iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think this is probably a decent analogy. But then if you remove a bunch of votes from Alabama or from California, you might not have the same impact.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Maybe, but really I am not sure we are meaning the same thing by "distributed", and the field is a bit fuzzy on this. It was one of the thoughts I had after your "down with brain areas" paper. There is probably something helpful that could be written on that.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I don't understand *why* you want to say this (if you do). And I don't see the evidence for it.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

You seem to claim more than "functions are distributed", something I think we can all agree on. You seem to be saying something like "distributed functional contributions can be indistinguishable to the point that it can be impossible to detect different contributions to that function"

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

If I lesion either Shaq or Steph Curry from your basketball team, sure you get fewer points overall in both cases, but the way the points reduce will be detectably different (3-pointers etc). No 2 players are the same, nor are 2 bits of brain (I won't dare to call them brain areas...)

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

You can park a car without a wing mirror, but we would be able to design a test to reveal the impairment caused by the lack of wing mirror. So do we need better tests in the lesion literature, or can you really "contribute" to a function even though it makes no difference whether you exist or not?

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So my question is: what does "contributing" mean in this case, if the function can be done exactly the same with or without the tissue?

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

So in that specific case, assuming the lesion is successful, the contribution of that area must be lost. So your argument, I imagine, is that this function is distributed in a way that means that it is immediately robust to the loss of contributing tissue?

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Well, I'm asking if that would suffice to respond to your question. Because the term "used" here feels under-defined here.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Define "used" in this context. Comparing modern nphys results with older lesion evidence should provide plenty of evidence, if that would meet your criterion...

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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

The world's most notorious custard-pie thrower is dead. What an obituary. He got Bernard-Henri Lévy seven times.

Known to his army of fans as L’Entarteur or Georges le Gloupier, Godin launched his career as a serial deflator of egos in 1969, when he planted a tarte à la crème on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras (“She has a kind of intelligence and cleverness that serves only her own vanity,” he complained), and he went on to “pie” a cast list of celebrities for sins ranging from pomposity to “choosing to function in the service of the capitalist status quo”.

The same could not be said of Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s “new philosophers,” whose provocative views on sex, frequent appearances on television and penchant for white silk shirts unbuttoned practically to the navel, had made him a cult figure – and one of Godin’s most satisfying victims.

Levy once declared: “I am the most gifted writer of my generation,” and often boasted of his reasonableness and tolerance, but he was forced to endure footage being repeatedly shown on French television of himself, covered in cream, during a visit to the Belgian city of Liège, trying to strangle Godin and shouting: “Get up, or I’ll kick your head in.”

Noël Godin was born on September 13 1945 and came to pie-throwing after a rebellious youth in which he scandalised the priests in the confessional by speaking of his “horrible sexual life”, and was thrown out of Liège University after emptying a pot of glue over the head of a law lecturer who had helped write the constitution for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

He found work at Friends of Film, an obscure magazine published by the Belgian Catholic League. It had a tiny readership, which was just as well, as Godin made up most of his articles. In one he claimed that Louis Armstrong had once been a cannibal and had invested in a film called The Vegetables of Good Will in which Claudia Cardinale played a giant endive.

In another he conjured up a fictional blind Thai filmmaker named Vivian Pei, describing her film, The Lotus Flower Will Never Again Grow on the Edge of Your Island, in such convincing terms that an Asian film specialist travelled to Thailand in an effort to track her down.

“We’re very careful not to hurt people,’’ he explained. “Well, they are hurt, but always in their amour-propre.”

In 1995 Godin published an autobiography, Cream and Punishment. His other targets over the years included the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard (who charmed his assailant by hailing the attack as a homage to silent film), the French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the Ryanair chairman Michael O’Leary. He tended not to pick Belgian victims, he explained, because few would notice if he did.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Variability across sessions should be considered v carefully, and might be more concerning than variability across monkeys. {unless of course sessions vary by experimental condition or across learning etc.}

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

More generally: (1) NHP researchers are not trying to make claims about all monkeys (or I hope they aren't), just the ones in front of them. In this sense the "n=2" is not as critical as, say, n=X in a GWAS. (2) Look carefully also at n sessions, n neurons, n recording sites, etc.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Consider carefully *what* is conflicting across monkeys, and what that can tell us about the individuals. e.g. is behaviour conflicting in some way, and neural differences *follow* those differences. This is interpretable for those cases if there is enough data per monkey.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

New preprint from the team - what's the role of frontal cortex - LPFC & MCC - in learning about progress towards goals? Data from the checking project collected by Fred Stoll. New analyses by Xiaoqi Xu. With Matteo di Volo, Manu Procyk, & skytorial from @nilskolling.bsky.social below

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Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OF YOU!🎄✨

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Thanks for CNRS Biologie for highlighting our new work - more to come...

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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of brain-computer interfaces and artificial neural networks. New funding and policy changes put future such advances at risk, write Cory Miller, @movshon.bsky.social and Doris Tsao. #neuroskyence bit.ly/47MXYLH

bit.ly

Without monkeys, neuroscience has no future

Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of BCIs, ANNs. New funding and policy changes put future such advances at risk.

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Vinny Costa @vincentcostaphd.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

A spatially resolved transcriptomic atlas of the primate amygdala (human, macaque, and baboon) now out in Science Advances (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). The amygdala contains 32 types of neurons with many neuron types specific to particular subdivisions. Lots of updates from the preprint!

science.org

Transcriptomic diversity of amygdalar subdivisions across humans and nonhuman primates

Specialized cell types and links to psychiatric disorders are revealed by genetic mapping of primate amygdala neurons.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

A fun hippo thread that is worth your time… “ it makes neutering them a copper-plated bitch.”

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Earl K. Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Kraftwerk gets it #neuroscience

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Joao Barbosa @jbarbosa.org · 11/03/2025

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Masud Husain @masudhusain.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years. Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people. Good trade.

Change in Paris air quality between 2007 and 2023 using visuals

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Yes, sorry, got distracted earlier (literally by some French people going on strike 🇫🇷) but meant to follow-up with Baxter's paper. We have datasets on their slow way out which support their finding of no behavioural (or for us ephys) evidence of off-target effects at 0.1mg/kg DCZ sans DREADDs.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Very sad news, an inspiring scientist.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Mr White *deserves* to taste that prime rib...

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

It is, needless to say, magnificent.

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Year of my birth, a very treasured present. I've planned it for the last glass on my 50th...

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

I still have a bottle of 1979 on the go... slow...

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Gareth Gaskell @mggaskell.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

MRC Units across the UK have led the scientific world for generations, but are due to be closed with little consultation, for reasons that are largely unknown. Please sign this letter if you would like the MRC to reconsider. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

docs.google.com

Open letter to Sir Patrick Vallance

To sign the letter, please complete the form here: https://forms.gle/eRydV6VpMQVFPtdF7 Please forward a link to this letter to any colleagues who you think may be interested in signing – we would li...

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Bravo Jimmy. But perfect might be stretching it a bit....

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Congratulations to Sotirios and all! But also if you're already skeeting paper threads, you didn't party hard enough last night...

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

One of those days where you bust out the soldering iron half way through the experiment 🤷‍♂️

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Antoine Coutrot @antoinecoutrot.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

⚠️ New preprint ! « Social determinants of cognitive aging trajectories across 39 countries » Some people in their 80s have cognitive abilities similar to many 30-year-olds, others are severely diminished.  How comes?  www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... A short 🧵👇 1/7

Older women participating to a race at the Senior Games 2023.

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Earl K. Miller @earlkmiller.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

I have not seen a starter pack for the study of brain rhythms. So, here's a start. go.bsky.app/A6zgHeE

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Would appreciate being part of this if it is possible. Plenty of frontal beta work coming up… Thanks

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Keith Edwards @keithedwards.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Do you know how dark Twitter has to be for *STEPHEN KING* to say it’s too dark

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

I've largely been absent from the socials, for reasons, but as this place seems to have a reasonable discussion to bullshit ratio, and folks are here now, let's give it another go. Here is an introductory thread for all these lovely new followers....

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Charlie Wilson @crewilson.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Would love to be included in this. Here is a slightly old photo of some noisy 🐒 recordings...

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Jennifer Bussell PhD @jenbussell.bsky.social · 22/10/2024

Thrilled to be presenting at the Foraging Conference: Mechanisms of foraging, information seeking and exploration. Please join us in delightful Lyon, France, Dec 11-13 for in-depth, exciting discussion. Registration and poster abstracts now open: bit.ly/48levq6 #Neuroscience

bit.ly

Foraging conference

REGISTRATIONS ARE OPEN, Abstract submission for posters also!

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