Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ambra Ferrari

@ambrafer.bsky.social

1K followers 460 following 66 posts

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow @cimecunitrento.bsky.social (Trento, IT) pondering how we (learn to) communicate before and beyond words. https://ambrafer.github.io/

ambrafer.github.io

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Prior expectations guide multisensory integration during face-to-face communication

Out now in @plos.org Computational Biology
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
w/ @giuliamz.bsky.social et al. @cimecunitrento.bsky.social

🧠🧪 #psychscisky #neuroskyence
TL;DR 🧵👇

Binding problem in face-to-face communication

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

SINe Lab @sinelabdtu.bsky.social · 4d

🫁❤️New preprint out: The social, decoupled self

We show effects of interpersonal synchronization of physiological rhythms on intrapersonal cardiorespiratory coupling: when we sync our breathing, our breathing–heart rhythms decouple, with a perturbed phase-relationship
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The social, decoupled self: interpersonal synchronization of breathing alters intrapersonal cardiorespiratory coupling

People synchronize their periodic behavioural and physiological rhythms with each other during social interaction. While this interpersonal synchronization has largely been associated with positive ef...

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam @laurelgd.bsky.social · 8d

I continue to believe sharing example materials is useful in academia, so in that spirit, my tenure statements and CV are now available on our Resources for Researchers website (bottom of the New PI page: www.plasticityinneurodevelopmentlab.com/resourcesfor...)

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

p.s. Stay tuned for the neural correlates of these effects (spoiler: we see interesting effects in early sensory cortices!)

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

These findings provide key insight into the sophisticated mechanisms underpinning the efficiency of face-to-face communication, and raise fascinating and timely questions about the evolutionary, developmental and cultural origins of priors in social interaction.

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

Crucially, people have a stronger prior tendency to combine vocal and bodily signals when they convey the same communicative intent. Thus, the brain uses prior expectations to bind multisensory signals that carry converging meaning.

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

By comparing several computational architectures, we clearly show that observers solve audiovisual causal inference using non-optimal heuristics that nevertheless approximate the optimal Bayesian solution with high accuracy.

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

We addressed this question by framing face-to-face communication as a Bayesian Causal Inference problem. Combining psychophysics with computational modelling, we formally tested whether prior expectations arbitrate between the integration and segregation of vocal and bodily signals.

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

Face-to-face communication is complex: what we say is coupled with bodily signals, which may or may not carry converging meaning. How does the brain determine which multisensory signals belong together and which, instead, must be kept apart?

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · 14d

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 Prior expectations guide multisensory integration during face-to-face communication

Out now in @plos.org Computational Biology
journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
w/ @giuliamz.bsky.social et al. @cimecunitrento.bsky.social

🧠🧪 #psychscisky #neuroskyence
TL;DR 🧵👇

Binding problem in face-to-face communication

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · Sep 8

Are you an early career researcher (undergrad to postdoc) who could use advice about navigating peer review? Are you stuck on a manuscript submission or revision? Have general questions about peer review?

Schedule a 30-min chat with any member of @reviewerzero.bsky.social! We'd love to help 😊

Formative And Interactive Review (FAIR)

🌱 Formative And Interactive Review (FAIR) 🌱 Reviewer Zero's Formative and Interactive Review (FAIR) draft feedback program is designed for early career researchers (ECRs) to receive feedback on a draf...

www.reviewerzero.net

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · Sep 5

Launched in 2023, Imaging Neuroscience is now firmly established, with full indexing (PubMed, etc.) and 700 papers to date.

We're very happy to announce that we are able to reduce the APC to $1400.

Huge thanks to all authors, reviewers, editorial team+board, and MIT Press.

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · Aug 29

Our target discussion article out in Cognitive Neuroscience! It will be followed by peer commentary and our responses. If you would like to write a commentary, please reach out to the journal! 1/18 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @cibaker.bsky.social @susanwardle.bsky.social

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Blake Richards @tyrellturing.bsky.social · Aug 26

This paper shows that some human "gestalt" style visual processing can emerge in purely feedforward deep nets with the right inductive biases and fine-tuning:

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

🧠📈 🧪 #NeuroAI

A feedforward mechanism for human-like contour integration

Author summary A central challenge in vision science is understanding how the visual system links fragmented local features into coherent object representations. One foundational process supporting th...

journals.plos.org

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · Aug 25

poking @cimecunitrento.bsky.social friends in particular 😉

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · Aug 25

Looking forward to meeting many colleagues in beautiful Padova this September! 😊🧠🧪 Join us!

Italian Network of Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience @incn.bsky.social · Aug 25

⏳ The registration deadline for #INCTN2025 is fast approaching — 31 Aug!
Don’t miss the chance to join us in Padova 🇮🇹 this September for exciting neuroscience discussions 🧠✨
👉 Register here: registrations.meetandwork.com/Login.asp?ID...
ℹ️ More info: www.incn.it/registration/

INCTN 2025 - Italian Network for Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience - Login

registrations.meetandwork.com

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · Aug 14

This result speaks to the critical importance of bottom-up advocacy, as well as a leadership environment that is sensitive to input and willing to invest.

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · Aug 14

Phd students benefit from the infrastructure of a graduate school. But postdocs need guidance too. @brittawestner.bsky.social @devoogdld.bsky.social and I were the first to advocate for this as Donders postdoc reps. Now postdocs have a dedicated coordinator—a unique position on campus. Wonderful!

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · Aug 8

We are recruiting a new PI at the FIL @imagingneuroucl.bsky.social, Associate or Full Professor. This is an amazing place to do cognitive neuroscience, in the heart of London. If you or someone you know might be interested, please pass it on. #neuroskyence

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

UCL – University College London

UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Mark Dingemanse @dingemansemark.bsky.social · Jul 7

We're hiring! Join us to work at the intersection of social interaction and language technology. Postdoc and PhD positions in my Futures of Language research group, based at Radboud University in Nijmegen, NL

Read more: markdingemanse.net/futures/news...

#linguistics #interaction #sts #emca #hci

Aerial photograph of Radboud University campus with the Erasmus tower in the foreground: tallest building in Nijmegen & home to the Futures of Language project. Source: RU

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

David Richter @davidrichter.bsky.social · Jun 26

The what and when of visual surprise:
EEG shows that high-level visual surprise emerges rapidly and modulates neural responses ~200ms after stimulus onset.

New preprint with @paulapena.bsky.social and @mruz.bsky.social available here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Summary 🧵 below

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Francesco Poli @francescopoli.bsky.social · Jun 25

Out now in Science Advances! We find that infants estimate environmental volatility to learn optimally, with early individual differences linked to temperament. This has be so much fun to work on and ended up being my favourite personal paper! So excited it's out!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Volatility-driven learning in human infants

Infants estimate environmental volatility to learn optimally, with early individual differences linked to temperament.

www.science.org

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

BottiniLab @bottinilab.bsky.social · Jun 9

📢 BottiniLab is hiring!

Join our ERC-funded team in Trentino to study memory, attention & cognitive maps (fMRI, MEG, EEG, iEEG).

🧠 3 postdocs, 3 PhDs, 2 RAs
🌍 Int’l, dynamic lab
🗓️ Deadline: July 10, 2025
📍Workplace: g.co/kgs/Ysyne4V
🔗 Info & how to apply: pdf.ac/2Ppzmw

#ERC #NeuroscienceJobs

Ambra Ferrari @ambrafer.bsky.social · Jun 6

Big changes to the ERC funding schemes!
Note the new eligibility criteria from 2027 on:
📌 Starting Grant: 0-10 y post-PhD
📌 Consolidator Grant: 5-15 y post-PhD
erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

Changes to the 2026 and 2027 Work Programmes

With the launch of the competitions for grants under ERC Work Programme 2026 in July of this year, several changes to the submission of applications and the evaluation of proposals will apply. The mai...

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

Marlijn ter Bekke @marlijnterbekke.bsky.social · Jun 5

🚨 Great PhD opportunity to work with James McQueen and Orhun Ulusahin on the NWO-funded project ’Plugging talkers in: A new solution to the variability problem in human speech recognition’! Deadline 13th of June 📅

www.ru.nl/en/working-a...

PhD Position at the Donders Centre for Cognition: Talker Variability in Speech Recognition | Radboud University

Do you want to work as a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Social Sciences? Check our vacancy!

Reposted by Ambra Ferrari

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Dec 10

Let's make Bluesky the home of independent news.

Unlike X, where algorithms crush links & push content you don't want, news flourishes here. Particularly news from independent & non-profit outlets.

If you prefer news away from MSM, here's a starter pack to share with valuable & verified accounts.