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Rocco Chiou

@rocco-chiou.bsky.social

150 followers 160 following 87 posts

I use neuroimaging and neurostimulation to study how the brain processes language, semantic meaning, mental imagery, and synaesthesia 🧠🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ I'm a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London. More info in my website: https://roccochiou.weebly.com/

roccochiou.weebly.com

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 1d

Good luck!

Reposted by Rocco Chiou

Rodrigo Braga @rodbraga.bsky.social · 1d

📣 New preprint from the Braga Lab! 📣

The ventral visual stream for reading converges on the transmodal language network

Congrats to Dr. Joe Salvo for this epic set of results

Big Q: What brain systems support the translation of writing to concepts and meaning?

Thread 🧵 ⬇️

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 2d

Just finished by my very first lecture at @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social. I was very impressed by the students at Birkbeck, particularly their initiative and motivation. 💝 Many thanks to my colleague Raffa for helping us run the lecture smoothly. 👊

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 3d

@dkvarga.bsky.social - welcome to BBK. I read your PNAS paper about washing machine 😅 and mismatched sequence and the hippocampus. Very cool findings.

Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 4d

Congrats! @dirinagiurgea.bsky.social

Reposted by Rocco Chiou

Sam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · 6d

Long time in the making: our preprint of survey study on the diversity with how people seem to experience #mentalimagery. Suggests #aphantasia should be redefined as absence of depictive thought, not merely "not seeing". Some more take home msg:
#psychskysci #neuroscience

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 11d

Hello GPT, I'd like to write a statement of recommendation for a colleague who loves to wear a pink crop top. Can you help me write this message? I'd like to praise his style of dressing and his collegiality....

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 11d

But it’s always rewarding to be able to support students and colleagues!

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 12d

Many congratulations!

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Reposted by Rocco Chiou

Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 15d

Some people are unable to consciously picture images in their mind's eye – they have aphantasia. What have scientists learned about aphantasia over the past 10 years?

This paper reviews subtypes of aphantasia, its potential functions, and ongoing debates.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A decade of aphantasia research – and still going!

Aphantasia, a term coined in 2015, refers to the lack of wakeful visual imagery. Research since then has clarified the nature of this intriguing varia…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 14d

OK. One more item added to my reading list 📚

Hannah Small @hsmall.bsky.social · 14d

Excited to share new work with @hleemasson.bsky.social , Ericka Wodka, Stewart Mostofsky and @lisik.bsky.social! We investigated how simultaneous vision and language signals are combined in the brain using naturalistic+controlled fMRI. Read the paper here: osf.io/b5p4n
1/n

Reposted by Rocco Chiou

Dr Reshanne Reeder @kerblooee.bsky.social · 16d

Ahem. Mental imagery (& imagery-critical) researchers should read this:

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

Self-reports are better measurement instruments than implicit measures - Nature Reviews Psychology

Implicit measures are widely used because they are assumed to be superior to self-reports. In this Perspective, Corneille and Gawronski challenge this view and argue that claims about disadvantages of...

www.nature.com

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 17d

I feel the same way.... 🤡

Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 21d

我們都是美國人 - Literal translation

Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 21d

I hate cancel culture, seriously. I don't think Jimmy Kimmel should be cancelled by ABC, and I don't think Megyn Kelly should be cancelled by MSNBC either. Instead of cancelling, a mature society should encourage mutual understanding and open discussion.

Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 21d

Many congratulations! A sociology professor publishing in Cell is a truly cross-disciplinary achievement.

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Reposted by Rocco Chiou

The vOICe vision BCI 🧠🇪🇺 @seeingwithsound.bsky.social · 23d

A transformation from vision to imagery in the human brain www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... "Extensive work has shown that the visual cortex is reactivated during mental imagery"; #neuroscience

Implementation of the imagery transformation.

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Reposted by Rocco Chiou

Valentina Borghesani @vborghesani.bsky.social · 23d

I'm sure I'm not the only one being overly tired yet unable to turn my brain off. What a gift the @snlmtg.bsky.social community is 💙 I genuinely can't wait to welcome you all in Geneva for #SNL2026!

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 23d

Very interesting work. I wonder if you can send the PDF version of the poster to me as I might have several questions that I'd like to ask about your research. Looking forward...

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Reposted by Rocco Chiou

dickretired @dickretired.bsky.social · 26d

A study by Bartels et al (J Neurosci) showed that decoding what colour one person was seeing also decode what another person was seeing. I haven’t read the study but it is a clever way of trying to find out if your blue is my blue. Not my expertise but worth expert discussion.

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 28d

Although I’m a liberal, my heart still sinks hearing what happened in Utah today. Political violence has no place in our democratic society. Our differences must be resolved through dialogue and democratic processes, not through threats or acts of harm. Rest in eternal peace, Charlie Kirk.

Reposted by Rocco Chiou

Jörn Diedrichsen @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social · 28d

Variance partitioning is used to quantify the overlap of two models. Over the years, I have found that this can be a very confusing and misleading concept. So we finally we decided to write a short blog to explain why.
@martinhebart.bsky.social @gallantlab.org
diedrichsenlab.org/BrainDataSci...

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 29d

Many congratulations again. This is truly no mean feat!

Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · Sep 9

Your new institution? Congrats... :)

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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · Sep 8

for a moment, I thought she's Ellen Page