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Rósa S. Gísladóttir

@rosagisladottir.bsky.social

350 followers 560 following 180 posts

Linguist, cognitive neuroscientist and wannabe geneticist. Associate Professor at University of Iceland. Views are my own. https://uni.hi.is/rosas and https://english.hi.is/staff/rosas

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Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · Aug 5

Look at that cool cover of @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social featuring my forum article on genetics of human communication 🎯 The article is short and accessible, see link in 🧵

Trends in Genetics @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social · Aug 4

📣 Our August issue is live!

In addition to human communication (see cover), topics include newborn screening, genomic recording, CASTs, sex differences in the aging brain, insect chemoreception, potato polyploidy, epigenome-epitranscriptome interactions, and more! 🧬

▶️ www.cell.com/trends/genet...

Human communication involves multiple components that have largely
been ignored in genome-wide association studies. In this issue, Gisladottir reviews recent advances in genetics of voice, speech and language-related traits and highlights promising avenues going forward. Opportunities abound if we take a holistic view on human communication. To get a better understanding of ourselves and archaic humans, we must try harder to investigate the genetic factors for this foundational aspect of the human condition. Image credit: johnwoodcock / DigitalVision Vectors / Getty Images.

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 5d

Unique opportunity to direct your own innovative long-term research programme on the psychology of language at @mpi-nl.bsky.social, a leading interdisciplinary Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Nominate yourself or a colleague by 19 December 2025. Please help us spread the word. 👇🧪

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 5d

We're seeking the next Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics! Lead cutting-edge research in language & cognition. Nominations (incl. self) due 19 Dec 2025.
mpi.nl/career-education/vacancies/vacancy/nominations-and-self-nominations-sought-position-director-max

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 6d

Recalling sequences from memory can explain the distribution of recursive structures in natural languages. New paper by Fenna H. Poletiek, Peter Hagoort & Bruno R. Bocanegra
doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106244
paper: tinyurl.com/mvy4jkb5

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Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · 9d

So native speakers of English are basically Icelandic at heart...#ð

Linguistic Discovery @linguisticdiscovery.com · 9d

The most common English consonants in dictionary words (gray chart) vs. in actual speech (colored chart)

Note how the ⟨th⟩ sound /ð/ is one of the most common sounds in speech, but one of the least common sounds in terms of how many words it appears in.

Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · 21d

If you're in Barcelona, check out this open MusicGens event happening tomorrow! A roundtable about the musical genome with @musiccognition.bsky.social and more inspiring speakers! 🎵 🎹

The Musical Genome - Roundtable- Do we carry music in our genes?

Do we carry music in our genes? 17th September 2025.

www.palaumusica.cat

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Michel Nivard @michelnivard.bsky.social · 22d

The Manhattanplot of every GWAS is evolving. the top cluster/horizontal band is proteins, the second protein ratio's the third all kinds of microbiome GWAS (which have smaller N and less power, hence the almost empty third horizondal band). I might make this into an interactive shiny website...

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 24d

We know GLP-1 drugs reduce brain inflammation. But I didn't anticipate bipolar disorder as a possible indication in the future
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Glucagon-like Peptide-1 receptor agonists as emerging therapeutics in bipolar disorder: a narrative review of preclinical and clinical evidence - Molecular Psychiatry

Molecular Psychiatry - Glucagon-like Peptide-1 receptor agonists as emerging therapeutics in bipolar disorder: a narrative review of preclinical and clinical evidence

www.nature.com

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Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · 26d

Fascinating experimental validation of the human-specific substitution we identified in the voice pitch study🤓🙌

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Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · 29d

"Tell me you're a linguist without telling me you're a linguist"😃

Danny Hieber, Ph.D. (@linguisticdiscovery) on Threads

New linguistics experiment just dropped

www.threads.com

Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Sep 3

Breaking News: In a win for Harvard University, a judge said that the government broke the law by freezing billions of dollars in research funds.

Judge Issues Ruling Helpful to Harvard in Case Against Trump

Harvard had sued the Trump administration in an effort to restore billions in research funds that the government canceled this spring.

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

andrea e. martin @andreaeyleen.bsky.social · Sep 3

Interested in doing a PhD with me and lacns.github.io? Or with any of the incredible fellows in the IMPRS School of Cognition www.maxplanckschools.org/cognition-en - apply before Dec 1st at cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en/application

Language and Computation in Neural Systems

We are an international group of scientists consisting of linguists, cognitive scientists, cognitive neuroscientists, computational neuroscientists, computational modellers, computational scientists, ...

lacns.github.io

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · Sep 1

Nice piece by @mathiesoniain.bsky.social on polygenic prediction of human complex traits using ancient DNA (h/t @evobioclio.bsky.social ) 🧪🧬
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Polygenic prediction of human complex traits using ancient DNA

Ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding of human history and clarified many aspects of human evolution on a molecular level. In this article,…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Morgan Robertson @morganrobertson.bsky.social · Aug 31

Important reading as you prepare for your semester

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Albert Vilella, PhD. @albertvilella.bsky.social · Aug 25

Different results than those found in preserved samples www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A study of gene expression in the living human brain - Molecular Psychiatry

Molecular Psychiatry - A study of gene expression in the living human brain

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · Aug 24

The full story on "stem-cell-based, tissue engineered trachea replacements" by @pmurray65.bsky.social and Peter Wilmshurst. Whistelblowers met with a wall of silence from the establishment drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com/2025/08/19/s...

Stem cell scandal: prison for one surgeon, pay bonus for another

This is a joint blog by Professor Patricia Murray and Peter Wilmshurst. Summary We question the contrasting responses of legal and regulatory bodies in Sweden and the UK to deaths of patients that …

drpeterwilmshurst.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Steve Smith @fmrib-steve.bsky.social · Aug 22

Latest processing of UK Biobank brain imaging data - now with 82,000 usable first-scan datasets. Correlating brain IDPs with 13,000 non-imaging variables gives a rich manhattan-stye plot. 324,000 Bonferroni-significant associations.

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Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · Aug 21

👌

Josef Fruehwald @jofrhwld.bsky.social · Aug 21

This is the AI policy I'm going with this semester

AI Policy – Væl Space

A version of my AI course policy.

jofrhwld.github.io

Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · Aug 20

Developmental stuttering involves speech disfluencies (blocks, prolongations, repetitions). We sequenced all protein-coding genes of 85 parent-child trios in which the child stuttered, & found (likely) pathogenic DNA variants in 4 genes also implicated in neurodevelopmental disorders. New paper:👇🗣️🧬🧪

De novo protein-coding gene variants in developmental stuttering - Molecular Psychiatry

Molecular Psychiatry - De novo protein-coding gene variants in developmental stuttering

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Michelle Luciano @drmluciano.bsky.social · Aug 18

Delighted to see work led by Hayley Mountford @hayleymountford.bsky.social published today. rdcu.be/eA8G0 We used MTAG to increase gene discovery for dyslexia: 36 new regions; ~30 new genes from gene-based tests; several sig biological pathways @profsimonfisher.bsky.social @schoolofppls.bsky.social

Multivariate genome-wide association analysis of dyslexia and quantitative reading skill improves gene discovery

Translational Psychiatry - Multivariate genome-wide association analysis of dyslexia and quantitative reading skill improves gene discovery

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Theo Nash @theonash.bsky.social · Aug 13

This isn’t an impoverished regional school – this is the University of Chicago. Devastating.

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.bsky.social · Aug 13

Hello it is possible to have a background in both the humanities and STEM (👋) and I'd argue that being interdisciplinary leads to a more broad-ranging set of ideas. The STEM/Hums boundaries are imposed top-down and we need all of us to advance human knowledge.

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Giacomo Bignardi @giacomobignardi.bsky.social · Aug 10

Third: forum piece on the genetics of human communication, by @rosagisladottir.bsky.social

Trends in Genetics @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social · Aug 4

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Giacomo Bignardi @giacomobignardi.bsky.social · Aug 10

Some August highlights from Trends on music, communication, and genetics.

First up: the review on music reward sensitivity as a model for understanding reward processing, by Mas-Herrero, Zatorre & Marco-Pallarés.

www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

EngLangBlog @englangblog.bsky.social · Aug 8

This looks like a good read with lots of potential for Paper 2 discussion.
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Is it, like, OK to say ‘like’ now?

A new book argues the long despised word associated with valley girls is now essential to the way we communicate

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Rósa S. Gísladóttir

J. Emory Parker 🏳️‍🌈 @jaspar.bsky.social · Aug 7

“GPT-5 is the first time that it feels like talking to an expert in any topic — a Ph.D.-level expert,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.

Theo Sanderson @theo.io · Aug 7

(real, one-shot :p )

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Rósa S. Gísladóttir @rosagisladottir.bsky.social · Aug 5

And for those who want to dig deeper into #genetics of speech and language, check out this great thread by @profsimonfisher.bsky.social 💥

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · Jun 22

Rosa's excellent @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social piece on genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of speech, language & reading traits offers a nice opportunity to (re)post a selection of the research articles she covers. (And we are only just getting started!) .... 🧪1/n

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · Jun 21

Highly recommend this superb forum article on genomics of human communication traits, free to read in @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social. Beautifully succinct & accessible overview by @rosagisladottir.bsky.social on where the field is now & where it's heading. 🗣️💬🧠🧬🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...