Tootfinder

One of the things that made organizing a lot easier with the GDC was a thing called "GDC in a box." It was a zip file with all kinds of resources. There was a directory structure, templates for all kinds of things like meetings and paperwork you had to file (for legal reasons) and "read me" files.
We had all kinds of support. There were people you could talk to who had been there. There were people you could call to walk through legal paperwork (taxes). Centralized orgs are vulnerable and easy to infiltrate. They're easy for states to shut down. But there are benefits to org structures.
I think it's possible to have the type of support we had with the GDC, but without the politics of an org (even the IWW). I hope this most recent essay has some of the same properties. I hope that it makes building something new, something no one has really imagined before, easier.
This whole project is something a bit different. It's a collective vision and collective project, from the ground up. Some of it has felt like a brain dump, just getting things that have been swimming around in my head down somewhere. But I hope this feels more like an invitation.
Everything thus far written is all useless unless people do things with it. Only from that point does it become a thing that lives, a thing with its own consciousness that can't be controlled by any individual human.
Tech billionaire cultists want to bring a new era of humanity with AGI. That is definitely not possible with LLMs, and may not be possible at all. But there is a super intelligence that is possible, though it's been constrained by capitalism: collective human intelligence.
The grand vision of the tech dystopians is that of the ultimate slave that can then enslave all humans on their behalf. I think we can build a humanity that can liberate itself from their grasp, crush their vision, and build for itself a world in which people will never be enslaved again. Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's necessary. I think there are only two choices: collective liberation or death.
And that's what I plan to write about next time to wrap this whole project up. Today things often feel impossible. But people talked about the Middle Ages as though they were the end of the world, and then everything changed in unimaginable ways. Everything can, and will, change again.
"The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings."

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave U.S. behind https://www.statnews.com/2025/12/17/research-cuts-fuel-scientific-brain-drain-american-science-shattered/ "A large part of what we loved about the United States i…

Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave U.S. behind
“A large part of what we loved about the United States is no longer there”: Amid talk of a brain drain, some scientists leave the U.S. behind.

Study Finds 40% of fMRI Brain Scans Misread Neural Activity
https://ground.news/article/study-finds-40-of-fmri-brain-scans-misread-neural-activity_7aa5a7

A movie that is forever burned into my brain is Conspiracy (2001), which is a recreation of the Wannsee conference, were the Nazis decided to kill all Jews is Europe.
The banality of it while they haggle about questions of "legality" and having turf wars while they plan one of the biggest genocides in history is suffocating.
A very timely movie right now if you can stomach it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(2001_film)

I feel yucky so im eating sorbet
also my brain is fundamentally broken bc when I went to grab it out the freezer for a split second I thought that picture of a raspberry was the premier league logo.
my brain is a football and there is no saving me

The tv at this tire Shoppe is set to local network affiliate.
Holy crap is tv Morning Show insipid meaningless crap. Like my brain wants to escape. Beautiful perky hosts, with big dad joke rizz, showing tiktok videos in between massively distilled news pieces that are so meatless they're vegan.
The meteorologist is the least flake, they actually have a post-sec degree.
Ok thank for mobile devices, I can choose my own brain rot.

I’ve decided to take a little break from social media for the foreseeable future. It feels like the right moment to slow down, breathe, and let my brain wander in some quieter corners for a while. Knowing myself, I might not stay away for too long, I tend to miss everyone and the little bursts of connection that happen here.

Series B, Episode 12 - The Keeper
FOOL: [Singing] I sing you of the Tents, my Master, Charl of the Goths, I sing you of the golden tents, Where your fathers wait to greet you...
BLAKE: [Examining the talisman] It's gone, the brain print's gone!
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/212/515…

though there was that one sunday where he was playing a song where the singer had a thick accent & the chorus was "jah no dead" & my blurry morning brain thought they were singing my last name & i was having a stroke or something. #nyc #radio

"Now China is doing it again. This time with Brain-Computer Interfaces." https://velcodar.substack.com/p/the-shenzhen-precedent-how-chinas The Shenzhen precedent: How China's 5-year BCI plan could shape neurotech's future.

The Shenzhen Precedent: How China's 5-Year BCI Plan Could Shape Neurotech's Future
I spent last week in Shenzhen while speaking at the Blender Conference.

This page has several very interesting optical illusions about how our eyes create motion blur ("persistence of vision"). For a split second the brain retains an image from the past and merges it with the current (*) image. Enough to make special black and white patterns smear into a solid shape.
https://testufo.com/eyetracking<…

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@jimfl/115560110273697988
Subconsciously do mental arithmetic as you read the timeline. Bits of exercises for the brain cells while consuming content 🤔

A look at Cybathlon, an event by ETH Zurich where researchers team up with people with disabilities in a competition to test brain-computer interfaces (Oliver Whang/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/scien…

At the Cybathlon, May the Best Brain-Computer Interface Win
Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.

*Me staring at a pair of leggings with elaborate Celtic knotwork on the thighs and calves and wanting*
My brain: “you know this is a scam, right? That would take hours and hours of work on the part of a costumer, like how you used to be? And they’re $30‽ c’mon!”
Me: “shut up brain”

AI tools could make companies less competitive because everyone buys the same brain, think tank CEO says - Business Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-tools-could-make-companies-less-competitive-think-tank-ceo-2026-1

We have reached a stage where we have to turn to the jesters for truth.
From: @…
https://flipboard.com/@thenewsdesk/cel

I've just had the misfortune of reading yet another smug, somewhat revered book "explaining" music, this time with all the same problems as most of the others.
It tricked me with its title: 'Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination'.
Some choice excerpts:
"Composers working with [non-Western] scales must labor harder to devise deep musical relations, their melodies will prosper more by contour than harmony, and ultimately…

If Tom Brady and the Raiders want to end the losing, call Mike Tomlin https://raiderramble.com/2026/01/13/if-tom-brady-and-the-raiders-want-to-end-the-losing-call-mike-tomlin/

Professor Obvious theorizes that the difference is related to how the substances interact with areas of the brain
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/dec/13/psychedelics-ocd-treatment-psilocybin

Psychedelic treatments show promise for OCD while cannabis doesn’t, review finds
Psychiatry professor theorizes that the difference is related to how the substances interact with areas of the brain

A body made entirely of head-like organs
Using state-of-the-art single-cell and gene expression analyses, the researchers mapped the cell types of young post-metamorphic sea urchins.
They found that the adult body plan is largely "head-like."
Genes that in other animals define trunk structures are active only in internal organs such as the gut and the water vascular system.
In sea urchins, a true trunk region is missing altogether.
An 'all-body brain&…

Researchers discover an 'all-body brain' in sea urchins
An international team of researchers, including scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, has uncovered a surprisingly complex nervous system in sea urchins. The animals appear to possess an "all-body brain" whose genetic organization resembles that of the vertebrate brain. The team also identified light-sensitive cells distributed across the entire body—comparable to structures found in the human retina.

Instead of invasive electrodes (Neuralink Blindsight) or ultrasound ( invasive irreversible gene therapy and/or neural dust, Merge Labs), The vOICe vision BCI uses audible sound and is completely noninvasive https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm and it works, gives functional v…

🐭 High-speed imaging tracks live brain cell activity in awake mice
#brain

High-speed imaging tracks live brain cell activity in awake mice
A research team from the School of Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has achieved a breakthrough in brain imaging by developing the world's first technology to capture high-resolution images of the brains of awake experimental mice in a nearly noninvasive manner.

Shitposters, Assemble!
https://fedidevs.com/s/NjQ5/

Shitposters of the Fediverse - Mastodon Starter Pack
Posters that primarily post jokes, likely with some level of internet-poisoned brain rot. (Some politics and other interests may be included) Many (but not all) are users who were/are on bluesky.

#matsodon , this is part of why your friends think it's too hard & everyone stays on X or Twitter or tries out BSky.
I *JUST* want to like someone's post. I just want to give them a small amount of happy-brain-chemicals & thank them for what they wrote. Why do I have to log in again? I'm already logged in!
Yes, if I wanted to quote their stuff, I see the dangers, I could be trying to do a pile on. But I just want to give them a ⭐️. Why make it so hard???

Parallel Neuron Groups in the Drosophila Brain
Robert Worden
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10525 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.10525 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.10525
arXiv:2512.10525v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The full connectome of an adult Drosophila enables a search for novel neural structures in the insect brain. I describe a new neural structure, called a Parallel Neuron Group (PNG). Two neurons are called parallel if they share a significant number of input neurons and output neurons. Most pairs of neurons in the Drosophila brain have very small parallel match. There are about twenty larger groups of neurons for which any pair of neurons in the group has a high match. These are the parallel groups. Parallel groups contain only about 1000 out of the 65,000 neurons in the brain, and have distinctive properties. There are groups in the right mushroom bodies, the antennal lobes, the lobula, and in two central neuropils (GNG and EB). Most parallel groups do not have lateral symmetry. A group usually has one major input neuron, which inputs to all the neurons in the group, and a small number of major output neurons. The major input and output neurons are laterally asymmetric. Parallel neuron groups present puzzles, such as: what does a group do, that could not be done by one larger neuron? Do all neurons in a group fire in synchrony, or do they perform different functions? Why are they laterally asymmetric? These may merit further investigation.
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Was thinking that my wife's frequent use of Duolingo had made the Duoling sound permanently worm its way into my brain. I kept hearing the sound. It turns out it was notificatinos on my iPhone, with volume set to really low.

Misplaced neurons reveal the brain's adaptability https://www.sflorg.com/2026/01/ns01162601.html Position-independent emergence of neocortical neuron molecular identity, connectivity and function

Misplaced Neurons Reveal the Brain’s Adaptability
Can the brain keep working when its architecture changes?

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Today’s one small action to push SF progressives away from the embrace of car brain.
All candidates who have filed in that district oppose the park, so it’s an easy call that she would be my first place vote if I lived there, regardless. But unless that stance changes, am I spending my precious time on her campaign? Nah. #sfpol

The fact that I instinctively searched for Pano Scrobbler without even thinking proves my brain is hardwired to scrobble everything I play.
They’ve got builds for Android.apk, Linux.AppImage, and Windows.exe.
https://github.com/kawaiiDango/pano-scrobbler

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on #BBC6Music's #HuwStephens
Cypress Hill:
🎵 Insane In The Brain
#CypressHill
https://fefotheghost.bandcamp.com/track/cypress-hill-insane-in-the-brain-fefo-edit
https://open.spotify.com/track/6DtVPEJXQxDp7nn3Kp076o

from my link log —
The race to create a perfect lie detector, and the dangers of succeeding.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/05/the-race-to-create-a-perfect-lie-detector-and-the-dangers-of-succee…

I finally replaced the battery in my AirTag, but now I am left with the dead battery that I need to dispose of.
I'm likely to forget to take it to the supermarket's recycling box, and my brain is still locked in the "don't leave it laying around, or my child might eat it", even though he's 11 now 😅

@…
I haven't seen latest Star Wars (because latest Star Wars stories are for brain dead) and I haven't seen Hidden Fortress, but just by looking at pictures I must ask - what are the similarities?🤔

The 49ers are flawed. Can Kyle Shanahan's brain be the difference? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6952661/2026/01/08/49ers-playoffs-kyle-shanahan-christian-mccaffrey/

We presented “Advancing Vulnerability Tracking and Disclosure Through an Open and Distributed Platform” at the excellent @…
#cve #vulnerability

Oh dear lord, my husband offered me a taste of a new non-alcoholic beer with grapefruit — that was probably the worst thing I've tasted in a long, long time. All my facial features kind of gathered around the nose.
Beer and grape — that's a hard no. I've not had this much facial exercise in a long time! I was so surprised how every thought I had in my brain just fled, like they couldn't stand the taste either. What a monstrosity. The beer. The husband is nice.

Ĉu pensado dependas de lingvo? Aperas pli da atestaĵo ke la respondo estas ne.
(angle):
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-polyglot-neuroscientist-resolving-how-the-brain-parses-language-20251205/

The Polyglot Neuroscientist Resolving How the Brain Parses Language | Quanta Magazine
Is language core to thought, or a separate process? For 15 years, the neuroscientist Ev Fedorenko has gathered evidence of a language network in the human brain — and has found some similarities to LLMs.

If you are an anti-fascist, you are against petroleum. Petroleum funds fascism globally. It is at the heart of the military industrial complex driving global imperialism, from both the US and Russia. Motonormitivity is fascist, both in it's elitist roots and in it's ties to historical fascism (Hitler hated bikes, just on principle). Oil is militarism.
Oil is the dominant resource which drives war, both in terms of it being the primary spoil wars are fought over and in terms of fueling the military vehicles and weapons that carry out those wars. Practically every war since (and including) WWII has been over oil. Genocides are carried out to secure oil. Gaza is over oil, in more ways than one.
Oil is the absolute enemy, and AI is simply an extension of that: an attempt to atomize us so we can't resist the oil-centric global order, one last grasp at the control over our lives oil has given to those whose power is now threatened by a solar punk future.
"I haven't written for a few weeks now. As I write the closing chapter and begin rewriting previous sections, everything feels both more distant and more immediate. The working title [Kairos] has only continued to feel more and more resonant, both during the writing and during my pause."
Now is the time to resist by making something different, by creating a world fundamentally opposed to these systems of oppression.
This is the last in my Kairos series. From here on out I'll be editing to try and make it more of a book than a series of posts. Thanks to everyone who has helped so far. All editing is welcome (typos, spell checks, questions and challenges). Between ADHD and dyslexia, it's always hard for my brain to notice mistakes in my own text so I always appreciate the support of those who can.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/kairos

Ok, here's my story pitch:
Unbeknownst to Bond, his brain was encased in a special capsule inside his skull by circa 1997 Q and survived the explosion.
Due to a series of hilarious mishaps, the brain capsule ends up in a new host made up of various body parts of his former nemesises, including the ears of Blofeld's cat.

Heads Up With Em
The series will highlight themes of resilience, survival, and gaining a new perspective on life, while offering a resource for those currently battling brain cancer...
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: https://www.greataustralianpods.com/heads-up-with-e…

Lego unveils the Smart Play platform, with a brick powered by a custom chip that connects to compatible minifigures and tags for interactive lights and sounds (Jeremy White/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/lego-smart-brick-new-digital-brain/

Lego’s Smart Brick Gives the Iconic Analog Toy a New Digital Brain
The new sensor-packed Smart Play Brick will land this spring as part of a special Star Wars collection. The update adds interactive lights and sound to the Lego experience—including the Minifigs.

Surprise !
https://futurism.com/health-medicine/kim-kardashian-doctor-finds-holes-brain-low-activity

Interesting article from The Guardian about the idea of distinct phases or eras of human brain development.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/nov/25/brain-human-cognitive-development-life-stages-cambridge-study

recent-ish reading/rereading. #books

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #DriveTime
The Flaming Lips:
🎵 Love Yer Brain
#TheFlamingLips
https://aaronaylor.bandcamp.com/track/love-yer-brain-flaming-lips-cover
https://open.spotify.com/track/348dXYe4mYFTshWR4Ly2ST

WIRED, 2004: The long tail https://www.wired.com/2004/10/tail/ Will The vOICe vision BCI cover more of the long tail of blindness cases than brain implants, retinal implants and optogenetics combined? Think of developing countries, types of blindness, device lifetime, etc. Economy of abundance vs Pareto…

The Long Tail
Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 112890 edges.
Tags: Biol…

😧 Astringent, sharper mind: Flavanols can trigger brain activity for memory and stress response
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-astringent-sharper-mind-flavanols-trigger.html

Astringent, sharper mind: Flavanols can trigger brain activity for memory and stress response
Astringency is a dry, puckering, rough, or sandpapery sensation in the mouth caused by plant-derived polyphenols. Polyphenols, including flavanols, are well known for risk reduction in cardiovascular diseases.

While Elon Musk is pushing hard to get the Neuralink Blindsight brain implant out, The vOICe vision BCI can grow organically, no matter how long it takes https://www.artificialvision.com/neuralink.htm Applied psychohistory

I've seen many posts about headmates and plural personalities on fedi, and I get it, but my personal experience is dozens of identical Cats (me) all talking at the same time.
Maybe it's just my ADHD, but for me it's like being possessed by yourself (if that makes sense). Brain is always going 200% speed just not always in the direction I want. 😹

State and Parameter Estimation for a Neural Model of Local Field Potentials
Daniele Avitabile, Gabriel J. Lord, Khadija Meddouni
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07842 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.07842 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.07842
arXiv:2512.07842v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: The study of cortical dynamics during different states such as decision making, sleep and movement, is an important topic in Neuroscience. Modelling efforts aim to relate the neural rhythms present in cortical recordings to the underlying dynamics responsible for their emergence. We present an effort to characterize the neural activity from the cortex of a mouse during natural sleep, captured through local field potential measurements. Our approach relies on using a discretized Wilson--Cowan Amari neural field model for neural activity, along with a data assimilation method that allows the Bayesian joint estimation of the state and parameters. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach on synthetic measurements before applying it to a dataset available in literature. Our findings suggest the potential of our approach to characterize the stimulus received by the cortex from other brain regions, while simultaneously inferring a state that aligns with the observed signal.
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Taking notes from the successes and failures of the Russian revolution, a group of anarchists (including Nestor Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist militant who was critical in defeating the Tzar's army and who later also fought the Red Army) wrote a document titled the "Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists." This document came to be known as "The Platform." It remains one of the most important first-hand revolutionary documents, outlining a clear revolutionary plan.
I've taken this, the Viable System Model from cybernetics, and my own organizing experience, to describe an organization to confront the current set of crises.
This continues to build on the stuff I have been writing, but it's a lot less high level theory and a lot more specific.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/a-solarpunk-fractal-microservices
As always, editing notes (typos, grammar, spelling, etc) are always welcome, as are any questions. My ADHD brain tends to go a lot faster than anything else, so I have a tendency to drop words and have a lot of trouble catching them later. Between my ADHD and mild dyslexia, it can be pretty hard for me to catch when autocorrect gives me the wrong word.
A lot of folks have already been super helpful in offering their editing support, and I'm really grateful. Writing this has felt collaborative, and it should. On the one hand this comes from my own experience and research, but on the other I'm also voicing things that have come from conversations here. This has all been a bit of my voice and a bit of the federated world, and I'm really appreciating that.

🌟 Astrocytes are superstars in the game of long-term memory
#memory

Astrocytes are superstars in the game of long-term memory
Why are we able to recall only some of our past experiences? A new study led by Jun Nagai at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan has an answer. Surprisingly, it turns out that the brain cells responsible for stabilizing memories aren't neurons. Rather, they are astrocytes, a type of glial cell that is usually thought of as a role player in the game of learning and memory.

(PDF on Zenodo) White paper: Comparing The vOICe vision BCI for the blind with Neuralink Blindsight and other brain implants for restoring vision #BCI

#Blakes7 Series B, Episode 10 - Voice from the Past
AVON: The human brain.
ORAC: Correct.
CALLY: A telepathic order was beamed to Blake to force him to reroute to that asteroid.
ORAC: As you yourself foresaw.
AVON: So tell us something new.

A new study suggests that #dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain.
Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive,
disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue.
When the missing molecule was restored, normal blood flow returned.
This discovery opens the door to new treatments aimed at fixing vascular problems in …

Scientists found a way to restore brain blood flow in dementia
A new study suggests that dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain. Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive, disrupting circulation and starving brain tissue. When the missing molecule was restored, normal blood flow returned. This discovery opens the door to new treatments aimed at fixing vascular problems in dementia.

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

Advancing credibility and transparency in brain-to-image reconstruction research: Reanalysis of Koide-Majima, Nishimoto, and Majima https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07960 by @… et al.;

Advancing credibility and transparency in brain-to-image reconstruction research: Reanalysis of Koide-Majima, Nishimoto, and Majima (Neural Networks, 2024)
A recent high-profile study by Koide-Majima et al. (2024) claimed a major advance in reconstructing visual imagery from brain activity using a novel variant of a generative AI-based method. However, our independent reanalysis reveals multiple methodological concerns that raise questions about the validity of their conclusions. Specifically, our evaluation demonstrates that: (1) the reconstruction results are biased by selective reporting of only the best-performing examples at multiple levels; …

Anyone interested in following along with the brain dump before it's completely edified can feel free. It's the same one I've posted before.
Editing support (typos, corrections, questions) is always welcome.
https://anarchoccultism.org/building-zion/
Edit:
FYI, I've temporarily renamed it "Rainforest" but WriteFreely doesn't really support changing URLs or titles very well so it's stuck until I finish it. The temporary name is "Rainforest" because it's roughly the opposite of Desert. It is not simply optimistic rather than pessimistic... it's a plan.

Allometric scaling of brain activity explained by avalanche criticality
Tiago S. A. N. Sim\~oes, Jos\'e S. Andrade Jr., Hans J. Herrmann, Stefano Zapperi, Lucilla de Arcangelis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.10834 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.10834 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.10834
arXiv:2512.10834v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Allometric scaling laws, such as Kleiber's law for metabolic rate, highlight how efficiency emerges with size across living systems. The brain, with its characteristic sublinear scaling of activity, has long posed a puzzle: why do larger brains operate with disproportionately lower firing rates? Here we show that this economy of scale is a universal outcome of avalanche dynamics. We derive analytical scaling laws directly from avalanche statistics, establishing that any system governed by critical avalanches must exhibit sublinear activity-size relations. This theoretical prediction is then verified in integrate-and-fire neuronal networks at criticality and in classical self-organized criticality models, demonstrating that the effect is not model-specific but generic. The predicted exponents align with experimental observations across mammal species, bridging dynamical criticality with the allometry of brain metabolism. Our results reveal avalanche criticality as a fundamental mechanism underlying Kleiber-like scaling in the brain.
toXiv_bot_toot

📉 The loser's brain: How neuroscience controls social behavior
#brain

The loser's brain: How neuroscience controls social behavior
Social hierarchies are everywhere—think of high school dramas, where the athletes are portrayed as the most popular, or large companies, where the CEO makes the important decisions. Such hierarchies aren't just limited to humans, but span the animal kingdom, with dominant individuals getting faster food access, higher mating priority, and bigger or better territories. While it's long been thought that winning or losing can influence the position of an individual within a social hierarchy, the…

The next frontier for AI is the human brain #noninvasive

The Next Frontier For AI Is The Human Brain
Brain-computer interfaces will play a central role in defining how human intelligence and artificial intelligence fit together.

Synchron, whose brain implant is inserted through the circulatory system, avoiding invasive brain surgery, raised a $200M Series D at a nearly $1B valuation (Ike Swetlitz/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-…

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 54480 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

Wireless device uses light patterns to deliver information directly to the brain https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-wireless-device-patterns-brain.html
Patterned wireless transcranial optogenetics generates artificial perception (in mice)

Wireless device uses light patterns to deliver information directly to the brain
In a new leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics, Northwestern University scientists have developed a wireless device that uses light to send information directly to the brain—bypassing the body's natural sensory pathways.

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

So in another dream I just woke up from, I was talking to someone about "the idea problem" (that it's becoming harder to monitize ideas, from a vox article written by an AI cooked reporter).
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-it-could-happen-here-30717896/episode/executive-disorder-white-house-weekly-46-313675864/
Basically, I was arguing that the majority of inventions target men because patriarchy puts economic control in men's hands. As men have started to help more with childcare, there have been more inventions related to childcare. (I don't have any idea if this is true. Seems legit, but I'm just relating my dream. I think I was also oversimplifying a bit to "men" and "women" because of my audience, but anyway it was a dream.) There's actually more low-hanging fruit, I pointed out, related to making care work easier.
So I argued that the real problem was a failure to invest in research into solving that problem. Today there are all these boondoggles built around killing people. What if, instead of all this government research into killing people, we dumped a ton of money into making it easier to support a household? That would be great for the economy. (Being asleep, I seem to have forgotten that working people need money.)
In the blur of being just awake I started thinking about how you could kickstart the US economy by taking the money from the AI boondoggle and other autonomous murder bots and create something like a program to build robots for housekeepers. You'd still be funding tech with government money, so the same horrible people get paid, but you're now actually solving real problems. It wouldn't even matter if it was a boondoggle, honestly. Just dumping money into something other than murdering people is good enough.
I imagined first if there was a program to fund a robot housecleaner, like robot dog with AI some laundry pickup, that would be provided, free of charge, to help people with children. It would work the same as the military boondoggle where a private company makes the government buy a piece of hardware from them and then also pay them to service it for some number of years. But instead of that hardware sitting around waiting to kill someone, it would be getting brought to people's houses to help them.
Then I thought, hey, you could even boost the economy more if you just had government funding for doulas and housecleaners and paid them a living wage. Hey, you could really kickstart the economy by nationalizing healthcare and including doula support as part of all births. Oh, and you could also just include the optional household help for families with children until the kids turn 18.
None of this is perfect (I don't actually think most of this is possible from any state), but the point is that it's actually wildly easy to figure out all kinds of ways to invest in the economy and monitize ideas as long as you aren't entirely focused on the same old "make money from spying on people and killing them." Funny that. Like they said in the podcast, maybe "finding ideas" isn't the problem.
Hope you enjoyed the weird semi-awake brain dump/rant.

Manifolds and Modules: How Function Develops in a Neural Foundation Model
Johannes Bertram, Luciano Dyballa, T. Anderson Keller, Savik Kinger, Steven W. Zucker
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07869 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.07869 https://arxiv.org/html/2512.07869
arXiv:2512.07869v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Foundation models have shown remarkable success in fitting biological visual systems; however, their black-box nature inherently limits their utility for under- standing brain function. Here, we peek inside a SOTA foundation model of neural activity (Wang et al., 2025) as a physiologist might, characterizing each 'neuron' based on its temporal response properties to parametric stimuli. We analyze how different stimuli are represented in neural activity space by building decoding man- ifolds, and we analyze how different neurons are represented in stimulus-response space by building neural encoding manifolds. We find that the different processing stages of the model (i.e., the feedforward encoder, recurrent, and readout modules) each exhibit qualitatively different representational structures in these manifolds. The recurrent module shows a jump in capabilities over the encoder module by 'pushing apart' the representations of different temporal stimulus patterns; while the readout module achieves biological fidelity by using numerous specialized feature maps rather than biologically plausible mechanisms. Overall, we present this work as a study of the inner workings of a prominent neural foundation model, gaining insights into the biological relevance of its internals through the novel analysis of its neurons' joint temporal response patterns.
toXiv_bot_toot

🤯 Brain activity goes to extremes in soccer fans, neuroimaging reveals
#sports

Brain activity goes to extremes in soccer fans, neuroimaging reveals
Studying brain patterns in soccer fans, researchers found that certain circuit regions of the brain were activated while viewing soccer matches involving their favorite team, triggering positive and negative emotions and behaviors, according to a new study published in Radiology. The researchers say these patterns could apply to other types of fanaticism as well, and that the circuits are forged early in life.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

🐦‍⬛ A 'bird's eye view' of how human brains operate
#brain

A 'bird's eye view' of how human brains operate
A new study provides the best evidence to date that the connection patterns between various parts of the human brain can tell scientists the specialized functions of each region.

Neuralink set to launch 'high-volume' brain implant production as competitors weigh in https://thedebrief.org/neuralink-set-to-launch-high-volume-brain-implant-production-as-competitors-weigh-in/

Neuralink Set to Launch ‘High-Volume’ Brain Implant Production as Competitors Weigh In
Science, Tech and Defense for the Rebelliously Curious.

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

✨ Noninvasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain's lymphatic system
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-noninvasive-approach-boosting-brain-lymphatic.html

Noninvasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain's lymphatic system
Scientists from Monash University are partnering with colleagues at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., to develop a new, high-tech approach for treating ischemic stroke by enhancing removal of toxic waste products from the brain.

The vOICe web app is the richest functional vision option for the totally blind that is just one click away - no brain surgery, and for free https://www.seeingwithsound.com/webvoice/webvoice.htm but yes, it's like learning a new language, or braille, or chess, or...

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

Can a visual neuroprosthesis communicate with the brain? https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/can-visual-neuroprosthesis-communicate-brain-2025a1000yhe Archived at

Can a Visual Neuroprosthesis Communicate With the Brain?
A closed-loop cortical implant generates functional percepts of shape, motion, and letters in two individuals with acquired blindness.

cintestinalis: Tadpole larva brain (C. intestinalis)
Entire connectivity matrix for the complete brain of a larva of Ciona intestinalis. Each directed edge represents a synaptic connection from pre-synaptic cell i to post-synaptic cell j (may not be a neuron). Edge weights represent the cumulative depth of presynaptic contacts in µm.
This network has 205 nodes and 2903 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted

🦥 Long-term calorie restriction may slow normal brain aging
#diet …

Long-term calorie restriction may slow normal brain aging
As the brain ages, cells in the central nervous system experience metabolic dysfunction and increased oxidative damage. These cellular issues impair the ability to maintain the myelin sheath (the protective covering around nerve fibers), which leads to age-related white matter degradation.

Revolutionary 65,536-electrode wireless brain-computer interface #BCI

Revolutionary 65,536-Electrode Wireless Brain-Computer Interface
In a groundbreaking development poised to revolutionize the field of neurotechnology, researchers have unveiled a sophisticated brain-computer interface (BCI) that integrates an impressive array of

The ethical frontiers of brain-computer interfaces #BCI

The Ethical Frontiers of Brain-Computer Interfaces
The challenge is not just to minimize harm, but to make choices that expand human flourishing rather than reduce us to more efficient workers or more predictable consumers.

🧁 Tiny sugars in the brain disrupt emotional circuits, fueling depression
#brain

Tiny sugars in the brain disrupt emotional circuits, fueling depression
Depression is a serious disorder that disrupts daily life through lethargy, sleep disturbance, and social withdrawal, and also increases the risk of suicide. The number of depression patients has steadily increased over the years, affecting more than 280 million people worldwide as of 2025. Now, researchers have uncovered a new pathological mechanism that could provide clues for the diagnosis and treatment of depression.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

In the context of visual prostheses for the blind, more scientists should be working on "mental imagery engineering" to nudge the human brain toward making the best of degraded or transformed visual input https://www.google.com/search?q="mental imagery engineering"

fly_hemibrain: Fly hemibrain (2020)
A synaptic map of the hemibrain connectome of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using EM reconstruction techniques. Neurons are labeled by their type. Edges are annotated by the connection strength between the neurons.
This network has 21739 nodes and 4259624 edges.
Tags: Biological, Connectome, Weighted, Metadata

Tricks for using Google Gemini Live AI scene description in combination with The vOICe visual-to-auditory sensory substitution for the blind #blind

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 54480 edges.
Tags: Biolo…

RE: https://mas.to/@seeingwithsound/115694827245576278
The vOICe vision BCI has the same goal of providing functional vision, without the brain surgery and brain implant

budapest_connectome: Budapest Reference Connectome 3.0
A parameterizable consensus brain graph, derived from connectomes of 477 people, each computed from MRI datasets of the Human Connectome Project. Nodes are brain regions, and edges are weighted by the number of "tracks" that run between two nodes, as well as fiber length, fractional anisotropy and the number of occurrences in each of the 477 individuals.
This network has 1015 nodes and 112890 edges.
Tags: Biol…

(YouTube) Samarth by Hyundai: The vOICe vision BCI in India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtgpoT3eff0&t=692s Will Neuralink Blindsight and other brain implants for restoring vision ever work for congenitally blind people? Probably not.

fly_larva: Drosophila larva brain (2023)
A complete synaptic map of the brain connectome of the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Nodes are neurons, and edges are synaptic connections, traced individually from brain image sections using three-dimensional electron microscopy–based reconstruction. Node metadata include the neuron hempisphere, hemispherical homologue, cell type, annotations, and inferred cluster. Edge metadata include the type of interaction (`'aa'`,…

TIME: Computer chips in our bodies could be the future of medicine https://time.com/7330887/brain-computer-chips-future-of-medicine/ (archived at https://

Computer Chips in Our Bodies Could Be the Future of Medicine. These Patients Are Already There
The brain-computer interface is real. It's changing lives—and could soon change the world.

Northwestern University: Wireless device 'speaks' to the brain with light (in mice) https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/12/wireless-device-speaks-to-the-brain-with-light "Implant could restore lost senses, provide sensory …

Wireless device ‘speaks’ to the brain with light
In a new leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics, Northwestern University scientists have developed a wireless device that uses light to send information directly to the brain — bypassing the body’s natural sensory pathways.

(LinkedIn) As of today, not only the Neuralink Blindsight brain implant has FDA Breakthrough Device Designation, but also ReVision Implant https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frederikceyssens_with-great-pleasure-im-announcing-that…

(2024) Rapid desensitization to retinally stabilized flickering stimuli https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2797077 To the extent that mechanisms for perceptual fading are in the brain it could have consequences for visual cortical prostheses.

Consensus AI: Why will The vOICe sensory substitution defeat Neuralink Blindsight and other brain implants for restoring vision? https://consensus.app/search/why-will-the-voice-sensory-substitution-defeat-neu/dWrnJDjIR9uP48YkWTX_Ag/

Why will The vOICe sensory substitution defeat Neuralink Blindsight and other brain implants for restoring vision? - Consensus
Restoring vision in blind individuals can be approached through invasive brain implants (like Neuralink or visual prostheses) or non-invasive sensory substitution devices (SSDs) such as The vOICe, which converts visual information into sound. Each method has distinct strengths and limitations. Current evidence suggests that sensory substitution devices like The vOICe offer unique advantages in safety, flexibility, and practical visual rehabilitation, but do not fully replicate natural vision.