Alina Studenova
@studenova.bsky.social
PhD candidate, MPI CBS, MPSCog,
brain oscillations, cortical microstructure
https://alinastudenova.com/
brain oscillations, cortical microstructure
https://alinastudenova.com/
Simulated travelling waves reproduce functional connectivity (FC) in fMRI better when cortical heterogeneity is taken into account. This paper shows that two variational characteristics provided the most improvements: T1w/T2w ratio (myelin) and E:I balance. Alright!👍 If so, then what is FC actually?
Regional heterogeneity shapes macroscopic wave dynamics of the human and non-human primate cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701178v1
January 28, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Simulated travelling waves reproduce functional connectivity (FC) in fMRI better when cortical heterogeneity is taken into account. This paper shows that two variational characteristics provided the most improvements: T1w/T2w ratio (myelin) and E:I balance. Alright!👍 If so, then what is FC actually?
Toolbox with subcortical atlases. V. useful!
Please add brainstem🙏
Please add brainstem🙏
Subcortex visualization: A toolbox for custom data visualization in the subcortex and cerebellum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.23.699785v1
January 26, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Toolbox with subcortical atlases. V. useful!
Please add brainstem🙏
Please add brainstem🙏
I have been trying to simulate event-related alpha amplitude decrease with the Jansen-Rit model. Turns out adding external inhibitory input abolishes alpha. Pretty obvious. But how does it agree with more alpha = more inhibition?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
January 23, 2026 at 12:41 PM
I have been trying to simulate event-related alpha amplitude decrease with the Jansen-Rit model. Turns out adding external inhibitory input abolishes alpha. Pretty obvious. But how does it agree with more alpha = more inhibition?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
Some ripples result from filtering 1/f noise (because when you filter noise you always get oscillations). Somewhat expected, but nice to have it spelled out and thoroughly investigated.👍
Ripple oscillations are central for memory and sleep.
But ripple detection in humans remains challenging. Here we introduce a simulation approach in @natcomms.nature.com as common ripple detectors mainly pick up 1/f noise and not genuine oscillations
👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroskyence
But ripple detection in humans remains challenging. Here we introduce a simulation approach in @natcomms.nature.com as common ripple detectors mainly pick up 1/f noise and not genuine oscillations
👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroskyence
Aperiodic 1/f noise drives ripple activity in humans - Nature Communications
How aperiodic 1/f noise drives ripple activity in human brain and impacts on ripple detections is not fully understood. Here authors show that ripple detections should be driven by the 1/f noise, whic...
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Some ripples result from filtering 1/f noise (because when you filter noise you always get oscillations). Somewhat expected, but nice to have it spelled out and thoroughly investigated.👍
Movement is a confounding factor in correlation between readiness potential and respiration. The authors provide careful analysis of original Park et al. 2020 dataset and their collected dataset, suggestions how to avoid the confound, and generally many other thoughts. V. cool and v. interesting!👏
No evidence for the modulation of the readiness potential by respiratory phase
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
January 21, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Movement is a confounding factor in correlation between readiness potential and respiration. The authors provide careful analysis of original Park et al. 2020 dataset and their collected dataset, suggestions how to avoid the confound, and generally many other thoughts. V. cool and v. interesting!👏
Brain-body communication is impaired in people with schizophrenia (SSD), contributing to symptoms such as depersonalization. Deniz and her colleagues did a vast amount of work to provide a better understanding of interoception in SSD. A nuanced and intricate picture has emerged. Well done, Deniz!👏👍🎉
How the brain listens to the body matters.
Our new preprint investigates interoceptive processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders across phenomenology, behavior, and heartbeat-evoked brain responses. 🧠🫀DOI: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Our new preprint investigates interoceptive processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders across phenomenology, behavior, and heartbeat-evoked brain responses. 🧠🫀DOI: doi.org/10.64898/202...
From Body to Brain and Back: Multimodal Evidence for Interoceptive Alterations in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
When the brain and body misalign, emotional experience and sense of reality can be disrupted. Although such atypical experiences are central to schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), interoception, p...
doi.org
January 20, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Brain-body communication is impaired in people with schizophrenia (SSD), contributing to symptoms such as depersonalization. Deniz and her colleagues did a vast amount of work to provide a better understanding of interoception in SSD. A nuanced and intricate picture has emerged. Well done, Deniz!👏👍🎉
A physical theory of interest can be formally assessed to determine whether it is deterministic, in the metaphysical sense. It is tricky, though. In this paper, the authors survey earlier proposals and develop their own approach. So, it turns out that determinism is somewhat undetermined.🧐
New on the Archive:
Halvorson, Hans and Manchak, JB and Weatherall, James Owen (2025) Deterministic Theories. [Preprint]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27922/
Halvorson, Hans and Manchak, JB and Weatherall, James Owen (2025) Deterministic Theories. [Preprint]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27922/
January 18, 2026 at 10:33 AM
A physical theory of interest can be formally assessed to determine whether it is deterministic, in the metaphysical sense. It is tricky, though. In this paper, the authors survey earlier proposals and develop their own approach. So, it turns out that determinism is somewhat undetermined.🧐
The brain is critical, they say;
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
January 16, 2026 at 3:00 PM
The brain is critical, they say;
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
Reposted by Alina Studenova
main goal for this year: find a new job! 🙂
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
January 16, 2026 at 10:14 AM
main goal for this year: find a new job! 🙂
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
This commentary paper concerns those who develop clinical models (to be used in hospitals). It has a checklist to go through to answer if the model may be useful in clinics. It seems to me, broadly, we all (who do simulations and modeling) may benefit from asking ourselves if our models are useful.
January 15, 2026 at 1:10 PM
This commentary paper concerns those who develop clinical models (to be used in hospitals). It has a checklist to go through to answer if the model may be useful in clinics. It seems to me, broadly, we all (who do simulations and modeling) may benefit from asking ourselves if our models are useful.
If the brain operates in a critical regime, it's said to be beneficial for information manipulation. In this paper, criticality of motor cortex of Parkinson’s disease patients was compared with controls. So patients' brain is closer to (not farther from) the critical point, regardless of the meds.🆒🆒
Emergent critical oscillations in motor cortex of Parkinson's patients https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.09.698590v1
January 11, 2026 at 3:27 PM
If the brain operates in a critical regime, it's said to be beneficial for information manipulation. In this paper, criticality of motor cortex of Parkinson’s disease patients was compared with controls. So patients' brain is closer to (not farther from) the critical point, regardless of the meds.🆒🆒
I have been trying to understand how the depth of a "source" influences its topography. Here are short and exaggerated simulations of EEG data (no real dipoles in white matter). Note that each frame of the topography was z-scored. So the deeper, the more spread out?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
January 9, 2026 at 2:39 PM
I have been trying to understand how the depth of a "source" influences its topography. Here are short and exaggerated simulations of EEG data (no real dipoles in white matter). Note that each frame of the topography was z-scored. So the deeper, the more spread out?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
Population spiking in monkeys is not aligned with evoked responses but aligned with high gamma activity (HGA). Albeit, the alignment between spikes and HGA is also not ubiquitous and depends on the neural code. Nice!👍 But somewhat discouraging for non-invasive data. Is spiking really all there is?
Neural representations of visual memory in inferotemporal cortex reveal a generalizable framework for translating between spikes and field potentials https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.03.697516v1
January 8, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Population spiking in monkeys is not aligned with evoked responses but aligned with high gamma activity (HGA). Albeit, the alignment between spikes and HGA is also not ubiquitous and depends on the neural code. Nice!👍 But somewhat discouraging for non-invasive data. Is spiking really all there is?
BOLD response is a Schrödinger cat,
It might be alive, or might be dead.
👇Interesting tread explaining main outcome of the recent paper (where BOLD was claimed to be not always related to metabolism). Amazing! 👏
It might be alive, or might be dead.
👇Interesting tread explaining main outcome of the recent paper (where BOLD was claimed to be not always related to metabolism). Amazing! 👏
This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
Would love to hear expert views on this paper. It appears to show that the operationalization of brain activity the field has relied on for 3 decades—the BOLD response—is not actually a sensible measure of brain activity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
January 6, 2026 at 11:47 AM
BOLD response is a Schrödinger cat,
It might be alive, or might be dead.
👇Interesting tread explaining main outcome of the recent paper (where BOLD was claimed to be not always related to metabolism). Amazing! 👏
It might be alive, or might be dead.
👇Interesting tread explaining main outcome of the recent paper (where BOLD was claimed to be not always related to metabolism). Amazing! 👏
If I lift my finger to type, I know that I lifted my finger. It's bodily agency. If I type a word and look at the screen, there is the word that I typed. It's outcome agency. This v. cool study shows that those are distinct👏! Of course. When I play tennis, I blame my partner only for the outcome.
Happy New year! Warm wishes to you all.
Sharing a recent paper in which we compared bodily and external agency using behavioral & EEG data.
Behavior looked similar across conditions, but Mratio did not correlate and neural signals differed — distinct processes?
www.eneuro.org/content/earl...
Sharing a recent paper in which we compared bodily and external agency using behavioral & EEG data.
Behavior looked similar across conditions, but Mratio did not correlate and neural signals differed — distinct processes?
www.eneuro.org/content/earl...
Comparing metacognitive representations of bodily and external agency
We studied the role of movement and outcome information in forming metacognitive representations of agency. Human participants (N = 40; 25 female, 15 male, 0 diverse) completed a goal-oriented task: a...
www.eneuro.org
January 5, 2026 at 4:02 PM
If I lift my finger to type, I know that I lifted my finger. It's bodily agency. If I type a word and look at the screen, there is the word that I typed. It's outcome agency. This v. cool study shows that those are distinct👏! Of course. When I play tennis, I blame my partner only for the outcome.
Which parcellation to use? The authors here propose to build theories on gradient-based, connectivity-based and population-level explanations instead of focusing solely on areas. True👏, but also cytoarchitectonic areas vary considerably between individuals, which limits how much we can rely on them.
New Perspective from myself, Sarah Heilbronner and @myoo.bsky.social . “Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization” in Nature Neuroscience. 🧵
rdcu.be/eVZ1A
rdcu.be/eVZ1A
Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization
Nature Neuroscience - Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas...
rdcu.be
January 3, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Which parcellation to use? The authors here propose to build theories on gradient-based, connectivity-based and population-level explanations instead of focusing solely on areas. True👏, but also cytoarchitectonic areas vary considerably between individuals, which limits how much we can rely on them.
Happy New Year and happy learning (new motor skills)!
January 1, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Happy New Year and happy learning (new motor skills)!
Arousal influences many behavioral outcomes. This paper suggests that arousal is more. It is a latent dynamical process, which is possible to observe "propagating" in time and space and interacting with other systems. Good!💯 Note to self: record pupil diameter in the next experiment.
Nature research paper: Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics
go.nature.com/4nMUgYz
go.nature.com/4nMUgYz
Arousal as a universal embedding for spatiotemporal brain dynamics - Nature
Reframing of arousal as a latent dynamical system can reconstruct multidimensional measurements of large-scale spatiotemporal brain dynamics on the timescale of seconds in mice.
go.nature.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Arousal influences many behavioral outcomes. This paper suggests that arousal is more. It is a latent dynamical process, which is possible to observe "propagating" in time and space and interacting with other systems. Good!💯 Note to self: record pupil diameter in the next experiment.
I continue to read about freedom and determinism🤔🫠.
This time, I read “A Metaphysics for Freedom” by Helen Steward. My opinion here
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
This time, I read “A Metaphysics for Freedom” by Helen Steward. My opinion here
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
Alina Studenova - a-metaphysics-for-freedom
It feels like I have the freedom to act. I chose today to sit in front of my computer and type these words. However, freedom cannot survive in a deterministic universe, and physicists tell us that the...
www.alinastudenova.com
December 28, 2025 at 7:45 PM
I continue to read about freedom and determinism🤔🫠.
This time, I read “A Metaphysics for Freedom” by Helen Steward. My opinion here
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
This time, I read “A Metaphysics for Freedom” by Helen Steward. My opinion here
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
Evoked response is how the brain responds to finger tap,
Presented when someone's awake or in the midst of nap,
Or to the picture or the face, that’s shown to the eyes,
Or to the auditory tone, or to the smell of fries.
Presented when someone's awake or in the midst of nap,
Or to the picture or the face, that’s shown to the eyes,
Or to the auditory tone, or to the smell of fries.
December 26, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Evoked response is how the brain responds to finger tap,
Presented when someone's awake or in the midst of nap,
Or to the picture or the face, that’s shown to the eyes,
Or to the auditory tone, or to the smell of fries.
Presented when someone's awake or in the midst of nap,
Or to the picture or the face, that’s shown to the eyes,
Or to the auditory tone, or to the smell of fries.
Homeostasis is often described as maintaining a stable 'set-point'; allostasis is adjusting some quantities to meet demands. Both involve feedback control. The author sells the idea that dynamical causal models can be used to analyze homeo- and allostatic mechanisms. Helpful!👍 Where do I start...
New on the Archive:
Weinberger, Naftali (2025) Homeostasis and Causal Control. [Preprint]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27481/
Weinberger, Naftali (2025) Homeostasis and Causal Control. [Preprint]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27481/
December 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Homeostasis is often described as maintaining a stable 'set-point'; allostasis is adjusting some quantities to meet demands. Both involve feedback control. The author sells the idea that dynamical causal models can be used to analyze homeo- and allostatic mechanisms. Helpful!👍 Where do I start...
Reposted by Alina Studenova
📆 updated for 2026!
list of summer schools & short courses in the realm of (computational) neuroscience or data analysis of EEG / MEG / LFP: 🔗 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
list of summer schools & short courses in the realm of (computational) neuroscience or data analysis of EEG / MEG / LFP: 🔗 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
various computational neuroscience / MEEG / LFP short courses and summer schools
docs.google.com
December 19, 2025 at 4:37 PM
📆 updated for 2026!
list of summer schools & short courses in the realm of (computational) neuroscience or data analysis of EEG / MEG / LFP: 🔗 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
list of summer schools & short courses in the realm of (computational) neuroscience or data analysis of EEG / MEG / LFP: 🔗 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Intracranial recordings during auditory oddball showed 2 types of high-frequency responses (more pronounced for target tones): phasic and sustained. Phasic occurred in sensory-motor Yeo network, while sustained - in salience network. Nice!👍 Notably, only 22% of recorded sites showed the effect.
Salient auditory stimuli evoke spatially segregated phasic and sustained neural responses in the human brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.18.695315v1
December 20, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Intracranial recordings during auditory oddball showed 2 types of high-frequency responses (more pronounced for target tones): phasic and sustained. Phasic occurred in sensory-motor Yeo network, while sustained - in salience network. Nice!👍 Notably, only 22% of recorded sites showed the effect.
I'm interested in individual differences. Regarding resting-state alpha power, it is usually said that the power is high in occipital areas. However, not for everybody.
Here, resting-state alpha power with eyes closed from participants of the LEMON dataset doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.308
#brainmovies
Here, resting-state alpha power with eyes closed from participants of the LEMON dataset doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.308
#brainmovies
December 19, 2025 at 12:19 PM
I'm interested in individual differences. Regarding resting-state alpha power, it is usually said that the power is high in occipital areas. However, not for everybody.
Here, resting-state alpha power with eyes closed from participants of the LEMON dataset doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.308
#brainmovies
Here, resting-state alpha power with eyes closed from participants of the LEMON dataset doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.308
#brainmovies
Reposted by Alina Studenova
This week is ideal to draft your submission for the #MindBrainBody Symposium 2026 so that you can let it rest over the (potential) holidays and finalise it first thing in 2026 (deadline: January 8, 2026). 😉
Looking forward to seeing you there and - in case - happy holidays! 🎄🧠🫀🫁
Looking forward to seeing you there and - in case - happy holidays! 🎄🧠🫀🫁
*13th MindBrainBody Symposium*
📆 Mar 9-11, 2026
🏠 #Berlin & virtual
(deadline: Jan 8, 2026)
Keynotes:
- @ulrikebingel.bsky.social
- Karl Friston (online)
- @tinalonsdorf.bsky.social
- Sonja Kotz
- Julian Thayer
...& so much more: prizes, posters, talks, food, drinks, encounters.
Let's meet!
📆 Mar 9-11, 2026
🏠 #Berlin & virtual
(deadline: Jan 8, 2026)
Keynotes:
- @ulrikebingel.bsky.social
- Karl Friston (online)
- @tinalonsdorf.bsky.social
- Sonja Kotz
- Julian Thayer
...& so much more: prizes, posters, talks, food, drinks, encounters.
Let's meet!
December 18, 2025 at 7:55 AM
This week is ideal to draft your submission for the #MindBrainBody Symposium 2026 so that you can let it rest over the (potential) holidays and finalise it first thing in 2026 (deadline: January 8, 2026). 😉
Looking forward to seeing you there and - in case - happy holidays! 🎄🧠🫀🫁
Looking forward to seeing you there and - in case - happy holidays! 🎄🧠🫀🫁