Notices by Dean Burnett (that brains guy) (garwboy@ohai.social)

What makes even your strangest dreams feel familiar, explained by a neuroscientist

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/strange-dreams-neuroscientist-explains

Because it's weird, right? You're dreaming of being upside down in a flaming boat made of fingernails, talking to a bat who's also your mother, and be all like "Yup, this is fine"

Here's why

It's a weird inconsistency. The intimate biological process for why women have less iron in their systems has to be specified. But, in the same sentence, men having reduced zinc is to be accepted at face value.

This is an official scientific paper. Either the details matter, or they don't.
2/3

Maybe we don't know why men would have reduced zinc? Maybe there is no known process whereby significantly high concentrations of zinc would leave the typical man's body on a regular basis?

Or maybe someone just didn't have the balls to flag it up? [Pun intended]

3/3

A rather bizarre example of the gender bias in academic/scientific publishing.

This is is from a systematic review of the efficacy of nutritional supplements.

I flag it up because the reason women may need more iron is specified: menstruation.

But men may need more zinc... just because?
1/3

No, it’s not just a trend: The real reasons adult ADHD and autism diagnoses are on the rise

https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/adult-mental-health

A frustratingly-still-relevant article I wrote for Science Focus magazine

#ADHD #Autism #ND #diagnosis

The first rule of passive-aggressive club is something you really should remember at this point. It's not like this is the first meeting you've attended, after we went to all the trouble of organising them. But no matter, it's fine. Everyone learns at their own pace, I guess.

I'm am absolutely on board with the blunt but long-overdue honesty of this hot drinks machine.

Sorry... [checks notes] 'Genius club' (really?), but based on the choice of image of 'brain scans' alone, I'm going to confidently say this article is almost certainly absolute guff.

This turned out to be even stupider than I expected

1. The MIT study being referred to doesn't say anything of the sort

2. I had to look up the study separately, because there is no article attached to this post. It's literally just this picture! Which is wrong on every level

'Genius club' indeed

Had this t-shirt for a while. Wasn't a fan of it originally, but my wife bought it for me so I had to wear it, and now I really like it.

#Stockholm #IYKYK

Quit Quiet Quitting! The subtle double standards of workplace 'buzzwords'

https://open.substack.com/pub/theneuroscienceofeverydaylife/p/quit-quiet-quitting-the-subtle-double?r=24oxwv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

With 'Quiet Cracking', a new workplace buzzword has entered the discourse. But all these new terms, and especially the reaction to them, reveal some interesting psychology.

#QuietQuitting #Work

Recently got asked one of those default interview questions about "Name someone who inspires you".

I've always struggled with these questions, as I'm not one to put people on pedestals. But then I remembered someone who legitimately inspired me in every way

A former student of mine
1/15

If you're feeling stressed out because of [gestures at world]... everything, and feel like it's making you unwell, you're probably right.

Check out this 'How stress symptoms affect your body', video, on the NHS Scotland site

https://www.nhsinform.scot/mind-to-mind/handling-stress/how-stress-symptoms-affect-your-body/

And yes, it is me who made it.

#Stress #Health

This is my PhD thesis

I did not ask for this

I did not consent to this

I did not approve of this

I was not compensated for this

I would not have advised this

I do not like this

And worst of all, the number of people who've read my thesis has still not increased.

Do. Not. Disturb. The. Mysterious. Ancient. Rune-inscribed. Skull-adorned. Ring. Found. In. The. Idyllic. Countryside.

Seriously, there's a whole book about this. And movies. Long ones!

Random Facebook person shared post saying:

"Amazing! Reform Party now has over 278 MILLION MEMBERS!"

It IS amazing! A UK political party, whose biggest feat is having the fifth most council seats, has a membership 4 times larger than the UK population!

...sorry, not 'amazing', I meant 'Bullshit'

What idiot called it "The masculine tendency to suppress all emotional and nurturing impulses" and not "Scrotal eclipse of the heart"?

Raising a glass tonight to Peter William Burnett, aka Bush, aka The Old Man, aka Dad.

5 years to the day since we lost him to COVID-19, at the very start of the pandemic, at the obscenely young age of 58.
1/21

General call out

If you're a writer/author of any stripe who's been negatively tangibly affected by AI content in some way, and are willing to share this information, please do reach out and let me know. It's for an important thing.

Email me via my site

www.deanburnett.com/contact/

Got a random email from a 19yo in Brazil

Turns out, they'd emailed me at age 14, asking for advice about Neuroscience as a career, after reading my first book. They're now in their first year of medical school, as a result of my response

So yeah, I'll be in the corner processing some emotions