Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jonny Smallwood

Jenny Allen @jennyallen.bsky.social · Aug 6

New in TiCS w @dgrand.bsky.social @gordpennycook.bsky.social

It’s been ~10yrs since misinfo research exploded but our paradigms are stuck in the post-2016 “fake news” model

Time for new approaches:
o True/False → Content that misleads
o Belief → Behavior
o Eval interventions in ambiguous settings

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Danny Birchall @dannybirchall.bsky.social · Aug 5

the scenario we all feared

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Ania Holubecki @aniaholubecki.bsky.social · Aug 5

Congrats @josephsalvo.bsky.social and @rementurus.bsky.social !

Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · Jun 13

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Joseph J. Salvo, Rodrigo M. Braga, et al:

Intrinsic functional connectivity delineates transmodal language functions

doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

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Rick Betzel @richardfbetzel.bsky.social · Aug 3

When I started my PhD (and until my 1st fac appt) I believed advances in large-scale neuro would come from more powerful modeling. There’s still a place for that oc, but we’re still in imaging infancy, and the best value per $ in terms of new insight comes from well designed common sense experiments

Rick Betzel @richardfbetzel.bsky.social · Aug 3

🔥Damn. Tour de force.

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · Aug 3

Targeting intracranial electrical stimulation to network regions defined within individuals causes network-level effects https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.31.667730v1

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UBC Psychology @ubcpsych.bsky.social · Aug 1

Join our department! We're hiring an Assistant Professor of Teaching (Tenure-track), located at UBC's Vancouver campus, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026. Apply by Oct 1, 2025. Learn more & apply: psych.ubc.ca/jobs. Please share!

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Aug 1

I love it when a grant comes together.

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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · Aug 1

🧠 New paper on breathing and the brain, out now
@plos.org Computational Biology! 🫁
"The respiratory cycle modulates distinct dynamics of affective and perceptual decision-making"
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
We show how respiratory 'tidal computations' alter our decisons!

The respiratory cycle modulates distinct dynamics of affective and perceptual decision-making

Author summary Breathing is more than just a vital process for survival — it influences how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Recent research suggests that the rhythm of breathing, fr...

doi.org

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Lauren Atlas @laurenatlas.bsky.social · Jul 31

Almost missed that this is out! Former postdoc Liz Necka led this long overdue FMRI study formally comparing two types of pain modulation: Placebo analgesia & predictive cues. TLDR: these are NOT the same! Placebo analgesia reduced cue effects, & brain mechanisms were nearly all dissociable. 1/4

SfN Journals @sfnjournals.bsky.social · Jul 28

New in #JNeurosci from Necka et al: External cues and treatments shape expectations about pain in different ways, and their mechanisms distinctly influence how people experience pain. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0050-25.2025

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 30

Thanks Ben! The #cancer and treatment has been hard but the music and science has been a great outlet. Hope you are doing okay.

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 17

Hi world - its been a hard year with #cancer meaning I missed out lots of fun things. It would mean a lot if you checked out my new album of tracks. Out on all platforms including #Soundcloud (free). Let me know which tracks you like and a special prize if you work out the two levels to the project

Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 10

Hot Summer Nights the new album by the Natural Philosophers is out now.
If you would like to help:

Stream it a few times
Post reply mentioning a track you like by name.

Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52...
Apple Music
music.apple.com/us/album/hot...
Soundcloud
soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 30

Congrats @leahbanellis.bsky.social @micahgallen.com et al! This looks great.

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · Jul 30

I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!

Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health - Nature Mental Health

Using a relatively large and diverse sample of mostly young adults, this study by Banellis, Rebollo and colleagues examines associations between regional stomach–brain coupling and mental health and i...

www.nature.com

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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · Jul 30

I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!

Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health - Nature Mental Health

Using a relatively large and diverse sample of mostly young adults, this study by Banellis, Rebollo and colleagues examines associations between regional stomach–brain coupling and mental health and i...

www.nature.com

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Matt Perich @mattperich.bsky.social · Jul 29

Check out our new review/perspective (w/ @juangallego.bsky.social & Devika Narain) on neural manifolds in the brain! It was a lot of fun to think through these ideas over the past couple of years, and I'm excited it's finally out in the world!

🔗: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📄: rdcu.be/ex8hW

A neural manifold view of the brain - Nature Neuroscience

Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed how neural population activity underlying behavior can be well described by topological objects called neural manifolds. Understanding how nature, nurture...

www.nature.com

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 29

Thank you! It would be amazing to know which tracks you like the best.

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Susan Mernit @smernit.bsky.social · Jul 26

Enjoyed this article. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why AI chatbots lie to us

A few weeks ago, a colleague of mine needed to collect and format some data from a website, and he asked the latest version of Anthropic’s generative AI system, Claude, for help. Claude cheerfully agr...

www.science.org

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Paul Harland @pabloredux.bsky.social · Jul 26

It does, it does!

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Sara De Felice @saradefelice.bsky.social · Jul 25

A Friday afternoon post to share our new paper (pre-print)! We modelled brain & behaviour & physiology from 27 unconstrained social learning interactions.
Learning emerged from non-linear brain-gaze coupling and asymmetric neural dependencies suggesting mutual prediction. Full thread below ⬇️

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Stanislas Dehaene @standehaene.bsky.social · Jul 23

If you are in Paris on October 1-3 : we are organizing a fantastic cognitive neuroscience conference at Collège de France, on topics ranging from language to math, education and consciousness, with many of my favorite scientists !
Full program here:
www.unicog.org/seeing-the-m...

Seeing the Mind, Educating the Brain

www.unicog.org

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The LAB Lab 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @thelablab.bsky.social · Jul 24

Call for papers @jneurolang.bsky.social: Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Relationship Between the Neurobiology of Language and Consciousness. 🧠🗨️

direct.mit.edu/DocumentLibr...

☎️ DM me for more details.

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 24

This looks interesting👇

tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 2

Predictive processing models posit top-down influences of internal models on brain processing at multiple levels...but how deeply does predictive info penetrate into perception? What are the limits? New paper with @rotembot.bsky.social and @fmristats.bsky.social
link.growkudos.com/1mmf28pbmkg

How our expectations change what we feel and see

This study explores how our expectations influence what we feel and see. We asked participants to predict how painful or visually intense an upcoming stimulus would be based on cues that they believed...

link.growkudos.com

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Reposted by Jonny Smallwood

tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 2

Predictive processing models posit top-down influences of internal models on brain processing at multiple levels...but how deeply does predictive info penetrate into perception? What are the limits? New paper with @rotembot.bsky.social and @fmristats.bsky.social
link.growkudos.com/1mmf28pbmkg

How our expectations change what we feel and see

This study explores how our expectations influence what we feel and see. We asked participants to predict how painful or visually intense an upcoming stimulus would be based on cues that they believed...

link.growkudos.com

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 24

This looks cool!! cc @hardigirl.bsky.social @ravenwallace.bsky.social

Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · Jul 24

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Press release @unileiden.bsky.social about our upcoming JoPACS paper led by @bsiepe.bsky.social, showing that the overlap of similar constructs assessed via wearable vs EMA data is surprisingly low (n~850, 3 months).

www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...

Does your smartwatch say you’re stressed? It may often be wrong

Consumer grade smartwatches may not be as accurate as promised when measuring tiredness or stress. That conclusion is drawn by researchers Björn Siepe and Eiko Fried based on a comparison between smar...

www.universiteitleiden.nl

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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · Jul 24

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Press release @unileiden.bsky.social about our upcoming JoPACS paper led by @bsiepe.bsky.social, showing that the overlap of similar constructs assessed via wearable vs EMA data is surprisingly low (n~850, 3 months).

www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...

Does your smartwatch say you’re stressed? It may often be wrong

Consumer grade smartwatches may not be as accurate as promised when measuring tiredness or stress. That conclusion is drawn by researchers Björn Siepe and Eiko Fried based on a comparison between smar...

www.universiteitleiden.nl

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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 19

In a non trivial way the #climate_crisis is reducible to shortcomings in human intelligence. This idea is behind my new release with the Natural Philosophers with Attitude: "Hot Summer Nights". Please check it out!
Spotify
open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52...
Soundcloud
soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...

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Phil Corlett @philcorlett.bsky.social · Jul 22

RIP Ozzy. You blazed your own trail.

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