Ann-Sophie Barwich
@smellosopher.bsky.social
Vive La Dada!
Mary I. Bunting Fellow, Radcliffe/Harvard
Associate Prof, Indiana U Bloomington
Philosophy & Neuroscience
Book www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674278721
Web www.smellosophy.com
Lab thestinktank.weebly.com
Art https://as-barwich.medium.com
Mary I. Bunting Fellow, Radcliffe/Harvard
Associate Prof, Indiana U Bloomington
Philosophy & Neuroscience
Book www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674278721
Web www.smellosophy.com
Lab thestinktank.weebly.com
Art https://as-barwich.medium.com
Pinned
Smellosophy — Harvard University Press
An NRC Handelsblad Book of the Year“Offers rich discussions of olfactory perception, the conscious and subconscious impacts of smell on behavior and emotion.”—ScienceDecades of cognition research have...
www.hup.harvard.edu
Philosophy & neuroscience of smell, some of my key refs
(1) Smellosophy (book) www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
(2) Smell is spatial link.springer.com/article/10.1...
(3) No odor objects www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
(4) No neural map/representation onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
(1) Smellosophy (book) www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...
(2) Smell is spatial link.springer.com/article/10.1...
(3) No odor objects www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...
(4) No neural map/representation onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Sitting with a good conversation I had yesterday in my mind.
Sometimes you have the right people finding you at the right time to ask you THAT question. Thinking now rumbles under the surface.
Sometimes you have the right people finding you at the right time to ask you THAT question. Thinking now rumbles under the surface.
December 18, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Sitting with a good conversation I had yesterday in my mind.
Sometimes you have the right people finding you at the right time to ask you THAT question. Thinking now rumbles under the surface.
Sometimes you have the right people finding you at the right time to ask you THAT question. Thinking now rumbles under the surface.
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
If I owe you an email just know that it‘s 2025. Have a great decade!
December 17, 2025 at 10:42 PM
If I owe you an email just know that it‘s 2025. Have a great decade!
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
And I must not leave out the famous Greek goddess, Telephone. Or her sisters Cellophane and Methane.
December 18, 2025 at 12:16 PM
And I must not leave out the famous Greek goddess, Telephone. Or her sisters Cellophane and Methane.
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
My top five favourite words to pronounce like they’re Greek philosophers…
5. Monocles
4. Bicycles
3. Popsicles
2. Obstacles
1. Testicles
5. Monocles
4. Bicycles
3. Popsicles
2. Obstacles
1. Testicles
December 18, 2025 at 12:13 PM
My top five favourite words to pronounce like they’re Greek philosophers…
5. Monocles
4. Bicycles
3. Popsicles
2. Obstacles
1. Testicles
5. Monocles
4. Bicycles
3. Popsicles
2. Obstacles
1. Testicles
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
“Compilers are… the bridge between human thought and machine execution. Everything modern software is built on this assumption that you can write in a language designed for humans, and a compiler will translate it to machine code that executes efficiently.” voxmeditantis.com/2025/12/13/f...
Frances Elizabeth Allen: The Woman Who Made Code Run Fast – And Was Forgotten Because It Worked
Frances Allen sits down to discuss how compiler optimisation became computing’s invisible foundation. From farm girl to Turing Award winner, she reveals why the most profound technical achiev…
voxmeditantis.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM
“Compilers are… the bridge between human thought and machine execution. Everything modern software is built on this assumption that you can write in a language designed for humans, and a compiler will translate it to machine code that executes efficiently.” voxmeditantis.com/2025/12/13/f...
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
This entire weekend
December 15, 2025 at 3:58 AM
This entire weekend
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
What a preprint:
Jitter analysis of sub-millisecond timing driven by mono-synapses, ephaptic coupling and gap junctions in the cerebellum. Basically a whole local circuit.
"Coordination of spike timing among the neurons of the cerebellum"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Jitter analysis of sub-millisecond timing driven by mono-synapses, ephaptic coupling and gap junctions in the cerebellum. Basically a whole local circuit.
"Coordination of spike timing among the neurons of the cerebellum"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
December 16, 2025 at 10:03 PM
What a preprint:
Jitter analysis of sub-millisecond timing driven by mono-synapses, ephaptic coupling and gap junctions in the cerebellum. Basically a whole local circuit.
"Coordination of spike timing among the neurons of the cerebellum"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Jitter analysis of sub-millisecond timing driven by mono-synapses, ephaptic coupling and gap junctions in the cerebellum. Basically a whole local circuit.
"Coordination of spike timing among the neurons of the cerebellum"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I withdrew 2 papers from PhilSci journals in my career. Each returned w R&R in a way that questions peer-review. One asked to explain the difference between DNA/RNA (published in Cell instead). The other was deemed very good yet returned R&R. I cannot do lab-science + humanities flagellation at once
December 17, 2025 at 8:18 AM
I withdrew 2 papers from PhilSci journals in my career. Each returned w R&R in a way that questions peer-review. One asked to explain the difference between DNA/RNA (published in Cell instead). The other was deemed very good yet returned R&R. I cannot do lab-science + humanities flagellation at once
Maybe they believe in pre-estasblished harmony.
December 17, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Maybe they believe in pre-estasblished harmony.
Today I learned from my grad that, apparently, I'm portrayed as advocating a sort of subjective hedonics according to another philosopher working on olfaction.
I laughed so hard at this - and now I am really tempted of redoing my entire research program to do this view at least *some* justice.
I laughed so hard at this - and now I am really tempted of redoing my entire research program to do this view at least *some* justice.
December 16, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Today I learned from my grad that, apparently, I'm portrayed as advocating a sort of subjective hedonics according to another philosopher working on olfaction.
I laughed so hard at this - and now I am really tempted of redoing my entire research program to do this view at least *some* justice.
I laughed so hard at this - and now I am really tempted of redoing my entire research program to do this view at least *some* justice.
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
Just decline the peer review invitation.
What are you people even doing?
What are you people even doing?
More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance
A survey of 1,600 academics found that more than 50% have used artificial-intelligence tools while peer reviewing manuscripts.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Just decline the peer review invitation.
What are you people even doing?
What are you people even doing?
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
You know what? I'm willing to empirically test this as many times as it takes to reach statistical certainty about any conclusions we reach
Michael C. Rockefeller got shipwrecked in 1963, washed up on an island, and was promptly eaten by cannibals.
December 14, 2025 at 12:38 AM
You know what? I'm willing to empirically test this as many times as it takes to reach statistical certainty about any conclusions we reach
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
Edward Gorey
'In the middle of his kitchen he had a big marble ball fountain. Much of the art in the house consisted of found objects. He had an entire wall of antique cheese graters, which was very impressive, and an enormous ball of rope in the fireplace'
Johnny Ryan
'In the middle of his kitchen he had a big marble ball fountain. Much of the art in the house consisted of found objects. He had an entire wall of antique cheese graters, which was very impressive, and an enormous ball of rope in the fireplace'
Johnny Ryan
December 13, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Edward Gorey
'In the middle of his kitchen he had a big marble ball fountain. Much of the art in the house consisted of found objects. He had an entire wall of antique cheese graters, which was very impressive, and an enormous ball of rope in the fireplace'
Johnny Ryan
'In the middle of his kitchen he had a big marble ball fountain. Much of the art in the house consisted of found objects. He had an entire wall of antique cheese graters, which was very impressive, and an enormous ball of rope in the fireplace'
Johnny Ryan
On the reading list!
(especially after @pessoabrain.bsky.social's comment: "That's an interesting twist, Gene expression differs in live human tissue")
(especially after @pessoabrain.bsky.social's comment: "That's an interesting twist, Gene expression differs in live human tissue")
December 13, 2025 at 3:18 PM
On the reading list!
(especially after @pessoabrain.bsky.social's comment: "That's an interesting twist, Gene expression differs in live human tissue")
(especially after @pessoabrain.bsky.social's comment: "That's an interesting twist, Gene expression differs in live human tissue")
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
damn this is so very clever!
"... we investigated how the brain categorizes stimuli that are not linearly separable in the physical world ... The sensory manifold was ... expanded into a seven-dimensional perceptual manifold..."
damn this is so very clever!
"... we investigated how the brain categorizes stimuli that are not linearly separable in the physical world ... The sensory manifold was ... expanded into a seven-dimensional perceptual manifold..."
From sensory to perceptual manifolds: The twist of neural geometry
The brain uses geometric twists to expand neural dimensionality, thus untangling perception from sensation.
www.science.org
December 13, 2025 at 9:08 AM
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
damn this is so very clever!
"... we investigated how the brain categorizes stimuli that are not linearly separable in the physical world ... The sensory manifold was ... expanded into a seven-dimensional perceptual manifold..."
damn this is so very clever!
"... we investigated how the brain categorizes stimuli that are not linearly separable in the physical world ... The sensory manifold was ... expanded into a seven-dimensional perceptual manifold..."
‘You will be haunted by three spirits.’
December 13, 2025 at 2:25 PM
‘You will be haunted by three spirits.’
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
December 13, 2025 at 7:59 AM
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
It's not just social media. Looks like visitors to the US from Europe and other countries that are part of the visa waiver program will have to submit an enormous amount of data about themselves and their families, including DNA, if proposed new rules are accepted
December 12, 2025 at 12:24 PM
It's not just social media. Looks like visitors to the US from Europe and other countries that are part of the visa waiver program will have to submit an enormous amount of data about themselves and their families, including DNA, if proposed new rules are accepted
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
I'm more and more convinced that low-dimensional manifolds in the brain are just an artifact of the experimental designs and analyses we use...
🧠📈 🧪
🧠📈 🧪
Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
December 11, 2025 at 8:19 PM
I'm more and more convinced that low-dimensional manifolds in the brain are just an artifact of the experimental designs and analyses we use...
🧠📈 🧪
🧠📈 🧪
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
What if thinking doesn’t begin in the brain, but in the ceaseless labour of our cells? Today’s essay rethinks the question of how we become minds, arguing that cognition begins not in the mind but in the collective processes that keep a body alive @annaciaunica.bsky.social
Why you need your whole body – from head to toes – to think | Aeon Essays
Contemplating the world requires a body, and a body requires an immune system: the rungs of life create the stuff of thought
buff.ly
November 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM
What if thinking doesn’t begin in the brain, but in the ceaseless labour of our cells? Today’s essay rethinks the question of how we become minds, arguing that cognition begins not in the mind but in the collective processes that keep a body alive @annaciaunica.bsky.social
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
If you analyse time-resolved data (M/EEG, iEEG, pupillometry, force recordings…) and feel limited by cluster-based permutation tests (CBPTs); especially when trying to determine when an effect starts or ends; you may want to try our new R package: lnalborczyk.github.io/neurogam/
#rstats #brms #EEG
#rstats #brms #EEG
Modelling time-resolved electrophysiological data with Bayesian generalised additive multilevel models
Providing utility functions for fitting Bayesian generalised additive multilevel models (BGAMMs) to time-resolved data (e.g., M/EEG, pupillometry, mouse-tracking, etc) and identifying clusters.
lnalborczyk.github.io
December 11, 2025 at 11:38 AM
If you analyse time-resolved data (M/EEG, iEEG, pupillometry, force recordings…) and feel limited by cluster-based permutation tests (CBPTs); especially when trying to determine when an effect starts or ends; you may want to try our new R package: lnalborczyk.github.io/neurogam/
#rstats #brms #EEG
#rstats #brms #EEG
You're Divine, Gabriel Vitel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVSo...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVSo...
YOU´RE DIVINE
YouTube video by Gabriel Vitel - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 11, 2025 at 10:44 AM
You're Divine, Gabriel Vitel
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVSo...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVSo...
Reposted by Ann-Sophie Barwich
Happy 73rd Birthday to Michael Dorn. 🎂🎉
December 9, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Happy 73rd Birthday to Michael Dorn. 🎂🎉
So did Hannah Arendt. To mention... a woman scholar.
🌟 As the year slows, it’s tempting to celebrate doing nothing. | https://iai.tv/articles/an-ode-to-laziness-auid-2706
Matthew Qvortrup shows how thinkers from Russell to Aristotle and Marx saw leisure as vital for creativity, reflection, and joy - a challenge to our cult of constant productivity.
Matthew Qvortrup shows how thinkers from Russell to Aristotle and Marx saw leisure as vital for creativity, reflection, and joy - a challenge to our cult of constant productivity.
December 10, 2025 at 10:01 AM
So did Hannah Arendt. To mention... a woman scholar.
The Border’s There to Be Crossed, Jon and Roy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YE2...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YE2...
The Border’s There to Be Crossed
YouTube video by Jon and Roy - Topic
www.youtube.com
December 9, 2025 at 11:04 AM
The Border’s There to Be Crossed, Jon and Roy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YE2...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YE2...