Nick Holmes
@thehandlab.bsky.social
handy neuroscientist | touch & movement | brain stimulation | neurobiography.info | pod @theerrorbar.bsky.social theerrorbar.com | @tmsmultilab.bsky.social https://tms-rat.org https://tms-smart.info | b. 335ppm C💚2 | pro birds | Associating with Professors
Pinned
Nick Holmes
@thehandlab.bsky.social
· Aug 11
I'm happy to report that @valedichiaro.bsky.social 's 2nd PhD paper is in press! :-). Brief explainer...
- 2-coil #TMS over left & right primary motor cortex
- TMS in the ~300ms before one hand responds
- corticospinal excitability increases before response
- no changes in non-responding hand
1/n
- 2-coil #TMS over left & right primary motor cortex
- TMS in the ~300ms before one hand responds
- corticospinal excitability increases before response
- no changes in non-responding hand
1/n
Oh great, another Special Military Operation.
January 3, 2026 at 9:07 AM
Oh great, another Special Military Operation.
Reposted by Nick Holmes
Looking back to @wwattribution.bsky.social studies in 2025 showed again, in stark terms, how unfairly the consequences of human-induced climate change are distributed. The world does not have to be like this, we have a lot of agency to make it better. www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evid...
December 30, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Looking back to @wwattribution.bsky.social studies in 2025 showed again, in stark terms, how unfairly the consequences of human-induced climate change are distributed. The world does not have to be like this, we have a lot of agency to make it better. www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evid...
sneak preview of the #TMS #MetaAnalysis I've been working on for two years...
this isn't the main result, but it's one of the prettiest graphs I've made in some time, so it's worth bragging about.
there's a *lot* going on in this graph - to be explained in a (near?) future thread..!
#BrainStim
this isn't the main result, but it's one of the prettiest graphs I've made in some time, so it's worth bragging about.
there's a *lot* going on in this graph - to be explained in a (near?) future thread..!
#BrainStim
December 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM
sneak preview of the #TMS #MetaAnalysis I've been working on for two years...
this isn't the main result, but it's one of the prettiest graphs I've made in some time, so it's worth bragging about.
there's a *lot* going on in this graph - to be explained in a (near?) future thread..!
#BrainStim
this isn't the main result, but it's one of the prettiest graphs I've made in some time, so it's worth bragging about.
there's a *lot* going on in this graph - to be explained in a (near?) future thread..!
#BrainStim
Reposted by Nick Holmes
An experiment conducted in my department …
Student Evaluations Can’t Be Used to Assess Professors. They’re Discriminatory.
And that means they’re illegal.
slate.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:49 PM
An experiment conducted in my department …
Reposted by Nick Holmes
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and please complete your mandatory e-learning by 31 December.
December 25, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and please complete your mandatory e-learning by 31 December.
Reposted by Nick Holmes
🎄 Hope you’ve got all your presents ready 💝
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
December 24, 2025 at 10:16 AM
🎄 Hope you’ve got all your presents ready 💝
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Thanks to slop-generating machines, I no longer believe that any electronic interaction (e.g., with my electricity provider, which prompted this message) is genuine. Sigh.
Longing for the bubble to burst in 2026!
Longing for the bubble to burst in 2026!
December 24, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Thanks to slop-generating machines, I no longer believe that any electronic interaction (e.g., with my electricity provider, which prompted this message) is genuine. Sigh.
Longing for the bubble to burst in 2026!
Longing for the bubble to burst in 2026!
How to Academic: Check your sources
👇
👇
Closing out my year with a journal editor shocker 🧵
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird...
December 20, 2025 at 7:35 AM
How to Academic: Check your sources
👇
👇
Reposted by Nick Holmes
Are you interested in a MSc/PhD in human sensorimotor neuroscience? Learn to design experiments, analyze data, read & write papers, present at conferences, & work with a vibrant group of students & faculty in a world-class research environment.
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
gribblelab.org/join.html
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
gribblelab.org/join.html
December 17, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Are you interested in a MSc/PhD in human sensorimotor neuroscience? Learn to design experiments, analyze data, read & write papers, present at conferences, & work with a vibrant group of students & faculty in a world-class research environment.
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
gribblelab.org/join.html
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
gribblelab.org/join.html
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Felt compelled this morning to write a 600-word defense of human writing, to argue against the use of 'ai' to structure & expand feedback on our students' work.
Yes, it has come to this: Academics need to make arguments for we should still be writing & thinking. #ai
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Yes, it has come to this: Academics need to make arguments for we should still be writing & thinking. #ai
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Should academics use 'AI' to assist in writing feedback on students' work?
Should academics use ‘AI’ to assist in writing feedback on students’ work? I felt compelled to write this in response to an email discussion at work on whether or how to use ‘ai’ (large language mode...
docs.google.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Felt compelled this morning to write a 600-word defense of human writing, to argue against the use of 'ai' to structure & expand feedback on our students' work.
Yes, it has come to this: Academics need to make arguments for we should still be writing & thinking. #ai
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Yes, it has come to this: Academics need to make arguments for we should still be writing & thinking. #ai
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
If technology improved education, surely students would understand the p-value by now, 300 years after its invention?
After the mechanical calculators and punch card computers and difference engines and Boolean logic and tabulating machines and the logical abacus and the analytical engines and the
After the mechanical calculators and punch card computers and difference engines and Boolean logic and tabulating machines and the logical abacus and the analytical engines and the
December 16, 2025 at 11:21 PM
If technology improved education, surely students would understand the p-value by now, 300 years after its invention?
After the mechanical calculators and punch card computers and difference engines and Boolean logic and tabulating machines and the logical abacus and the analytical engines and the
After the mechanical calculators and punch card computers and difference engines and Boolean logic and tabulating machines and the logical abacus and the analytical engines and the
Reposted by Nick Holmes
An already severely lacking system is now facing debacle.
Perhaps it would be easier to understand thus way: you are biting the hand that feeds you. Stop.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Perhaps it would be easier to understand thus way: you are biting the hand that feeds you. Stop.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
More than half of researchers now use AI for peer review — often against guidance
Policies should reflect the ‘new reality’ of researchers’ increasing reliance on tools that can summarize manuscripts and draft reports.
www.nature.com
December 16, 2025 at 8:41 AM
An already severely lacking system is now facing debacle.
Perhaps it would be easier to understand thus way: you are biting the hand that feeds you. Stop.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Perhaps it would be easier to understand thus way: you are biting the hand that feeds you. Stop.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Important disambigpooation 💩👇 #ai
Slop is the rubbish that we produce with AI tools.
Enshittification is the process of a commercial product or platform (e.g. Google or chat GPT) getting worse, in particular because the makers/owners want to extract more profit.
Enshittification is the process of a commercial product or platform (e.g. Google or chat GPT) getting worse, in particular because the makers/owners want to extract more profit.
December 15, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Important disambigpooation 💩👇 #ai
Reposted by Nick Holmes
Today I'll be arguing that AI tools (specifically LLMs and AI agents) are NOT the future of health and social science but are more likely to be the death of health and social science.
Here's a sneak peak slide with the main components of my argument.
Here's a sneak peak slide with the main components of my argument.
December 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Today I'll be arguing that AI tools (specifically LLMs and AI agents) are NOT the future of health and social science but are more likely to be the death of health and social science.
Here's a sneak peak slide with the main components of my argument.
Here's a sneak peak slide with the main components of my argument.
Reposted by Nick Holmes
Spinal motor neurons in dazzling detail. ✨
Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists.
#neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday
Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists.
#neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday
December 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Spinal motor neurons in dazzling detail. ✨
Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists.
#neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday
Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists.
#neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday
Regression to the mean in today's VC email:
"The West Midlands went into the twin challenges of Brexit and the pandemic with the fastest growing regional economy in England but has, since then, been the most sluggish"
(the weekly emails are great, just not this sentence!)
#RegressionToTheMean
"The West Midlands went into the twin challenges of Brexit and the pandemic with the fastest growing regional economy in England but has, since then, been the most sluggish"
(the weekly emails are great, just not this sentence!)
#RegressionToTheMean
December 12, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Regression to the mean in today's VC email:
"The West Midlands went into the twin challenges of Brexit and the pandemic with the fastest growing regional economy in England but has, since then, been the most sluggish"
(the weekly emails are great, just not this sentence!)
#RegressionToTheMean
"The West Midlands went into the twin challenges of Brexit and the pandemic with the fastest growing regional economy in England but has, since then, been the most sluggish"
(the weekly emails are great, just not this sentence!)
#RegressionToTheMean
It took a while before tobacco companies were held liable for the harmful effects of burning their products.
Let's hope the #FossilFuel companies are held to accout quicker:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#ClimateBreakdown
Let's hope the #FossilFuel companies are held to accout quicker:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#ClimateBreakdown
Shell facing first UK legal claim over climate impact of fossil fuels
Survivors of a deadly typhoon in the Philippines have filed a claim against the UK's largest oil company.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 11, 2025 at 7:16 AM
It took a while before tobacco companies were held liable for the harmful effects of burning their products.
Let's hope the #FossilFuel companies are held to accout quicker:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#ClimateBreakdown
Let's hope the #FossilFuel companies are held to accout quicker:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
#ClimateBreakdown
In accordance with my university's request, my Xmas out-of-office email auto-reply will contain about 2 pages of information for students seeking support while I'm not at work.
But is 2 pages even enough? What if there is some aspect of support not covered by this e-torrent..?
#TermsAndConditions
But is 2 pages even enough? What if there is some aspect of support not covered by this e-torrent..?
#TermsAndConditions
December 8, 2025 at 9:48 PM
In accordance with my university's request, my Xmas out-of-office email auto-reply will contain about 2 pages of information for students seeking support while I'm not at work.
But is 2 pages even enough? What if there is some aspect of support not covered by this e-torrent..?
#TermsAndConditions
But is 2 pages even enough? What if there is some aspect of support not covered by this e-torrent..?
#TermsAndConditions
Spoiler: it was all a dream
So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers.
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
Here's what happened:
scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...
The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health: A Meta-Analysis | Scientia Psychiatrica
Introduction: The proliferation of social media has raised significant concerns about its potential effects on the mental health of adolescents. This meta-analysis aims to provide a comprehensive asse...
scientiapsychiatrica.com
December 8, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Spoiler: it was all a dream
Reposted by Nick Holmes
"Replication rates are higher than experts predicted and p-hacking is much less common than we expected!"
replications.clearerthinking.org/three-surpri...
replications.clearerthinking.org/three-surpri...
December 5, 2025 at 8:59 AM
"Replication rates are higher than experts predicted and p-hacking is much less common than we expected!"
replications.clearerthinking.org/three-surpri...
replications.clearerthinking.org/three-surpri...