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Dave O'Connor

@daveocskys.bsky.social
146 followers 304 following 7 posts

Bumbling engineer/neuroscientist. Postdoc @ MSSM. Opinions are my own.

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Reposted by Dave O'Connor
Francesca Mandino @francimandi.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Very excited to share this one 🧠✨ Our work on longitudinal multimodal imaging in awake mice is officially out! We combined wide-field calcium imaging and fMRI to investigate brain-wide function across brain states and aging. A milestone long in the making. ~See related emojis 🐭🔬☕️🧲🧠
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 26/09/2026
great piece. man social media is a cancer themomoftheyear.substack.com/p/im-the-mom...
themomoftheyear.substack.com
I’m the Mom in That Viral Giants Clip. Let Me Tell You About My Husband.
You saw me carrying our baby and food. There was more happening in our family that night.
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the samsara enjoyer @rubot.ie · 24/09/2026
"so what's your take?" "I think the private sector can solve all of a nations problems and the government doesn't have to do anything" "100% disagree"
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Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Francesca Mandino, Evelyn M.R. Lake, et al: Biphasic acclimation for simultaneous wide-field fluorescent Ca2+ imaging and fMRI of awake mice doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
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Dan Handwerker @danielhandwerker.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Substantial improvements in research interpretability & reproducibility are often hard. Sometimes the improvements are easy. (The underlying idea is older & easy, but convincing people is sometimes the hard part) I'm happy to have contributed to this easy and now widely accessible improvement.
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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Just to have something to do on my blog, I wrote out some advice that I find myself often giving to junior scholars and PhD standings re how to think about journals' prestige and reputation when deciding how to place one's publications. sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/08/jour...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com
Journal Prestige Advice for Graduate Students
I don't have time to blog much nowadays, but I want to keep this place active. One recurring use for the site is to outline to things th...
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Sarah Yip @yiplab.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Looking for a postdoc in addiction and neuroimaging!! Check out medicine.yale.edu/biomedical-i... Message me directly if you are interested in hearing about opportunities to apply to work with the YIP lab :)
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Micah @rincewind.run · 13/08/2026
now that we know how the new season of Reacher is (excellent), a thread about why you should watch What If A Man Was Large, The Show, in the form of a Q&A
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Sarah Yip @yiplab.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Is the whole more than the sum of its parts? Considering global and local features of the connectome improves prediction of individuals and phenotypes direct.mit.edu/imag/article...
direct.mit.edu
Is the whole more than the sum of its parts? Considering global and local features of the connectome improves prediction of individuals and phenotypes
Abstract. Popular methods for analyzing the brain’s functional connectome examine statistical associations between pairs of atlas-defined brain regions, viewing the strength of these links as independ...
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Pumped to share our latest work! Here, we peeked under the hood of fMRI-based predictive models to ask whether models of sustained attention and autism symptoms rely on overlapping functional connections. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/2
medrxiv.org
Feature overlap in transdiagnostic connectome-based models of sustained attention and autism symptoms
Sustained attention is an important neurobiological process. Difficulties with attention play a key role in neurodevelopmental disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and au...
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Dustin Scheinost @dscheinost.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
External validation is a great way to improve rigor in neuroimaging. Although a simple idea is simple—test a predictive model on another dataset—the practice is not. In our Perspective in @natmethods.nature.com, we discuss practical issues and solutions; www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
External validation improves generalizability, replicability and reproducibility in predictive models for neuroimaging - Nature Methods
This Perspective promotes the use of external validation using independent datasets for human neuroimaging studies.
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Stephanie Noble @sneuroble.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
So glad to finally share work years in the making! What started with fMRI effect size benchmarks ended up showing that conventional study planning detects ~half of expected brain effects, suggesting more distributed processes than the lit shows (+ new methods for mass univ effect/power estimation)
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Thrilled to share our latest paper, out recently in Nature Mental Health. "Optimizing functional connectivity scanning conditions for predicting autistic traits" www.nature.com/articles/s44... 1/n
nature.com
Optimizing functional connectivity scanning conditions for predicting autistic traits - Nature Mental Health
This research investigates optimal brain states for predicting autistic traits using connectome-based predictive modeling across four datasets. Findings indicate that a sustained attention task enhanc...
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Sarah Yip @yiplab.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Excited to share our latest paper in which we discuss merging theory-and data- driven computational psychiatry in a large transdiagnostic cohort study (N=2400) www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S245... Christopher Pittenger, Godfrey Pearlson @annierhcheng.bsky.social @sobp-org.bsky.social
biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org
Threading the needle: Practical considerations for merging theory-driven computational psychiatry with data-driven analytics to enhance precision health at scale
The rapidly evolving field of computational psychiatry enables quantification of specific cognitive processes, and their underlying mechanisms, in a translational and potentially scalable manner, usin...
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Todd Constable @toddc.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
I wrote an perspectives piece relevant to the structural atlasing endeavors. Structural atlases are not the end of the story. This perspective calls for models that take into account the flexible functional organization within this fixed architecture. www.frontiersin.org/journals/neu...
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | Structure–function relationships across scales: implications for atlases
Neuroscience aims to understand how the structural and functional organization of the brain relates to behavior. Structural studies at the cellular level est...
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Sarah Yip @yiplab.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Looking for a postdoc in #computationalpsychiatry? Apply here to join an interdisciplinary team and work with a large longitudinal transdiagnostic dataset postdocs.yale.edu/posts/2026-0... @RobbRutledge @xiaosigu @DrChrisPitt @PearlsonGodfrey @ACNPorg @YaleMed
postdocs.yale.edu
Computational Psychiatry Postdoctoral Associate Opening at Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry
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Alexander Huth @alexanderhuth.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
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Stephanie Noble @sneuroble.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
It’s officially out! Check out the manuscript for more on the effect size web app, led by the truly indefatigable @halleeshearer.bsky.social and featuring so many contributions from this team, esp MINDS Lab via @dscheinost.bsky.social
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Take a look at our paper! Led by @francimandi.bsky.social in the Lake lab: "Longitudinal, simultaneous wide-field fluorescent Ca2+ imaging and fMRI in awake mice" !!!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Francesca Mandino @francimandi.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Talking about spooky stuff…try to do awake mouse fMRI. Oh, you want it spookier? Try to add simultaneous Ca2+ imaging. Now, do it all again, longitudinally…. So proud to finally have this out!!! 🐭 🧠 🧲 Go read…if you dare!! 👻 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Longitudinal, simultaneous wide-field fluorescent Ca2+ imaging and fMRI in awake mice
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be applied in mice and humans making it a key technology in translational neuroimaging research. Yet, most neuroimaging studies in rodents use anesthes...
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The Onion @theonion.com · 08/10/2025
MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Awarded To Inventor Of Eatin’ Shirt theonion.com/macarthur-genius-grant…
MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Awarded To Inventor Of Eatin’ Shirt
‘It’s A Big Ol’ Shirt I Put On Before Supper So My Good Shirts Don’t Get Dirty,’ Says Recipient
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Really proud to share this w/ @francimandi.bsky.social from the Lake lab: we applied fingerprinting in a simultaneous wide-field fluorescence Ca2+ imaging and BOLD-fMRI dataset in mice! w/ @toddc.bsky.social @mallarchak.bsky.social @richardfbetzel.bsky.social et al. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Multimodal identification of the mouse brain using simultaneous Ca2+ imaging and fMRI - Communications Biology
Using simultaneously acquired wide-field fluorescence calcium imaging and BOLD-fMRI, subject-specific signatures are observable in the mouse connectome, with stronger individual specific patterns evident in the calcium data.
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Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Launched in 2023, Imaging Neuroscience is now firmly established, with full indexing (PubMed, etc.) and 700 papers to date. We're very happy to announce that we are able to reduce the APC to $1400. Huge thanks to all authors, reviewers, editorial team+board, and MIT Press.
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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 27/08/2025
Are interoception and mental health linked? Many assume so, with interoception even described as a psychiatric “p-factor.” But in our latest preprint, we were surprised to find little evidence for such a connection. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 Thread with our reflections on the matter 👇
medrxiv.org
Interoceptive Ability is Unrelated to Mental Health Symptoms: Evidence From a Large Scale Multi-Domain Psychophysical Investigation
Interoception-the sensing and perception of the internal viscera-is widely cast as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking brain-body interaction to mental illness. Prevailing models propose that altered ...
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 24/08/2025
This feels like a spot of good news www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...
sciencedaily.com
Scientists found the missing nutrients bees need — Colonies grew 15-fold
Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers pr...
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Check out the latest from @daveocskys.bsky.social ! Cool work looking at functional connectivity dynamics and predictive-modeling of brain-behavior relationships!! 🔥 🔥 W/ @toddc.bsky.social @francimandi.bsky.social
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Suvi Karjalainen @suvikarjalainen.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
What happens in the brain when we breathe? 🧠 🔄 🫁 🧠 The functional state of the brain fluctuates across the respiratory cycle 🫁 Brain activity can be volitionally influenced by varying the rate, depth, and pattern of breathing Read more ➡️ doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social
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Dave O'Connor @daveocskys.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Recently had the last piece of work from my PhD published, only took 2.5 years or so. Check it out here! Thanks to @coreyhorien.bsky.social @francimandi.bsky.social @toddc.bsky.social
direct.mit.edu
Identifying dynamic reproducible brain states using a predictive modelling approach
Abstract. Conceptually, brain states reflect some combination of the internal mental processes of a person, and the influence of their external environment. Importantly, for neuroimaging, brain states...
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Jacob Geller @jacobgeller.com · 20/03/2025
This New Yorker piece about the Irish Famine has several paragraphs I found literally jaw-dropping (positive). This is a book review!! Good god!!!
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Derek Thompson @dkthomp.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Unbelievable news. Pancreatic is one of the deadliest cancers. New paper shows personalized mRNA vaccines can induce durable T cells that attack pancreatic cancer, with 75% of patients cancer free at three years—far, far better than standard of care. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 26/02/2025
The first measles death in the US in a decade -- the tragic, preventable death of a child whose parents chose not to protect them with vaccination -- should spark an immediate nation-wide campaign to ensure all children are protected against preventable diseases. Anything less is unconscionable.
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Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
THIS IS HUGE! A cancer vaccine developed by Yale University and DFCI shows MAJOR promise. Results of an early-phase trial reveal ALL patients with ADVANCED stage kidney cancer had successful anti-cancer immune responses AND have remained CANCER-FREE approximately THREE years after treatment. 🧪🧵⬇️
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
We've updated our mouse connectome-based ID paper using simultaneous Ca2+ imaging and fMRI connectivity data--check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Shoutout to all! @francimandi.bsky.social, @toddc.bsky.social, @mallarchak.bsky.social, @richardfbetzel.bsky.social, and many others! 1/2
biorxiv.org
Multimodal identification of the mouse brain using simultaneous Ca2+ imaging and fMRI
Individual differences in neuroimaging are of interest to clinical and cognitive neuroscientists based on their potential for guiding the personalized treatment of various heterogeneous neurological c...
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Lucy Fisher @lucyfisher.ft.com · 18/02/2025
Unclear if Jordan Peterson was entirely read up on Nigel Farage when the two appeared 'in conversation' at the Arc conference this morning...
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Maybe I wasn’t clear about this. I wanted more egg and no plane crash, not many plane crash and no egg.
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Karl Bode @karlbode.com · 17/02/2025
A BBC study just found that generative AI can't even generate news story synopses with any consistent accuracy, and here we are happily pretending it's a symmetrical replacement for education and experience
bbc.com
Groundbreaking BBC research shows issues with over half the answers from Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants
Conducted over a month, the study saw the BBC test four prominent, publicly available AI assistants
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Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 17/02/2025
Newsletter: Generative AI is a marketing con perpetuated by Sam Altman and Dario Amodei through a mixture of lies and half-truths carried by a tech media that fails to ask the right questions. Outside of ChatGPT, generative AI companies barely get any traffic at all. www.wheresyoured.at/longcon/
wheresyoured.at
The Generative AI Con
It's been just over two years and two months since ChatGPT launched, and in that time we've seen Large Language Models (LLMs) blossom from a novel concept into one of the most craven cons of the 21st ...
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Mark Little @marklittle.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
BBC asked leading AI tools 100 basic questions, using its articles as sources. Significant issues with just over half of the answers. Clear factual errors in a fifth Where answers included quotes from BBC articles, more than 1 in 10 were altered, or didn’t exist www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
bbc.co.uk
Deborah Turness - AI Distortion is new threat to trusted information
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
This, by @martinsandbu.ft.com is very good. If the EU can figure out a way through the next few years, there is a real chance it will have a long term advantage as only major power with a semi-functional governance system.
ft.com
The EU needs the courage to imagine a different digital economy
Trump’s tech oligarchs are afraid of Europe’s regulatory power — as they should be
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Ethan Solomon @esolomon.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
The whole "$1 NIH dollar generates $2.50 in output" sells science wildly short. Scientific discovery and technological development is the foundation on which our entire society is built -- and that includes all the businesses that operate within it. The throughlines are shorter than you think: 1/n
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Micha Sam Brickman Raredon @msbr89.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Come join Raredon Lab! We have a cool project running 🏃🏻‍♂️on post-pneumonectomy lung regeneration 🫁 and we are looking for a new post-doctoral recruit…lots of opportunity for creativity and experimentation! Tons of data viz too… 📈🤔🧐💫 and tissue microscopy…🔬 DM with questions!!
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Karen Hao @karenhao.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Thus far OpenAI & its peer scaling labs have sought to convince the public & policymakers that scaling is the best way to reach so-called AGI. This has always been more of an argument based in business than in science. 4/
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Randy McIntosh @ar0mcintosh.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
This paper is an excellent reminder that the brain works across space and time and that we can appreciate both, even with fMRI data.
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Corey Horien @coreyhorien.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Take a look at some of our latest results, diving into task-fMRI data, autism, and predictive modelling: "What is the best brain state to predict autistic traits?" www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/2
medrxiv.org
What is the best brain state to predict autistic traits?
Autism is a heterogeneous condition, and functional magnetic resonance imaging-based studies have advanced understanding of neurobiological correlates of autistic features. Nevertheless, little work h...
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Phil Beaudoin @handle.invalid · 13/01/2025
"Bluesky moderation lists create echo chambers." A short thread about decentralized moderation on Bluesky and why it changes everything.* 🧵 *Based on nearly a thousand hours spent exploring the platform's code.
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Giacomo Bartolucci (he) @gbart.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
1/n Some time ago my colleague, excellent cook, and friend Ivan told me: "Cacio e pepe is the recipe that I screw up more often. Let's make a project studying systematically the physics of that sauce". Prepare to get cheesy, I'm glad to share the Cacio e paper preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2501.00536
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Alain Dagher @alaindagher.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Medical breakthroughs through the ages, a 🧵 1923: Banting and Best develop insulin. Banting thought it was unethical for a doctor to patent a life-saving discovery. To maximize the availability of insulin, he and Best sold the patent to the University of Toronto for $1.
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Timothée Poisot @ctrlalttim.com · 05/12/2024
The best first sentence of a grant application I've read was (paraphrasing), "Tool X is widely used to do task Y; we will make it accessible to people living with condition Z (13% of the population) so that it is more equitable and more widely used". Let's unpack why, because there's a lesson. 🧵
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