Monthly Archives: January 2022

Neuroscience

Assistant Professor in Mental Health (PSYC22-8) job with DURHAM UNIVERSITY | 278855 – Times Higher Education (THE)

Closing Date: 24th February 2022 at Midnight (UK)

The Department of Psychology at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Assistant Professor. In the current call, we welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of Mental Health. This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing you unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our Department pages at https://www.dur.ac.uk/psychology/

The successful applicants will contribute to our undergraduate programme in Psychology, and join one of our expanding research groups in Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology or Quantitative Social Psychology. We are an interdisciplinary department whose current work in the mental health area is spread across our research groups and includes research on Alzheimer's and dementia, pain management, voice hearing and psychosis, anxiety in developmental disorders, solitude, body image and eating disorders, and prison suicide. These research programmes use a variety of methods and facilities including longitudinal developmental studies, cross-cultural research with hard to reach populations, virtual reality social interactions, mixed methods design, electrophysiology, neuroimaging and behavioural neuroscience.

The Department of Psychology is an internationally recognised centre of research excellence and interdisciplinarity across the breadth of psychological and behavioural science. We are currently ranked in the top 100 of Psychology Departments world-wide according to the QS World Rankings. The department's research groups each lead a taught Masters programme, alongside our prestigious undergraduate programme in Psychology and a new undergraduate programme in Behavioural Science. In addition, the department houses a number of University Research Centres which bring in staff from across the department, university, and region to focus on key research issues. The department's broad approach to the discipline places it in an excellent position to take advantage of emerging opportunities and challenges, and our collegiate approach allows staff to work across research areas to provide novel solutions to global problems.

Durham University is one of the world's top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences. The University sits in a beautiful historic city where it shares ownership of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Cathedral. A collegiate University, Durham recruits outstanding students from across the world and offers an unmatched wider student experience. Less than 3 hours north of London, an hour and a half south of Edinburgh, and ten minutes from the centre of Newcastle, County Durham is a region steeped in history and natural beauty. Close to the Northumberland National park and coastline, the Durham Dales, including the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, our University is situated within truly breath-taking scenery and local attractions

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Assistant Professor in Mental Health (PSYC22-8) job with DURHAM UNIVERSITY | 278855 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Neuroscience

Arete: New Zealand’s first carbon-neutral and off-grid retreat – New Zealand Herald

As the first carbon-neutral retreat in New Zealand, Arete powers its facilities through a solar system. Photo / Supplied

Sophie Trigger finds that the towels are fluffy but the approach - albeit wholly beneficial - is anything but, while staying at Arete for its Women in Leadership Retreat.

A leadership coach and former Defence Force Flight commander has put her 30-year-career into building New Zealand's first carbon-neutral and off-grid retreat, and helping her clients find joy.

Arete Retreat is tucked away in the Tararua Forrest Park just outside Levin, around 100km from Wellington. It took its first group in late 2020.

Balancing a rustic simplicity with the indulgences of home, Arete comforts its guests with soft towels and lovingly-prepared food, while keeping them humble with solar power and non-flushing toilets.

Its creator and "experiential architect" Sally Duxfield says she treats the clients that visit much the same with empathy and warmth, but a drive to bring out the best in them.

This is not a place to come and do yoga and humming for five days, she says.

"I'm not fluffy - what I love is to inspire and drive the action and then hold them accountable," Duxfield said.

"When I'm facilitating, I'm actually really strong about the outcomes, everyone goes out with a strong action plan."

After several decades in the Defence Force and having worked as a leadership consultant with corporate clients, the idea for a retreat began because Duxfield realised she needed something off-grid.

Although she ran survival and resilience training in the wilderness, this didn't suit a lot of her corporate clients, who also needed a place where they could plan.

12 Jan, 2022 04:31 PMQuick Read

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"So I looked and looked, and your options were Bali, Fiji possibly, but there was nothing in New Zealand that was completely carbon neutral and nothing where there were no electrical plugs.

"Everybody could plug in, they could plug in their hair straighteners, plug in their phones."

"They might not be on Wi-Fi but they're still playing candy crush, they're still engaging their brain in gaming, or taking photos they're not present."

She found her answer in part of a pine forest that had been smashed by a storm, near the Makahika outdoor education centre she owned.

Sitting among the tall pine trees she realised she had found the place.

"We own the whole valley bowl here and it always feels like a hand to me it feels like you're sitting in this hand, surrounded by forest."

"It feels like it's a place to sit and put yourself back together again."

To help her clients do that, Duxfield offered her expertise in neuroscience and leadership, helping high-powered professionals take control of their day.

It was crucial they learnt to manage the distractions of Wi-Fi and social media, which she said were key drivers behind a stressed and fatigued generation.

"They're saying in the neuroscience world that today's biggest crisis is that we have a very primal brain, and this technology we haven't quite caught up with," she said.

"We're using it all, but our anxiety is increasing."

Driven by her own Defence Force experience, Duxfield had been motivated to explore why some people were able to cope better with trauma and stress. She began exploring how our neuroscience affects our day-to-day lives.

Of particular concern for Duxfield is the constant stimulation from social media, which floods the brain with the addictive drug dopamine, and makes it harder to switch off, sleep and recover.

Having worked with high-performance athletes such as the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns as well as corporates, Duxfield teaches a four-quadrant model that allows clients to categorise and prioritise tasks.

Clients absorb these lessons with the backdrop of graceful but simplistic facilities - Duxfield said it was important that Arete was not excessive.

"I admire people that have wealth but I hate the excessiveness and arrogance that comes with it," she said.

"I didn't want [Arete] to be flashy or showy I wanted to have an elegance to it, with lovely sheets and beautiful pillows but you still have to walk outside with an umbrella if it's raining to go the bathroom.

"And to have to sprinkle coco-peat and sawdust on your kaka and mimi is very humbling."

"There are millions of people for whom that's their reality and they don't even have a $1300 bamboo loo to do it in they have a hole in the ground or a gutter."

As part of her passion for sustainability and giving back, Duxfield envisages a legacy programme that would see her offer a discount to clients and companies who give a proportion of their retreat budget to a food bank or community group.

"And that wealth starts getting dispersed down to where it's most needed," she said.

Named for the Greek word Arete meaning the excellence or goodness of a person - Sally's retreat was not a resort, she said. She would hold her clients accountable.

"I don't have a board of directors telling me I need to be polite. I challenge people, but I also care deeply.

"I shed a lot of tears with clients because I can feel their pain, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to hold them accountable.

"I just want people to be joyful that whatever it is they are, they find joy in it."

Just as important to Duxfield is that Arete feels like family.

"The point of difference is that Sally owns this place and Sally is here, and is mother and father so that when you leave you feel like you're part of something.

"And when you come back it's like you are children coming home."

ChecklistLEVINDETAILSFor more information on Arete, go to arete.nzONLINEFor more things to see and do in the region, go to manawatunz.co.nz

Check traffic light settings and Ministry of Health advice before travel at covid19.govt.nz

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Arete: New Zealand's first carbon-neutral and off-grid retreat - New Zealand Herald

Neuroscience

Associate / Full Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning job with RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN | 278686 – Times Higher Education (THE)

Associate / Full Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning

A world from which we demand more and more requires people who can make a contribution. Critical thinkers who will take a closer look at what is really important. As a Professor, you will perform leading research and teach students in the area of theoretical biophysics and physics-based machine learning, to strengthen the role and visibility of the international Theoretical Biophysics landscape.

As a successful candidate you will join the Department of Biophysics at the Donders Center for Neuroscience (DCN) and perform internationally leading theoretical research in an area of theoretical biophysics or physics-based machine learning. You are interested in applications of theoretical biophysics methods to neuroscience problems studied in the DCN, and you will engage actively in interdisciplinary research collaborations with other physicists in the Faculty of Science and with external partners. You will contribute to the teaching and the innovation of Radboud's popular theoretical machine learning and biophysics courses, and possibly contribute to other core undergraduate physics subjects taught at the Faculty of Science. You will supervise students' research projects at the Bachelor's, Master's and PhD levels. Finally, you will contribute to the effective administration of Radboud University and the acquisition of research funding, and will strengthen the role and visibility of Radboud University in the international Theoretical Biophysics landscape.

Profile

We are

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour of Radboud University seeks to appoint a Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning. The Donders Institute is a world-class research institute, housing more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind/brain. Research at the Donders Institute focuses on four themes:

Language and Communication

Perception, Action, and Decision-making

Development and Lifelong Plasticity

Natural Computing and Neurotechnology.

We have excellent and state-of-the-art research facilities available for a broad range of neuroscience research. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multidisciplinary, supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.

You will join the academic staff of the Donders Center for Neuroscience (DCN) - one of the four Donders Centers at Radboud University's Faculty of Science. The Biophysics Department is part of the DCN. Neurophysicists at DCN mainly conduct experimental, theoretical and computational research into the principles of information processing by the brain, with particular focus on the mammalian auditory and visual systems. The Physics of Machine Learning and Complex Systems Group studies a broad range of theoretical topics, ranging from physics-based machine learning paradigms and quantum machine learning, via Bayesian inference and applications of statistical mechanics techniques in medical statistics, to network theory and the modelling of heterogeneous many-variable processes in physics and biology. The group engages in multiple national and international research collaborations, and participates in several multidisciplinary initiatives that support theoretical biophysics and machine learning research and teaching at Radboud University.

Radboud University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion, and encourages applications from all sections of society. The university offers customised facilities to better align work and private life. Parents are entitled to partly paid parental leave and Radboud University employees enjoy flexibility in the way they structure their work. The university highly values the career development of its staff, which is facilitated by a variety of programmes. The Faculty of Science is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from women and minorities.

Radboud University

We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 24,000 students and 5,600 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!

We offer

Additional employment conditions

Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

Would you like more information?

For questions about the position, please contact Ton Coolen, Professor at +31 24 361 42 45 or ton.coolen@donders.ru.nl.

Practical information and applications

You can apply until 25 February 2022, exclusively using the button below. Kindly address your application to Ton Coolen. Please fill in the application form and attach the following documents:

The first round of interviews will take place around the end of March. You would preferably begin employment on 1 September 2022.

This vacancy was also published in a slightly modified form in 2021. Applicants who were rejected at that time are kindly requested not to apply again.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It offers a rough outline of what you can expect during the application process, how we handle your personal data and how we deal with internal and external candidates.

We drafted this vacancy to find and hire our new colleague ourselves. Recruitment agencies are kindly requested to refrain from responding.

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Associate / Full Professor of Theoretical Biophysics and Machine Learning job with RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN | 278686 - Times Higher Education (THE)

Neuroscience

2022 needs to be the year of leadership – here’s what to expect – AdNews

Neuro-Insights CEO Peter Pynta looks at the developing trends hes seeing in marcomms and how that will change over the next 12 months

Power is gained in multiple ways. Some assume it, others aim to take it, and those who think creatively appreciate that it can be earned. From our perspective in neuroscience, the last of those three is where a brand is able to position itself and can deliver the most efficient behaviour changes in their target audience.

Ill outline three areas where I feel will require greater leadership from those in our industry.

Corporate social licence to operateGlobally over the last five years, the number of B Corps has tripled. In 2020, there was a 23% increase alone.

Consumers are increasingly looking to buy from companies that they align with their values. In fact a recent survey found that 83% of Gen Z workers consider purpose when deciding where to work.

And corporate communications have a greater focus on targeting social responsible leadership. Mike & Annie Cannon-

Brookes have come out and promised $1.5 Billion towards limiting global warming by 1.5 degrees. The idea of purpose and taking a stand may not be new in the marketing space, but other environmental factors mean that the issue has more impact than ever before for those that get it right.

Leadership - both political and corporate - is never more important than while in a crisis, and the last 18 months have left a permanent transition mentality for most businesses. Whether thats in our industry, or any other.

In fact, the biggest vacuum which has been left has come from absence of real leadership at the highest levels. The approach from government has been distinctly reactionary and slow to changes in policy and mindset. And this gridlock will continue into next year, as most are canvassing the court of public opinion for short-term ideas of vote winning policies to fit neatly within the current election cycle.

Youll have the seen that many more businesses have been creatively encouraging their customers, and Australians in general, to get vaccinated. While the government has flip flopped on the issue of vaccination rates being a race, brands have been rolling up their marketing sleeves to inject some much needed media spend on the issue. Here again, weve seen corporate Australia to be far more proactive and single-minded than most governments.

This position of authority is not without its risks. Should a brand run a single campaign on an issue and not integrate that value into the way it does business, it will be called out. Any social cause a brand supports must be done authentically and with previously earned social licence; an ad campaign is not enough for this type of approach. Weve seen that when a brand gets it right it can connect deeply with the emotions of consumers. The one theme weve seen routinely this year in communications is that the moment of truth eg. Volvos melting icebergs crashing into the sea, driving a pronounced peak in Emotional Intensity with consumers. These moments are extremely authentic and powerful!

Evolving media metricsWeve all known the limitations of relying on volume metrics for advertising campaigns. Sure, while 3 million people may have had a chance to see your ad, honestly how many took the time to consider, or even view it in the first place?The demand from clients is rightly heating up, which is why weve seen a lot of investment in greater efforts to capture the true value of an advert.

The out-of-home industry undertook an industry changing research project in 2019. And from January next year, the information media planners will have access to will dramatically change, as the Neuro Impact Factor will be implementable across every single outdoor site in the country. Two years working together with the OMA and its members, neuroscience has been able to assign a value metric on the effectiveness of a given campaign which can be implemented at the planning stage of a campaign.

Will it guarantee outcomes? Well measurement is not a simple task. And creative has a strong role to play. But from the years of research weve found evidence that when you commit something to long-term memory (in essence, the Neuro Impact Factor), it has an 86 per cent correlation with real-world sales. Thinkbox UKs Payback series provides additional independent validation of the link between real-world sales and our neuro metrics. The Neuro Impact Factor will become the routine way to evaluate and buy media in the OOH space.

Elsewhere weve seen developments in attention. Many national and even international businesses have been backing attention-based metrics. Which is great that theres so much demand from clients to challenge the status quo. I expect this trend to mature over the next 12 months, as we see what investors are able to glean from the projects into the field.

And yes, while its true, you will need to see an advert before it can be committed to long-term memory, you dont need to look directly at it. Peripheral vision allows a significant degree of cognitive processing. The most fascinating findings come from campaigns that benefit from cross-channel priming - where we routinely find higher Memory Encoding (approx +15%) with lower levels of visual attention. Neuroscience found that the brain reacted to the stimulus of an OOH ad within a split second and could store that information in long-term memory. It was defined as the power of a glance.

Attention may be the new buzzword, however the last two decades of research in the neuroscience industry has found that its only explains about 15 per cent of what makes a person likely to store in memory; creative, context and priming all help explain the wider 85 per cent of the picture.

Context is King & Currency!Deliver the right message, at the right time to an appropriate customer and youve got yourself a winning marketing formula. Which is simple to appreciate, but in reality there are many other invisible environmental factors at play that affect the effectiveness of your ad.

Whilst weve heard a lot lately about privacy, crumbling cookies and the renaissance of context, the business case for context will be a real focus in 22 and beyond. Receptivity and real effectiveness will be centre stage! A recent project with IAS found that matching messages to media contextually has a significant payback. A good example of this is the finding that the effectiveness increases by anywhere from 25-40% when messages are congruent to a surrounding context.

Effectiveness in this project was measured by looking directly at brain activity - long term memory encoding - as messages were exposed during natural online browsing behaviour. This is the type evidence that will propel advertisers and agencies to routinely apply contextual criteria to media buys.

Weve recently discovered a great deal more on how media context works - adding weight to a whole new media language - again, beyond TRAPS, R&F, viewability, CTR etc etc When a message is matched to its surrounding environment, it can increase effectiveness (Long Term Memory Encoding) by up to 40%. Thats serious payback.and worth all the effort to engineer the alignment in the first place!

This new media language should also become a trading currency. If this happens then advertisers will have a dramatically more meaningful way of planning and buying media. Ideally the same techniques can be applied to the creative execution to ensure the fit between media and message. The emergence of better standards of media governance from outside and inside the industry will demand more accountability and transparency on media budgets. To deliver on that increasing desire from regulators and clients, I expect to see more rigour applied for campaigns which can objectively quantify the results; ideally standardising across media and creative using the same methodology. Clients have always needed to be able to demonstrate the fit and effectiveness of their campaigns and now technology is giving more options to better answer those questions.

We now see that as an ad walks through the doorway to memory, a rich assortment of media attributes simultaneously join the message.helping the brain to store those brand memories in the most relevant way. The media attributes that link with the ad are what we refer to as shared contextual equity. This is exactly how the surrounding media environment helps to shape the meaning of an ad at the moment of exposure. Not all impressions leave the same impression.

A fascinating parallel exists in medical science as well. Improvements in the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals is being driven by more targeted application of drugs and treatments that are tuned to patients individual characteristics. The idea of Precision Medicine seeks to customise the drug to reflect the environment in which its consumed. Its recognised as one of the Top 10 Trends in Pharma Industry Innovations of 2021. We see this being eminently achievable in the media and communications industry as well - if you can tune your medicine to its environment then it will become more potent.

Likewise if we can get the right fit between message and medium I suspect the same advancements can be expected in our industry.

We will see this part of the media ecosystem becoming far more prevalent in 22 and beyond. It will take on renewed importance in the advertising economy of the future.

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2022 needs to be the year of leadership - here's what to expect - AdNews

Neuroscience

First impressions count, and have an impact on the decisions we make later on – The Conversation AU

Picture yourself standing at the edge of a road, trying to decide if its safe to cross. Its night time and rain is falling, making it difficult to see whats up ahead. After looking both ways, you step onto the road.

But what if this was a poor choice? Perhaps youve misjudged the speed of an approaching car. How does your brain realise its error and correct things before its too late?

Experiments in cognitive psychology and neuroscience have taught us we make decisions by integrating information over time that is, our brains collect and add up information across a very brief window of time, often only tens to hundreds of milliseconds, to form a clearer picture before committing to an action.

But when we need to judge how appropriate a decision actually was, for example when we already have one foot on the road, we suddenly become selective. Our new research shows that when changing our minds, not all information is considered equally, and our first impressions count.

A useful analogy for how our brains make decisions is that of a courtroom judge. Rather than passing a judgement after hearing from a single witness, they wait to hear from multiple witnesses to avoid acting on false or misleading testimony.

Similarly, our brains sample sensory information for a while before deciding what to do. From the brains perspective peering through the veil of our senses the world is much hazier than you might think. As a result, we dont always choose the most appropriate courses of action, despite our best efforts.

When mistakes are made, we need to be able to rapidly change our minds. Just as appeal processes are a critical part of the judicial system, the ability to reverse decisions is a critical function of our brains.

Imagine being unable to overrule the decision to step onto the road after grossly underestimating the speed of an approaching car. Even small delays in the time it takes you to reconsider can have serious consequences.

Read more: Changing your mind about something as important as vaccination isn't a sign of weakness being open to new information is the smart way to make choices

In our work at the Decision Neuroscience Lab at the University of Melbourne, we investigated how people sample information across time to change their minds.

Specifically, it has been unclear whether information used to inform an initial decision is also used in the process of reconsideration (and whether the weight given to information is constant or differs over time).

Think of a judge presiding over an appeal. The dominant perspective has been that only testimony heard after an initial decision has been made determines whether that decision is reversed. Another possibility, however, is that testimony from both before and after influence whether the decision is overturned.

To investigate this, we ran an experiment in which participants watched two rapidly flickering squares (that varied in brightness) for a short time, and made decisions about which was brighter on average.

We carefully manipulated the exact brightness of each square at all times, noting how peoples perceptions changed throughout. Usually, people stuck with their decisions, but every so often they changed their mind.

Contrary to current theories, we found information used to inform an initial decision (the brightness difference between the squares early on) also influenced whether that decision was later reversed.

Most strikingly, the very first snapshot of brightness information participants saw had a large and lasting influence over whether, and how quickly, they later changed their mind.

If this first snapshot of information strongly supported participants initial decisions, they tended to exhibit greater decision inertia. That is, they were slower and more resistant to changing their mind, even in the face of evidence they had made a mistake.

If it was the other way around, however, participants were more likely and quicker to change their mind. It appears greater weight was given to the first snapshot of evidence, and the strength of this evidence influenced subsequent assessments, biasing decisions made thereafter.

Read more: To what extent are we ruled by unconscious forces?

On first consideration, deciding if its safe to cross a road seems simple. Yet our research reveals complex and unexpected dynamics underlie even these rapid decisions.

In some sense, the variations in decision inertia participants displayed are reminiscent of confirmation bias, wherein a person will downplay evidence that does not support their initial conclusion.

Our findings are an important reminder that similar biases affect the processes in our brains which determine how we perceive, and act upon, the world around us.

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First impressions count, and have an impact on the decisions we make later on - The Conversation AU

Neuroscience

‘Your Brain on Dance’ Waltzes into Theater – University of Houston

LiveWire explores the latest neuroscience discoveries with each of its five movements showcasing a different process of the human brain while artists wear brain caps. Photo courtesy: Lynn Lane

Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, director of the BRAIN Center at UH, has been pioneering nonsurgical brain-machine interfaces for rehabilitation and restoration of movement and to understand the brain in action in clinical, artistic and classroom settings.

For two decadesMusiqaandNobleMotionDance have been breaking artistic boundaries in Houston and winning national acclaim for their adventurous programming. At the same time,Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professorof electrical and computer engineeringJose Luis Contreras-Vidal,director of the BRAIN Center atUH,has been pioneering nonsurgical brain-machine interfacesfor rehabilitation and restoration of movementandto understand the brain in action in clinical, artistic and classroom settings.

On Jan. 21 and 22, for the first time, the groups converge to present the world premiere ofLiveWireat the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston.LiveWireis an innovative collaboration between scientists, musicians and dancers who will wear EEG skull caps (brain caps), while performing a new work centered around a new string quartet by artistic director Anthony Brandt, set to choreography by Andy and Dionne Noble.

LiveWireexplores the latest neuroscience discoveries with each of its five movements showcasing a different process of the human brain.

The performance also includes the Houston premieres of Pierre Jalberts Piano Quintet and Carlos Simons Loop for String Trio, as well asNobleMotionspremiere of The Spiders Den set to Lei Liangs Gobi Gloria.NobleMotionsdynamic Rhythm Study and artwork by Houston-based visual artist Emily Fens round out the program.

Two years in the making, the evenings titular work is a two-phase collaboration that begins in Houston and then goesto Virginain April as part of an international Brain and Dance conference.

LiveWirewill be performed again this spring at the 2022 International Workshop on the Neural and Social Bases of Creative Movement at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Virginia, said Contreras-Vidal. Our January performance provides Houston audiences with the chance to see this exciting new work before it reaches an international audience.

The choreography and projection design respond to the music and are abstract visual representations of the brains plasticity. Soloist Evelyn Toh, wearing a brain cap, guides the audience through the inner landscape of her mind. Additional dancers reveal her brains activity as they glide and carve out new pathways, much like neurons alive inside our heads. Contreras-Vidals team will deploy mobile brain-body imaging technology to listen, map and record the dancers brain activity as part of his project, Your Brain on Dance, which furthers research into how the mind initiates spontaneous and prepared movement and internalizes artistic experiences. Audience members will watch this experiment take place in real time. EEG recordings of the dancers will be used as part of University of Houston research.

What:World premiere ofLiveWire, an innovative collaboration between scientists, musicians and dancers who will wear EEG skull caps (brain caps), while performing a new work

Who:Musiqa,NobleMotionDance, Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, director of the BRAIN Center at the University of Houston and professor of electrical and computer engineering

When:Friday, Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 22, 7:30 p.m. Buy ticketshere

Where:Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH), 3400 Main Street, Houston TX 77002

Details:Learn more about Jose Luis Contreras-VidalhereLearn more about the BRAIN CenterhereLearn more about the Noninvasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems Laboratoryhere

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'Your Brain on Dance' Waltzes into Theater - University of Houston

Anatomy

Euphoria Fans Spotted a Greys Anatomy Easter Egg in Last Nights Episode – Glamour

Fans are convinced that the latest episode of HBOs Euphoria includes a nod to Greys Anatomy. (Warning: Minor spoilers for Euphoria and throwback spoilers for Greys Anatomy ahead.)

Eric Dane, who plays Cal Jacobs on the dark HBO drama, is perhaps most known for his role as Dr. Mark Sloan (Dr. McSteamy) on Greys Anatomy. The character was Dr. Derek Shepherds (Patrick Dempseys) former bestie, but they had a falling out after McSteamy slept with Dereks wife, Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh). In the Greys Anatomy universe, both characters are dead. RIP.

But the only thing McSteamy and Cal Jacobs had in common up to this point is Danes handsome face. In Euphoria, Dane plays the very problematic father of teen psychopath Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi). The apple doesnt fall far from the tree. In Euphoria season one, Cal had sex with Jules (a minor, played by Hunter Schafer), taped the encounter without her consent, and was an all-around piece of human garbage.

In season two, things dont get much better. After Nate was assaulted at a party over his own actions against Jules, Cal uses intimidation and bullying techniques to hunt down and stalk more teens! However, in episode three, which aired on January 23, fans were given a little more backstory that helps explainbut absolutely does not excuseCals unchecked anger.

This is where Greys Anatomy fans took notice. Back in his own high school days, Cal had a best friend he was deeply in love with but ultimately could not be with due to a homophobic society and the fact that Cal got his high school girlfriend pregnant. This best friend/lovers name was Derek.

Fans on Twitter immediately noted the possible nod towards Danes former television gigand they thought it was pretty damn rude of creator Sam Levinson. The writers naming Cals best friend Derek is really evil, one fan tweeted. Another user tweeted, Cals best friends name being Derek though?! Sam Levinson knew what he was doing.

The way Cals childhood best friend was named Derek & all I could think about was them, another fan tweeted alongside a photo of the two fictional doctors. One fan even suggested Greys Anatomy could have been Cals future if Nates mom never got pregnant. There are definitely some serious flaws to that logic, but its a good joke.

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Euphoria Fans Spotted a Greys Anatomy Easter Egg in Last Nights Episode - Glamour

Anatomy

Anatomy of a blown lead: Sixers explain what happened in loss to Clippers – Sixers Wire

Los Angeles was 6-for-11 from deep in the fourth quarter as they were able to complete the comeback with their shooting. Marcus Morris Sr. and Luke Kennard hit two triples each and the Clippers outscored Philadelphia 32-21 in the final quarter.

Doc Rivers: I really thought we really lost their shooters too many times just in transition, on pick-and-rolls, how many 3s did they get? It wasnt like they were running double drags and getting 3s so that hurt us, but we shouldnt have been in that position. That second group came in tonight and the turnovers over and over and casualness. You get a 20-point lead and against a team that can shoot the ball like that, a 20-point lead in a 3-point league, means nothing. Its five shots and its a game. Thats exactly what happened.

Tobias Harris: It started when they went small ball. They started to make shots. I thought offensively, we got a bit stagnant trying to find the mismatch when we couldve just kept running on them. They made a lot of shots there, tough shots in the pick-and-roll, and up until the fourth quarter, they got looks, made them, and we just couldnt convert offensively. We had some good looks that didnt fall for us as well.

Defensively, we just werent physical enough with them. Too many wide-open looks, give them credit, they made some tough shots, but on the ball, we couldve been better with our first stance of defense and containing and guarding our yard so they werent able to get downhill. Thats a tough one just because we were playing so hard and the good brand of basketball we were playing really well. Getting out and running and just creating mismatches all throughout the court so thats a tough one.

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Anatomy of a blown lead: Sixers explain what happened in loss to Clippers - Sixers Wire

Anatomy

Every Major ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Character Who Has Been Killed Off, Ranked from First to Most Recent – Just Jared

Nearly all of the original stars of Greys Anatomy have left the show throughout the two decades it has been on television and several of them were actually killed off.

There have been so many major deaths on the Shonda Rhimes series and lots of them have left fans devastated.

Thankfully, quite a few of the departed characters have made return appearances throughout the years and there are even four returning cast members this season so far.

Click through the slideshow to see the 23 major characters who have been killed off

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Every Major 'Grey's Anatomy' Character Who Has Been Killed Off, Ranked from First to Most Recent - Just Jared

Anatomy

Grey’s Anatomy Shock: Ellen Pompeo Series Shouldn’t Have Been Renewed For Season 19? Bullying, Jealousy Rampant On Set – Epicstream

Greys Anatomy Season 19 has just been renewed by ABC.

After months of speculation and rumors that the medical drama could end after Season 18, the network made the surprise announcement earlier this month.

Fans of Ellen Pompeo and her co-stars couldnt be more thrilled with the news, but there are some claims suggesting that Greys Anatomy Season 19 shouldnt have been renewed.

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Life & Style, in its Jan. 31 issue, claimed that there are too many controversies going on in the set of Greys Anatomy. First, Pompeo previously claimed that she wants the series to end after Season 18. She also said that she would try to convince her co-stars that its time to bid the medical drama goodbye.

Shes being called a hypocrite who gave in to greed. Ellen has clearly lost interest in the show, but she just didnt want to give up that fat paycheck, an unnamed source said.

The unnamed source also claimed that Pompeo is secretly jealous of her co-stars. Even though shes the one whos getting the biggest paycheck, the lead star also wants to get the best reviews and comments from fans.

Ellen has a history of getting jealous of her castmates especially Sandra Oh. The chip on her shoulder is probably why Ellen is such a diva on set now. She bosses everyone around, the unnamed source claimed.

To make things worse, the unnamed source described the atmosphere on the set of Greys Anatomy as toxic.

The environment on Greys is toxic, and Ellen isnt the only one at fault. Theres so much backstabbing and bullying, HR gets inundated with complaints, the unnamed source concluded.

Following the shows renewal, series creator Shonda Rhimes expressed her excitement via a statement with Deadline.

I couldn't be more excited that we can continue to tell the stories of Meredith, Bailey, Richard, and all the other doctors at Gray Sloan Memorial for another season. This is a true testament to Krista Vernoff, the cast, crew, and all the writers who keep audiences on the edge of their seats week after week. And it wouldn't be possible without the generations of incredible fans who have supported 'Grey's Anatomy' for so many years, Rhimes said.

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Last month, Pompeo said that shes been trying to convince everyone that its time for Greys Anatomy to end. But she also suggested that shes not after the generous paycheck that shes getting contrary to what the publication said.

I feel like I'm the super naive one who keeps saying, But what's the story going to be, what story are we going to tell? And everyone's like, Who cares, Ellen? It makes a gazillion dollars, she said.

Two years ago, Pompeo also suggested that shes ready to bid her character goodbye. After all, her contract was already expiring at the end of Season 17.

I mean, this is the last year of my contract right now... I don't know that this is the last year? But it could very well be, she told Variety.

In 2018, Pompeo also said that she was ready to leave the show.

I am really feeling like we have told the majority of the stories we can tell. Its about time that I mix it up. I got to keep doing it man because were touching lives and making a difference, Pompeo told Entertainment Weekly.

Last year, the actress admitted that shes been trying to get away from Greys Anatomy for as long as she could.

Ive been trying to get away for years. I have been trying. Its not because I havent been trying. I have strong relationships at the network and they have been very, very, very good to me and have incentivized me to stay, she explained.

Now that Greys Anatomy Season 19 has been renewed, fans couldnt help but think this will be the final run for the hit medical drama.

Check back for more stories, updates, and rumors about Greys Anatomy Season 19 here at EpicStream!

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Grey's Anatomy Shock: Ellen Pompeo Series Shouldn't Have Been Renewed For Season 19? Bullying, Jealousy Rampant On Set - Epicstream