Chantel Prat PhD
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social
Neuroscientist, author, and science communicator. Dog, horse, bunny, duck and human mom. Girl boss. My 🧠 is curious about others who work differently!
Reposted by Chantel Prat PhD
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social and I found a welcome moment of joy in recording this episode of Brains for Dinner, where we got to geek out about the neuroscience of dreams. Hope you all can enjoy it too: substack.com/@chantelprat...
Episode 7: Sweet Dreams
What are they really made of?
substack.com
February 2, 2026 at 5:26 PM
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social and I found a welcome moment of joy in recording this episode of Brains for Dinner, where we got to geek out about the neuroscience of dreams. Hope you all can enjoy it too: substack.com/@chantelprat...
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
Sharing some thoughts about shaping change in the new year. #2026 #brain #neuroscience #learning #kindness #change
Sharing some thoughts about shaping change in the new year. #2026 #brain #neuroscience #learning #kindness #change
Whatever you ask of yourself in 2026, ask kindly.
The planner I use for my daily journaling practice ends with an end of day review section called “How I’ll improve.”[1] Scanning through my recent entries, I realize that the last time I filled in thi...
open.substack.com
January 3, 2026 at 1:26 AM
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
Sharing some thoughts about shaping change in the new year. #2026 #brain #neuroscience #learning #kindness #change
Sharing some thoughts about shaping change in the new year. #2026 #brain #neuroscience #learning #kindness #change
After our last episode of Brains for Dinner, it occurs to me that transcendental meditation (TM) is really designed for people like me who think verbally. Those who think in pictures like @andreastocco.com are free to repeat a mantra with thoughts racing in the visual domain! Got my thinking cap on!
December 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
After our last episode of Brains for Dinner, it occurs to me that transcendental meditation (TM) is really designed for people like me who think verbally. Those who think in pictures like @andreastocco.com are free to repeat a mantra with thoughts racing in the visual domain! Got my thinking cap on!
I don’t like to play favorites but this was probably my favorite episode of B4D so far. Do you talk to yourself when you think? Or are your thoughts more like inner PowerPoints? What difference does it make (and other thoughts that keep me up at night!)
The rain has kept us inside these days, and @chantelpratphd.bsky.social and we got to record another episode of #BrainsForDinner! This time, we discussed why she thinks in words (and has an inner voice) and I think in pictures (no inner voice). Hope you enjoy!
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
Brains for Dinner Episode 6
What's the point of a mind, and why are some people's filled with words while others are filled with images?
open.substack.com
December 11, 2025 at 11:43 PM
I don’t like to play favorites but this was probably my favorite episode of B4D so far. Do you talk to yourself when you think? Or are your thoughts more like inner PowerPoints? What difference does it make (and other thoughts that keep me up at night!)
If you want to take a stab at Stocco in Love I’ll be happy to play Mercutio 🤣🤣🤣 😍
I've loved Tom Stoppard since I was 14 and "R & G are dead" blew my mind --- can't believe he is gone 😢. @chantelpratphd.bsky.social and I are remembering him by rewatching Shakespeare In Love. Say what you want, but that screenplay is perfection and every line of dialogue cracks with wit and love.
November 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
If you want to take a stab at Stocco in Love I’ll be happy to play Mercutio 🤣🤣🤣 😍
I’m excited to share that I’ve been selected for the first Research Impact Advocates cohort at UW. The faculty chosen for this program get training in science communication, which I’ve never had! It’s probably not a big deal but it feels like one to this first gen small town girl with big ideas.
November 20, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I’m excited to share that I’ve been selected for the first Research Impact Advocates cohort at UW. The faculty chosen for this program get training in science communication, which I’ve never had! It’s probably not a big deal but it feels like one to this first gen small town girl with big ideas.
I just finished the first full draft of my new book about how to partner with your brain to shape learning and growth! It feels SO GOOD! I can’t wait to share it with everyone 🤓🧠
October 29, 2025 at 6:25 PM
I just finished the first full draft of my new book about how to partner with your brain to shape learning and growth! It feels SO GOOD! I can’t wait to share it with everyone 🤓🧠
A little weekend listen perhaps?
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social and I recorded another episode of #BrainsForDinner! This time we chat on how emotion affects memory, how this might explain intrusive memories in PTSD, and how Reddit can help us understand these interactions! substack.com/@chantelprat...
Brains for Dinner Episode 4
PTSD and How Fear Shapes Memory
substack.com
October 3, 2025 at 9:06 PM
A little weekend listen perhaps?
This resonates. T minus 60 days ‘til my deadline 🤓
October 2, 2025 at 4:22 AM
This resonates. T minus 60 days ‘til my deadline 🤓
I asked #ChatGPT to create a visual of the Yerkes-Dodson law which it correctly described verbally as “the classic inverted U-shaped curve” then drew this. 🤔
September 29, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I asked #ChatGPT to create a visual of the Yerkes-Dodson law which it correctly described verbally as “the classic inverted U-shaped curve” then drew this. 🤔
Have you ever wondered WHY memories fade away? And why some people are good at remembering facts while others suck at it? If so, you would be interested in thew new paper by Yinan Xu, Florian Sense, @van-rijn.org, @chantelpratphd.bsky.social, and myself doi.org/10.1371/jour... 👇 🧪
Default mode network connectivity predicts individual differences in long-term forgetting: Evidence for storage degradation, not retrieval failure
Author summary Why do some people forget faster than others? This study investigates individual differences in long-term memory forgetting by linking them to patterns of brain connectivity. Although m...
doi.org
September 13, 2025 at 8:59 PM
#language is a code for thinking and communicating, but is computer #code also a language? In this week’s episode of Brains for Dinner @andreastocco.com and I geek out on symbolic cognition, skill learning, and #Shakespeare to name a few. Is Python a language and if so are #bilinguals better?
September 9, 2025 at 2:28 AM
#language is a code for thinking and communicating, but is computer #code also a language? In this week’s episode of Brains for Dinner @andreastocco.com and I geek out on symbolic cognition, skill learning, and #Shakespeare to name a few. Is Python a language and if so are #bilinguals better?
Calling all scientists, lovers or supporters of science, or folks just trying to make changes in their lives and wondering why they won’t stick. Do you have 5 minutes to help inform my second book—focused on how to partner with your brain to shape change?
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Research for Book 2 (on lifelong learning)
Thank you friends, family, and friends of friends and family for taking the time to fill out this poll to help inform the last lap of my writing efforts for book baby number 2. I'm so grateful for you...
docs.google.com
August 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Calling all scientists, lovers or supporters of science, or folks just trying to make changes in their lives and wondering why they won’t stick. Do you have 5 minutes to help inform my second book—focused on how to partner with your brain to shape change?
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Chantel Prat PhD
Dear friends and Bluesky 🧠 geeks: it's the weekend, and I want to share that @chantelpratphd.bsky.social and I recorded our second episode of Brains for Dinner. This one is about dance, language, and basal ganglia, and the burning question: why don't ducks dance? open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
Brains for Dinner Episode 2
Why people dance but ducks don't
open.substack.com
August 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Dear friends and Bluesky 🧠 geeks: it's the weekend, and I want to share that @chantelpratphd.bsky.social and I recorded our second episode of Brains for Dinner. This one is about dance, language, and basal ganglia, and the burning question: why don't ducks dance? open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
This was a fun one! #brains #dance #evolution #mating #animals #language #communication
This was a fun one! #brains #dance #evolution #mating #animals #language #communication
Brains for Dinner Episode 2
Why people dance but ducks don't
open.substack.com
August 23, 2025 at 1:26 AM
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
This was a fun one! #brains #dance #evolution #mating #animals #language #communication
This was a fun one! #brains #dance #evolution #mating #animals #language #communication
What’s in it for you? Laughs, learning, and possibly even inspiration for great date questions! I hope you’ll join me and my favorite neuroscientist @andreastocco.com for dinner!
So... After many years of geeky dinner conversations about brains, @chantelpratphd.bsky.social convinced me to record some of them into a podcast! If you want to listen to us discussing brains, AI, and metacognition, lying, and bullshit, here is the link! 🤞 open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
Brains for Dinner Episode 1
Why Bullshitting is Easier Without a Body
open.substack.com
August 4, 2025 at 6:59 PM
What’s in it for you? Laughs, learning, and possibly even inspiration for great date questions! I hope you’ll join me and my favorite neuroscientist @andreastocco.com for dinner!
Exciting!!!! My first European translation 💃🏻🧠
Look at what I spotted in a bookstore in San Sebastián. @chantelpratphd.bsky.social
June 13, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Exciting!!!! My first European translation 💃🏻🧠
Reposted by Chantel Prat PhD
Our malleable brain enables us to encode learning and experience in a way that is much more powerful than simply data storage.
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social explores this fascinating, complex superpower:
buff.ly/pqcBzH9
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social explores this fascinating, complex superpower:
buff.ly/pqcBzH9
May 27, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Our malleable brain enables us to encode learning and experience in a way that is much more powerful than simply data storage.
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social explores this fascinating, complex superpower:
buff.ly/pqcBzH9
@chantelpratphd.bsky.social explores this fascinating, complex superpower:
buff.ly/pqcBzH9
Can’t remember the last time I saw a movie that blew my mind like this one did.
‘Sinners’ (Coogler, 2025)
✅ Artistic as hell but not pretentious
✅ historical/political but not preachy
✅ Lots of action but folded in a gripping narrative
✅ “Horror” but not gratuitous or manipulative
A tribute to the power of music. The power of history and diversity.
What a goddamn movie. 5⭐️
✅ Artistic as hell but not pretentious
✅ historical/political but not preachy
✅ Lots of action but folded in a gripping narrative
✅ “Horror” but not gratuitous or manipulative
A tribute to the power of music. The power of history and diversity.
What a goddamn movie. 5⭐️
April 27, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Can’t remember the last time I saw a movie that blew my mind like this one did.
Just turned 50 in Borneo and did some thinking and writing about what it all means to me.
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
#science #power #belonging #obedience
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
#science #power #belonging #obedience
Musings from a disobedient neuroscientist
On mistrust
open.substack.com
April 4, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Just turned 50 in Borneo and did some thinking and writing about what it all means to me.
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
#science #power #belonging #obedience
open.substack.com/pub/chantelp...
#science #power #belonging #obedience
Thankful for my naturally intelligent brain today which can spot Google Maps’ advice as “enshitification” from a mile away (sometimes).
#AI #brain #cognition #intelligence
#AI #brain #cognition #intelligence
March 24, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Thankful for my naturally intelligent brain today which can spot Google Maps’ advice as “enshitification” from a mile away (sometimes).
#AI #brain #cognition #intelligence
#AI #brain #cognition #intelligence
🧪🧠 #brain #belonging #different #neurodiversity
Theories that are on size fits all don’t fit anyone very well.
Theories that are on size fits all don’t fit anyone very well.
March 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
🧪🧠 #brain #belonging #different #neurodiversity
Theories that are on size fits all don’t fit anyone very well.
Theories that are on size fits all don’t fit anyone very well.
Say you’ve been doing neuroscience research for a long time without saying you’ve been doing neuroscience research for a long time. My favorite 🧠 in 1998 and 2021 🥰
#brain #neuroscience
#brain #neuroscience
March 12, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Say you’ve been doing neuroscience research for a long time without saying you’ve been doing neuroscience research for a long time. My favorite 🧠 in 1998 and 2021 🥰
#brain #neuroscience
#brain #neuroscience
March 8, 2025 at 1:56 AM