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Carl Hodgetts

@cjhodgetts.bsky.social

880 followers 260 following 34 posts

Cognitive neuroscientist at @RHULPsychology. Interested in how we represent and navigate the world around us. Hippocampus fanboy 🍤 #firstgen

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Jan 7

Loved being part of this project w/ @danlucen.bsky.social & @mjgruber.bsky.social! Using a virtual exploration task, Danlu showed curiosity not only drives exploration but also leads to more precise spatial memories (i.e., curiosity shapes spatial knowledge). Link below! @rhulpsychology.bsky.social

Matthias Gruber @mjgruber.bsky.social · Jan 6

"Curiosity shapes spatial exploration and cognitive map formation in humans." We are excited to share this novel paradigm and findings on curiosity-based exploration. This project was led tirelessly by @danlucen.bsky.social in collaboration with @cjhodgetts.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Curiosity shapes spatial exploration and cognitive map formation in humans - Communications Psychology

Across two studies using desktop VR, curiosity determined how much humans explored and how well the hand-drawn spatial maps they acquired corresponded to the rooms

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Aidan Horner @aidanhorner.bsky.social · 2d

It's that time of year when many start thinking about applying for PhDs. If you're applying for a UK PhD position, here is a blog post I wrote a while back that might be helpful

#cognition #psychscisky #neuroskyence #psychjobs

How to get PhD funding in the UK

It is that time of year again. The leaves are turning golden, red, and orange (or just brown), the nights are drawing in, and there is a chi...

aidanhorner.blogspot.com

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Jul 15

In the context of the Sycamore Gap tree sentencing today, I've written a short opinion piece for @lbc.co.uk on the role of landmarks in shaping place identity and connectedness. Find it here: www.lbc.co.uk/opinion/view... 🧠🌎

@rhulpsychology.bsky.social

Why the loss of the Sycamore Gap Tree saw an outpouring of emotion

The sentencing of the two men who felled the Sycamore Gap Tree has brought back the incredibly strong emotions of the loss of such a world-famous, iconic national piece of history.

www.lbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Matt Wall @mattwall.bsky.social · Jul 7

Re-posting for the weekday crowd - MR Physics job available at our site in West London. We do cool stuff. Clinical trials, psychedelics/other drugs, lots of different MRI modalities, scope to do your own projects, etc.

Matt Wall @mattwall.bsky.social · Jul 5

We're looking for an MRI Physicist to support our (honestly, really cool and exciting) clinical trial work at our London site. Details and application at the link. Please share, tell your friends, post on other networks if you can, etc. etc. Thanks!
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/42...

Perceptive Inc. hiring Senior MRI Physicist in Hammersmith, England, United Kingdom | LinkedIn

Posted 4:00:37 PM. 📍 State-of-the-art Medical Imaging Facility | Global Clinical Trials | Translational Science Are…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.

www.linkedin.com

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Jun 18

We’re all set for #RHULPSYCHFEST25 @rhulpsychology.bsky.social

Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · Jun 12

World first: brain implant lets man speak with expression — and sing www.nature.com/articles/d41...

World first: brain implant lets man speak with expression — and sing

Device translates thought to speech in real time.

www.nature.com

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Jun 12

This is wild - great work!

Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · May 16

We hope that this work proves useful for researchers in identifying where and when these limitations are most consequential.

@rhulpsychology.bsky.social @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social

Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · May 16

In this paper/commentary, Ulrike Hahn and I show that comparisons between even very simple geometric stimuli (like 🟧🔵!) can expose serious issues with these models - for example, by assuming similarities that do not fit neatly into Euclidean space.

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · May 16

The idea that we represent concepts in multi-dimensional “cognitive spaces” has been hugely influential (and is having a bit of comeback in psych/neuro). But these spaces have built-in topological constraints that limit their utility - both practically and theoretically.

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · May 16

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 Very pleased to share that our latest paper, "The limited place in cognitive space", is now out in Topics in Cognitive Science. Link below👇🏻

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Limited Place in Cognitive Space

The idea that objects can be represented within multi-dimensional ‘cognitive spaces’ remains popular within psychology and neuroscience, and yet the restrictive topology of such spaces is seldom cons...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Nature @nature.com · May 1

Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature.

https://go.nature.com/44Ugf9V

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Apr 15

In his new book, published today, Nachum Ulanovsky calls on the field to embrace naturalistic conditions and move away from overcontrolled experiments.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

‘Natural Neuroscience,’ an excerpt

In his new book, Nachum Ulanovsky calls on the field to embrace naturalistic conditions and move away from overcontrolled experiments.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Apr 8

This is a great (and accessible) summary of our latest @commspsychol.bsky.social paper, which examines the link between curiosity, spatial exploration, and memory within virtual environments.

www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/29...

Paper link 👉🏻: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Virtual reality research explores curiosity and spatial memory

Virtual reality research reveals that curiosity is key in spatial memory and mental map formation.

www.cardiff.ac.uk

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Volker Reisner @reisnerv.bsky.social · Mar 19

Curious about spatial memory in 3D? Our new preprint explores how environmental boundaries and the way we move affect our memory for locations in volumetric space!

Huge congrats to co-1st @theoschaefer.bsky.social w/ Leonard König, Misun Kim, Christian Doeller.

🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Locomotion-dependent use of geometric and body cues in humans mapping 3D space

The ability to represent locations across multiple dimensions of space is a core function of cognitive maps. While the influence of boundary-dependent environmental geometry on spatial representations...

www.biorxiv.org

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Mar 18

Great initiative!

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · Mar 17

Kubota et al. find that white matter connections of ventral temporal cortex are innately organized by cytoarchitecture, category, and eccentricity from birth, and develop in parallel within each cytoarchitectonic area from infancy to adulthood. https://www.nature.c...

White matter connections of human ventral temporal cortex are organized by cytoarchitecture, eccentricity and category-selectivity from birth - Nature Human Behaviour

Kubota et al. find that white matter connections of ventral temporal cortex are innately organized by cytoarchitecture, category and eccentricity from birth, and also develop in parallel within each cytoarchitectonic area from infancy to adulthood.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Joe Barnby @joebarnby.com · Mar 17

New work from us led by the brilliant @drjk.bsky.social from our grant with the @britishacademy.bsky.social

⭐ Social exclusion increases paranoia and reduces self and other learning flexibility in adolescents

A brief explainer below...

📜 Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Tomás Ryan @tjryan.bsky.social · Mar 12

What are we talking about, when we talk about 'representations'?

My undergraduate student, Oyinkansola Olorunleke, is conducting a thesis project on the concept of representation in cognitive sciences & neuroscience.

We are seeking interested participants in the below survey:

tinyurl.com/2e6rcnxv

Representation: Past, Present & Future

This questionnaire is for a final year neuroscience student who is doing her capstone as part of the Representation: Past, Present & Future Project at Trinity College Dublin.

tinyurl.com

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Mar 12

Very nice work!

Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · Mar 11

@diamondn.bsky.social et al. find that sleep enhances memory for the order of events from an art tour, but not the details of the events. The sleep-related advantage for sequences persists for over a year. @brianlevine.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sleep selectively and durably enhances memory for the sequence of real-world experiences - Nature Human Behaviour

How does sleep transform the way we remember our experiences? This study finds that sleep enhances memory for the order of events from an art tour, but not the details of the events. The sleep-related...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Justin LaLiberty @jlalibs.com · Mar 11

Since we all should be currently boycotting Amazon, a reminder that Bezos owns Goodreads and there is a great, Black woman owned, alternative that you can easily migrate to. Highly recommend.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...

‘Reading is part of my identity’: the woman taking on Goodreads owner Amazon

Software engineer and developer Nadia Odunayo created the social media readers’ platform StoryGraph and its popularity has rocketed

www.theguardian.com

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Feb 7

Sounds fantastic - looking forward to hearing more!

Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Asifa Majid @asifamajid.bsky.social · Jan 31

For social psychologists looking for a more permanent home in the UK, Oxford Experimental Psychology Department @oxexppsy.bsky.social is hiring. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job Details

my.corehr.com

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Carl Hodgetts @cjhodgetts.bsky.social · Jan 31

@drberry.bsky.social testing his new VR anxiety and exploration paradigm on an unsuspecting @kavishinia.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Carl Hodgetts

Communications Psychology @commspsychol.nature.com · Jan 8

Across two studies using desktop VR, curiosity determined how much humans explored and how well the hand-drawn spatial maps they acquired corresponded to the rooms
@cjhodgetts.bsky.social, @mjgruber.bsky.social, @danlucen.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Curiosity shapes spatial exploration and cognitive map formation in humans - Communications Psychology

Across two studies using desktop VR, curiosity determined how much humans explored and how well the hand-drawn spatial maps they acquired corresponded to the rooms

www.nature.com

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