Scott Rich, Ph.D.

Second desk rejection in 48ish hours arrives at 7 pm on a Friday night, and with it the realization that my skin is not nearly as thick as I thought it was 2 years into being a PI. 🫠🫠🫠

How heterogeneity shapes dynamics and computation in the brain No two neurons are the same, yet models often treat neural populations as pools of identical and interchangeable elements. Here, Dahmen et al. highlight recent theoretical advances that reveal the imp...

At the Bernstein Conference 2024, Jeremie Lefebvre and I organized a workshop on the computational consequences of neural heterogeneity. Now, slightly more than a year later, we funneled the emerging discussions into a perspective piece: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

5/5 This is another example of a scenario in which more accurately approximating the biophysical reality, rather than idealizing it away, better captures critical in vivo brain dynamics.

Doing so by accounting for the heterogeneity of the brain will continue to be a main focus of my lab 😀

4/5 This convergent in silico and analytical evidence shows that biophysical detail does not "break" existing theory of gamma oscillations in neuronal microcircuits. Instead, it biases such systems away from traditional, idealized rhythms and towards newly described, more realistic gamma activity.

Snapshot of a figure from "Physiologically realistic gamma activity produced in silico by weakening the PING attractor state" showcasing a phase portrait of Wilson Cowan equations that yield transient gamma activity (illustrated via firing rate plots and associated spectral analysis).

Snapshot of a figure from "Physiologically realistic gamma activity produced in silico by weakening the PING attractor state" showcasing a phase portrait of a dynamical system with a co-existing stable limit cycle and stable focus.

3/5 We explain this phenomenon via mathematical analysis: these transient gamma events share a striking resemblance to dynamics caused by damped oscillations. While PING rhythms are traditionally associated with stable limit cycles, we also show that both phenomena commonly coexist.

Snapshot of a figure from "Physiologically realistic gamma activity produced in silico by weakening the PING attractor state" showcasing a transient gamma event via a raster plot, firing rate histogram, and spectral analysis.

2/5 We studied sources of biophysical realism that have classically been viewed as "breaking" idealized in silico Pyramidal Interneuron Network Gamma rhythms. But these changes ALSO create transient gamma events that more closely mirror the in vivo reality of gamma activity!

1/5 Big news: the pre-print for my final postdoc paper is (finally) out!

Why did it take so long? We significantly expanded the manuscript thanks largely to the incredible work of one of my first undergraduates here at @uconn.bsky.social @uconnresearch.bsky.social 😀

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Since the Scrubs reboot was actually enjoyable, my lizard millennial brain reverted to thinking maybe I should’ve been a medical doctor.

Then I finally started The Pitt… and I’m pretty sure I made the right choice.

Balance 😅😂

Coming soon: The Mohegan Sun Rich Lab presented by Dr. Pepper.

cool people, follow them!

I built a bluesky labeler for neuroscience methods.

1️⃣ follow/subscribe to: @neuromethods.bsky.social
2️⃣ like the post with your favorite method
➡️ get a shiny methods label in your profile/posts. 🌟

NIH research grant funding rates plummeted in 2025 Agency acknowledges young investigators are losing out as result of multiyear funding policy imposed by White House

www.science.org/content/arti...

Cool time to start a science career. As a grad student in the early 2010’s I thought I was lucky because I didn’t have to worry about funding at the time and things would be better when I was trying to start my lab

WHAT. A. GOAL.

Sorry Canadian friends and family 😅😅😅

Hear me out… maybe putting an athlete who toils in relative obscurity for 99% of their life under a two week international microscope that defines their entire career doesn’t do them any good.

I will always be proud to be (half) Canadian.

I wish more senior academics would explicitly say this to their peers.

The traditional trajectory of building a lab and getting tenure has been completely upended. Validating the anxieties that stem from this new reality means so much more than (even well meaning) “back in my day” advice.

Being interdisciplinary mostly means everyone agrees your work is interesting but not for their journal.

I’ve always been proud to be an alumnus of the Duke Chronicle (even though I was in the Sports section, hahaha).

The Chronicle has always been a bastion for quality, independent student journalism. Seeing that recognized is such a boost 😀😀😀

If you parent a college student, could you pretty please with sugar on top ask them to stop using ChatGPT to email their professors? These emails are driving us slowly bananas.

Today I learned I am at the “perturbed rather than excited by back-to-back snow days” stage of being a professor.

A small part of me has died.

This is exactly why I refused to believe anything that was projected about this storm until I could see the snow accumulating with my own eyes! The #PhDog struggled last night 😂😂😂

Have had this happen to me a couple times over the last year, including on a re-review of a manuscript I had serious concerns about (so they really should’ve wanted my input!).

This is very low on the priority list of things to fix with peer review, but it is disproportionately irritating 😡😡😡

Remember that week on the Old Site where we all put our thesis/paper titles in a very early AI image generator for shits and giggles?

I miss those simple times… of about 5 years ago.

Revision of the lab’s first manuscript submitted! Now the (anxious) waiting begins…

YouTube video by Voodoo God Futurama - Benderama

Realizing that Futurama perfectly predicted AI in scientific research 15 years ago:

youtu.be/LCPhbN1l024

Ok I forgot how brilliant John Noble is… I’m back fully hooked.

Also the cow.

On one hand, I’m so excited that FRINGE is finally streaming somewhere for a nostalgic rewatch.

On the other hand, I’m 20 minutes in I’ve scoffed at the pseudoscientific nonsense that used to entertain me a half dozen times.

And yet…

Why can I NEVER spell the word analagous right on the first try?

Damn it, I did it again!

I’m reminded of recent stories in @theatlantic.com on grade inflation.

The common thread?

The idea that educators are now evaluated on student “satisfaction” rather than, you know, whether students actually learn what they are supposed to.

We’ve got work to do.

apple.news/AY76JVMD-SWe...

The part of this that doesn’t get talked about enough?

The creeping expectation that educators are in the “customer service” business.

Education shouldn’t be thought of as a business at all, while we’re at it.

(Can you tell it’s end-of-semester grading season? 🫠🫠🫠)

A proud #NewPI moment to break-up your daily doomscroll:

In six weeks, my first rotation student went from not having coded since undergrad to having a 2D neuronal network visualized via movies up and running. AND they want to keep doing computational neuroscience as part of their thesis 😀