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maramather.bsky.social
Fascinated by the brain, what makes it work well and how to keep it working well as we age. Noradrenaline, locus coeruleus, heart rate variability, oscillatory dynamics, parasympathetic/sympathetic changes in aging. USC professor.
45 posts 2,808 followers 160 following
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Our clinical psychology Ph.D program at @uscdornsife.bsky.social @uscpsychology.bsky.social received 713 applications this year for 6 funded slots, meaning that we will only be able to admit about 1% of applicants. It makes me sad that our applicants face such steep odds, & that there's a mismatch..

submitted 84 days ago • 4 comments

Agreed that these can be extremely useful! And I'm often surprised how many colleagues aren't always aware of their own uni's agreements. Here's OSU's: library.osu.edu/transforming...

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Cool Christmas Eve neuroscience finding: "Our findings show that human breathing drives a slow hippocampal rhythm during sleep, sleep oscillations in the hippocampus couple to breathing, and respiratory coupling promotes coordination of sleep oscillations, suggesting a role in memory consolidation."

submitted 63 days ago • 11 comments

Get a library card—even if you don’t plan to use it. Your registration helps secure funding for libraries, keeping them open and thriving for the entire community. Every card counts!

submitted 66 days ago • 608 comments

The 39th time we've had to post this, and this time about The Onion's original hometown.

submitted 71 days ago • 385 comments

Me on the way home from karaoke after drinking a bottle of soju: ohhh that’s my website

submitted 82 days ago • 477 comments

Nudge for scicomm (~spring) Many of you (& me) want to help with the next steps in the US. How? Science may take a hit in 2025. Spring is a great time for public-facing efforts that unpack what scientists do and why it matters. *Now is pitch time!* Imagine if we all did 1 thing? To consider:

submitted 82 days ago • 4 comments

Predicting mild cognitive impairment and dementia many years before any symptoms are manifest, a new RAND Corporation report, open-access www.rand.org/pubs/researc...

submitted 84 days ago • 12 comments

Nature Organ-specific sympathetic innervation defines visceral functions www.nature.com/articles/s41...

submitted 86 days ago • 0 comments

I love how many brain signals that people thought were related to cognition are actually just related to breathing lol nice work everyone this is going great

submitted 87 days ago • 18 comments

the rapid transition of academics off x (despite temporarily reducing reach/followers) makes you wonder what’s stopping us from ending the for-profit, closed access publishing industry. it’s, like…. we can just do it? or if not, interesting to consider what the inertial differences are.

submitted 88 days ago • 14 comments

I like New England Calvinists as much as anybody does and more than most. But American Thanksgiving isn’t fundamentally the commemoration of the 1621 harvest, but of victory over those who committed treason in defense of slavery.

submitted 89 days ago • 21 comments

Applications for postdoc fellowships for multidisciplinary research training in Gerontology due Dec. 1! Please repost and send to any graduate students who might be interested. For more information please see gero.usc.edu/mrtraining-i...

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

Wow - this story keeps going with the ironic angles continuing apace (such as the expert on gossip insinuating his colleague committed fraud). www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

submitted 98 days ago • 0 comments

Our paper finally appeared on modelling the effect of age on the BOLD fMRI response, one implication of which is that many age effects previously reported may be vascular rather than neural… onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

submitted 119 days ago • 1 comment

What starter packs do you all recommend?

submitted 100 days ago • 1 comment

I was surprised to get a bunch of new followers despite having not posted in months. I must be in someone's starter pack - thanks to whoever put me on your list. It feels like we're reaching a critical mass on bsky that will feel like the delightful heyday of science Twitter.

submitted 126 days ago • 0 comments

I've been avoiding MDPI for years after realizing they are just in the money-minting business and do not care about scientific quality. But if the allegations in this story are true, it is even worse than I thought. retractionwatch.com/2024/10/22/y...

submitted 126 days ago • 0 comments

Just published! "The emotion paradox in the aging brain and body." It is my attempt to make sense of how the autonomic system can shift so dramatically in aging without negatively influencing mood and well-being. nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

submitted 303 days ago • 2 comments

Noradrenaline's role in traumatic brain injury and the possible benefits of acute administration of adrenergic antagonists www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroskyence

submitted 343 days ago • 0 comments

Now in press! A new perspective on the age-related positivity effect. Or a paper in which I argue with my previous self. In this theoretical review I propose a framework to explain the HRV/emotion conundrum in aging. osf.io/preprints/ps... #neuroskyence

submitted 344 days ago • 0 comments

Interesting results regarding the quickly decreasing wakefulness inducing potential of the locus coeruleus and how intense LC activity leads to sleep afterwards: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #neuroskyence

submitted 352 days ago • 1 comment

the Twelve Days of Christmas is just a song about being in a relationship with a hoarder

submitted 432 days ago • 7 comments

Some optimism and stats to support it…

submitted 431 days ago • 1 comment

A friend of a friend wrote up The Twelve Days of Finals. It speaks to me.

submitted 432 days ago • 1 comment

wow, hot take here: "Supercentenarians and the oldest-old are concentrated into regions with no birth certificates and short lifespans" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

submitted 435 days ago • 1 comment

What a gem quote in the George Miller paper

submitted 443 days ago • 1 comment

Lego depictions of famous moments in psychology. kottke.org/23/11/lego-s...

submitted 462 days ago • 1 comment

No evidence screen time is negative for children’s cognitive development and well-being: Oxford Study (N= 11,878) #neuroskyence #psychscisky www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/...

submitted 466 days ago • 8 comments

Wow, this set of 8 stories was so beautiful and touching. www.latimes.com/shortdocs/la...

submitted 473 days ago • 0 comments

On becoming a cesspool www.nature.com/articles/d41...

submitted 476 days ago • 2 comments

I’m thrilled to share our new study examining how memories take shape under emotional contexts! Using custom musical pieces and a novel affect-tracking tool, we demonstrate that emotion dynamics (especially valence) shape the content and structure of episodic memory. rdcu.be/doK9K

submitted 495 days ago • 0 comments

I've been shouting on social media for years that these are the principles to adopt and commit to, and I've committed to them. www.mcgill.ca/politicalsci...

submitted 498 days ago • 4 comments

Happy to see our new work out in NatureAging, suggesting that dopaminergic and noradrenergic nuclei relate to different memory types in older adults. Great collaboration with @maramather.bsky.social @markuswb.bsky.social & others from @lipmpib.bsky.social and USC www.nature.com/articles/s43...

submitted 497 days ago • 1 comment

My first post on here - my lab is studying the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying curiosity and curiosity-based learning. In this new preprint (an applied project in collaboration with BBC News Labs) we investigate the motivational factors underlying news consumption: osf.io/preprints/ps...

submitted 499 days ago • 1 comment

It feels like so much of the past few days has been about reacting to people’s reactions to the events in Gaza that I appreciate David Remnick just laying out what happened. www.newyorker.com/news/daily-c...

submitted 504 days ago • 4 comments

Who would be crazy enough to focus their time, energy, and resources on something like doing replications?! Somebody tell them this would be academic career suicide. Ah yeah... "Because I want to stand on the shoulders of giants, not on a giant pile of manure. I can’t help it: I care about truth."

submitted 517 days ago • 1 comment

Nothing for aging or gerontology yet… anyone up for creating such a list? #academicsky #neuroscience #psychsky

submitted 516 days ago • 0 comments

OMG - gerontology as a competitive sport rejuvenationolympics.com

submitted 517 days ago • 1 comment