Mark Lescroart
Computational cognitive neuroscientist at University of Nevada, Reno. Uses fMRI to study visual representations of objects, scenes, and bodies, and how attention affects them. Dad. Nerd since before it was cool. Likes pretty science pictures & puns. He/him
- Reposted by Mark LescroartI finally got around to setting up a lab website! Have a look: the-steel-lab.github.io Just in time to start the new semester.
- Reposted by Mark LescroartThis paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
- Would love to hear expert views on this paper. It appears to show that the operationalization of brain activity the field has relied on for 3 decades—the BOLD response—is not actually a sensible measure of brain activity. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Mark LescroartWell, this is an utter disaster for science. This gutting of peer review is very likely driven by Project 2025/OMB/Vought, very likely is about funding junk science, and very likely is coming for #NIH and biomedical research next. 🧪
- NSF plans to streamline merit review to heal self-inflicted staffing wound www.science.org/content/arti...
- *shudder* Also, I feel like there is an analogy to LLMs here…
- Reposted by Mark Lescroart"With the news that the administration plans to link the COVID vaccine to child deaths using data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), it’s worth revisiting how we actually detect whether a vaccine is causing harm." Excellent explainer from @drjenndowd.bsky.social from 9/2025😷🛟🧪
- Reposted by Mark LescroartLike you I am celebrating Tuesday's victories. However, my job is not to sugarcoat things and tell you it's all fixed. It is to warning about what to expect next and fight back. That is why I wrote this and why I hope you read and share. www.democracydocket.com/opinion/what...
- I am glad about the election results, but yes this 👇👇👇
- *siiiiigh* what hope do any of us have, in the face of this? www.npr.org/2025/10/31/n...
- Not a Dodgers fan - but man, that was some good baseball
- 😞
- Job announcement! UN Reno Psychology (Cognitive & Brain Sciences division) is hiring for a tenure-track position. Come join us! We have a great group! Deadline December 1. Please share! nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external... #neuroskyence #neuroscience
- Refreshingly clear: the hypocrisy is the point.
- 👇👇👇
- Reposted by Mark LescroartI didn't take pics but the feeling of being in a group of people with no visible beginning or end was so thrilling. The opposite of online anomie, and a living counterpoint to the wary, isolated, compartmentalized world the shitheads want to make. It's simple and obvious I guess but it means a lot.
- Hell yes Reno. #NoKings
- 💯
- Some Halloween Humor amidst the Terrible Trump Truth. Incredible work by @ellecordova.bsky.social
- If you like this demo, you will love the great demos by @pezlarson.bsky.social that can be found here: larsonlab.github.io/MRI-educatio... (Complete with python code to generate them!)
- Nice demo by Mark Lescroart @neuromdl.bsky.social on EPI imaging of a single #fMRI slice. Great for teaching! :) vimeo.com/143701608?fl...
- Whoa dude.
- A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue. The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea. From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt: arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
- Reposted by Mark LescroartSometimes I just think things. Maybe talk with my wife or a friend about them. Phone doesn't even enter into it.
- Reposted by Mark LescroartThe GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
- What an ugly world this administration wants to create. www.npr.org/2025/08/26/n...
- This is upsetting and clear and true. Quoting the Declaration of Independence is spot on.
- It’s here. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/america-ti...
- Reposted by Mark LescroartA pleasant surprise from the Journal of Neuroscience RE the application of the updated NIH public access policy (authors deposit accepted manuscript in PMC, journal retains license to final copyedited version, no requirement to pay OA fee) www.jneurosci.org/content/righ...
- Truck Tetris
- Hell yeah. Love this.
- Tell me again about cutting waste.
- Reposted by Mark Lescroart📣 CALL TO ACTION - Yesterday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee that determines the funding for NSF proposed a 23% cut to NSF’s 2026 budget. If one of these members listed is your representative, use our link to easily call your rep & demand NO CUTS to NSF➡️ actionnetwork.org/call_campaig...
- Welcome news
- Please keep it up, many of us really appreciate it
- YES.
- Reposted by Mark LescroartOut now in TiCS, something i've been thinking about a lot: "Physics vs. graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition" (by Balaban & me) relevant for many people, related to imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, aphantasia, and more authors.elsevier.com/a/1lBaC4sIRv...
- IT’S STONE FRUIT SEASON MOTHERFUCKER
- Still have this set with (I’m pretty sure) all pieces intact. Not in the box, obv. Who does that.
- Reposted by Mark Lescroart[This post could not be retrieved]
- Hey, if you need a breather from the news, we have pretty brain pics to distract you! We made an interactive viewer showing images optimized to elicit responses from different places in the brain. Link to viewer in 🧵
- In a new paper led by @matthewshinkle.bsky.social, we use a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) to model brain activity and to make detailed visualizations of feature selectivity across many brain areas. In plain English: we make pretty pictures of what different parts of the brain like to see.
- 🚨Paper alert!🚨 TL;DR first: We used a pre-trained deep neural network to model fMRI data and to generate images predicted to elicit a large response for each many different parts of the brain. We aggregate these into an awesome interactive brain viewer: piecesofmind.psyc.unr.edu/activation_m...
- In a new paper led by @matthewshinkle.bsky.social, we use a pre-trained deep neural network (DNN) to model brain activity and to make detailed visualizations of feature selectivity across many brain areas. In plain English: we make pretty pictures of what different parts of the brain like to see.
- To do this, we measure the brain with fMRI while people watch movie clips. We then use an encoding model based on a DNN (InceptionV3) and fit to the movie-watching data to predict responses to other movie clips. The accuracy of the predictions tells us we can trust the model to act like the brain.
-
View full threadWhy should you care? We think this viewer provides a powerful tool for exploratory neuroscience, particularly for hypothesis generation, and that this type of visualization provides a raw, direct way to show what elements of natural images are important for particular parts of the brain.
- Reposted by Mark LescroartIf you have not signed please do. If you have signed try to get several others to sign TONIGHT - NIH Director testifies before senate appropriations at 10am ET - lets make sure they know how many people are angry about what has been done to NIH
- Reposted by Mark LescroartHere is a link you can blast out to all of your networks to ask them to consider signing on in support of our NIH heroes. actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na... We are at 5000 folks who have signed on. But we can do better Only for people who have ever been sick or knows someone who has been.
- I confess to worries about consequences. But I signed, publicly. We hang together or we hang separately.
- Hey #VSS2025! First presentation from my lab will be this afternoon! Come check out our work today, tomorrow, and Tuesday!
- This is why I will be a bit late to #VSS2025, but very much looking forward to catching up with colleagues!
- A good thing happened today: congratulations to Dr Matthew Shinkle @matthewshinkle.bsky.social , the first PhD to graduate from my lab!
- A good thing happened today: congratulations to Dr Matthew Shinkle @matthewshinkle.bsky.social , the first PhD to graduate from my lab!
- Enshittification is everywhere.
- Reposted by Mark LescroartTo see why destroying the US science enterprise is so detrimental to the world, we have to realize that the US spends more on research and development than any other country in the world (by far), and if we remove China and Japan, the US spends almost as much as ALL other countries combined.
- A great reminder that the world is often surprisingly and interestingly complex
- Reposted by Mark LescroartI am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com
- Reposted by Mark LescroartBREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Reposted by Mark LescroartNew resource regarding terminated grants
- Reposted by Mark LescroartLike nearly every other action this fascist administration has taken, this is a political wedge issue designed to divide their opponents. Trans sports, antisemitism, DEI: these all split off parts of the Democratic party coalition. So does animal research. That's basically the whole story. /2
- Reposted by Mark Lescroart📢 Today I was supposed to be in DC, highlighting what the NSF Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences delivers to US taxpayers. NSF had one of the highest returns on investment (ROIs) of federal grantors 👏🏻 (1) and NSF SBE funded 63% of US social and psychological science research (2). 🧵
- Making the case very strongly for the economic value of research.
- Silicon Valley tech-bros are destroying the very thing that made them wealthy -- America's global leadership in science, technology, and medical research. @nytimesoped.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/04/28/o...
- Reposted by Mark LescroartThe research enterprise is invaluable. We can easily see its importance in the cures or technologies available today. But sometimes it's difficult to see what research brings to people in the shorter term. Here is one of our participants talking about what it's meant to her. youtu.be/Yn9ywYj3UYQ
- I don't remember the "XUI" part of the login page for research.gov. (sign in link from main page now directs to identity.research.gov/sso/XUI) Am I misremembering? Anyone who knows more about this have any insight about the purpose of the changes this weekend?
- Reposted by Mark LescroartShout out to all the hard working program officers and administration staff holding on at the NSF (and other federal agencies). Your work is appreciated and more meaningful with every passing day.
- Reposted by Mark LescroartOver 100 university, college and scholarly society presidents published a joint statement opposing the Trump administration's treatment of higher education institutions reut.rs/42Vhp3x
- A little levity: Introduced my kids to this little gem of ‘90s culture that has lived rent free in my head for 30+ years, and they loved it. Baby Plucky still slaps. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dkQ...
- 👀😳👀
