The small sample sizes is rational response from scientists in the face of a) funding levels and b) unreasonable expectations from hiring/promotion committees.

cog neuro labs need to start organizing their research programs more like giant physics projects. Lots of PIs pooling funding and resources together into one big experiment rather than lots of little underpowered independent labs. But it’s difficult to set up a more institutional structure like this unless there’s a big shift in how we measure career advancement/success.