Mariam Aly
@mariamaly.bsky.social
Pinned
Mariam Aly
@mariamaly.bsky.social
· Jul 25
Mariam | alylab
www.alylab.org
Hi! I'm Mariam. I post science, mostly about memory and the brain. I try to promote a more supportive culture in academia and am passionate about destigmatizing mental illness.
You can learn more about me and my lab here: https://www.alylab.org/mariam
You can learn more about me and my lab here: https://www.alylab.org/mariam
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Let's compare our world models. I find that different people seem to have rather distinct internal world models. E.g. I personally have neither visual imagination nor an inner voice, found it weird others do. Here is a quick google forms to check idea:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
World-models in your head
Talking with a lot of people, they have rather shocking different kinds of world-models. I believe that people have somewhat specialized simulators. Let me list some and then give you the chance to ad...
docs.google.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Let's compare our world models. I find that different people seem to have rather distinct internal world models. E.g. I personally have neither visual imagination nor an inner voice, found it weird others do. Here is a quick google forms to check idea:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Super excited to share my first preprint with Katherine Duncan and Morgan Barense (@barense.bsky.social) -- "Memory strength at reactivation, not memory age, governs prediction error driven updating of naturalistic event memory"! 🧠🎉https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/q9rkn_v1
OSF
osf.io
November 18, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Super excited to share my first preprint with Katherine Duncan and Morgan Barense (@barense.bsky.social) -- "Memory strength at reactivation, not memory age, governs prediction error driven updating of naturalistic event memory"! 🧠🎉https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/q9rkn_v1
Reposted by Mariam Aly
EXCLUSIVE: CDC to end all monkey studies. Decision handed down by recent college grad and former DOGE employee who is now deputy chief of staff at the agency. Animals were being used in studies of HIV prevention. Some may be euthanized. My latest for @science.org
Exclusive: CDC to end all monkey research
Studies related to HIV and other infectious diseases will be phased out, sources say; fate of the agency's animals remains unclear
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:16 PM
EXCLUSIVE: CDC to end all monkey studies. Decision handed down by recent college grad and former DOGE employee who is now deputy chief of staff at the agency. Animals were being used in studies of HIV prevention. Some may be euthanized. My latest for @science.org
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Excited to share my first paper: Model–Behavior Alignment under Flexible Evaluation: When the Best-Fitting Model Isn’t the Right One (NeurIPS 2025). link below.
November 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Excited to share my first paper: Model–Behavior Alignment under Flexible Evaluation: When the Best-Fitting Model Isn’t the Right One (NeurIPS 2025). link below.
How do changes in context influence how we organize our memories in time?
Faster contextual changes are associated with faster drift in hippocampal activity and reduced temporal clustering in recalled memories.
Elegant work led by @lindsayrait.bsky.social!
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Faster contextual changes are associated with faster drift in hippocampal activity and reduced temporal clustering in recalled memories.
Elegant work led by @lindsayrait.bsky.social!
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Hippocampal Drift Rate Reflects the Temporal Organization of Memories
When freely recalling past events, individuals tend to successively remember stimuli that were studied close together in time—a phenomenon known as temporal clustering. Temporal clustering is thought ...
www.jneurosci.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM
How do changes in context influence how we organize our memories in time?
Faster contextual changes are associated with faster drift in hippocampal activity and reduced temporal clustering in recalled memories.
Elegant work led by @lindsayrait.bsky.social!
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Faster contextual changes are associated with faster drift in hippocampal activity and reduced temporal clustering in recalled memories.
Elegant work led by @lindsayrait.bsky.social!
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
So hype that the faculty and staff of the UC system keep pushing their admin to be better
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 19, 2025 at 12:09 AM
So hype that the faculty and staff of the UC system keep pushing their admin to be better
Reposted by Mariam Aly
🚨New Preprint!
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
Predicting upcoming visual features during eye movements yields scene representations aligned with human visual cortex
Scenes are complex, yet structured collections of parts, including objects and surfaces, that exhibit spatial and semantic relations to one another. An effective visual system therefore needs unified ...
arxiv.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:37 PM
🚨New Preprint!
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
How can we model natural scene representations in visual cortex? A solution is in active vision: predict the features of the next glimpse! arxiv.org/abs/2511.12715
+ @adriendoerig.bsky.social , @alexanderkroner.bsky.social , @carmenamme.bsky.social , @timkietzmann.bsky.social
🧵 1/14
Reposted by Mariam Aly
My paper is out!
Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets.
rdcu.be/eQjLN
Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets.
rdcu.be/eQjLN
A habit and working memory model as an alternative account of human reward-based learning
Nature Human Behaviour - In this study, Collins proposes an alternative dual-process (working memory and habit) model of reinforcement learning in humans.
rdcu.be
November 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
My paper is out!
Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets.
rdcu.be/eQjLN
Computational modeling of error patterns during reward-based learning show evidence that habit learning (value free!) supplements working memory in 7 human data sets.
rdcu.be/eQjLN
Reposted by Mariam Aly
🚀 New preprint alert 🚀
How easily can working memory create interference in long-term memories? Our new preprint, Interference Across Memory Systems: Disrupting Long-Term Memories Through Working Memory examines this
osf.io/preprints/ps...
w/ @sahcan.bsky.social Anna Lena Mantei, Daniel Schneider
How easily can working memory create interference in long-term memories? Our new preprint, Interference Across Memory Systems: Disrupting Long-Term Memories Through Working Memory examines this
osf.io/preprints/ps...
w/ @sahcan.bsky.social Anna Lena Mantei, Daniel Schneider
OSF
osf.io
November 16, 2025 at 7:22 PM
🚀 New preprint alert 🚀
How easily can working memory create interference in long-term memories? Our new preprint, Interference Across Memory Systems: Disrupting Long-Term Memories Through Working Memory examines this
osf.io/preprints/ps...
w/ @sahcan.bsky.social Anna Lena Mantei, Daniel Schneider
How easily can working memory create interference in long-term memories? Our new preprint, Interference Across Memory Systems: Disrupting Long-Term Memories Through Working Memory examines this
osf.io/preprints/ps...
w/ @sahcan.bsky.social Anna Lena Mantei, Daniel Schneider
Reposted by Mariam Aly
We used a brain "pinging" again and found that distractor suppression is reactive rather than proactive, meaning attention is first drawn to the distractor before being suppressed.
Neural mechanisms of learned suppression uncovered by probing the hidden attentional priority map
Learned suppression of distractor locations in visual search emerges through reactive mechanisms that involve initial spatial selection prior to suppression.
doi.org
February 27, 2025 at 8:00 AM
We used a brain "pinging" again and found that distractor suppression is reactive rather than proactive, meaning attention is first drawn to the distractor before being suppressed.
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Do people remember where things are relative to their body (e.g. my left side) or relative to the environment (the North/uphill side)? The answer is both at once, according to my new paper now out in Psychological Science! 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Do people remember where things are relative to their body (e.g. my left side) or relative to the environment (the North/uphill side)? The answer is both at once, according to my new paper now out in Psychological Science! 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Now out in #ScienceAdvances: @baiweiliu.bsky.social and I ask how internal (goal) and external (sensory) selection are coordinated during visual search. The key insight: internal and external selection are not inherently serial, but may develop in parallel in the human brain: doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Concurrent selection of internal goals and external sensations during visual search
Internal and external selection processes can codevelop in time to yield efficient search behavior.
doi.org
November 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Now out in #ScienceAdvances: @baiweiliu.bsky.social and I ask how internal (goal) and external (sensory) selection are coordinated during visual search. The key insight: internal and external selection are not inherently serial, but may develop in parallel in the human brain: doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 6, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Now out in an issue! ~~ www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Full speech here. Is...is that hope I'm feeling this morning? I'd forgotten what that feels like
youtu.be/JC1h6rJQBvs?...
youtu.be/JC1h6rJQBvs?...
November 5, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Full speech here. Is...is that hope I'm feeling this morning? I'd forgotten what that feels like
youtu.be/JC1h6rJQBvs?...
youtu.be/JC1h6rJQBvs?...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Sometimes it can be a pain choosing the route, and toughest when two paths seem equivalent.
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
Cognitive maps, traditionally considered metrically accurate mental representations of space, have been central to navigation research. However, recen…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Sometimes it can be a pain choosing the route, and toughest when two paths seem equivalent.
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
Episodic memories are highly dynamic and change in nonlinear ways over time. This dynamism is not captured by existing systems consolidation theories …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
Reposted by Mariam Aly
When does new learning interfere with existing knowledge in people and ANNs? Great to have this out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com
Work with @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @tsonj.bsky.social, Lukas Braun and Jan Grohn
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Work with @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @tsonj.bsky.social, Lukas Braun and Jan Grohn
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 31, 2025 at 2:47 PM
When does new learning interfere with existing knowledge in people and ANNs? Great to have this out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com
Work with @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @tsonj.bsky.social, Lukas Braun and Jan Grohn
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Work with @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @tsonj.bsky.social, Lukas Braun and Jan Grohn
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Our experience of time is powerfully shaped by boundaries between events (i.e., going from one meeting to the next). But what about time *within an event*? In new work, we find reliable distortions of time based on internal event structure (e.g., beginnings, middles, and ends)! tinyurl.com/n8mn2sn7
Unfolding event structure distorts subjective time
Our experience of time is often distorted in striking ways. Although prior work has shown that boundaries between events can shape temporal perception…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Our experience of time is powerfully shaped by boundaries between events (i.e., going from one meeting to the next). But what about time *within an event*? In new work, we find reliable distortions of time based on internal event structure (e.g., beginnings, middles, and ends)! tinyurl.com/n8mn2sn7
At Reviewer Zero, we see both problems and strengths of peer review and have been working for over 5 years to make change for the better. I have found working with Reviewer Zero to be incredibly important and fulfilling. We rarely look to add to our organizing team, but now we are! Please see below!
🚨 We are seeking a Digital Presence Coordinator!
Open to psych/neuro grad students, postdocs & faculty who are passionate about improving fairness in peer review.
Job details:
💻 Managing website, socials, newsletters
🕒 4–8 hrs/month | 💵 $500 honorarium | 📅 1-year term
Apply 👉 go.iu.edu/8vxh
Open to psych/neuro grad students, postdocs & faculty who are passionate about improving fairness in peer review.
Job details:
💻 Managing website, socials, newsletters
🕒 4–8 hrs/month | 💵 $500 honorarium | 📅 1-year term
Apply 👉 go.iu.edu/8vxh
go.iu.edu
October 28, 2025 at 7:26 PM
At Reviewer Zero, we see both problems and strengths of peer review and have been working for over 5 years to make change for the better. I have found working with Reviewer Zero to be incredibly important and fulfilling. We rarely look to add to our organizing team, but now we are! Please see below!
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Understanding the flexibility of working memory: Compositionality, generative processing, anchors and holistic representations
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
Understanding the flexibility of working memory: Compositionality, generative processing, anchors and holistic representations
The typical conception of working memory is a mechanism to temporarily hold multiple discrete objects in service of other cognitive tasks in an item-b…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Understanding the flexibility of working memory: Compositionality, generative processing, anchors and holistic representations
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
Reposted by Mariam Aly
Please understand that the only reason this has been released is because of the UCLA faculty association who filed a request and challenged the refusal in court. If you are a UC faculty member, join your FA!
BREAKING: The California Supreme Court has DENIED the University of California's request that it block the release of a 28-page, $1.2-billion fine Trump administration UCLA settlement offer. UC is required to give a faculty group the document today. www.latimes.com/california/s...
UC must publicly release Trump administration's $1.2-billion settlement proposal
The California Supreme Court on Friday declined a request from the University of California to block the release of a roughly $1.2-billion Trump UCLA settlement. UCLA is required to share the document...
www.latimes.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Please understand that the only reason this has been released is because of the UCLA faculty association who filed a request and challenged the refusal in court. If you are a UC faculty member, join your FA!
Reposted by Mariam Aly
New preprint! What happens in the brain when people offload memories into external reminders? Using fMRI decoding, we found that the corresponding neural trace fades until it becomes statistically absent.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵...
OSF
osf.io
October 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
New preprint! What happens in the brain when people offload memories into external reminders? Using fMRI decoding, we found that the corresponding neural trace fades until it becomes statistically absent.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
🧵...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
I’m excited to share my recent preprint on a neural network model of free recall that learns multiple memory strategies including the memory palace!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 21, 2025 at 3:36 AM
I’m excited to share my recent preprint on a neural network model of free recall that learns multiple memory strategies including the memory palace!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mariam Aly
I said it before and I'll say it again: Cognition is rhythmic
Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
#neuroscience
Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
#neuroscience
Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies
Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combin...
www.jneurosci.org
October 21, 2025 at 12:00 PM
I said it before and I'll say it again: Cognition is rhythmic
Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
#neuroscience
Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
#neuroscience
Reposted by Mariam Aly
New preprint led by @debyee.bsky.social: "Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the distinct motivational influences of reward and punishment on cognitive control".
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 20, 2025 at 9:36 PM
New preprint led by @debyee.bsky.social: "Neurocomputational mechanisms underlying the distinct motivational influences of reward and punishment on cognitive control".
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...