iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The results support a two-step model of agency: 1️⃣ Early sensorimotor mismatch detection 2️⃣ Later higher-order agency judgment Great work from @reinavandergoot.bsky.social Amit Krugwasser and the team #Neuroscience #EEG #VirtualReality #SenseOfAgency #SelfConsciousness #EmbodiedCognition

EEG decoding (MVPA), we could distinguish normal vs altered movements with ~68% accuracy within a few hundred ms of movement onset. Classifiers trained on one agency violation generalized to others, suggesting a later, domain-general representation of agency disruption emerging around ~500 ms.

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Visuomotor conflicts decreased SoA and increased alpha and theta oscillations — signals linked to prediction errors, sensory conflict, and cognitive control. These effects emerged extremely quickly: ~1200 ms after movement onset and persisted till about 600 ms.

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Neural responses to sensorimotor conflict in an embodied agency task

New publication from the lab in Cortex How does the brain generate the feeling that “I am the one causing my actions”*? In our preregistered EEG + VR study, we manipulated visual feedback of finger movements to see neural correlates of Embodied Agency. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

The Sense of Agency (SoA), the subjective experience that ‘I am in control of my actions’, has been proposed to involve both early implicit sensorimot…

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The findings suggest that disrupted daily biological rhythms may be an early warning sign for PTSD risk, highlighting circadian regulation and wearable technology as promising tools for post-trauma monitoring and intervention. Great work from Post doc Noa Magal , Prof. Roee Admon and the team.

Importantly: among trauma survivors, those with more irregular sleep-wake rhythms and higher rhythm-adjusted heart rate a few months after the attack were more likely to show significant PTSD symptoms 8-11 months later. Sleep instability remained predictive even beyond initial PTSD severity.

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Survivors showed disrupted daily rhythms compared with the comparison group: less stable sleep-wake cycles, higher rhythm-adjusted heart rate, and more variability in the timing of heart-rate peaks.

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To quantify sleep stability, we asked: Does this person tend to sleep and wake at similar times each day? See examples of two participants with high (top) vs. low (bottom) sleep stability.

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In this study, the psychological impact was substantial: more than half of the survivors still showed PTSD symptoms 8–11 months after the attack. We monitored 211 survivors & 113 controls for 1 month using wearable sensors, tracking sleep, activity, and heart rate in daily life.

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After trauma, identifying early signs of PTSD risk is crucial. One clue may lie in circadian rhythms - the body’s ~24-hour cycles - and especially in how stable or unstable these rhythms are over time

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Circadian instability following mass trauma predicts PTSD risk - Translational Psychiatry

Does PTSD risk leave traces in the body’s daily rhythms? Our new study, just published in @translational psychiatry followed Supernova festival survivors after Oct 7 using real-world sleep and heart-rate data. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #PTSD #Wearables #UniveristyofHafia #Psychiatry #sleep

nature.com

Translational Psychiatry - Circadian instability following mass trauma predicts PTSD risk

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Roselyne Chauvin @roselynechauvin.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

The 6x US memory champion – Nelson Dellis – can memorize a deck of cards in 40 seconds and knows the first 10K digits of pi. To figure out how, he let us peak inside his brain. Here is what we learned in our precision brain mapping study www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... youtube.com/shorts/MryMq...

youtube.com

how does his brain do it ? #neuroscience #memory #sport Nelson Dellis 6x US memory champion

YouTube video by Roselyne Chauvin

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

In the evening at CZEPS x uniMIND Prague, I spoke about Trauma under Psychedelics, presenting findings from our work with Nova festival survivors to a warm, engaged, deeply empathic audience. Thanks to Allen Fishman, Eva Césarová, Isis Koutrouli, NUDZ, @unimindprague.bsky.social , and CZEPS. (2/2)

Prof. Roy Salomon presenting a lecture titled “Trauma under Psychedelics” in Prague, showing slides with data from the Nova festival survivor study conducted at the University of Haifa, and addressing an audience during a neuroscience talk on trauma, PTSD, and psychedelic experiences.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Just back from Prague, where, in a typically overambitious move, I gave two talks in one day. At NUDZ, I spoke about Self and Reality in the Human Brain, and how VR and neuroimaging implicate abnormal "Self" in psychosis. Learned about exciting work on psychedelics and mental health at NUDZ (1/2)

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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

After 5 years of data collection, our WARN-D machine learning competition to forecast depression onset is now LIVE! We hope many of you will participate—we have incredibly rich data. If you share a single thing of my lab this year, please make it this competition. eiko-fried.com/warn-d-machi...

eiko-fried.com

WARN-D machine learning competition is live » Eiko Fried

If you share one single thing of our team in 2026—on social media or per email with your colleagues—please let it be this machine learning competition. It was half a decade of work to get here, especi...

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

On December 16, I gave a talk at Charité on our work with the NOVA survivors on trauma under psychedelics. In 1933, my grandfather, Prof. Dr. Karl Salomon, was expelled from the Charité for being Jewish. He fled Germany and rebuilt his life in Israel. Happy to close this circle.

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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Ok, this is nuts. Once you see it you cannot unsee it. Do you see it? (OP @drgbuckingham.bsky.social )

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

So great! To paraphrase @lucinauddin.bsky.social: If we (researchers) aren't clear, it has downstream effects on translation (eg to) psychiatry. We must strive not just to publish papers, but to be clear!

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Yoav Livneh @yoavlivneh.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

lab preprint! Interopceptive predictions are central to many brain-body interactions theories, but it's unclear if/how they affect bodily physiology. We (fearless Einav Litvak et al) show that insular cortex predictions are essential for glucose homeostasis-THREAD.. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

Insular cortex predictions regulate glucose homeostasis

Brain-body interactions are essential for physical and emotional homeostasis. The brain uses information from the external world to predict upcoming bodily changes. This process involves interoceptive...

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Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈 @ssteingraber1.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

🧪 Friends of all backgrounds: please enjoy this new paper whose findings “reveal that bees engage higher-order cognitive mechanisms under temporal uncertainty, suggesting that core features of awareness may be evolutionarily conserved across distant taxa.” Yeah. 🫢 www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

cell.com

Serotonergic-dependent awareness is required for trace conditioning in honeybees

Entomology; Neuroscience; Behavioral neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience; Cognitive neuroscience

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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

**How do we make long-lasting emotional memories** Looks very interesting. #neuroskyence www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below.

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time.

1. The four-fold drain

1.2 Time
The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce,
with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure
1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material
has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs,
grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for
profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time.
The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million
unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of
peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting
widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the
authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many
review demands.
Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of
scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in
‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow
progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to
volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier,
local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with
limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging
with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks
intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below:

1. The four-fold drain
1.1 Money
Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for
whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who
created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis,
which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024
alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit
margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher
(Elsevier) always over 37%.
Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most
consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial
difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor &
Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American
researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The
Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3
billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised
scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers
first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour
resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 09/11/2025

Somehow I love these scientific sleuth stories.

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 05/11/2025

It’s a good night for it.

Interior of the Funhouze in Seattle with a can of Nazi Punks Fuck Off beer.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Honored to speak at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin on Breaking the Walls of Trauma: Psychedelics and Recovery with Dr. Dimitris Repantis and Prof. Eric Vermetten discussing the opportunities and challenges psychedelics bring to trauma and PTSD recovery. falling-walls.com/programme/br...

falling-walls.com

Breaking the Walls of Trauma: Psychedelics and Recovery

Trauma and mental health challenges are increasingly examined through the lens of psychedelic-assisted therapies. Insights from research and clinical practice highlight the potential of substances suc...

Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Now, Prof Bessel Van der Kolk discussing how trauma is encoded in the mind and body. Stressing the importance of agency and action during the TE for better post traumatic recovery.

Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Then the outstanding Rick Dublin showed the efforts to advance MDMA assisted therapy for PTSD in many areas of conflict around the world.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Honored to be presenting at the SafeHeart conference on trauma, psychedelics and therapy during wartime. Showed our results of two years work with the Nova survivors.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Amazing conference in Dresden on the Multidimensionalty of Trauma. Amazing morning lineup: Carmen Sandi, Talma Hendler, Eric Vermetten & Hermona Soreq. From tRNA to psychedelic treatments of PTSD stress and trauma effects evident at all levels of neurobiology and cognition.

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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 15/10/2025

Check out our latest paper, a collaboration with @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social using gamified computational psychiatry measures to explore brain-behavioral correlates of decision making!

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Yesterday, my heart was filled with hope as all live Israeli hostages returned home. Yesterday was also the funeral of Roee Shalev, Nova survivor suffering from PTSD who committed suicide this week. The trauma suffered on both sides is tremendous and there is much work ahead for this to be healed.🙏

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Tomorrow will be two years since the attack which began this terrible war. I have lived through several wars, but this one has changed me. I don't believe in an interventionist God, but I am not above praying for peace.... Hostages back home, this war can be over. Amen 🙏

Ophir Netzer @ophirnetzer.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Reposted by Roy Salomon

Our World Psychiatry paper is out! we studied responses to trauma experienced under different psychoactive substances and found distinct patterns across substances. Immense gratitude to our collaborators and above all, to the survivors❤️‍🩹

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

This is a good question. We examined the possibility of a MDMA "phenotype". However the data shows that most people who used MDMA here used other substances in other occurrences and many who used e.g. LSD in the Nova used MDMA in other parties. We didn't find evidence for a phenotype

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Thanks Nicole. Very difficult.

Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Just published in World Psychiatry our study "Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing" . Amazing work led by @ophirnetzer.bsky.social with the brave survivors of the Nova festival attack. Huge team effort, thx to all! 👉 doi.org/10.1002/wps....

doi.org

Trauma under psychedelics: how psychoactive substances impact trauma processing

Click on the article title to read more.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Flagged for possible image duplication

Rich Haridy @richharidy.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Reposted by Roy Salomon

This is a fascinating article. Well-researched. And while it doesn't interrogate the reasons why the FDA knocked back the MDMA application at least it reasonably accepts the rejection was based on problems with the science and not solely the result of a tiny "activist" group.

theguardian.com

How Elon Musk’s billionaire Doge lieutenant took over the US’s biggest MDMA company

Antonio Gracias is part of the growing movement among Silicon Valley’s right wing enamored with the therapeutic and commercial potential of drugs like MDMA

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Deng Pan @dengpan.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

🚨We believe this is a major step forward in how we study hippocampus function in healthy humans. Using novel behavioral tasks, fMRI, RL & RNN modeling, and transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), we demonstrate the causal role of hippocampus in relational structure learning.

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Roy Salomon @royesal.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

I can see why, but the truth must ring out so we "follow the data"...