Peter Sokol-Hessner

I think the *desired* takeaways might have been 1) exactly what you said @gregoryrsl.bsky.social (scientists should talk more to non-scientists about science) and 2) professors & scientists are real people too - that dichotomy (scientist vs. real) might be more manufactured than real.

Please consider making a public comment opposing the possibility of making NIH directors, program officers, and other staff (e.g. SRO, GMS) political appointees. This only took me ~90 seconds. Please repost. Thanks 👍

Getting past the term is part of confronting the reality of nuance & complexity in emotion & the brain, and as long as scientists hold onto it, we'll be stuck in an antiquated conceptual framework that will hold affective neuroscience back. #SayNoToLimbic

The "limbic system" is a story, not a real neural structure. Brain regions often included, like the amygdala or hippocampus, are of course very real.

But limbic? There is no "system" there.

Agreed, but I think this tired, inaccurate term is in need of disposal, not replacement. It represents an ill-defined concept of emotion in the brain *that is not evidence-based* and hurts scientific progress. It no more needs replacement than the idea of humors!

“Science is a smart, low cost investment. The costs of not investing in it are higher than the risk of doing so… talk to people about science.” - @kevinochsner.bsky.social makes his case to the field #sans2025

A quote from Joseph LeDoux's 2000 article titled "Emotion Circuits in the brain." The quote says "The limbic system itself has been a moving target… after half a century of debate and discussion, there are still no agreed upon criteria that can be used to decide which areas of the brain belong to the limbic system… both the anatomical concept and the emotional function it was supposed to mediate were defined so vaguely as to be irrefutable… In spite of the fact that the limbic system concept remains the predominant view about how the brain makes emotions, it is a flawed and inadequate theory of the emotional brain…"

What's with the revival of "limbic"? In recent cog neuro textbooks, papers, and scientific talks, I've seen more of the "limbic system" than I have for years.

Affective neuroscientists argued that this idea should be thrown out *25 years ago*. Why are we backsliding? #friendsdontletfriendssaylimbic

For those who think more data just means more headcount, here’s a quirky twist: the number of data points per individual actually matters--a lot. If you're into a bit of rigor, this article highlights a factor that’s often overlooked. Thanks for the shoutout!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I've heard that's a 'best practice' actually!

AI can be helpful with programming & writing, but *the better you are at those things, the more useful AI is.* Early on, when you're just starting out with either, it can "actually be very disruptive to the learning process" to use AI instead of doing it yourself. @markthornton.bsky.social #SANS2025

Slide from Gang Chen describing how he feels people should approach brain analysis in ways that increase transparency & reproducibility, focusing on encouraging people to share results with the uncertainty that accompanies our inferences.

"Highlight, don't hide" @gangchen6.bsky.social makes an impassioned argument that thresholding (reflective of a "binary" yes/no approach to analysis) holds back our science, making it less transparent and less reproducible.

Instead, be a facilitator - share uncertainty and evidence! #SANS2025

Graphic, all analytical decisions in a decision tree of choices a a researcher makes in preprocessing & managing data

A set of decisions becomes 1100 different models of the same tested relationship in the same data

Really interesting to consider how taking (& reporting!) all the forking paths in analytical decisions gives a more robust picture of effects, as a “multiverse analysis” approach (h/t Dani Cosme) details here: dcosme.shinyapps.io/explore-sca/ #SANS2025 #commscience

@gangchen6.bsky.social making a strong case that statistical power is related to the number of participants, but ALSO to the number of datapoints *per person* (i.e. number of trials).

An excellent point we often have to argue for in my lab's own work!! Couldn't agree more. #SANS2025

I do think there's an important issue that isn't being addressed: If we value exploration, creativity, innovation... then *publishing* needs to OK w/ unusual designs, null effects, etc. Otherwise we're just putting all the scientific risk on people who can't weather the consequences alone.

FWIW, this "debate" does have kind of a lot of *agreement*. There are roles for small labs and big consortia. Interesting questions about data sharing, standardization, innovation, funding (zero sum?), rigor/reproducibility...

Slide from a talk by Thalia Wheatley. Says "The small labs model is a form of collective intelligence. We map the complexity of human sociality and emotion by staying curious, pushing methodological boundaries, and openly sharing our successes, failures, and data to build a deeply integrated science. SANS: Scrappy, Audacious, Nimble Science.

At #SANS2025, enjoying the first debate on how to approach our science: big consortia or small labs? @thaliawheatley.bsky.social beautifully frames small labs as a kind of "collective intelligence." #ScrappyAudaciousNimbleScience

At #SANS25? 🤗 Von Monteza, advised by @p1sh.bsky.social & myself, is presenting "Temporal contexts of effort and arousal: decision speed and pupillometry illuminate the experience of choice difficulty during a novel risky decision-making paradigm" 👁️ Poster P3A6, Sat 12-3 @sansmeeting.bsky.social

Von's work is super cool - uses a novel task we've built, the Denver Bespoke Gambling Paradigm (DBGP) to quantify and manipulate decision difficulty on a per-person basis, giving us unique opportunities to control and study how folks respond to variations in decision difficulty!

Stop by!

At the opening remarks of #SANS2025, which are 🔥 on doing science on identity, emotion, community, our brains & wellbeing in the current climate is still necessary and beneficial, even when actively being threatened. @sansmeeting.bsky.social

This was lots of fun. So much great energy and excitement, and so, so many excellent questions.

“Riveting storytelling” practically begs for stories that are only loosely tethered to the truth

You can actually see the sci comm win in the transcript of the two hosts talking:

BARBER: Wow. OK, so no lizard brain.

SELYUKH: Forget it. Our brains are too complex for these basic metaphors.

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