Ozan Vardal
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ozvardal.bsky.social
Ozan Vardal
@ozvardal.bsky.social
54 followers 160 following 4 posts
Neuroscience postdoc | ISTBI, Fudan University #shanghai | Studying learning & naturalistic decision-making | video games + neuroimaging + computational modeling
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Reposted by Ozan Vardal
neurodenizen.bsky.social
🧠 New paper alert (the 1st one from our new lab)!
Led by 1st author & VR wizard @jaquent.bsky.social

@natcomms.nature.com

How do our brains distinguish novel from familiar places as we explore our environments, e.g., a new city?

🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

🧵 Thread below with key findings ⬇️
December 9, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Ozan Vardal
pessoabrain.bsky.social
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁?
Don't miss the Neuroscience and Philosophy Salon.
Earl Miller and team will discuss recent paper and we'll have plenty of discussion. Open to all.
Sept 12, noon EST-US
umd.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#neuroskyence
@earlkmiller.bsky.social
August 24, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Ozan Vardal
plosbiology.org
How do humans navigate unfamiliar environments? @denislan.bsky.social @lhuntneuro.bsky.social @summerfieldlab.bsky.social show that humans & deep meta-learning networks combine ‘vector-based’ & ‘transition-based’ strategies for flexible navigation in similar ways @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/45uSwNm
Task design and experimental set-up. Top left: underlying structure of the 8 × 8 grid, unseen by participants. Every state is represented by an image of an object, and these objects and their positions change on every trial. Top right: schematic diagram of the ‘map reading’ phase of each trial. Participants see a top–down view of the grid with objects obscured and successively click on blue squares to reveal ‘landmark’ objects at the location. After 16 clicks have been completed, a yellow square appears. Clicking on the yellow square reveals the ‘goal’ object for the trial. Bottom: schematic diagram of the navigation phase of each trial. Participants start in a random, previously unobserved location and are tasked with navigating to the ‘goal’ object they had just learnt about (displayed at the top). They can navigate in two ways. First, they could choose a direction to travel in by clicking on the corresponding arrow (highlighted yellow). This is analogous to using a ‘vector-based’ strategy. Alternatively, they could choose an adjacent state to travel to by clicking on one of the associated images (displayed in a random order; highlighted blue). This corresponds to using a ‘transition-based’ navigation strategy.
August 1, 2025 at 8:27 AM
ozvardal.bsky.social
Absolute thrill to be part of this team and to be able to piggy-back on this post
neurodenizen.bsky.social Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · Jun 25
Big year for our lab at #OHBM2025!

Thrilled to present an exciting mix of posters, talks, and lots of brainy fun 🧠🤓

Come check us out! We’d love to connect!

@cognizelab.bsky.social
@ohbmofficial.bsky.social
#OHBM #OHBM2025 #Neuroimaging
June 28, 2025 at 7:48 AM
ozvardal.bsky.social
Hot off the press, by my brilliant colleague Ashley Zhou
mrccbu.bsky.social MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge @mrccbu.bsky.social · Jun 26
New opinion paper linking the brain’s DMN response to cognitive transitions during narratives and task-switching; by Ashley Zhou, John Duncan and Daniel Mitchell: doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
June 26, 2025 at 7:35 AM
ozvardal.bsky.social
Last chance to have a chat about naturalistic decision-making by my poster! #OHBM2025
neurodenizen.bsky.social Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · Jun 25
@ozvardal.bsky.social modeling decision states and their neural representation during gameplay #PacMan 👾👾👾
June 26, 2025 at 4:43 AM
ozvardal.bsky.social
Just arrived in Brisbane with the loveliest of teams. Can't wait to connect with fellow neuronerds at #OHBM2025!
neurodenizen.bsky.social Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · Jun 22
✈️ Off to #OHBM2025!
@cognizelab.bsky.social is en route and ready to dive into an exciting week of brain science, inspiring talks, and catching up with the neuroimaging community.

If you’re in Brisbane and want to connect, come find us or drop a message! 🧠💬 #OHBM2025
@ohbmofficial.bsky.social
June 23, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Reposted by Ozan Vardal
laklab.bsky.social
Our work, out at Cell, shows that the brain’s dopamine signals teach each individual a unique learning trajectory. Collaborative experiment-theory effort, led by Sam Liebana in the lab. The first experiment my lab started just shy of 6y ago & v excited to see it out: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
June 11, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Ozan Vardal
achterbrain.bsky.social
Now out 🚨 🧪 : our preprint describing dynamics of an extended frontal lobe network (4 cortical regions) in monkeys solving complex multi-step spatial problems! We observe distributed codes for goals, states, and planned moves across PFC!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience #compneuro

🧵👇
Neural dynamics of an extended frontal lobe network in goal-subgoal problem solving
Complex behavior calls for hierarchical representation of current state, goal, and component moves. In the human brain, a network of “multiple-demand” (MD) regions underpins cognitive control. We reco...
www.biorxiv.org
May 29, 2025 at 9:55 AM