Chris Davey

RFK Jr does not just reject vaccines. He rejects science and must step down | Bernie Sanders Kennedy is unfit to be our nation’s leading public health official because he rejects the fundamental principles of modern science

RFK Jr does not just reject vaccines. He rejects science and must step down | Bernie Sanders

Everything Evolves by Mark Vellend review – can Darwin explain JD Vance? Why evolutionary theory should be applied to peacocks, politics, iPhones and quite a lot in between

Mark Vellend's Everything Evolves is one of those books it's hard to review because there's so much I'd like to discuss, but by the time you've outlined and explained the thesis, your word count is used up.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Turns out cost of higher education probably is a deterrent to accessing it, despite Labor pretending it isn’t.

Insane that under a Labor government an arts degree cost $50K, law $100K.

I have drawn on accounts of people like Lisa Feldman Barrett, Anil Seth, Klaus Stephan, Mark Solms, and, of course, Karl Friston – but have tried to apply their ideas to explain the clinical presentation of depression. I hope you enjoy the read!

When we lose confidence in our futures, and these interoceptive processes are disturbed, that’s when we experience a mood state we describe as depressed. It underpins the changed array of emotions we experience (associated with shorter term interoceptive processes) such as anxiety and irritability

The active inference framework provides a way of linking them. In essence, longer term interoceptive processes (such as those that underpin sleep and appetite) are modelled according to our confidence in our social environments, and especially what they hold for our futures

The body intervenes: How active inference explains depression’s clinical presentation The low mood that characterises depression is accompanied by changes in bodily processes, manifested in symptoms such as insomnia, reduced appetite an…

Here's an article I just published. As a psychiatrist I have been keen to understand the relationship between the somatic aspects of depression (disturbed sleep, appetite, energy levels) and the experience of depressed mood www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #philsky

Bonn Melbourne Seminar in Decision Making and Computational Psychiatry

There are some exciting talks coming up in the Bonn Melbourne Seminar in Decision Making and Computational Psychiatry! Please DM if you would like to join. #DecisionMaking #ComputationalPsychiatry @carstenmurawski.bsky.social

www.psychologie.uni-bonn.de/de/institut/...

Brains minimize energy consumption while maximizing computation. In humans, this trade-off is reconciled towards complex behaviors & hence relatively high energy use

Review & synthesis with @sharnajamadar.bsky.social @annabhlr.bsky.social & Hamish Deery

tinyurl.com/47c9n65w
osf.io/preprints/os...

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗵𝗲𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮
Looks like a very cool paper.
#neuroscience
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

A mega-analysis of functional connectivity and network abnormalities in youth depression - Nature Mental Health This mega-analysis of brain resting-state functional connectivity in young individuals with major depressive disorder scanned at six sites across four countries identified hub regions of the attention...

Nature Mental Health

A mega-analysis of functional connectivity and network abnormalities in youth depression
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Details : Chair of Psychiatry - St. Vincent Careers at The University of Melbourne

We are looking for a Chair of Psychiatry at St Vincent’s in Melbourne. A fantastic inner city hospital with a highly regarded mental health service, and in the best Dept of Psychiatry in the country. Applications close on 29 Jan—get in touch if interested
jobs.unimelb.edu.au/caw/en/job/9...

Here’s an article that puts together some ideas I have been mulling over for the past year or so. It’s about the two Karls (Jaspers and Friston) and how they have helped me to think about depression
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#psychiatry
#PsychSciSky
#Neuroskyence

Published today in Nature Med: A new phase III trial of MDMA therapy for PTSD by the MAPS organisation. 71% of subjects no longer met criteria for PTSD after three MDMA sessions, and remission rates are roughly twice those of the placebo group. Stunning results!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New partnership to drive improved mental health and wellbeing support for adult and older adult Vict... New partnership to drive improved mental health and wellbeing support for adult and older adult Victorians

Fantastic to be part of this initiative to develop the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing
https://www.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/news/2023/august/new-partnership-to-drive-improved-mental-health-and-wellbeing-support-for-adult-and-older-adult-victorians