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Reposted by phil newsome

Sam Nastase @samnastase.bsky.social · 9d

I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.

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Sofi Cárdenas @sofiacardenas.bsky.social · 14d

Our paper is finally out @darbysaxbe.bsky.social @genesisflores.bsky.social! Expectant fathers raised in riskier environments show lower white matter integrity in limbic regions and less effective parenting, even controlling for depressive symptoms. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Risky family environment, white matter organization, and effective parenting in expectant fathers | Development and Psychopathology | Cambridge Core

Risky family environment, white matter organization, and effective parenting in expectant fathers

www.cambridge.org

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · 24d

consider sharing with them @agvacca.bsky.social 's paper on quantifying mixed emotions in the scanner doi.org/10.1093/cerc...

Neural patterns associated with mixed valence feelings differ in consistency and predictability throughout the brain

Abstract. Mixed feelings, the simultaneous presence of feelings with positive and negative valence, remain an understudied topic. They pose a specific set

doi.org

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Jamie Hanson @jamielarsh.bsky.social · 25d

🚨 GRADUATE PHD APPLICATIONS OPEN 🚨
I'm accepting students for the next psychology PhD admissions cycle! If you're passionate about developmental neuroscience and clinical psychology, this might be for you 👇
#GradSchool #Psychology #Research /1

a woman in a black coat stands in front of a sign that says hey

ALT: a woman in a black coat stands in front of a sign that says hey

media.tenor.com

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Mark Thornton @markthornton.bsky.social · Aug 29

After 5 years, I finally carved out time to turn this blog post on FDR (markallenthornton.com/blog/fdr-pro...) into a manuscript. The preprint features a much broader range of simulations showing how FDR promotes confounds, and how this effect compounds with publication bias: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Effect of confound mass on true positive rates under FDR correction. Confound mass represents how large a confound is in terms of the product of its voxel extent and effect size. Results are shown at differing combinations of true effect size, true effect voxel extent, and sample size.

Inflated surface maps of meta-analytic z-statistics from Neurosynth for low-level confounds (top) and high-level cognitive tasks (bottom). Red reflects positive activations, blue reflects negative (de)activations, and darker colors indicate larger z-statistics. Maps are thresholded at |z| = 1 for visualization purposes.

Effect of confound effect size on true positive rates for task effects under FDR correction. Colors indicate sample sizes: N = 25 in blue, N = 50 in green, and N = 100 in orange. Effect sizes are reflected by the darkness of each color, with light shades representing d = .2, medium d = .5, and dark d = .8. The task brain maps and confound brain maps referenced in each panel are shown in Figure 3.

Effect of FDR-based publication bias on observed confound effects sizes. Simulated meta-analytic confound effect sizes are visualized through violin plots for each combination of task effect and confound effect examined in the neural data simulations. Meta-analyses featuring publication bias (orange) substantially inflate these effect size estimates in all cases, relative to meta-analyses featuring no publication bias (blue).

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 29

connectivity changes from prenatal to postpartum fatherhood and their relation to affective experiences (e.g., sense of meaning, stress)!

Anthony Vaccaro @agvacca.bsky.social · Aug 29

Our new study in Emotion!

Parents report higher satisfaction yet lower daily happiness- the 'parenting paradox'. So in the transition to parenthood, how do we study well-being? We studied how new fathers adapt by examining meaning/purpose and brain connectivity.
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

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Anthony Vaccaro @agvacca.bsky.social · Aug 29

Our new study in Emotion!

Parents report higher satisfaction yet lower daily happiness- the 'parenting paradox'. So in the transition to parenthood, how do we study well-being? We studied how new fathers adapt by examining meaning/purpose and brain connectivity.
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

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Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe.bsky.social · Aug 21

Yes it's actually good that we have fMRI to know this, because men's parental bond has been understudied & essentialist narratives continue to insist that only women have "maternal instinct." Showing how the male brain responds to infant stimuli helps us appreciate human adaptations to fatherhood!

Nils Kroemer @nbkroemer.bsky.social · Aug 21

Whew, glad we have fMRI to know this.

PsyPost @psypost.bsky.social · Aug 21

First-time fathers show distinct brain responses to their own babies

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The Research Center for Group Dynamics @rcgd-isr.bsky.social · Aug 20

👀 New "dad brain" research from @darbysaxbe.bsky.social; Darby Saxbe will join RCGD's fall seminar series on the science of social relationships-- with a talk on the transition to fatherhood 9/29. Check out the series that kicks off next week! rcgd.isr.umich.edu/news-events/...

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 21

Our recent paternal brain publication in Human Brain Mapping was featured in @psypost.bsky.social (including some of my comments on the work)!

🔗PsyPost article: www.psypost.org/first-time-f...
📄actual paper: doi.org/10.1002/hbm....
🧵my thread on the findings: bsky.app/profile/phil...

PsyPost @psypost.bsky.social · Aug 21

First-time fathers show distinct brain responses to their own babies

New research sheds light on how fatherhood affects the brain. First-time dads showed stronger neural responses to their own babies—especially in areas linked to social and emotional processing—compared to unfamiliar infants or partners. These responses also tracked with bonding and stress.

www.psypost.org

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Reposted by phil newsome

PsyPost @psypost.bsky.social · Aug 21

First-time fathers show distinct brain responses to their own babies

New research sheds light on how fatherhood affects the brain. First-time dads showed stronger neural responses to their own babies—especially in areas linked to social and emotional processing—compared to unfamiliar infants or partners. These responses also tracked with bonding and stress.

www.psypost.org

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Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe.bsky.social · Aug 18

Fresh off the presses brand-new DAD BRAIN research from our lab!

phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

🧠Out now in @ohbmofficial.bsky.social ! 🧠

We scanned 32 first-time dads (~8 mos postpartum) while they watched videos of their baby, an unfamiliar baby, their romantic partner, and an unfamiliar woman…1/8

doi.org/10.1002/hbm....

My Baby Versus the World: Fathers' Neural Processing of Own‐Infant, Unfamiliar‐Infant, and Romantic Partner Stimuli

First-time fathers processed own-infant stimuli in mentalizing, emotion regulation, and reward processing regions, and posterior midline responses tracked with bonding and parental stress. Whole-brai....

doi.org

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

Co-led w/ @agvacca.bsky.social
Senior Authors: @darbysaxbe.bsky.social @jonaskaplan.bsky.social
Other Authors: @sofiacardenas.bsky.social #valen @ywaizman.bsky.social @lizzieaviv.bsky.social #leon

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

☕️ So basically…dads may develop unique responses to their baby not totally explained by just “baby schema” or that it’s someone they love/care for.

🔮Future work on how these processes CHANGE during early stages of parenthood is soon to come :)
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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

[4] 🔂Follow-up MVPA revealed relative contributions from familiarity and infancy dimensions; however, own-infant condition was still distinguishable from stimuli with overlapping characteristics. 6/8

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

[3] 🔦Searchlights captured discriminable neural patterns in similar DMN areas, as well as the parahippocampus. 5/8

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

[2] Greater activation around the posterior midline of the cortex was associated with:
👶 stronger reported bond with their infant
😅 less parenting stress!
4/8

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

[1] We observed stronger responses in regions supporting mentalizing, emotion regulation, & reward processing when fathers viewed their own baby vs an unfamiliar infant or their partner. 3/8

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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

👨‍👧Most research on brain responses to own-infant stimuli has focused on moms. Additionally, it had been unclear whether “own-baby” effects are truly specific to one’s own infant, or just reflect familiarity/closeness.
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phil newsome @philnewsomejr.bsky.social · Aug 18

🧠Out now in @ohbmofficial.bsky.social ! 🧠

We scanned 32 first-time dads (~8 mos postpartum) while they watched videos of their baby, an unfamiliar baby, their romantic partner, and an unfamiliar woman…1/8

doi.org/10.1002/hbm....

My Baby Versus the World: Fathers' Neural Processing of Own‐Infant, Unfamiliar‐Infant, and Romantic Partner Stimuli

First-time fathers processed own-infant stimuli in mentalizing, emotion regulation, and reward processing regions, and posterior midline responses tracked with bonding and parental stress. Whole-brai....

doi.org

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Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe.bsky.social · Jun 6

🙋‍♀️ 👋🚨 Two of my grad students had their NIH Diversity Supplements abruptly cancelled. We plan to appeal. We'd love to coordinate with other folks w/ cancelled grants. Does this already exist? If not, could we start a Slack, email or text thread, or shared Google Drive to share appeals & strategize?

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Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe.bsky.social · Jun 4

I posted this article about my student's grant cancellation this morning. A few minutes ago, I learned that another very talented student in my lab had their funding cancelled too. I'm heartbroken -- not just about my students, but the future of science.
darbysaxbe.substack.com/p/my-student...