Opher Donchin

Neuroscientist studying motor control and the physiology of the motor system.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

Many people don't understand the global geopolitical implications. Increases in the demand for As in the US make it vulnerable to bad actors applying strategic pressure on the global supply!

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

“In 712 Harvard course offerings last year, every enrolled undergraduate received an A.”

“In another 532, A’s were common enough that the class would have violated the…newly approved grade cap.”

“Together, those courses made up more than half of all undergraduate course[s].”
https://t.co/gyi89dv500

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

This

[Michael C. Frank @mcxfrank]

Many of us were taught that experiments are for testing hypotheses. In Ch 1 of Experimentology, our open methods textbook, my coauthors and I argue for something different: experiments are for estimating the magnitude of causal effects.

I think this reframe matters. 🧵

[Ronen Segev @ronen_segev]

The Life Sciences Department at BGU (@LsBgu) has an open Tenure Track Position in Systems Neuroscience! Your lab can be somewhere in this building :-)
For more details: https://t.co/zkaofaCSGE

[Hadar Ben-Yoav @benyoav]

We're hiring! Tenure-track faculty position in Systems Neuroscience @bengurionu (BME, all ranks).
Areas: neuroimaging, neural prosthetics, electrophysiology, translational neuroengineering & more.
Apply:
https://t.co/PMxBWQGCqI

#Neuroengineering #AcademicJobs #Neuroscience

[Jonathan Sanching Tsay @tsay.bsky.social @tsay_jonathan]

New article published in Communications Psychology!

Large reaching datasets quantify the impact of age, sex/gender, and experience on motor control.

https://t.co/oSl4FJTnLa

[Josh Goldberg Lab 🇮🇱💔 @GoldbergLab]

excellent new paper breaking a long-standing impasse by the identification of specific behavioral conditions under which CINs are recruited to augment DA release in vivo : Cholinergic modulation of dopamine release drives effortful behaviour https://t.co/B6HaqBBq4P

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @ehudahissar That's ok. It may have run its course.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @ehudahissar Because proving that there are many conditions in which what everyone assumes is actually true isn't nearly as interesting as identifying the places where the common wisdom is wrong.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @ehudahissar That's just ideology and salesmanship. The interesting question is how much we know about where the boundary lies. Separately: how many correlations of what strength would be sufficient to be evidence for causality? IOW: does causality require agency?

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @ehudahissar I think the ms frames the question wrong. Correlation <> Causation is old hat. Correlation suggests there may be causation under the following conditions is much more productive and interesting.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @ehudahissar I'm curious about this being written up quantitatively.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@vineettiruvadi @KordingLab @ehudahissar Isn't that what a predictor is? How about: there may be a correlation between causation and correlation, under appropriate priors about world structure?

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @ehudahissar This is fun. McEleath's Statistical Rethinking has a couple of great chapters on this. It's not what I meant, though. I want the conditions under which correlation is a good predictor for causation as @vineettiruvadi suggests.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi @EhudAhissar (probably not here) says that causality is not a coherent concept for systems in steady state. His talk on this in the sensory domain is really fascinating.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab @vineettiruvadi I'm not sure I've seen any sort of quantitative study of how these things all interact, especially given priors on the natural distribution of prevalence and magnitude of causal effects. Is there something out there?

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

Let’s bring science back to X.

Not influencers. Not grifters.
Just scientists.

Who’s worth following? 👇

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@_alice_evans 1000 miles - The Proclaimers

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@CVakalopoulos @KordingLab Possibly. My question ("how reliable should the literature be, ideally?") may also be the wrong question. What is the right one? I love good questions!

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab There's always tradeoffs. It doesn't have to be black and white or universal. It would be good to encourage them and offer excellent opportunities. Compulsory classes aren't bad but will not create 100% change.

[Opher Donchin @opherdonchin]

@KordingLab Logical clarity seems like an arbitrary standard. I know scientists who consistently identify field changing experiments and can't put together a coherent argument. I know methodological geniuses, too. That also moves the field.