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Odon

@IAMOdon

neuroscience, translated. former ai engineer. physics. how your brain builds systems — plasticity, dopamine, memory, prediction.

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Joined April 2021
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Odon
@IAMOdonOct 22
a brain tumour damaged her nerves. today she opened a car door, walked into the gym and sat down. by herself. recovery like this is the nervous system relearning, one repetition at a time.
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study less, more often. spreading practice over several days beats cramming the same hours into one night. forgetting a little in between is part of how it sticks.
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she can hear. her grandparents are deaf. so she babbles with her hands. babies around sign language babble with their hands, with the same rhythm as spoken babble.
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**precise version hearing babies exposed to sign language produce manual babble. they make rhythmic, repeated hand movements with a syllabic timing — roughly the same 1–2 Hz rate as the “ba-ba-ba” of vocal babble. the movements are not random fidgeting. they have the structure of early language units, just in the modality the infant is receiving. this was first systematically described in deaf infants acquiring sign (Petitto and colleagues). the same pattern appears in hearing infants who get substantial sign input, for example from deaf parents or grandparents. the motor system is practicing the units of the language that is actually in the environment. so the baby in the video is not “signing early.” she is doing what all babies do around 6–12 months: producing the rhythmic precursors of the language they are being given. for her that language arrives through the hands, so the babble does too. babbling is not a vocal-tract accident. it is a language-acquisition stage that follows the input modality.
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smell is the only sense that reaches the cortex without passing through the thalamus first. it goes almost straight to emotion and memory. that's why one smell can bring back a moment from years ago.
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Babies fascinate and delight me with how they learn. They want to be included any way they can, so they find ways to interact, even if they can't use words yet ♡
Odon (@IAMOdon) profile pictureOdon
@IAMOdon23h
she can hear. her grandparents are deaf. so she babbles with her hands. babies around sign language babble with their hands, with the same rhythm as spoken babble.
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Was giving my dogs treats yesterday & when they were all gone I caught myself using sign language that I picked up in the Nido as a TA (used initially to communicate with the babies). I think she understands. Babies are super smart. The hunting dogs not so sure.
Odon (@IAMOdon) profile pictureOdon
@IAMOdon23h
she can hear. her grandparents are deaf. so she babbles with her hands. babies around sign language babble with their hands, with the same rhythm as spoken babble.
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lvovo, showing his progress after a stroke in 2022. after a stroke, healthy brain areas can slowly take over lost work. it happens through thousands of repetitions.
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talk to the stranger. commuters expected a chat on the train to make their ride worse. it made it better. most people are waiting for someone else to go first.
Image from Odon (@IAMOdon)
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watch his tremor fade when the stimulator turns on. deep brain stimulation sends small pulses deep into the brain and can calm the faulty signals behind parkinson's shaking.
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paralysed in 2011. here he is, walking. brain implants read his intention to move and send it to his spinal cord, past the injury. the signal never stopped.
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felt your phone buzz and it didn't? most people have. about two thirds of hospital staff in one survey reported phantom vibrations. a brain primed for a signal starts hearing it everywhere.
Image from Odon (@IAMOdon)
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two babies, no words, and it still sounds like a conversation. babies pick up the melody of their language before the words. french newborns already cry with a rising melody, german newborns with a falling one.
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walk 20 minutes a day. in data on nearly 200,000 people, 2.5 hours of brisk walking a week was linked to a 25% lower risk of depression. you need shoes, not a gym.
Image from Odon (@IAMOdon)
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most of your neurons say go. this one says stop. inhibitory neurons are about one in five in the cortex. without them, activity can spiral into a seizure.
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a 10-week-old and her big brother, in full conversation. he copies her sounds, she answers. this back-and-forth is how a baby's brain builds the circuits for language.
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her sister was crying, so she brought a boop and a hug. toddlers start comforting others in their second year, often copying what was done to comfort them.
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Being realistic about your bad days is overrated. Slept badly? Convince yourself you're well rested. Stressful day? Convince yourself it's fuel. Failed? Convince yourself it's useful data. A delusional golden retriever mindset measurably changes outcomes and physiology. Used on purpose, delusion is a skill.
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text the person you've been thinking about. in 13 experiments, people underestimated how much reaching out would be appreciated. it means more to them than it costs you.
Image from Odon (@IAMOdon)
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someone singing two notes at once, inside an mri. one note from the vocal cords. the tongue shapes the mouth to boost overtones, and your brain hears a second melody.
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the startle reflex, tested on a newborn. it comes from the brainstem, not from thought, and usually fades by 4 to 6 months as higher brain areas take over.
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