Marcus Kaiser @ConnectomeLab

While there are several novel interventions for mental health, including noninvasive brain stimulation, few make it into the UK healthcare system. Join the campaign to make more mental health treatments accessible in the NHS: mood-disorders.co.uk/parliament-cam… #depression #neuromodulation #tms #fus #tus #ultrasound

Mapping connectomes in disease? Check out our article on clinical connectomics in @NeuroCellPress - Tractography behavior in disease - How to measure connectivity - How pathology impacts each stage of connectome mapping - Multiscale connectomics cell.com/neuron/fulltex…

According to Karl Friston, a sure sign of AGI is when your chatbot gets curious. Imagine being prompted by an AI instead of the other way around. You can watch the full interview with one of the greatest neuroscientists today on my YT channel, link below 👇

Each year, we speak about 338 fewer words per day. [An unexpected research opportunity] was recently afforded to us when analyzing several data sets. These data feature estimates of daily spoken words for 2,197 participants aged 10 to 94 based on a careful analysis of passively sampled ambient audio recordings of their daily lives.. The report yielded an estimate for the average number of spoken words per day of 12,792, an estimate noticeably lower than what a prior study from 2007 yielded using the same method (M = 15,959). After verifying that this was not a mathematical error, we decided to put the hypothesis that we had lost wordsover time to the test. By relating the estimates of participants' daily spoken words to the year their data were collected, we discov– ered that for each year between 2005 and 2019 an average of 338 fewer words were spoken per day, as estimated using Bayesian multilevel modeling. At first glance, 300 or so words seems like a small, insignificant loss, as if it would not make much of a difference. But, as trivial as 338 words a day may feel, the loss of these daily spoken words unavoidably adds up. It means that, each year, we speak more than 120,000 words fewer than in the previous year. From 2005 to 2019, the reduction in the estimated number of words spoken per day was about 28%. While putting a number to the loss, there is much about those lost conversations that these data cannot answer. Were they lost with friends, or family, or with strangers? Were they lost equally for everyone, or just for a select few? What were those conversations about? Although the time period of our data collection coincides with the rise in digital communication, such as texting, emailing, or social media, it is currently unclear whether digital conversations contribute to, and can make up for, a loss of spoken words.

Godfather of neuroscience and author of The free energy principle (active inference), Karl Friston @KarlFristonNews , discussed with me his take on AGI, consciousness, why we will never fully understand the brain, and why humans tend to repeat their mistakes. Key moments: - You'll know AGI has arrived when the system starts asking you questions out of genuine curiosity, not because it was prompted to - You cannot hand an intelligent system a value function from the outside, it must learn its own, just as children do (in that sense, RL with assigned reward is the wrong direction) - The only sustainable universal objective function is adaptive fitness: how well the agent fits and survives within its ecosystem - Consciousness requires multiple layers: genuine agency, a self-reflective loop, and the ability to recognize your own states of mind - True sentience may be impossible on standard computer architecture, because memory and processing are separate and cannot self-organize - Understanding your own brain is philosophically impossible in the same way a ruler cannot measure itself - Neuroscience is always "peeking behind" the Markov blanket indirectly: through imaging, electrophysiology, psychology — never seeing inside directly - The only way to truly access the brain is to breach that boundary (e.g. neurosurgery), but a breached brain is no longer a normally functioning one Watch the full interview and let me know what you think. Link below👇

I get a lot of spam from predatory journals, but this is really low effort: 🤣

🧠 #METABRAIN_EU and @NeuroGeneticsCy launch a new online seminar series on computational neuroscience & non-invasive #neuromodulation. 📣 First seminar: 26 February, with Marcus Kaiser (@ConnectomeLab, @UniofNottingham). 👉 meta-brain.eu/events/seminar… #Neuroscience #BrainScience

Great to be featured in the latest episode of FUS Forward regarding NeurGear's and our ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation research and development: Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0z8Ory… Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-… NeurGear's Zenbud System: zenbud.health

Marianna has recently returned from her research visit @UniofNottingham #UK. She would like to sincerely thank Prof. Marcus Kaiser and the members of his lab @ConnectomeLab for providing such an enriching and educational experience, and @BritishNeuro for their generous support.

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@KapsetakiTwins @UniofNottingham @BritishNeuro Glad you visited our lab and happy to keep collaborating in the future!

Open PhD position in our lab: noninvasive ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation as an intervention for mental health conditions such as depression Deadline: Fri 9 Jan Apply here: findaphd.com/phds/project/t…

Searching for a Christmas present for a #neuroscience, #psychology, or #NeuralNetworks researcher? You may consider 'Changing Connectomes: Evolution, Development, and Dynamics in Network Neuroscience' from @mitpress mitpress.mit.edu/books/changing…

Happy to be involved in this research, led by my colleague Dr Jeyoung Jung: Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation enhances emotional bias towards happiness in healthy young adults: A comparative study of electrical and ultrasound stimulation biorxiv.org/content/10.110… Thrilled to share our latest preprint exploring how non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation can shape emotional processing in healthy young adults. 🔍 What we investigated: We compared electrical (E-taVNS) and ultrasound (U-taVNS) stimulation (zenbud.health ) while participants completed a facial emotion bias task. ✨ Key findings: Both E-taVNS and U-taVNS shifted emotional bias toward more positive interpretations, even for ambiguous faces. Comparable efficacy across modalities. Ultrasound stimulation showed better tolerability, suggesting strong potential for long-term use. Interoceptive awareness predicted individual variability in taVNS effects. 💡 Why it matters: These results highlight taVNS as a promising, well-tolerated tool for modulating emotional bias, with potential applications in mood and anxiety disorders. @FUSFoundation @NeurGear #mood #neuromodulation

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Excited to share that our paper is out in PLOS Computational Biology! 🚀 🔗 journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/a… Joining forces between two fantastic laboratories @NPLab_ @ConnectomeLab 🔥

Marilyn Gatica @GaticaMarilyn

a year ago

Could high-order interactions help us understand the network plasticity mechanisms underlying ultrasound neuromodulation? 🧠 Joining forces between two fantastic laboratories @NPLab_ @ConnectomeLab Check out our preprint for insights! 🧵(1/N) 👇 biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

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Join us as PhD student using noninvasive ultrasound neuromodulation on the project 'Reducing pain reactivity for children in the Emergency Department using non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation' Find more information at midlandsmhndtp.ac.uk/applications/2… #ultrasound #neuromodulation #Zenbud

Good to see so many Nottingham researchers at the @Brainbox_Init neuromodulation meeting! A great meeting with ideas that we can bring home to our N3 neurotechnology centre nottingham.ac.uk/news/centre-la… #tus #tms #tacs

Just looked at when "Essential Medicines" (as per the WHO) were launched. More before 1950 than since 1985. Modern biomedical science trembles at the feet of regulatory, social, and economic clag.

New: Zenbud ultrasound vagus nerve stimulation sham device cannot be distinguished from active device mdpi.com/2076-3425/15/9… We are now performing sham-controlled studies to observe cognitive and physiological effects... #ultrasound #vagusnerve #neuromodulation @MDPIOpenAccess

Interesting to see that the UK is number 2 worldwide (after the USA) in terms of consumer neurotech employment, number of companies, and funding deals... From Peter Schlecht's neurotech report at gppi.net/assets/Hensing…

The Foundation’s most comprehensive report detailing progress in the field of focused ultrasound is live! Our 2025 State of the Field Report is now offered in two formats: •Interactive Digital Platform (New) Explore regularly updated data on our website, organized by indication, treatment site, manufacturer, approvals, coverage, and more. •Downloadable PDF Report The traditional report format provides a complete snapshot of the field, along with historical context and long-term trends, perfect for in-depth analysis and reference. Learn more: ow.ly/k9hY50WHz1K