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The Feindel Brain and Mind Seminar Series will advance the vision of Dr. William Feindel (1918–2014), Former Director of the Neuro (1972–1984), to constantly bridge the clinical and research realms. The talks will highlight the latest advances and discoveries in neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging.

Speakers will include scientists from across The Neuro, as well as colleagues and collaborators locally and from around the world. The series is intended to provide a virtual forum for scientists and trainees to continue to foster interdisciplinary exchanges on the mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of brain and cognitive disorders.

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Host: Nathan Spreng

The Humanity of the Neurosciences

Abstract: As in many disciplines, progress in neuroscience is made possible by the exchange of information between people, whether informally over a cup of coffee or formally through peer-reviewed publications. In the formal exchange occurring in scholarly articles, we use references to buttress our communication: we cite the work of other scholars to build our arguments, contextualize our results, and foreground possibilities for future research. Despite being a critical feature of science communication—as well as a history of ideas—little remains known about how scientists choose references and how those choices influence the exchange of information that subtends advancement in the field. Here I will examine citation practices—who we cite and how favorably or critically we cite them—in neuroscience from 1995 to today using extensive bibliometric analysis and capitalizing on recent advances in large language models. In describing the results of 3 separate studies, I will demonstrate that citation practices differ by author gender, vary with journal prestige, and track social norms of small groups, larger disciplines, and whole countries. Collectively, the results demonstrate that science is social, and scientific practices are bound by the complexities of human behavior. This fundamental humanity of science raises important questions about social justice and inequalities of privilege that have critical import for educating the next generation of young neuroscientists.

Dani S. Bassett

J. Peter Skirkanich Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Prof. Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and transitioning this year to Wu Tsai Professor at Yale University. Bassett is most well-known for blending neural and systems engineering to identify fundamental mechanisms of cognition and disease in human brain networks. They received a B.S. in physics from Penn State University and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge, UK as a Churchill Scholar, and as an NIH Health Sciences Scholar. Following a postdoctoral position at UC Santa Barbara, Bassett was a Junior Research Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind. They have received multiple prestigious awards, including American Psychological Association's ‘Rising Star’ (2012), Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow (2014), MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant (2014), Early Academic Achievement Award from the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2015), Office of Naval Research Young Investigator (2015), National Science Foundation CAREER (2016), Popular Science Brilliant 10 (2016), Lagrange Prize in Complex Systems Science (2017), Erdos-Renyi Prize in Network Science (2018), OHBM Young Investigator Award (2020), AIMBE College of Fellows (2020), American Physical Society Fellow (2021), Justine and Yves Sergent Award (2025), and has been named one of Web of Science's most Highly Cited Researchers for 5 years running. Bassett is the author of more than 480 peer-reviewed publications, which have garnered over 66,000 citations, as well as numerous book chapters and teaching materials. Bassett’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Office, the Army Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Defense, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, the Paul Allen Foundation, the ISI Foundation, and the Center for Curiosity. Bassett has recently co-authored the book Curious Minds: The Power of Connection (MIT Press) with philosopher and twin Perry Zurn.