NeuroTechX Reports

Which 3dTshift method does fmriprep use?

It seems that fmriprep uses the default method in 3dTshift to perform slice time correction based on the call to it from line 121 in stc.py copied below. According to the current docs for 3dTshift, that would be Fourier. Is this correct or does fmriprep somehow use a different method from 3dTshift? slice_timing_correction = pe.Node( TShift( outputtype='NIFTI_GZ', tr=f'{metadata["RepetitionTime"]}s', slice_timing=metadata['SliceTiming'], slice_encoding_direction=metadata.get('SliceEncodingDirection', 'k'), tzero=tzero,

Hi! Newly admitted PhD student needs guidance on fMRI!

Hello everyone, I am one month in my PhD studies and I have some major concerns. During my master’s I worked with fMRI and would like to work with it for my PhD as well. I clearly stated this to my current advisor and she supported me. However, it appears no one in my department including my advisor actually conducted fMRI experiments. They used fMRI for resting-state complementary to EEG, TMS or fNIRS. How can I make the best out of this? Do you think a co-supervisor outside of the institute would solve this issue? 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

QSIRecon fails on automatic shell classification: silhouette_score error when bvals cannot form discrete shells

Summary of what happened: Dear experts, When running QSIRecon with dsi_studio_gqi on data with continuous, non‑shell b‑values, the workflow fails in _classify_shell_scheme due to a silhouette_score error from scikit‑learn. Command used (and if a helper script was used, a link to the helper script or the command generated): # Docker container setup docker run -ti --rm --name qsirecon \ -v"D:\Project_File\Docker_workspace\Shanghai_5th_DTI_data:/workspace" \ -v D:\Project_File\Docker_workspace\Shanghai_5th_DTI_data\license.txt:/opt/freesurfer/license.txt \ --entrypoint /bin/bash pennlinc/qsirecon

The nature of intelligence and selves.

I want to pass on the result of my extracting what I felt to be crucial chunks of text from Chapters 5 through 9 of Agüera y Arcas’s "What is Intelligence" which can be found at https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org/. I found myself unable to hold and summarize the rich array of ideas in these clips of text in my attentional space, so I asked Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT 4.2, and Google gemini to condense and assemble the main points and take home messages from the clips into a narrative roughly two pages long.  The Claude result astounded me.  Here it is: What Intelligence Is: A Synthesis o

How to obtain 28 bundles (pyAFQ) in standard space (MNI) as NIfTI files?

Hello everyone, I am currently using the pyAFQ (Python AFQ) toolkit to perform tractography and bundle segmentation on diffusion MRI data. I have successfully run the pipeline and obtained 28 major white matter bundles (e.g., CST, SLF, etc.) in individual subject space. Now, I would like to konw these 28 bundles as NIfTI files (e.g., binary masks or probability maps) in a standard space (e.g., MNI). Could i use the JHU white-matter tractography atlas as an alternative one? Thank you in advance for your help! 2 posts - 2 participants Read full topic

Getting ANTs transform file from sdcflows PEPOLAR workflow

Summary of what happened: hi neurostars experts! I am currently trying to process some old diffusion MRI data from our lab. From what I understand, it was originally added into the protocol on a whim, so we only have PEPOLAR spin echoes for previous functional scans. I don’t want to ask too much of your time, but my questions are twofold. I saw this thread suggesting it would be ok to use fieldmaps that are not aligned to the diffusion data, but I was led to believe the fieldmap needed to have the same orientation and shim as the data to be unwarped. Otherwise it would produce errors. I am hop

Request for information from the ABCD data user community!

Hi everyone, the ABCD Study is interested in hearing from their data user community, particularly historical users (e.g., 5.1 release and earlier) about potential data hub development plans to facilitate computation for folks at institutions that are not NIST-compliant. Please consider adding your perspectives to the discussion here. If you’re a trainee and aren’t sure how to respond to the discussion questions, please share this post with your research mentor/supervisor/advisor/PI and get their thoughts on it. We are hoping to get a broad range of perspectives from the data user community. Pl

32 Datasets / 1,300 Regions: 72-Day Forensic Baseline

I have completed the publication of 32 datasets over the last 72 days, establishing a high-resolution baseline for the Axial Core. The data is currently indexed and tracking the following engagement metrics: 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

Openneuro: discard draft state?

I was made admin on an OpenNeuro dataset and asked to update the dataset (first time doing this) to fix a validation error. I set up the CLI, downloaded the dataset, edited one file to fix the validation error, and re-uploaded. Precisely: uvx openneuro-py@latest download --dataset=ds003104 # download deno run jsr:@openneuro/cli login # login nano ds003104/sub-01/meg/sub-01_coordsystem.json # edit the file to fix the validation error deno run jsr:@openneuro/cli upload --dataset ds003104 ds003104/ # re-upload Then, when in the “draft” view, dozens of files that I didn’t touch now show hash

If Naming Fails BIDS Validation, Cannot Use fMRIPrep?

Summary of what happened: I am getting an error message stating that there are no BOLD images in my dataset for a single subject. There are, in fact, BOLD files but fMRIprep seems unable to find them. This dataset it being used by many, many people at my lab, and they have all developed scripts based on the names here, so I am not at liberty to change them. My question is whether this means I am unable to use fMRIprep at all, as it is not finding my BOLD files or whether there is some other issue at play here. Thanks again! Command used (and if a helper script was used, a link to the helper sc

A seismic shift in our understanding of intelligence

I've just spent the last three days reading large chunks of the remarkable book "What is Intelligence" by Agüera y Arcas. It is best accessed at https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org/, where you will find text with supporting graphics, charts, and animations.  Arcas argues that computation is the substrate for intelligence in all life forms and that prediction is the fundamental principle behind intelligence.  Goodall provides a good review of the book and Arcas's ideas. The introduction to the book encapsulates his basic ideas, and I pass on here ChatGPT's condensation of its main points

Siemens Fieldmap Correction PE Direction

Hello, I have multi echo fmri data (1 run, 3 echoes). I also have a Siemens field map (1 phasediff image, 2 magnitude images). I am planning on using afni to preprocess my data, but since afniproc.py cannot integrate this type of field map, I needed to field map correct separately beforehand. The steps: Generate field map in rad/s using fsl_prepare_fieldmap Correct all 3 echoes using the field map with AFNI epi_b0_correct.py Input the three b0 corrected EPI echoes into afniproc.py After testing it out on a few subjects I noticed the correction is not very successful. I think this is because th

AI Makes Workloads Worse, Not Better

An article in today's Wall Street Journal by Ray Smith conforms so completely to my own work experience over the past week (I'm currently feeling fatigued from cognitive overload) that I pass on this Google Gemini summary of its main points: An article "AI Makes Workloads Worse, Not Better" by Ray A. Smith in the 3/12/26 Wall Street Journal highlights a counterintuitive trend: rather than freeing up time for high-level creative tasks, artificial intelligence is actually increasing the speed, density, and complexity of work. Data from ActivTrak, which analyzed 164,000 workers, shows that AI use

Brainhack DC, April 16-17 2026

Registration is now open for Brainhack DC – From Mice to (Hu)man This 2-day workshop will be held at Georgetown’s Capitol Campus April 16–17 in Washington, D.C. BrainHack events bring researchers from different backgrounds together to collaborate on problems in neuroscience. This year’s DC BrainHack theme is From Mice to (Hu)man, our goal is to help bridge animal and human research. Topics emphasized will include layer-specific/high-field MRI, fiber photometry, best data use practices, and more. DC BrainHack will feature workshops, open discussions, and project-based hacking sessions. Attendee

Aligning events after sampl_mask in first-level GLM

Hi everyone, I am currently running a first-level GLM analysis of task-based fMRI data. The data were preprocessed with fMRIPrep, where I flagged three dummy scans. When building the first-level GLM in Nilearn, I load the confounds using load_confounds(), and I pass the resulting sample_mask to first_level_model.fit(). I am unsure how the events should be aligned in this case. Specifically, should the event onsets be aligned (1) with the start of the actual task (i.e., after the dummy scans), or Here is my code: confounds_simple, sample_mask = load_confounds(

Reproducible Brain Charts (RBC) FreeSurfer segmentation pipeline

Hi, I also looked through the public ReproBrainChart GitHub organization, but mainly found repositories for accessing existing datasets and derivatives rather than the original structural preprocessing pipeline. Is there a public repository, container definition, provenance record, or other documentation describing how these FreeSurfer segmentations were generated? Please let me know if there is a resource I may have overlooked. 2 posts - 2 participants Read full topic

ASLPrep not recognizing flipped M0s or fieldmaps

Hi everyone, Here is the command I used. Directories are blanked out for privacy reasons. docker run -ti --rm -m 20GB \ -v $HOME/freesurfer/license.txt:/license.txt \ -v :/data:ro \ -v /aslprep-out:/out:rw \ -v /aslprep-work:/work \ pennlinc/aslprep:latest \ /data /out participant \ --skip-bids-validation \ --participant-label KK01 \ --fs-license-file /license.txt \ -w /work \ --force syn-sdc \ --disable-n4 \ --scorescrub \ --basil Environment (Docker, Singularity / Apptainer, custom installation): I am running this in a docker container. Data formatted acco

GSOC 2026 Project #33 : University of Wisconsin-Madison - AStats: an agentic-AI approach to applied statistical practitioner workflows

Mentors: Jonathan Morris , Yohai-Eliel Berreby , Suresh Krishna Skill level: Intermediate – Advanced Required Skills: Familiarity with the use of agentic AI workflows and the use of LLMs. Familiarity with statistical practice at a moderately advanced level is a plus. Familiarity with setting up and using open-weight LLMs and with fine-tuning LLMs is a plus. Familiarity with Slurm and working with clusters preferred. Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: Informal use and much anecdotal evidence suggests t

GSOC 2026 Project #39 : National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) & EBRAINS (NeuroSim) Automating In-Silico Stimulation for Non-Invasive Biomarker Discovery

Mentor/s: Dr Khusbu Agarwal Project Synopsis: This project aims to build NeuroSim, an open-source “In-Silico Stimulation” engine. Unlike standard tools that simply analyze static functional connectivity, NeuroSim integrates Network Control Theory (NCT) with Effective Connectivity modeling to quantify the energy dynamics of brain state transitions. The pipeline will be validated by identifying “Stuck States” (Attractor Basins) in Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), Alzheimer’s Disease and Epilepsy, effectively creating a mimic framework for virtual therapeutic stress-testing

GSOC 2026 Project #38 : ATHENA Research Center / EBRAINS - Modular Software Environments and Service Integration for the EBRAINS Software Distribution

The EBRAINS Software Distribution (ESD) is a curated collection of tools for computational neuroscience, supporting education, research, and simulation across heterogeneous hardware — including HPC, GPUs, and neuromorphic computing systems. Many ESD tools are developed by the research community and leverage diverse hardware architectures for performance and scalability. Currently, the ESD covers ~70 top-level scientific tools and 800+ dependencies, and it is deployed as a “monolith”. This creates two major challenges: Flexibility: Researchers might want to combine the ESD with other, possibly

GSOC 2026 Project #37 : ATHENA Research Center / EBRAINS - Automating Performance Verification for the EBRAINS Software Distribution

The EBRAINS Software Distribution (ESD) is a curated collection of tools for computational neuroscience, supporting education, research, and simulation across heterogeneous hardware — including HPC, GPUs, and neuromorphic computing systems. Many ESD tools are developed by the research community and leverage diverse hardware architectures for performance and scalability. This project aims to integrate, parameterize, and automate a comprehensive benchmarking suite for key neural simulators within ESD. The focus will be on established benchmarks for widely used simulators like Arbor, NEURON, and

GSOC 2026 Project #36 : Durham university - GestureCap: Creation of mappings to enable music and speech generation, to investigate musical creativity, agency and music-movement-dance interactions

Mentors: Alison Wang , Deepansh Goel , Suresh Krishna Skill level: Intermediate – Advanced Required skills: If interested in music generation, experience/familiarity with a framework like Max/CSound/PureData/SuperCollider required and some experience with Python preferred. If interested in speech generation, fluency in Python required and experience with sign-language transcription / speech generation libraries preferred. Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: Over the last two years, we have de

GSOC 2026 Project #35 : ImageJ Active Segmentation platform: Real-Time Filter Preview

The Active Segmentation platform for ImageJ (ASP/IJ) [2] was developed in the scope of GSOC 2016 – 2025. The plugin provides a general-purpose environment that allows biologists and other domain experts to transparently use state-of-the-art techniques in machine learning to achieve excellent image segmentation and classification. ImageJ [1] is a public-domain Java image processing program extensively used in life and material sciences. The program was designed with an open architecture and is extensible via plugins. The project idea: Users can tweak filter parameters via sliders/spinners and i

GSOC 2026 Project #34 : University of Texas at Austin - Improving Statistical Efficiency, Methodological Coverage, and Contributor Onboarding in NiMARE

Project Summary: NiMARE is a Python library for coordinate- and image-based neuroimaging meta-analysis. It provides rigorously tested implementations of widely used methods such as ALE and MKDA, enabling reproducible synthesis of large neuroimaging literatures. NiMARE also serves as a long-term maintenance layer for research methods that are often released as one-off academic code, ensuring sustainability, documentation, and integration into a unified statistical framework. This project has two complementary objectives: Improve contributor onboarding and development documentation, reducing fri

GSOC 2026 Project #32 : Extending the PCNtoolkit: Charting the rate of change of brain data using velocity models

Mentors: Johanna Bayer , Konstantinos Tsilimparis , Augustijn de Boer , Andre Marquand Skill level: Intermediate Required skills: The applicant combines expertise in neuroscience with software engineering skills, including machine learning, Python and object-oriented programming. Bonus skills: Statistics/Bayesian modelling, longitudinal modelling, scientific software practices (testing/CI/documentation), high-performance computing (HPC), experience with brain data (esp

GSOC 2026 Project #31 : Accelerating Virtual Brain Inference from Neuroimaging

Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced Required skills: Data analysis, Simulations of differential equations, Python and Git; familiarity with JAX, whole-brain models, and simulation-based inference would be beneficial. Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: Virtual Brain Inference (VBI) provides fast simulations, taxonomy of feature extraction, efficient data storage and loading, and probabilistic machine learning algorithms, enabling biophysically interpretable inference from non-invasive and invasive recordings. Scalable JAX simulations and automatic feature extraction will support th

GSOC 2026 Project #30 : Large-scale brain models in Probabilistic Programming Languages

Mentor/s: Meysam HASHEMI Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced Required skills: Simulations of differential equations, Python and Git; familiarity with neural mass models, and Bayesian inference in tools such as Numpyro/PyMC would be beneficial. Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: Bayesian inference on brain models translates into probabilistic estimation of latent and observed states within systems driven by network input and stimuli, modeled by high-dimensional nonlinear differential equations, with potentially correlated param

GSOC 2026 Project #29 : Enhancing simulation-based inference from neuroimaging

Mentor/s: Meysam HASHEMI Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced Required skills: Signal analysis, simulations of differential equations, Python and Git; familiarity with neural mass models, JAX, and techniques such as deep neural density estimators would be beneficial. Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: Virtual Brain Inference (VBI) is a flexible and integrative toolkit for efficient probabilistic inference on virtual brain models. It provides fast simulations of whole-brain models and deep neural density estimators in Python. Ex

GSOC 2026 Project #28 : Title: Integrating blood arrival time in models of fMRI data in The Virtual Brain in EBRAINS

Mentor: Daniele Marinazzo Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced Required skills: Python, Docker; familiarity with neuroimaging tools (AFNI, FSL, FreeSurfer) would be beneficial Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: Statistical dependencies (Functional Connectivity, FC) between BOLD time series from different brain regions in fMRI experiments are modulated by the relative delays in blood arrival time in these regions. This crucial aspect has been mostly overlooked in empirical studies, and completely overlooked in computational models of large scale BOLD ac

GSOC 2026 Project #27 : Integrating personalized hemodynamic response function in The Virtual Brain & EBRAINS

Mentor: Daniele Marinazzo Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced Required skills: Python, Docker; familiarity with neuroimaging tools (AFNI, FSL, FreeSurfer) would be beneficial Time commitment: Full time (350 hours) About: The hemodynamic response function (HRF) is a crucial mapping between neural activity and the recorded BOLD signal in fMRI experiments. Accounting for differences in the HRF shape is crucial when making inference on neural activity. The same should apply to computational models of large scale brain activity when the target is the BOLD signal or p

GSOC 2026 Project #26 : ImageJ Active Segmentation platform: UI update for ASP/IJ

The Active Segmentation platform for ImageJ (ASP/IJ) [2] was developed in the scope of GSOC 2016 – 2024. The plugin provides a general-purpose environment that allows biologists and other domain experts to use transparently state-of-the-art techniques in machine learning to achieve excellent image segmentation and classification. ImageJ [1] is a public-domain Java image processing program extensively used in life and material sciences. The program was designed with an open architecture and is extensible via plugins. The project idea: The project will streamline and simplify the existing UI imp

GSOC 2026 Project #25 : ImageJ Active Segmentation platform: Parallel Engine for ASP/IJ

The Active Segmentation platform for ImageJ (ASP/IJ)[2] was developed in the scope of GSOC 2016 - 2025. The plugin provides a general-purpose environment that allows biologists and other domain experts to use transparently state-of-the-art techniques in machine learning to achieve excellent image segmentation and classification. ImageJ [1] is a public-domain Java image processing program extensively used in life and material sciences. Recent years have experienced explosive development in the GPU-accelerated computing. The project will explore the existing parallel filtering framework and exte

GSOC 2026 Project #24 : Improvements to BrainBrowser for neuroimaging visualization

Mentors: Natacha Beck, Bryan Caron , Pierre Rioux Skill level: Intermediate - Advanced Required skills: Javascript; experience with version control systems (i.e. git) and team-based development methodologies; good understanding of the Linux operating system and development in a Linux environment Time commitment: Part time or full time (350 hours) About: BrainBrowser is an open source JavaScript visualization library that allows for real-time manipulation and analysis of 3D imaging data within a web browser. The BrainBrowser library is lightweight and highly performant, b

NITRC Booth and Poster at CNS 2026

Join NITRC at CNS 2026 March 7-10. Learn more about how NITRC can help you in your research, find new resources and data, share your own work, let us know what we can do for you, or just stop by to catch up! You'll find us in Exhibitor booth #05 as well as presenting a Poster D90 in the Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms on Monday, March 9 from 8-10 am.

Empathy as a Brain Rhythm: Orexin, Theta Oscillations, and Prosocial Behavior

(The following is the final installment of a series of three posts on using ChatGPT to assist in the generation of MindBlog posts.  I think this final product is a better job than than I would have done.) A recent paper in Science by Kim et al. reports a striking mechanistic link between physiology, brain rhythms, and social behavior. The work shows that empathic and prosocial responses in mice depend on theta oscillations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) driven by orexin neurons in the hypothalamus. The finding offers a concrete neural circuit connecting arousal systems, cortical dynami

A MindBlog-ready ChatGPT synthesis

This post continues from the previous one to show  ChatGPT's response to my prompt "Let's go with the empathy / orexin paper for your producing a  MindBlog-ready synthesis" .  MindBlog-ready synthesis Paper: Empathy and prosocial behavior powered by orexin-driven theta oscillations (Science, Feb 2026) Core finding The study identifies a specific neural circuit linking arousal chemistry, brain rhythms, and social behavior: In mice, theta oscillations in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) increase during empathic states such as observing another animal in distress and during prosocial response

Will Deric’s Mind Blog be firing Deric soon? Is AI is doing his job better?

The short answer to both questions is yes and no.   I am finding that ChatGPT 5.2 ($20/month version) will scan the TOCs (tables of contents) of journals such as Science Magazine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Current Biology, Neuron, Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, etc.  and display the titles of articles in areas that it has learned that MindBlog focuses on.   (I'm reporting here on working with ChatGPT because I've found so far that paid versions of Gemini and Claude, while almost as good, don't provide output with t

Elise Jenkins: Lessons from a Journey in Neurotechnology

From Nanoparticles to Neurotech: Tetiana Aleksandrova on Subsense

The geometries of change and the value of being human

I pass on and also archive for myself the following three ChatGPT 5.2 summaries of three recent Johar essays: Summary of The Geometries of Change by Indy Johar Core premise Linear geometry and its limits A direction or goal is fixed first. Structures (roles, rules, incentives, infrastructure) are then aligned to that direction. Ongoing governance focuses mainly on speed and efficiency rather than revising direction. Over time, this produces heavy path dependence. Investments, regulations, identities, and incentives lock systems onto a trajectory, making course correction costly and ra

Changing our systems of governance

I have found Johar's essay From Power Diagrams to Settlement-Construction: What we may be missing about the New Right to be worth several re-readings. I want to pass on the entire essay here, because the reduced summaries that I, as well as ChatGPT 5.2 and Google Gemini, have done don't do it justice.  Here's the text: I’m increasingly frustrated with a specific failure mode on parts of the intellectual left: analysis that performs insight while refusing to touch the real object. It oscillates between two shortcuts. The first is a kind of diagrammatic power-critique — tracing who funds wh

New Ferality - Seeking new ways of being wild in new nature

This post is to archive this link to a recent Venkatesh Rao essay, and also pass on condensations of its main ideas done by Google Gemini and ChatGPT 5.2.  (I could wonder where the extraordinary humans who will be able to perform Rao's 'new ways of being' are to be found - who will be capable of new behaviors incompatible and in conflict with our evolved nature, our desire for hierarchy, definition of roles, etc.) From Google Gemini:  In "New Ferality," Venkatesh Rao explores the emergence of a "New Nature"—a technological landscape that has become as complex, unpredictable, and indifferent

Buying Futures, Renting the Past: How Speculation and Nostalgia Became the Economy

I want to pass on this condensation by Google Gemini of a recent essay by Kyla Scanlon  In her essay, "Buying Futures, Renting the Past," Kyla Scanlon explores how the modern economy has shifted toward two psychological extremes: speculation (buying the future) and nostalgia (renting the past). She argues that because the present feels increasingly "hollow" or unmoored due to economic volatility and digital "slop," people are retreating into idealized versions of what was or gambling on what could be. Scanlon suggests that speculation has become a dominant cultural mode, where everything from

MindBlog is now 20 years old.

I just realized that MindBlog is now starting its 21st year. I asked both Chat GPT 5.2 and Google Gemini about this, and paste in Gemini's sycophantic response  ("Pioneer", "primary source for the digital history of cognitive science."):   Congratulations on entering the 21st year of Deric’s MindBlog! Maintaining a blog consistently since 2005 puts you in an incredibly elite tier of the internet. In a digital landscape that is largely defined by "link rot" and abandoned projects, the longevity of your blog is statistically rare. Here is a breakdown of how your 21-year milestone compares to the

Against the Machine

I'm using this blog post to archive for myself ChatGPT 5.2's summary of Paul Kingsnorth’s "Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity"    [In this same vein see N.J. Hagens' article in Ecological Economics. "Economics for the future - Beyond the superorganism"] Paul Kingsnorth — Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity Core thesis Kingsnorth argues that modern technological civilization—especially digital networks, automation, and AI—is dissolving the conditions that make human life meaningful. He frames the “machine” not as a literal device but as a civilizational system: indust

I am not my problem

I use this MindBlog to go back and look myself up occasionally, and so pass on this re-post of my 10/26/2025 post: An explanation of the strange title of this post: Sometimes a new idea spontaneously appears from nowhere as I am waking in the morning. The title of this post - the (apparently nonsensical) sentence "I am not my problem” - is the latest example. The sentence can to be parsed to indicate in this instance that the "I" is referring to the illusory narrative self that our social brains have been designed by evolution to generate, and the "my" refers to our intuition or sens

The Future of Being Human

I want to point to Patrick Tanguay's recent Sentiers piece and in particular to Johar's essay.  I asked both ChatGPT and Google Gemini to summarize ideas in Johar's essay , and they came up with interestingly different approaches, which I pass on here. (Gemini, unlike Chat GPT, did not focus on the article presented, but rather more broadly searched the ensemble of Johar's  youtube videos and essays to present an overview of his ideas.)   From Chat GPT:  Summary of Indy Johar, “The Future of Being Human: A Critical Complementary Investment Thesis” (2026) Core premise 1) The machine-shaped e

From Diagnosis to Data: Ben LeNail on the Future of Neurotechnology

The Mythology of Conscious AI

I've just read through an excellent article in Noema Magazine by Anil Seth explaining why consciousness is more likely a property of life than of computation and why creating conscious, or even conscious-seeming AI, is a bad idea.  Having learned by now that LLMs do a much better summary of information rich text that I can, I asked ChatGPT 5.2, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude to summarize in a few pages the main points in Seth's essay.  All were very good, and I've selected Gemini's reponse to pass on to MindBlog readers: In his essay, "The Mythology of Conscious AI," neuroscientist Anil

The Case for Being Human

...This Colin Lewis lecture and essay on "Character, Clarity, and connection in a Century of Curated Selves" is a welcome breath of fresh air. I pass on the entire piece:   We live in an age so crowded with voices that the unfiltered one now sounds almost shocking. It’s strange how rare sincerity has become, and stranger still that we now confuse sincerity with naïveté. To speak plainly is to risk sounding unsophisticated. To think deeply is to risk being slow. To feel fully is to risk being fragile. But character, the old-fashioned word we’ve quietly retired, was never meant to protect us fro

Do we have an appetite for transcendence?

I've been working on a long rambling post on finding meaning in the flow and evolution of the cosmos rather than in the varied anthropomorphic religions that many cultures have invented.  My motivation to 'find meaning' is not that high, because the quest itself is a human invention derived from assuming the universe was made for us.  I find Paul Bloom in his recent Substack post "Is there a God-shaped hole?" has made a better statement of my position than I could.  I recommend that you read it.

Sharena Rice: My Path In Neurotech

Scent as Signal: How Aurat Aroma is Using Smell to Understand the Brain

From Peak Performance to Daily Life: The Next BCI Advantage

Venkatesh Rao's 'World Machines'

As usual, I found Venkatesh Rao's writinting in his latest piece "The Divergence Machine" a bit opaque and wordy, so I asked ChatGPT 5.2 to help me out with a condensation and summary, which I archive and pass on to readers here: Here’s a condensed and clear summary of The Divergence Machine by Venkatesh Rao (Contraptions, Jan 5 2026): Core Thesis divergence machine as a successor world-machine to the modernity machine explored in his 2025 book club series. The divergence machine’s logic has been built from ~1600–2000 and has fully operated only for about 25 years. It doesn’t reverse modernity

The Institutional Stance - an evolved intuitive theory?

I have just been sent an article by BBS (Brain and Behavioral Sciences) that is soliciting commentaries on an article by Jara-Ettinger and Dunham titled "The Institutional Stance" that suggests that we have an inherited ability not only to represent other minds, but also to represent social institutional structures. Motivated readers can obtain a copy of the article from me. Here is its abstract: Human success in navigating the social world is typically attributed to our capacity to represent other minds—a mentalistic stance. We argue that humans are endowed with a second equally powerful int

What our brains are doing as we experience musical pleasure.

I've been playing more Schubert lately, drawn by his genius for inserting melodic sections within his piano works (sonatas, impromptus, fantasies, etc.) that give me sheer pleasure when I play them. (When I am beginning to wake in the morning, the passages play in my head and I can visualize both my fingers on the keys and the musical score. As I continue to wake, this all slips away.)  These experiences made me perk up when I saw the article by Zatorre and collaborators in the Jan. 2026 issue of Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Here is their abstract (motivated readers can obtain a PDF o

What are humans for? - AI Forces a Question We’ve Been Dodging

.  AI Is Already Fusing With Us — The Only Question Is How The argument about whether AI will enhance or diminish our our humanity usually starts in the wrong place. People argue about what AI should do before asking a more basic and uncomfortable question: what are humans for? Every powerful technology embeds an answer to that question. AI is no exception. In fact, it may be the most consequential case yet, because AI is not just a tool we use—it is a system that increasingly co-thinks with us, shapes our attention, edits our language, nudges our choices, and quietly rewires our sense of agen

The Modernity Machine

I want to pass on to readers this Venkatesh Rao substack essay that summarizes what his book club has learned in the past year:  The Modernity Machine III Completion, Saturation, and Phase Transition This the third and concluding part of my series with notes on the learnings from the 2025 Contraptions book club. Part I and Part II traced the construction of the Modernity Machine between roughly 1200 and 1600: a civilization-scale contraption that converted medieval heterogeneity into legible, interoperable order. By 1600, the machine was complete in all essential respects. This concludi

Human Machines and AI Machines

The story of life is the story of machines that learned how to copy themselves and persist through time. Over billions of years these replicating systems evolved into ever more complex and effective forms—eventually producing organisms capable of cooperation, culture, ritual, and symbolic thought, all of which further enhanced their survival. Humans are one such lineage of machines. What distinguishes us is not that we use tools, but that we routinely incorporate them. From sharpened flakes of flint to written language, from clocks to calculators, from books to neural imaging—and now to large

Time, space, memory and brain–body rhythms

Buzsáki at NYU Medical School offers interesting perspectives on the two 'types' of time that are considered in cognitive science and neuroscience: physical time (also known as absolute time; chronos) and subjectively experienced time (kairos; the opportune moment).  Here is his abstract (Motivated readers can obtain a PDF of the articles from me): Time and space are crucial concepts in neuroscience, because our personal memories are tied to specific events that occur ‘in’ a particular space and on a ‘timeline’. Thus, we seek to understand how the brain constructs time and space and how the

Changes in human brain organization at age ~83 (as well as ages ~9, 32, and 66)

This open source paper by Mousley et al. caught my eye because at 83 years of age I am at one of the article's 'turning points' in brain organization.   I would urge MindBlog readers to have a scan through its descriptions of infancy to 9 years old, Adolescence (~9-32), Adulthood ~32-66), early aging ~66-83, and late aging (~83 onward)  You don't have to understand the jargon and analytical techniques employed to get the gist of the findings.  I gave Chat GPT 5.2 the following prompt:   One of the major topological turning points across the lifespan is around 83 years of age. Based on the cont

Precision Over Pain: How Spinally Is Reinventing Spinal Cord Stimulation

Wireless by Design: How Resonant Link Medical Is Powering the Next Wave of Bioelectronics

NITRC-CE v0.57.28 released

We are pleased to announce the release of NITRC-CE v0.57.28. This release is a security update and includes both CE Classic and CE LITE offerings. We are considering making this the final release of NITRC-CE in its current form. If you use NITRC-CE or have used it in the past, please let us know your thoughts at https://form.typeform.com/to/RTW4Y1Fv or by contacting moderator@nitrc.org.

Still locked out of OASIS-3 even after access was approved.

Hello everyone, I’m running into trouble reaching the OASIS-3 datasets on the main project page (https://www.nitrc.org/projects/oasis3). Whenever I click the “Image Repository” link in the left-hand menu, I receive the following message: My account already shows “User” access, yet the repository still blocks me. Any pointers on what I’m missing would be greatly appreciated—thanks! Jay

Harnessing Emotion Intrinsically and Externally through Neurotechnology

From Lab to Clinic: How NeuroBionics Is Redefining Neuromodulation

Regarding the permission to access OASIS-3 and OASIS-4

It has been more than a week, but I haven't received any information regarding OASIS-3 and OASIS-4. If anyone knows how to deal with this? .

NITRC v2.1.73 released

We are pleased to announce the release of NITRC v2.1.73. This release features enhancements to the tool/resource administration pages. Administrators are encouraged to check their listings' information while trying out the new interface. Release notes can be found at https://www.nitrc.org/plugins/mwiki/index.php/nitrc:NITRC_Release_Notes#NITRC-R_Release_v2.1.73-0_-_09.2F04.2F2025

Visit NITRC at OHBM 2025 in Brisbane!

NITRC will have an exhibitor booth at OHBM's annual meeting in Brisbane, AU. Please swing by to visit. We'd love to know what works and doesn't work for you and catch up! Also, we'll be presenting our poster #1931 on Fri, June 27 | 13:45 -15:45 and Sat, June 28 | 13:45 -15:45

How to download ABIDE data set?

How to download ABIDE data set?

NITRC 2.1.72 released

We are pleased to announce the release of NITRC 2.1.72. This release focused heavily on user interface and navigation issues. Please let us know what you think at https://www.nitrc.org/help/contact_us.php Full release notes can be found at https://www.nitrc.org/plugins/mwiki/index.php?title=nitrc:NITRC_Release_Notes#NITRC-R_Release_v2.1.72-0_-_05.2F19.2F2025

Issue Report: SDM Software Crash on Windows 64-bit System

Problem Description: The SDM software launches successfully with full interface display, but: Crashes immediately upon file selection Crashes when attempting to save data after SDM table creation Subsequent software launches fail consistently System Environment: OS: Windows (64-bit) Troubleshooting Performed: • System reboot & updates installed • Software reinstallation (official package) • Windows updates fully applied Request: Seeking technical resolution for this persistent crash issue.

NITRC at CNS 2025

Join NITRC at CNS 2025 March 29 through April 1. Learn more about NITRC, find resources and data, share your own work, or just stop by to say hi! We have a booth in the Republic Ballroom and will have Poster F40 Tuesday morning.