Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Chris Baker

PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 2d

Michael X Cohen on why he left academia/neuroscience.
mikexcohen.substack.com/p/why-i-left...

Why I left academia and neuroscience

Don't worry, this isn't yet another story of rage-quitting.

mikexcohen.substack.com

3 34 90

Reposted by Chris Baker

Sabina Srokova @sabina-srokova.bsky.social · 16d

New paper alert! 🚨 We show that age-related neural dedifferentiation in scene-selective cortex is tied to changes in eye movements. Using simultaneous fMRI + eye-tracking, we found that younger adults’ fixations covary with scene specificity, but this link weakens with age.

Link in post below 👇

1 6 34

Reposted by Chris Baker

Steven Scholte @neurosteven.bsky.social · Sep 8

🧠 New preprint: Why do deep neural networks predict brain responses so well?
We find a striking dissociation: it’s not shared object recognition. Alignment is driven by sensitivity to texture-like local statistics.
📊 Study: n=57, 624k trials, 5 models doi.org/10.1101/2025...

4 37 110

Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · Aug 29

Happy to hear any and all feedback on our discussion article!

So much fun to work with this amazing set of authors :)

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

5

Reposted by Chris Baker

Amanda Robinson @amandakrobinson.bsky.social · Aug 27

Excited to have this one out! We found that the perception of illusory faces relies on parallel brain representations of faces and objects with different dynamics, enabling flexible behaviour.

Communications Psychology @commspsychol.nature.com · Aug 19

EEG shows illusory faces in objects initially resemble real faces then shift to object-like representations, with task demands determining which identity guides behavior.
@amandakrobinson.bsky.social @jesstaubert.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Neural correlates reveal separate stages of spontaneous face perception - Communications Psychology

Neural dynamics reveal separate stages of spontaneous face perception: EEG shows illusory faces in objects initially resemble real faces then shift to object-like representations, with task demands de...

www.nature.com

4 15

Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · Aug 25

Eye movements, vision and memory through the lens of Sherlock - awesome collaborative project led by @matthiasnau.bsky.social

Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · Aug 25

Excited to share our new paper w/ @cibaker.bsky.social in @natcomms.nature.com linking active vision & memory!

We provide evidence that gaze reinstatement & neural reactivation are deeply related phenomena that jointly reflect the experiences constructed during recall. doi.org/10.1038/s414...
🧵1/9

Neural and behavioral reinstatement jointly reflect retrieval of narrative events - Nature Communications

When people recall a movie, their eye movements and brain activity resemble those observed during the viewing. These behavioral and neural reactivations are linked through a common process, likely ref...

doi.org

4 11

Reposted by Chris Baker

Nature @nature.com · Aug 21

A brain-imaging study of people with amputated arms has upended a long-standing belief

go.nature.com/3Jp9NPG

The brain’s map of the body is surprisingly stable — even after a limb is lost

Study challenges the textbook idea that the brain region that processes body sensations reorganizes itself after limb amputation.

go.nature.com

1 23 71

Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · Aug 21

Loss of sensory input has long been used to study brain plasticity - here, we challenge the prevailing view of massive reorganization in a longitudinal study of amputees

Massive effort from @hunterschone.bsky.social who was in the awesome NIH/UCL PhD program with @plasticity-lab.bsky.social

Hunter Schone @hunterschone.bsky.social · Aug 21

Now out in @natneuro.nature.com

What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed?

Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation

www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7

🧵1/18

2 11

Reposted by Chris Baker

Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · Aug 18

Datasets like NSD & THINGS offer rich stimuli but often test a single task.

After great conversations at #CCN2025 on multi-task studies & generalization in brains & models, I thought I would repost our perspective for those interested in this topic. We need multiple tasks!👉 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Centering cognitive neuroscience on task demands and generalization - Nature Neuroscience

Task demands are a primary determiner of behavior and neurophysiology. Here the authors discuss how understanding their influence through multitask studies and tests of generalization is the key to ar...

doi.org

1 14 50

Reposted by Chris Baker

Iris Groen @irisgroen.bsky.social · Aug 10

After preparing for a full year together with @neurosteven.bsky.social and all other amazing organizers
of @cogcompneuro.bsky.social, #CCN2025 is finally here!

While I'm proud of the entire program we put together, I'd now like to highlight my own lab's contributions, 6 posters total:

1 7 52

Reposted by Chris Baker

Courtois Project on Neuronal Modelling @cneuromod.ca · Jul 30

New CNeuroMod-THINGS open-access fMRI dataset: 4 participants · ~4 000 images (720 categories) each shown 3× (12k trials per subject)· individual functional localizers & NSD-inspired QC . Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2507.09024 Congrats Marie St-Laurent and @martinhebart.bsky.social !!

four brain maps showing noise ceiling estimates in response to image presentation

1 17 35

Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · Jul 22

Amazing effort from @gcaedwards.bsky.social @ryanruhde.bsky.social Mica Carroll to rigorously test hf-tRNS on visual cortex. We didn’t replicate, but learned a lot and have ideas for moving forward

Thanks to @pci-regreports.bsky.social for constructive guidance through the whole process

Grace Edwards @gcaedwards.bsky.social · Jul 21

High-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (hf-tRNS) targeted at motion processing region hMT+ does not improve visual motion discrimination. Failed #replication in #registeredreport

@ryanruhde.bsky.social Mica Carroll @cibaker.bsky.social

#trns #nibs #NIMH

doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

1/6

6

Reposted by Chris Baker

Maria Molina-Sanchez @mariamolinasan.bsky.social · Jul 7

Can humans use artificial limbs for body augmentation as flexibly as their own hands?
🚨 Our new interdisciplinary study put this question to the test with the Third Thumb (@daniclode.bsky.social), a robotic extra digit you control with your toes!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵1/10

1 8 18

Reposted by Chris Baker

Stephen J. Gotts @sjgotts.bsky.social · Jul 7

New work from our lab investigating the relationship between repetition suppression, repetition priming and increases in oscillatory power in simultaneous fMRI-EEG. Induced power increases are strongly associated with priming magnitude, supporting a mix of the synchrony and facilitation models.

bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · Jul 7

Repetition-related reductions in neural activity support improved behavior through increases in oscillatory power https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.06.663291v1

3 9

Reposted by Chris Baker

Iris Groen @irisgroen.bsky.social · Jun 16

In these tumultuous times, still happy to report a scientific achievement: our preprint on affordance perception was just published in PNAS!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Using behavior, fMRI and deep network analyses, we report two key findings. To recapitulate (preprint 🧵lost on other place):

Representation of locomotive action affordances in human behavior, brains, and deep neural networks | PNAS

To decide how to move around the world, we must determine which locomotive actions (e.g., walking, swimming, or climbing) are afforded by the immed...

www.pnas.org

3 27 72

Reposted by Chris Baker

Lenny van Dyck @levandyck.bsky.social · Jun 18

How is high-level visual cortex organized?

In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence

🧵 1/n

www.biorxiv.org

1 30 74

Reposted by Chris Baker

Michelle Greene @mgreenephd.bsky.social · Jun 9

I'm excited to announce that my lab's open textbook on Scientific Computing for Cognitive Neuroscience (v1.0) has just gone live! Our goal is to help mend the gap between the computational skills needed by cognitive neuroscience, and typical curricula that don't yet include it. 1/3

8 42 120

Reposted by Chris Baker

Kristina Visscher @visscherlab.bsky.social · Jun 8

My op-ed was published in @al.com !
www.al.com/news/2025/06...
@sciencehomecoming.bsky.social

www.al.com

2 9 19

Reposted by Chris Baker

Stephanie Rossit @stephanierossit.bsky.social · May 13

🚨 3-year postdoc opportunity! 🚨
Join @fraserwsmith.bsky.social sky.social @timkietzmann.bsky.social n.bsky.social and me at UEA for cutting-edge research on neuroimaging + deep learning in multimodal material perception 🧠🤖👀
#compneurosky #neuroskyence
🔗 Apply here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMP873/s...

Senior Research Associate in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience at University of East Anglia

Discover Senior Research Associate in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

www.jobs.ac.uk

5 6

Reposted by Chris Baker

FraserWSmith @fraserwsmith.bsky.social · May 9

Three year postdoc in cognitive computational neuroscience (Norwich, UK): using neuroimaging and deep learning to probe the neural mechanisms underlying material perception (across vision and touch)

deadline **May 19th**

repost pls
#compneurosky
#neuroskyence
#VisionScience
#PsychSciSky
#neuroAI

FraserWSmith @fraserwsmith.bsky.social · Apr 8

Three year postdoctoral position available in my lab @psychologyuea.bsky.social to work on neuroimaging and deep learning studies of multimodal material perception!

with @timkietzmann.bsky.social @stephanierossit.bsky.social - funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk

pls repost
#compneurosky
#neuroskyence

Senior Research Associate in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience at University of East Anglia

Recruiting now: Senior Research Associate in Cognitive Computational Neuroscience on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

www.jobs.ac.uk

2 14 13

Reposted by Chris Baker

Björn Jörges @bjorges.bsky.social · May 1

Hello VSS friends! Want feedback on your current projects? Submissions for our pre data collection poster satellite are still open until tomorrow. More info here: www.visionsciences.org/2025-pre-dat...
@vssmtg.bsky.social @shansmann-roth.bsky.social @willngiam.bsky.social @yonghoonchung.bsky.social

VSS 2025 Pre-Data-Collection Poster Session2025 Pre-Data-Collection Poster Session – Vision Sciences Society

www.visionsciences.org

5 9

Reposted by Chris Baker

Emalie McMahon @emaliemcmahon.bsky.social · Apr 23

I am excited to share our recent preprint and the last paper of my PhD! Here, @imelizabeth.bsky.social, @lisik.bsky.social, Mick Bonner, and I investigate the spatiotemporal hierarchy of social interactions in the lateral visual stream using EEG-fMRI.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

#CogSci #EEG

Shown is an example image that participants viewed either in EEG, fMRI, and a behavioral annotation task. There is also a schematic of a regression procedure for jointly predicting fMRI responses from stimulus features and EEG activity.

1 9 27

Reposted by Chris Baker

Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · Apr 15

Proud to announce our primer on "Ten principles for reliable, efficient, and adaptable coding in psychology and cognitive neuroscience"

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

This primer is for beginners to get started, advanced programmers to improve, and PIs.

#psychology #psychsci #cogsci #neuroskyence

Ten principles for reliable, efficient, and adaptable coding in psychology and cognitive neuroscience - Communications Psychology

Programming is essential for modern research in neuroscience and psychology, but it can quickly become a source of frustration and error. This Primer introduces ten practical principles guiding resear...

www.nature.com

2 57 110

Reposted by Chris Baker

Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · Apr 11

The result of a large (42 authors!) collaboration:
"Go Figure: Transparency in neuroscience images preserves context and clarifies interpretation"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.07824
TL;DR: The FMRI world can (and should) improve results interpretation and reproducibility *today*, via transparent thresholding.

1 35 90

Reposted by Chris Baker

Anne Scheel @annemscheel.bsky.social · Apr 3

Chuffed and excited to announce a new journal section in Cortex:
*Methods and Assumptions* is open for submissions starting today!

Read the opening editorial here (OA): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/

Methods and Assumptions: A new section in Cortex

www.sciencedirect.com

2 30 55