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Kevin Mitchell
@WiringTheBrain
, 4 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Prenatal activity from thalamic neurons governs the emergence of functional cortical maps in mice science.sciencemag.org/content/364/64… - lovely work from @GLB_Lab!
General principle of neural development: genetic programs specify an initial map of connections, but this is crucially refined by patterned electrical activity (first internally generated and later in response to experience)
Partly why you get cascading effects of mutations causing early connectivity differences - they necessarily also change the patterns of electrical activity that drive later refinement
Likewise, mutations affecting synaptic transmission or plasticity will not just affect adult function but often have a large impact on neural development
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Kevin Mitchell
@WiringTheBrain
Publication bias and the canonization of false facts doi.org/10.7554/eLife.… - important work from @CT_Bergstrom et al, HT @deevybee
To the general problem of publication bias, I would add another sociological problem, where reviewers of papers in 'a field' all have a common interest in the subject of the field being a thing
In that case, peer review can become an exercise in collective confirmation bias. This is then compounded when the same people write authoritative reviews of 'the field", which become lore that others cite (w/o reading the primary papers)...
Read 3 tweets
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Kevin Mitchell
@WiringTheBrain
The Power of Self-Learning Systems via @YouTube - fascinating talk from @demishassabis on AI - from the testing ground of games to the promise of AI-assisted science
Lots of possible cross-talk b/w AI and neuroscience of course...
And good to see a shout-out to the importance of thinking about the ethics of AI systems...
Read 3 tweets
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Kevin Mitchell
@WiringTheBrain
GABAergic cell loss in mice lacking autism-associated gene Sema6A biorxiv.org/content/10.110… - loads of interesting anatomical + behavioral defects in these mutants, but no strong evidence for association with autism, IMO
Given the profile of defects observed in Sema6a mutant mice it wouldn't be surprising if mutations in humans (in this or interacting genes like Plexins) were associated with neurodevelopmental disorders...
And a few patients with various psychiatric conditions (notably SCZ + ASD) have been found to carry such mutations but their pathogenicity is not proven.
Read 8 tweets

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Brian Lovett
@lovettbr
Hello Twitter friends! Our team had a paper come out describing years of work in the semi-field in Burkina Faso, and I want to talk about what we found and how this fungal biotechnology is developing. science.sciencemag.org/content/364/64…
First, let's describe the platform we're working with. I say platform because the technology we're working with is interchangeable.
In the study that was published today we used one particular strain of fungus that has specialized to kill mosquitoes, but we could engineer this same technology with a strain that is specialized to another insect, like locusts.
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Bo Winegard
@EPoe187
1. Thread: Evolution, ethics, HBD, and guilt-by-association (GBA).

I've been in a protracted conversation about these issues, and I thought I would expand upon my views.
2. First, what is HBD? It stands for human biological diversity. It is simply the study or interest in diversity among human population groups. There is nothing nefarious or sinister about it. It is, in fact, rather trivial in many ways.
3. Everybody who is familiar with the literature agrees that human population groups differ from each other because of cultural *and* genetic causes. There are quite mainstream textbooks on it.

barnesandnoble.com/w/human-variat…

global.oup.com/ushe/product/h…
Read 29 tweets
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James Lingford
@JamesLingford
There is an amazing evolutionary biology paper out this week in Science:

DNA fragility in the parallel evolution of pelvic reduction in stickleback fish
science.sciencemag.org/content/363/64…

Let’s look at what they did.
First, what’s the big picture? Well, numerous species exhibit rapid & repeated bouts of adaptive evolution to new environments. Also, geographically isolated populations of the same species have shown the same phenotypic adaptations (parallel evolution)!
This is the case with stickleback fish, which has lost pelvic fins multiple times as marine populations adapt and colonize freshwater environments. Pelvic fins in marine sticklebacks are thought to deter predators. But in freshwater environments, fin building is too costly
Read 67 tweets
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Jacob Bellmund
@jacobbellmund
I just published a paper in @sciencemagazine that I have been working on with Peter Gärdenfors, Edvard Moser & @doellerlab. Since I love other people’s threads summarizing their science, I’ll try to return the favor: [1/n] science.sciencemag.org/content/362/64…
We connect a theory from cognitive science with findings from research on how the hippocampal-entorhinal region maps the space around us for navigation
Okay, this gif might be slightly misleading. It's more this kind of #hippocampus
Read 20 tweets
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Alexander Kruel
@XiXiDu
Genetic differences between human populations: more than meets the eye (link thread):
Indonesian Bajau divers have recently evolved 50% larger spleens for storing reserve of oxygenated blood needed in long dives dropbox.com/s/w5t351hboh14…
Greenlandic Inuit show genetic signatures of diet and climate adaptation science.sciencemag.org/content/349/62…
Read 46 tweets
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Enrico Glerean
@eglerean
Brainhack Global 18 in Finland has just started with prof. Em Riitta Hari @aivoAALTO talking about the unsolved questions in neuroscience #bhg18 #bhg18fi
"how good are your data?" often theory comes before data (e.g. physics) and many labs do same experiment and results are combined #bhg18 #bhg18fi
"animal models, are we using the best species out of 8M species in the planet?" #bhg18 #bhg18fi
Read 24 tweets

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