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Today we went out for another game together at Oracle Park, and we were able to celebrate the return to the Bay Area of two Decision Lab alums, Clayton & Madhu. A few other Decision Lab alums came to join us for a mini-lab reunion: Ali, Cailin, and Celeste! It was great to see everyone and get updates on the great things that people have been up to since leaving the lab!

We’ve had a lot to celebrate in Decision Lab recently, with three great poster presentations, three newly-accepted publications, and decisions about exciting next steps for Brandon, Rea, and Narayan. We were extra-excited that Celeste was able to get away from duties in the hospital to join us!

Capping off a productive week of posters in the Decision Lab, Narayan Sankaran received a poster award at the International Neuroethics Society’s 2024 meeting in Baltimore for his poster, on “Disparate ethical responses to speech decoding research.” Narayan’s project is focused on (1) unpacking an ethical tension exhibited in many responses to the ongoing development of speech BCIs (brain-computer interfaces), between support for restoration and concerns about surveillance, and (2) drawing upon details of the neuroscience of speech and on community engagement to chart a path forward. Congrats also to Narayan on his upcoming faculty appointment at the University of San Francisco!

In my view, this year’s INS program was the most well-developed and engaging so far. In addition to exciting integrations with the arts, the program included illuminating international discussions (particularly with expertise from Japan and Latin America) and really thoughtful incorporation of considerations of society and the social sciences. Looking forward to next year in Munich!

This year the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting is in Denver, where Manizhe Eslami-Amirabadi and UCSF neurology resident Michael Trainer presented their work.

Manizhe presented “Financial activities and mismanagement by people with dementia as reported in a nationally representative caregiver survey,” which takes a new approach to estimating the impact of disease-related impairments in decision-making. Michael presented “Ethical shared decision-making for novel anti-amyloid therapies,” which applies prior work on tools for improving shared decision-making (mostly utilized so far in non-neurologic disorders) to the complex decisions facing clinicians, patients, and families regarding new biologically-based treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. Congrats to both of them, and thanks to everyone who came out to ask questions and give feedback!