Jae-Young Son
@jaeyoungson.bsky.social
Postdoc at Brown University. Social neuroscientist researching how we make memories of networks; cognitive neuroscientist researching how we make networks of memories.
Misadventurer; reluctant optimist; amor fati.
https://jaeyoungson.com/
Misadventurer; reluctant optimist; amor fati.
https://jaeyoungson.com/
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Jo Ann Allen Boyce Dies at 84; Braved Mobs in Integrating a School
She was one of the Clinton 12, Black students who broke a race barrier by entering a Tennessee high school in 1956 in the face of harassment by white segregationists.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
She was one of the Clinton 12, Black students who broke a race barrier by entering a Tennessee high school in 1956 in the face of harassment by white segregationists.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
Jo Ann Allen Boyce Dies at 84; Braved Mobs in Integrating a School
www.nytimes.com
December 13, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Jo Ann Allen Boyce Dies at 84; Braved Mobs in Integrating a School
She was one of the Clinton 12, Black students who broke a race barrier by entering a Tennessee high school in 1956 in the face of harassment by white segregationists.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
She was one of the Clinton 12, Black students who broke a race barrier by entering a Tennessee high school in 1956 in the face of harassment by white segregationists.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
December 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
How does cortisol tune brain networks to form strong emotional memories? Excited to share new work led by amazing former RA Flory Huang w collabs Rajita Sinha and @toddc.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Dynamic brain mechanisms supporting salient memories under cortisol
The stress-related hormone cortisol alters dynamic brain networks predicting memory and arousal to promote emotional memories.
www.science.org
December 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM
How does cortisol tune brain networks to form strong emotional memories? Excited to share new work led by amazing former RA Flory Huang w collabs Rajita Sinha and @toddc.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Delighted to share our latest article on brain mechanisms of pain, appetitive & aversive learning, led by @yilizhao.bsky.social & In-seon Lee, out now in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! We show that brain mechanisms of expectancy are domain general, not unique to pain! www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
December 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Delighted to share our latest article on brain mechanisms of pain, appetitive & aversive learning, led by @yilizhao.bsky.social & In-seon Lee, out now in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! We show that brain mechanisms of expectancy are domain general, not unique to pain! www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
NSF
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
December 11, 2025 at 11:16 AM
NSF
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
- Forced reorg
- POs down ~ 40% (DRP, most rotators not renewed, retirements)
- Forced move (and we have to pack and clean) to a building with no furniture, little to no conference space for panels, inadequate 🛜, …)
I personally love the boxes they gave us for packing.
“Details matter” 🙃
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
🧪🏺🦣 Strong case for *oldest fire-starting* 🔥 capacity, before 400 Ka, suggested by multi-stranded analysis: geochem, magnetic, sedimentary evidence of anthropogenic burning, + heated lithics + remains of iron pyrite.
Behaviourally heading towards #Neanderthals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Behaviourally heading towards #Neanderthals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 10, 2025 at 5:47 PM
🧪🏺🦣 Strong case for *oldest fire-starting* 🔥 capacity, before 400 Ka, suggested by multi-stranded analysis: geochem, magnetic, sedimentary evidence of anthropogenic burning, + heated lithics + remains of iron pyrite.
Behaviourally heading towards #Neanderthals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Behaviourally heading towards #Neanderthals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Officially out! In this review, Aaron Chuey and I discuss how existing work on ToM mostly focused on a single individual’s mental states (e.g., what Sally thinks). Extending ToM, we argue for ToMS—an understanding of how multiple individuals communicate and influence each others’ minds. t.ly/u4rtb
Theory of Minds: Early Understanding of Interacting Minds
The idea that we understand others’ actions in terms of their underlying mental states has shaped decades of developmental research on social cognition. Existing work, however, has primarily focused o...
www.annualreviews.org
December 10, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Officially out! In this review, Aaron Chuey and I discuss how existing work on ToM mostly focused on a single individual’s mental states (e.g., what Sally thinks). Extending ToM, we argue for ToMS—an understanding of how multiple individuals communicate and influence each others’ minds. t.ly/u4rtb
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Paper out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com:
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Representation in science and trust in scientists in the USA - Nature Human Behaviour
Druckman et al. document gaps in trust in scientists in the USA. People from groups less represented among scientists (for example, women and those with lower economic status) are less trusting. Incre...
www.nature.com
December 9, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Paper out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com:
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1) those groups (women, African Americans, lower SES, rural) that are underrepresented in science have been less trusting of science.
2) If you improve representation in science, you improve trust among those groups.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Another new paper from the lab: Predictive theories like the SR imply that navigators who navigate differently should have cognitive maps which differ in predictable ways. Here we show that this holds in mouse hippocampal CA1.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Environmental representations in mouse hippocampal CA1 reflect the predictive structure of navigation
Predictive theories of cognitive mapping propose that these representations encode the predictive relationships among contents as experienced by the n…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Another new paper from the lab: Predictive theories like the SR imply that navigators who navigate differently should have cognitive maps which differ in predictable ways. Here we show that this holds in mouse hippocampal CA1.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Our new study provides rare causal evidence about NYC’s speed camera program. We find large reductions in collisions (30%) and injuries (16%) near intersections with cameras. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... @astagoff.bsky.social ky.social @brendenbeck.bsky.social nbeck.bsky.social 🧪
Can speed cameras make streets safer? Quasi-experimental evidence from New York City | PNAS
Each year, approximately 40,000 people die in vehicle collisions in the United States,
generating $340 billion in economic costs. To make roads saf...
www.pnas.org
December 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Our new study provides rare causal evidence about NYC’s speed camera program. We find large reductions in collisions (30%) and injuries (16%) near intersections with cameras. www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... @astagoff.bsky.social ky.social @brendenbeck.bsky.social nbeck.bsky.social 🧪
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
“It’s really exciting to me that air quality improved throughout the entiremetro area,” said Fraser. “This tells us that congestion pricing didn’t simply relocate air pollution to the suburbs by rerouting traffic. Instead, folks are likely choosing cleaner transportation options altogether”
NYC’s congestion pricing cleaned the air. This is also what happened when EZ-Pass was put in place in NJ.
Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s fiv...
news.cornell.edu
December 9, 2025 at 2:09 AM
“It’s really exciting to me that air quality improved throughout the entiremetro area,” said Fraser. “This tells us that congestion pricing didn’t simply relocate air pollution to the suburbs by rerouting traffic. Instead, folks are likely choosing cleaner transportation options altogether”
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Spread the word: I'm looking to hire a postdoc to explore the concept of attention (as studied in psych/neuro, not the transformer mechanism) in large Vision-Language Models. More details here: lindsay-lab.github.io/2025/12/08/p...
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
Lindsay Lab - Postdoc Position
Artificial neural networks applied to psychology, neuroscience, and climate change
lindsay-lab.github.io
December 8, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Spread the word: I'm looking to hire a postdoc to explore the concept of attention (as studied in psych/neuro, not the transformer mechanism) in large Vision-Language Models. More details here: lindsay-lab.github.io/2025/12/08/p...
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
#MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
It's over.
Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
BREAKING: ‘This hurts’: UNL eliminates 4 programs despite faculty, student pleas
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln eliminates the Earth and atmospheric sciences 8-0, educational administration 7-1, statistics 7-1, textiles, merchandising and fashion design 7-1 programs.
www.dailynebraskan.com
December 6, 2025 at 5:35 PM
It's over.
Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Reflecting back on this post I wrote in January now, as we reach the end of 2025. In it I argue that 2025 needed to be the year of human (not AI) agency, and in many ways I feel that it has. 🧵
I wrote about the concept of agency (both human and artificial) in the year 2025. gracewlindsay.com/2025/01/24/2...
2025: Agency gained and lost
If you’ve had even a passing glance at tech journalism over the past few months, you know the top buzzword for AI in 2025 is agentic. Agentic AI (according to many think pieces and press releases a…
gracewlindsay.com
December 6, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reflecting back on this post I wrote in January now, as we reach the end of 2025. In it I argue that 2025 needed to be the year of human (not AI) agency, and in many ways I feel that it has. 🧵
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
🚨Super excited that Dartmouth's Society of Fellows is hiring a postdoc with the Program in Cognitive Science 🚨 Specialization in computational and empirical approaches to artificial and natural intelligence, including perception, representation, and complex planning: apply.interfolio.com/176946
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:40 PM
🚨Super excited that Dartmouth's Society of Fellows is hiring a postdoc with the Program in Cognitive Science 🚨 Specialization in computational and empirical approaches to artificial and natural intelligence, including perception, representation, and complex planning: apply.interfolio.com/176946
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide
Trump administration is pausing naturalizations for immigrants from 19 countries.
www.wgbh.org
December 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
“She showed up as scheduled, and when she arrived, officers were asking everyone what country they were from, and if they said a certain country, they were told to step out of line and that their oath ceremonies were canceled.”
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
“Charles Norman Shay, who as a 19-year-old medic on D-Day repeatedly saved soldiers from drowning off Omaha Beach, turning them on their backs, dragging them ashore and binding their wounds, died on Wednesday at his home in Thue et Mue, France, near the site of the Normandy invasion. He was 101.”
Charles Norman Shay, Tribal Elder and World War II Hero, Dies at 101
www.nytimes.com
December 5, 2025 at 4:43 AM
“Charles Norman Shay, who as a 19-year-old medic on D-Day repeatedly saved soldiers from drowning off Omaha Beach, turning them on their backs, dragging them ashore and binding their wounds, died on Wednesday at his home in Thue et Mue, France, near the site of the Normandy invasion. He was 101.”
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Our new paper, now published in @natcomms.nature.com , asks a simple question: when two tasks share a common structure, does the brain learn them more efficiently? Surprisingly, this was not the case. Thread below (1/7)
rdcu.be/eSwvU
rdcu.be/eSwvU
The effects of task similarity during representation learning in brains and neural networks
Nature Communications - Here, the authors show learning tasks with similar structures can initially cause interference and slow down learning, but both the brain and artificial networks gradually...
rdcu.be
December 2, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Our new paper, now published in @natcomms.nature.com , asks a simple question: when two tasks share a common structure, does the brain learn them more efficiently? Surprisingly, this was not the case. Thread below (1/7)
rdcu.be/eSwvU
rdcu.be/eSwvU
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
“I will die on the hill that population coding is the relevant level of encoding information in the brain.” In the latest “This paper changed my life,” Nancy Padilla-Coreano discusses a paper on mixed selectivity neurons.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
This paper changed my life: Nancy Padilla-Coreano on learning the value of population coding
The 2013 Nature paper by Mattia Rigotti and his colleagues revealed how mixed selectivity neurons—cells that are not selectively tuned to a stimulus—play a key role in cognition.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 1, 2025 at 2:23 PM
“I will die on the hill that population coding is the relevant level of encoding information in the brain.” In the latest “This paper changed my life,” Nancy Padilla-Coreano discusses a paper on mixed selectivity neurons.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...
November 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Last month, I found out I have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, after decades of chronic pain and medical disinterest.
I've decided to write publicly about this, not just about hypermobility and its health impacts, but about how it feels when doctors don't care:
medium.com/p/4fea6398b8ba
I've decided to write publicly about this, not just about hypermobility and its health impacts, but about how it feels when doctors don't care:
medium.com/p/4fea6398b8ba
Welcome to my body
After twenty years of pain and repeated medical dead ends, a stranger sent me a message on Instagram. It led to a diagnosis all the doctors…
medium.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Last month, I found out I have hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, after decades of chronic pain and medical disinterest.
I've decided to write publicly about this, not just about hypermobility and its health impacts, but about how it feels when doctors don't care:
medium.com/p/4fea6398b8ba
I've decided to write publicly about this, not just about hypermobility and its health impacts, but about how it feels when doctors don't care:
medium.com/p/4fea6398b8ba
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Yes, Jared Diamond was wrong.
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Studies show how the giant statues on Rapa Nui were made and moved—and what caused the island's deforestation
Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is often portrayed in popular culture as an enigma. The rationale is clear: The tiny, remote island in the Pacific features nearly 1,000 enormous statues—the moa...
phys.org
November 30, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Yes, Jared Diamond was wrong.
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
Computational modelling reveals that people flexibly regulate their emotion expressions by balancing their value as a communicative signal against the potential social costs they incur.
@yyangteoh.bsky.social
@cendripetalfrce.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@yyangteoh.bsky.social
@cendripetalfrce.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Value computations underpin flexible emotion expression - Communications Psychology
People do not always express the emotions they feel truthfully. Computational modelling reveals that people flexibly regulate their emotion expressions by balancing their value as a communicative sign...
www.nature.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Computational modelling reveals that people flexibly regulate their emotion expressions by balancing their value as a communicative signal against the potential social costs they incur.
@yyangteoh.bsky.social
@cendripetalfrce.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@yyangteoh.bsky.social
@cendripetalfrce.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
We are hiring! #musicscience #musicAI #neuroskyence Assistant Professor in Music, AI, and Brain Health. TT position, come join the most vibrant and delightful of peeps 🧠🎶🤖
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
Assistant Professor in Music, AI and Brain Health
About the Opportunity About the Opportunity: The College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Music, AI and Brain ...
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:49 PM
We are hiring! #musicscience #musicAI #neuroskyence Assistant Professor in Music, AI, and Brain Health. TT position, come join the most vibrant and delightful of peeps 🧠🎶🤖
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...
Reposted by Jae-Young Son
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
A Babson College student wanted to surprise her family for Thanksgiving. She was deported instead. - The Boston Globe
Any Lucia Lopez Belloza was at Logan to catch a flight to Texas when immigration authorities detained her as she was about to board the plane.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:47 AM
I feel much safer today knowing that we deported a Babson College student back to a country where she hasn't lived since childhood.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.
She wasn't even flying internationally. She was flying to Texas.