Andrew Reid PhD

In neuroscience, the conversation around the term "functional connectivity" can be confusing, largely due to the implicit notion that associations can map directly onto physical connections. In our recent Nature Neuroscience perspective piece, we propose the redefinition of this term as a causal inference, in order to refocus the conversation around how we investigate brain connectivity, and interpret the results of such investigations.

In the movie Limitless, Bradley Cooper stars as a down-and-out writer who happens across a superdrug that miraculously heightens his cognitive abilities, including memory recall, creativity, language acquisition, and action planning. It apparently also makes his eyes glow with an unnerving and implausible intensity. In this blog entry, I explore this intriguing possibility from a neuroscientific perspective.

The term "connectome" was introduced in a seminal 2005 PNAS article, as a sort of analogy to the genome. However, unlike genomics, the methods available to study human connectomics remain poorly defined and difficult to interpret. In particular, the use of diffusion-weighted imaging approaches to estimate physical connectivity is fraught with inherent limitations, which are often overlooked in the quest to publish "connectivity" findings. Here, I provide a brief commentary on these issues, and highlight a number of ways neuroscience can proceed in light of them.

Exaptation refers to the tendency across evolution to recycle existing mechanisms for new and more complex functions. By analogy, this is likely how episodic memory — and indeed many of our higher level neural processes — evolved from more basic functions such as spatial navigation. Here I explore these ideas in light of the current evidence.

Publishers of scientific articles have been slow to adapt their business models to the rapid evolution of scientific communication — mostly because there is profit in dragging their feet. I explore the past, present, and future of this important issue.

Musings on who I am, where I came from, and where I'm going as a Neuroscientist.