Cian O'Donnell
@cianodonnell.bsky.social
Computational neuroscientist.
Senior Lecturer at Ulster University in the Great City of Derry, Northern Ireland.
"not articulate enough"
https://odonnellgroup.github.io
Senior Lecturer at Ulster University in the Great City of Derry, Northern Ireland.
"not articulate enough"
https://odonnellgroup.github.io
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
I am super happy to share that our project on training biophysical models with Jaxley is now published in Nature Methods: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Jaxley: differentiable simulation enables large-scale training of detailed biophysical models of neural dynamics - Nature Methods
Jaxley is a versatile platform for biophysical modeling in neuroscience. It allows efficiently simulating large-scale biophysical models on CPUs, GPUs and TPUs. Model parameters can be optimized with ...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:38 PM
I am super happy to share that our project on training biophysical models with Jaxley is now published in Nature Methods: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Y'all. N>3,800. !!!!!!!
Goodness gracious.
Goodness gracious.
When do interaction/moderation effects stabilize in linear regression?: https://osf.io/35t84
November 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Y'all. N>3,800. !!!!!!!
Goodness gracious.
Goodness gracious.
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
We did a thing. 😬
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM
We did a thing. 😬
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
MiniThread: I was reading this paper and through it was worth a comment because the results are very counterintuitive to me (and the authors too)
Miller, G. A., & Selfridge, J. A. (1950). Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material. The American journal of psychology, 63(2), 176-185.
Miller, G. A., & Selfridge, J. A. (1950). Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material. The American journal of psychology, 63(2), 176-185.
November 13, 2025 at 5:06 PM
MiniThread: I was reading this paper and through it was worth a comment because the results are very counterintuitive to me (and the authors too)
Miller, G. A., & Selfridge, J. A. (1950). Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material. The American journal of psychology, 63(2), 176-185.
Miller, G. A., & Selfridge, J. A. (1950). Verbal context and the recall of meaningful material. The American journal of psychology, 63(2), 176-185.
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
What aspects of human knowledge do vision models like CLIP fail to capture, and how can we improve them? We suggest models miss key global organization; aligning them makes them more robust. Check out LukasMuttenthaler's work, finally out (in Nature!?) www.nature.com/articles/s41... + our blog! 1/3
Aligning machine and human visual representations across abstraction levels - Nature
Aligning foundation models with human judgments enables them to more accurately approximate human behaviour and uncertainty across various levels of visual abstraction, while additionally improving th...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:50 PM
What aspects of human knowledge do vision models like CLIP fail to capture, and how can we improve them? We suggest models miss key global organization; aligning them makes them more robust. Check out LukasMuttenthaler's work, finally out (in Nature!?) www.nature.com/articles/s41... + our blog! 1/3
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
In the end, even basic brain connectivity is different between rodents and primates, with primates having more specialized, sparsely connected brain regions.
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
November 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
In the end, even basic brain connectivity is different between rodents and primates, with primates having more specialized, sparsely connected brain regions.
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment” in @npp-journal.bsky.social! We examine neurobiological, environmental & behavioral evidence for human critical periods in sensory and association cortex +discuss new research directions rdcu.be/eMkVU 🧵
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment” in @npp-journal.bsky.social! We examine neurobiological, environmental & behavioral evidence for human critical periods in sensory and association cortex +discuss new research directions rdcu.be/eMkVU 🧵
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
"Anyone who thinks the 21st century will not see the biggest global movement of peoples in history has not been paying attention."
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
David Runciman · Are we doomed? The End of the Species
Are we doomed to die out? We find ourselves at the only point in the history of the species when the rate of population...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
"Anyone who thinks the 21st century will not see the biggest global movement of peoples in history has not been paying attention."
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
David Runciman on the combination of population decline in affluent countries and climate stress in the less affluent...
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Gosh that's a very good long read, but not an easy one :)
scottaaronson.blog?p=9030
scottaaronson.blog?p=9030
November 10, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Gosh that's a very good long read, but not an easy one :)
scottaaronson.blog?p=9030
scottaaronson.blog?p=9030
unclear if Watson made a net positive or negative contribution to science.
Without him would the double helix have been figured out sooner or later?
Perhaps CSHL would not have grown to its eventual status
Perhaps a swathe of women and non-white researchers would not have been lost from science
Without him would the double helix have been figured out sooner or later?
Perhaps CSHL would not have grown to its eventual status
Perhaps a swathe of women and non-white researchers would not have been lost from science
November 9, 2025 at 5:39 PM
unclear if Watson made a net positive or negative contribution to science.
Without him would the double helix have been figured out sooner or later?
Perhaps CSHL would not have grown to its eventual status
Perhaps a swathe of women and non-white researchers would not have been lost from science
Without him would the double helix have been figured out sooner or later?
Perhaps CSHL would not have grown to its eventual status
Perhaps a swathe of women and non-white researchers would not have been lost from science
Endorse, and I'd also add that it's nice to mention a few things you liked about the paper at the start of the review.
My reviewing style has changed over time. Rather than litigate every little thing, and pushing my own ideas, I focus only on 2 things:
(1) Are the claims interesting/important?
(2) Does the evidence support the claims?
Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.
(1) Are the claims interesting/important?
(2) Does the evidence support the claims?
Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.
November 8, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Endorse, and I'd also add that it's nice to mention a few things you liked about the paper at the start of the review.
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
My reviewing style has changed over time. Rather than litigate every little thing, and pushing my own ideas, I focus only on 2 things:
(1) Are the claims interesting/important?
(2) Does the evidence support the claims?
Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.
(1) Are the claims interesting/important?
(2) Does the evidence support the claims?
Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.
November 8, 2025 at 11:22 AM
My reviewing style has changed over time. Rather than litigate every little thing, and pushing my own ideas, I focus only on 2 things:
(1) Are the claims interesting/important?
(2) Does the evidence support the claims?
Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.
(1) Are the claims interesting/important?
(2) Does the evidence support the claims?
Most of my reviews these days are short and focused.
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
"studies have found little evidence for uniformly increased sensory precision in autism, but instead point to aberrant context-sensitive modulation of prediction errors"? which explains "why autism is associated with both hyper- & hyporeactivity to sensory input"? www.cell.com/trends/cogni... review
Sensory processing sensitivity: theory, evidence, and directions
In recent years, scientific interest in sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), a personality
trait reflecting increased sensitivity, reactivity, and deeper processing of stimuli,
has grown exponentiall...
www.cell.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:22 AM
"studies have found little evidence for uniformly increased sensory precision in autism, but instead point to aberrant context-sensitive modulation of prediction errors"? which explains "why autism is associated with both hyper- & hyporeactivity to sensory input"? www.cell.com/trends/cogni... review
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Watson was a racist who, "near the end of his life, faced condemnation and professional censure for offensive remarks, including saying Black people are less intelligent than white people"
James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix shape of DNA, has died at age 97
Scientist James Watson, who shared a Nobel prize for helping discover the double-helix shape of the DNA molecule, has died. He was 97.
apnews.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Watson was a racist who, "near the end of his life, faced condemnation and professional censure for offensive remarks, including saying Black people are less intelligent than white people"
I saw Jim Watson speak in the flesh only once, in 2013. During the talk he mentioned the "historic curse of the Irish, which is not alcohol, it’s not stupidity. But it’s ignorance."
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2013/03/21/w...
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2013/03/21/w...
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
I saw Jim Watson speak in the flesh only once, in 2013. During the talk he mentioned the "historic curse of the Irish, which is not alcohol, it’s not stupidity. But it’s ignorance."
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2013/03/21/w...
www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2013/03/21/w...
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Delighted to announce with my colleagues Prof Yvonne Daly, Dublin City Uni; Prof Dave Walsh Walsh, De Montfort Uni; Prof Bennett Kleinberg, Tilburg Uni, we have secured an ERC Synergy grant entitled JUSTICE (or ‘Joining Unique Strategies Together For Interrogative Coercion Elimination).
📣 Meet the new ERC Synergy Grant awardees!
Sixty-six research teams have been selected for funding, bringing together 239 scientists. Congratulations to all!
➡️ buff.ly/PSn3bi9
#EUfunded #HorizonEurope #ERCSyG
Sixty-six research teams have been selected for funding, bringing together 239 scientists. Congratulations to all!
➡️ buff.ly/PSn3bi9
#EUfunded #HorizonEurope #ERCSyG
November 6, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Delighted to announce with my colleagues Prof Yvonne Daly, Dublin City Uni; Prof Dave Walsh Walsh, De Montfort Uni; Prof Bennett Kleinberg, Tilburg Uni, we have secured an ERC Synergy grant entitled JUSTICE (or ‘Joining Unique Strategies Together For Interrogative Coercion Elimination).
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
November 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
Personally I have never used an LLM to:
- review a paper
- review a grant
- mark student assessments
These are tasks I do not pass to LLMs because I am getting paid to do them and because I was asked to provide my individual professional judgement on their quality
- review a paper
- review a grant
- mark student assessments
These are tasks I do not pass to LLMs because I am getting paid to do them and because I was asked to provide my individual professional judgement on their quality
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Personally I have never used an LLM to:
- review a paper
- review a grant
- mark student assessments
These are tasks I do not pass to LLMs because I am getting paid to do them and because I was asked to provide my individual professional judgement on their quality
- review a paper
- review a grant
- mark student assessments
These are tasks I do not pass to LLMs because I am getting paid to do them and because I was asked to provide my individual professional judgement on their quality
LLMs are already reviewing science... just often not declared
In the shorter term, we should resist the use of LLMs in reviewing science, and reform the system to avoid the problems we already have with human PR. A good start would be getting rid of journals and switching to post publication, open and ongoing review.
November 7, 2025 at 9:27 AM
LLMs are already reviewing science... just often not declared
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
My prediction is that LLM peer review will slow down science. It will do this for precisely the same reasons that contemporary peer review does and some extra ones. Start by reading @hansonmark.bsky.social thread below, then read on. 🧵
Just tried q.e.d. by @odedrechavi.bsky.social et al. with a few papers including by myself & others where I knew a claim within was flawed based on a misunderstanding of the signal.
1) it was impressive. I see what the hype is about.
2) it hallucinated.
www.qedscience.com
Overly long #SciPub🧵 1/n
1) it was impressive. I see what the hype is about.
2) it hallucinated.
www.qedscience.com
Overly long #SciPub🧵 1/n
q.e.d Science
Critical Thinking AI for constructive criticism and science evaluation
www.qedscience.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:30 PM
My prediction is that LLM peer review will slow down science. It will do this for precisely the same reasons that contemporary peer review does and some extra ones. Start by reading @hansonmark.bsky.social thread below, then read on. 🧵
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
The advances we've made in statistics, experimental study design, and causal inference over the past century are remarkably useful for understanding our world. But there is never been a push to make people use them like we are seeing with generative AI. Perhaps take a moment to consider why.
November 7, 2025 at 9:07 AM
The advances we've made in statistics, experimental study design, and causal inference over the past century are remarkably useful for understanding our world. But there is never been a push to make people use them like we are seeing with generative AI. Perhaps take a moment to consider why.
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
Getting nervous for the talk I'm about to give at a workshop about "using AI to drive impact" which features slides such as these.
November 6, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Getting nervous for the talk I'm about to give at a workshop about "using AI to drive impact" which features slides such as these.
Reposted by Cian O'Donnell
We must change this mindset that the essential and most critical work in a field is always the first one. That distorted view has caused a lot of problems in psychological science already. The first work is just that—the start. Every field should be evaluated based on the complete body of evidence.
November 6, 2025 at 5:08 PM
We must change this mindset that the essential and most critical work in a field is always the first one. That distorted view has caused a lot of problems in psychological science already. The first work is just that—the start. Every field should be evaluated based on the complete body of evidence.