NSF program officers are picking up the phone again and notifying applicants of funded grants.
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
NIH seems to think they will spend their full budget and fund more grants than last year. We can only hope. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
NIH likely to award fewer grants as it races to spend 2026 budget
Government shutdown, staff shortages have complicated effort to meet 30 September deadline to spend funds
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
WMSymposium.bsky.social @wmsymposium.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
ATTENTION!!! The program of Working Memory Symposium (WMS) 2026 (July 14-17) is out! sites.google.com/view/wmsympo... This year, WMS will feature a single stream presentation of 52 talks (39 talks and 13 blitz) + 1 panel discussion across 4 days. Looking forward to seeing you all!!!
static.klipy.com
Kristen Wiig: I'm Ready To Party! - Bridesmaids
ALT: Kristen Wiig: I'm Ready To Party! - Bridesmaids
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Reposted by Christos Constantinidis
Cherise Rosen @ccrosenphd.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
@thelancetpsych.bsky.social @theichr.bsky.social @echrhallucinations.bsky.social …. Fascinating Essay from a brilliant presentation by Amanda Peery-Wolf ~ insightful, engaging, and thought-provoking from start to finish.
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Jacob Lab @jacob-lab.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
🚨 We’re hiring! 🚨 The Technical University of Munich @tum.de is recruiting a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Implantable Brain–Computer Interfaces! We’re looking for someone to help build the next generation of robust, clinically scalable #implantable #BCIs. portal.mytum.de/jobs/profess... 🧵👇
portal.mytum.de
TUM - Tenure Track Assistant Professor in » Implantable Brain-Computer Interfaces «
Studierenden- und Mitarbeiterportal der Technische Universität München
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Very proud to see my former trainee's first preprint from his own lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Long-term Learning Induces Plastic Changes in Frontostriatal Circuits
Neural activity in frontal-striatal circuits underlies reinforcement learning. Traditional theories suggest that reinforcement signals, which drive learning, strengthen connections within the basal ga...
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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Updated preprint and code from my lab. If you want to explore more realistic neural dynamics in models that can still perform visual tasks, check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Modeling Dynamical Vision with Biologically Plausible Recurrent Convolutional Networks
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) trained for image recognition have demonstrated remarkable conceptual similarities to the primate ventral visual pathway, but their standard feedforward architectu...
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
bioRxiv blocked me 😥 Did I read too many preprints?
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student, funded by a new ERC grant. The grant focuses on the role of the hippocampus in visual perception, using 7T fMRI (hippocampal subfields, cortical layers) and MEG+iEEG. The intended start dates for both positions are in early 2027. 🧠🟦 1/3
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Has there been any break in bad news?
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Saskia W. @saskiawezenaar.eurosky.social · 21/06/2026
Franco Fontana (Italy, 1933) is one of the most important pioneers of artistic color photography. Whether he photographs Puglian hills or skyscrapers in Los Angeles, his images are almost always completely empty of people, transforming the locations into compositions in which color takes centerstage
This is the iconic photo "Basilicata" from 1975 (or sometimes dated as 1978), taken by the famous Italian photographer Franco Fontana. The sculpture is composed of clean, undulating geometric color planes of the Southern Italian landscape in the Basilicata region. The solitary tree in the center serves as a break in the rhythm of the contrasting yellow and green fields.
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
NIH announces the creation of the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) to reduce use of animals in research. dpcpsi.nih.gov/oriva
dpcpsi.nih.gov
Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) | DPCPSI
The NIH Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) will coordinate NIH-wide efforts to develop, validate, and scale the use of human-based approaches across NIH biomedical rese...
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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I've seen a lot of info for specialized audiences (e.g. scientists, non-profits) on how to comment on the proposed OMB rule change for grants, but less for the general public. So I made this one-pager that can be shared more widely. docs.google.com/document/d/e...
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Brad Postle @bradpostle.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Postdoc position available at postlab.psych.wisc.edu. Pls send cv to postle@wisc.edu
postlab.psych.wisc.edu
PO-STL-AB
Our interests in human memory and cognition encompass the cognitive and neural basis of working memory, attention, control, and consciousness.News  Madison Symposium on Memory & Control. On 30 May 202...
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Persistent activity in the zebrafish brain accounts serial biases in working memory. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A thalamus–brainstem attractor network drives history-biased decisions - Nature
Whole-brain, cellular-resolution imaging reveals a hierarchical thalamus–brainstem attractor network that encodes recent history and shapes behavioural bias in zebrafish.
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Akiyoshi Kitaoka @akiyoshikitaoka.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
The squares may appear to shift vertically or horizontally, but they are actually stationary and perfectly aligned in either vertical or horizontal positions. References Flynn, O. F. & Shapiro, A. G. (2018). i-Perception, 9(6), 1–6.
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
I just completed my service in my NIH study section. Some thoughts - with the disclaimer that these are personal, subjective impressions and do not reflect the opinion of any official body. Other than the one attached to my head. (1/10)
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
There is a straightforward mechanism for the public to comment. Former NIH program office Elizabeth Ginexi has written an exceptionally helpful guide on how to so, with detailed suggestions. 3/n elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...
elizabethginexi.substack.com
What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB-2026-0034)
What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice
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Christos Constantinidis @cconstan.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
In Washington DC, for the AAAS Fellows induction ceremony
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Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Glad to see this from the president of Johns Hopkins and the chancellor of U Kansas A rare public acknowledgement from university leaders that the current NIH and NSF funding delays are not okay and are a violation of Congressional intent. www.wsj.com/opinion/get-...
wsj.com
Opinion | Get the Federal Science Money Flowing
The NIH has been holding back grants from funds Congress has already approved.
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