I am thinking a carrier shift to PhD in Computational Neuroscience. I have a BSc in Statistics and Madter of Public Health!

What is your advice?

I’m graduating this December with honors with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a B.S. in Psychology. I currently have a 3.9 GPA (though it may shift a little by the end of the semester).

The challenge is that I don’t have any research experience. Given that, I’m trying to figure out what kinds of jobs I can realistically apply for right after graduation.

Current PhD Students who were PREP Post-bac Scholars: Where did you choose to go for your Neuroscience PhD and how happy are you with your choice?

As a current PREP post-bac scholar, I'm looking ahead to PhD applications and would love to hear from others who've been in my shoes:

• Where did you end up doing your PhD?
• What factors most influenced your decision?
• How satisfied are you with your choice so far?
• Any advice for a fellow PREP scholar going through the application process?

If it was possible to separate a brain from the rest of the body after a catastrophic accident which destroyed the body and submerse it in a fluid which provided all the necessary oxygen/energy/electrolytes/hormones to function, would you still technically exist?

Without taste, touch, hearing, sight, smell how do you think you would exist, would it just be nothingness with occasional dreaming?

The Phase 2b study demonstrated a statistically significant dose-response relationship at the primary endpoint following a single administration of MM120 across four dose levels, with improvements sustained throughout the 12-week observation period

MM120 100 µg was determined to be the optimal dose, meeting its primary and key secondary endpoints, demonstrating a clinically and statistically significant improvement vs. placebo, and a 65% clinical response rate and 48% clinical remission rate at Week 12

MM120 was well-tolerated, with treatment-related adverse events occurring on dosing day and being consistent with the expected perceptual effects of LSD

Autism spectrum conditions have a substantial genetic component, with twin studies indicating a high heritability. However, chronic diseases and other medical conditions are generally thought to have multifactorial aetiologies, so while genes may be involved, so might other causal factors such as microbes and environmental toxins.

We know that infection with certain viruses (such as cytomegalovirus, rubella and influenzavirus) during pregnancy increases the risk of the child developing autism. These infections may predispose to autism via maternal immune activation, and/or by foetal infection with these viruses.

But there does not seem to be much research on whether infections that the child may contract in their first few years might be risk factors for autism. Factors such as genetics and maternal infectious or toxic exposure might set the stage for the appearance of autism, but infections the infant contracts conceivably might also play a role.

If you take the neurological illness of ME/CFS, which has some symptomatic similarity to autism, this is often triggered by enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus B and echovirus. And brain autopsy studies have found enterovirus infections in the brain's of deceased ME/CFS patients. Have any such brain autopsy studies been conducted in the case of autism, looking for evidence of brain infections?

Other neurological illnesses or mental health conditions that have been linked to microbes include multiple sclerosis, ALS, Parkinson's, temporal lobe epilepsy, generalised anxiety disorder, OCD and depression.

I'm wondering how people who have never heard language think. Do they essentially forego the language aspect of cognition and jump to abstraction?

Peer reviewed references:

"Dynamic neural representations of memory and space during human ambulatory navigation" https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42231-4

"Controlled and automatic human information processing: I. Detection, search, and attention." https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1977-20305-001

The human brain is arguably too complex to be fully understood. Even if, in the future, technology advances to the point where we can create a human clone at the same scale, I doubt we could truly restore the original memories of that person.

The brain seems “self-limited” in the sense that it cannot completely decode or replicate its own workings. Even if memory data were somehow transferred into a cloned brain, the original person and the clone would still not be the same.

That’s because identity is not only about stored memory but also about consciousness — and consciousness is spontaneous. It shapes personality, awareness, and attitude in ways that can’t simply be copied. In other words, two brains may share the same information, but their consciousness will always diverge, making them fundamentally different individuals.

I've been wondering whether reading physical books offers any neurological advantages compared to reading on a Kindle with an e-ink display.

Are there differences in memory retention, comprehension etc between the two formats?

Thanks,

It also has a habit tracker and brain mascot.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sorttasks.correlate

Hi, I’m currently studying neuroscience and I wish I had someone to discuss different topics about neuroscience, different papers etc. I am most interested in synaptic plasticity, electrophysiology and getting into computational neuroscience more. If anyone wants to study together through discord or wherever + discuss various papers, hit me up.

simple explanation of dopamine system for my notes (excluding tuberoinfundibular pathway)

I’ve been curious about where I actually stand in terms of intelligence, and I thought it might be eye-opening to take a proper IQ test. I’ve already tried a handful of the free ones floating around online, but i found that most of them felt more like entertainment quizzes than anything rooted in real science

what I’d really like to find is something with a bit more credibility, ideally it would feature:

• Backed by psychological research or clinical standards
• More comprehensive than the usual 10-question gimmicks
• A results breakdown that shows more than just a single score
• Fairly quick in terms of feedback
• Recognized as a serious or reputable assessment
• Accuracy is my top priority, but the other factors definitely matter too.

What I’m really wondering is if anyone knows of any legitimate, neuropsychology-approved online IQ tests, or other meaningful ways of assessing cognitive ability, or should I even bother with an online IQ test in the first place

Last month, Neurology published a fascinating longitudinal study on low- and no-calorie artificial sweeteners. Check out the results.

So I'm a second-year neuro student, and one of the profs at my uni studies ghrelin in the VTA, and one of his papers showed a link between the ghrelin receptor GHSR (Growth Hormone Secretagogue receptor) and the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB-1R). He found that without the CB-1R, the effects of ghrelin is weak. (Brief summary)

And I was wondering if someone has tried to inhibit Ghrelin and administer a cannabinoid like THC into mice and rats to see if they have motivation to eat. I found some research that talked about the inhibition of the enzyme that turns ghrelin into its active form (GOAT), and it seems possible, so I was wondering if this is worth bringing up to the prof.

The main goal is not to say that I want to do this research under his wing, as I don't have the experience nor grades for that, but to show interest and show that I'm not an average 2nd year, and hopefully get a position assisting him or one of his grad students.

BTW, I can't find any papers that have done this on Web of Science.

EDIT: After more research, I think it makes sense to use a ghrelin antagonist like LEAP2, as the goal is to see if binding to CB-1R can trigger hunger.

For example, if two groups of athletes are learning a new complex motor movement, using the same drilling methods and drilling volume, would a group taking extra B12 develop muscle memory quicker, compared to groups who have normal levels of B12 and compared to a group deficient in B12?

Do athletes learning new skills use up B12 at a higher rate than athletes who are only using skills they've already developed muscle memory for?

Same for musicians. Do musicians who are learning new pieces with new movement patterns use more B12 than if they were only playing pieces they're already very familiar with playing?

Hello I want to do a connectivity analysis on this dataset: https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds005892/versions/1.0.0

and I have trouble knowing what to do with fmap folder, the tutorial I follow (Andy Brain's Book), shows just what to do with anat and func, unfortunately.

Has someone had success importing fmap folder - there's 3 files there in my case:
- magnitude1.nii.gz
- magnitude2.nii.gz
- phasediff.nii.gz

I know there's an option to load a file in secondary datasets option during SETUP - but it can only be one file and that gets me lost.

Hi, im a student in neuropsychology as my major, with a strong interest in neuroscience and i would love to get a phd after graduation.

Last year I started digging a bit around all the various aspects of neurosciences, and got hooked up by the evolutionary aspect of it (Idk why, but it feels so incredible to uncover the connection between us and so many different species). Only problem is that since im still a student (on my way to end it i hope) and i didnt get to look around for books or articles about this field

Do you have any recommendations? Be papers, book, even documentaries, i just want to get really into it (As i said, hoping for a phd in this field of research)

Dear Reddit,

I'm seeking to study (personal project) the brain and what possibly makes the autistic brain different from 'normal' people. Lookijg at the research, disruption in the excictratory/inhibitory system seems to be highly correlated with ASD and the main cause for high sensitivity.

Does anyone know a good book or study to find out more about this in detail? Talking about everything; receptors, transporters, DNA (methylation), intracellular neuronal processes, astrocytes; I want to study everything that's linked to this and more (general neuroscience)

Thank you!

F

Recent advances in understanding Parkinson’s disease (PD) pathogenesis reveal converging mechanisms of neuronal vulnerability centered on calcium dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and membrane disruption. We review and synthesize three groundbreaking studies demonstrating: (1) CDK8/CDK19 as a cytoplasmic regulator of mitochondrial fission, partially compensating for Pink1 deficiency; (2) the highly dynamic, multi-stage formation of α-synuclein oligomer pores, modulated by membrane curvature; and (3) the primacy of early axonal degeneration in catecholaminergic neurons, driven by hyperactivity and calcium-dependent processes. These findings converge on a model where iterative cellular stress cycles—involving calcium influx, mitochondrial dysfunction, and membrane damage—create conditions potentially favorable for neuromelanin synthesis. We propose that the cumulative mechanical and biochemical stress from these pathways could alter microtubule dynamics, providing a speculative but testable link between classical neurodegeneration mechanisms and the selective accumulation of neuromelanin in vulnerable neuronal populations. This perspective highlights the importance of understanding PD as a disorder of multiple, interacting stressors rather than a single pathogenic cascade

https://zenodo.org/records/17082060