Science
This week on the On Your Mind Neuroscience Podcast: The hosts are taking the time to look at their respective big pictures this week, with Kat organizing and analyzing her onslaught of data and Liam working on an outline for his thesis. Fortunately, all this computer time has led to some pretty productive procrastination. While perusing Nature Jobs and Science, Kat’s come across an editorial piece highlighting the pervasiveness of “Imposter Syndrome” in science and a fresh perspective on the concept of “research parasites”. On the other hand, Liam’s been catching up on his Netflix, and a documentary by David Thorpe has his mind tuned to the question of how our voice defines us. Then it’s onto this week’s article. Published in Neuron, this week’s paper uses in utero gene transfection and electrophysiology to show that TCF4, a gene that’s been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders, regulates neuron excitability in the prefrontal cortex. This paper, and it’s sometimes counter-intuitive data, raises more questions than it answers for us, but we’re refreshed by its earnestness.