David Halpern
@davidhalpern.bsky.social
110 followers 240 following 14 posts
psychology postdoc at Columbia
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Reposted by David Halpern
qlu.bsky.social
I’m thrilled to announce that I will start as a presidential assistant professor in Neuroscience at the City U of Hong Kong in Jan 2026!
I have RA, PhD, and postdoc positions available! Come work with me on neural network models + experiments on human memory!
RT appreciated!
(1/5)
davidhalpern.bsky.social
And most importantly, all of the research assistants, neurosurgeons and epilepsy patients who contributed their time and effort to these massive datasets that make research like this possible.
davidhalpern.bsky.social
In addition, they corroborate cognitive theories about the role of study-phase retrieval and covert rehearsal, linking behavioral memory phenomena to their neural substrates.
davidhalpern.bsky.social
These findings align with recent suggestions (from e.g.
@wamsleylab.bsky.social,
@annaschapiro.bsky.social, @sleepandcognition.bsky.social , @tristanshuman.bsky.social,
@denisejcai.bsky.social
and others not on BlueSky) that consolidation occurs opportunistically throughout waking experience.
davidhalpern.bsky.social
Our analyses revealed that spontaneous reinstatement of item-related neural activity during encoding intervals was a significant predictor of subsequent recall.

This suggests that consolidation-like mechanisms may occur continuously—not just during post-encoding rest.
davidhalpern.bsky.social
By analyzing intracranial EEG recordings from two large datasets (N>200 in each study), we investigated the effects of reactivating item-related neural activity while studying other items on a list.
davidhalpern.bsky.social
In contrast, cognitive theories of memory suggest that retrieval/rehearsal processes can strengthen prior memories even while encoding ongoing perceptual experience.
davidhalpern.bsky.social
In the classic view of systems consolidation, the hippocampus strengthens previously encoded memories by spontaneously reactivating cortical activity during offline periods (such as sleep or rest) when the brain isn’t under continuous memory encoding demands.