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Reposted by tor

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · Sep 5

My new essay for @thetransmitter.bsky.social. Why is understanding emotion so challenging? The debates around what counts as an "emotion" shed insight.

These disputes are multidimensional, principled and fascinating. Here, I unpack them.

www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...

Emotion research has a communication conundrum

In 2025, the words we use to describe emotions matter, but their definitions are controversial. Here, I unpack the different positions in this space and the rationales behind them—and I invite 13…

www.thetransmitter.org

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Reposted by tor

Mark Thornton @markthornton.bsky.social · Sep 3

The psych job market may not be dead... but it is gravely injured 😬 So far it's looking like the Trump administration's attacks on higher ed/research are going to have more than 2x the impact on the job market as the covid-19 pandemic. #psychjobs #neurojobs #academicjobs

Bar plot showing the number of psychology jobs posted each year by area. There are major dips in 2020 due to covid, and in 2025 (now).

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tor @torwager.bsky.social · 21d

Burnout in health care providers is a big issue. It reduces wellbeing and the ability to be effective. (Be kind to your provider!) Encouraging news: In a study of >2,000 providers, the Healthy Minds Program app reduced distress and improved wellbeing 9 mos later. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Digital Well-Being Training With Health Care Professionals

This randomized clinical trial examines whether a 13- week digital well-being training could improve well-being and reduce stress among health care professionals in Mexico.

jamanetwork.com

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Reposted by tor

Heejung Jung @jungheejung.bsky.social · Sep 4

New Open dataset alert:
🧠 Introducing "Spacetop" – a massive multimodal fMRI dataset that bridges naturalistic and experimental neuroscience!

N = 101 x 6 hours each = 606 functional iso-hours combining movies, pain, faces, theory-of-mind and other cognitive tasks!

🧵below

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Reposted by tor

Choong-Wan (Wani) Woo @choongwanwoo.bsky.social · Nov 28

The final version (after proof) is now finally out. It provides a detailed spatio-temporal profile of brain mediation of the cue-stimulus integration in the pain context. We interpreted the results in terms of cortical hierarchy. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Spatiotemporal integration of contextual and sensory information within the cortical hierarchy in human pain experience

When we experience pain, the sensory input is modulated by contextual information. This neuroimaging study shows how expectation and sensory input are integrated in the human brain during pain percept...

journals.plos.org

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Reposted by tor

Mark Histed @markhisted.org · Aug 5

"Brown CS faculty members Ellie Pavlick and Suresh Venkatasubramanian @geomblog.bsky.social have just received a $20M NSF grant to found ARIA, a national institute to develop intuitive, trustworthy AI assistants."

Great news and congrats!
🧠📈 🧪

Brown CS
@BrownCSDept
@BrownCSDept
faculty members Ellie Pavlick and Suresh Venkatasubramanian (
@geomblog
) have just received a $20M
@NSF
grant to found ARIA, a national institute to develop intuitive, trustworthy AI assistants. Learn more at Brown CS News: https://cs.brown.edu/news/2025/07/2

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tor @torwager.bsky.social · Aug 5

A fascinating new #fmri study from Jo He with Kevin Ochsner and co. on social reappraisal. Giving advice to a friend changes our brain responses and helps regulate emotion. Fictive processes (imagination!) can have real consequences in the brain & life.

academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...

Comparing the neural bases of self- and social-reappraisal

Abstract. To manage life’s stressors, we can self-regulate our emotions or seek social regulatory support. One such strategy is reappraisal, where individu

academic.oup.com

6

tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 30

Health is more than the absence of disease, and depends on harmony across multiple brain-body systems. We need more research on whole-person health! The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) @thenccih.bsky.social funds vital whole-person research. RP and #KEEP_NCCIH!

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tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 24

This dashboard on U.S. research spending is one to watch for researchers applying for #NIH, #NSF, #DOD grants and other research grants. Thanks to @alesszimm.bsky.social and @aaas.org
www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

www.aaas.org

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Reposted by tor

tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 23

Online #fMRI course coming up August 6-8!
3-day intensive with lectures and hands-on analysis for all skill levels. #SPM, #ICA, #DataScience with @vcalhoun.bsky.social and Kent Kiehl. We love teaching this course and meeting students from all areas! Info+Reg here:
sites.google.com/dartmouth.ed...

fMRI Course

Instructors

sites.google.com

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Reposted by tor

Akira Miyake @amiyake.bsky.social · Jul 22

A month ago, I shared a draft of the teaching resources list for cog psych (& related) courses. Now that the fall semester is only 4 wks away 😱, I thought I'd ask you to share your favorite books, videos, demos, syllabi, etc., to make this list more complete & more useful for interested folks.

Teaching Resources for Cognitive Psychology

CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT (Last updated: June 27, 2025, 10) PLEASE SHARE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHING RESOURCES! Teaching Resources for Cognitive Psychology Assembled by: Akira Miyake University of Colo...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by tor

Laura Dugué @lauradugue.bsky.social · Jul 23

Happy to have contributed together with @lgrabot.bsky.social to discuss #traveling_waves and cognition!

SCONe - Scottish-EU Critical Oscillations Network @scone-neuro.bsky.social · Jul 22

/1 We took our sweet time (~3yrs) to put this into its final shape - but happy to say that the pre-print of an extensive review of brain rhythms in cognition - from a cognruro perspective - is now available. Please let us know what you think. #neuroskyence doi.org/10.48550/arX...

Brain rhythms in cognition -- controversies and future directions

Brain rhythms seem central to understanding the neurophysiological basis of human cognition. Yet, despite significant advances, key questions remain unresolved. In this comprehensive position paper, w...

doi.org

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Reposted by tor

Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · May 22

Our study using layer fMRI to study the direction of communication between the hippocampus and cortex during perceptual predictions is finally out in Science Advances! Predicted-but-omitted shapes are represented in CA2/3 and correlate specifically with deep layers of PHC, suggesting feedback. 🧠🟦

Communication of perceptual predictions from the hippocampus to the deep layers of the parahippocampal cortex

High-resolution neuroimaging reveals stimulus-specific predictions sent from hippocampus to the neocortex during perception.

www.science.org

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Reposted by tor

Sylvain Baillet @sylvainbaillet.bsky.social · Jul 17

🚨New paper in PAIN w/ R. Gopalakrishnan, @torwager.bsky.social, @mcgill.ca Mathieu Roy, et al.

Neurophysiological encoding of aversive prediction errors.

journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...

@theneuro.bsky.social

Neurophysiological encoding of aversive prediction errors : PAIN

odeling and magnetoencephalography to detect time-resolved activations underlying pain expectations and aversive PE signals in the human brain. The task entailed learning probabilistically changing cu...

journals.lww.com

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Reposted by tor

Alex Dufford @ajdneuro.bsky.social · Jul 23

Highly recommend!

tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 23

Online #fMRI course coming up August 6-8!
3-day intensive with lectures and hands-on analysis for all skill levels. #SPM, #ICA, #DataScience with @vcalhoun.bsky.social and Kent Kiehl. We love teaching this course and meeting students from all areas! Info+Reg here:
sites.google.com/dartmouth.ed...

fMRI Course

Instructors

sites.google.com

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tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 23

I appreciate the effort in digging into this and doing the analysis. Very few people are spending the time to do it!

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Reposted by tor

Ole Goltermann @olegolt.bsky.social · Jul 22

Serious concerns about a new cortical biomarker for pain sensitivity

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

We (with @tspisak.bsky.social, @christianbuchel.bsky.social) published a commentary on Chowdhury, Bi et al. (2025, JAMA Neurology) raising serious concerns about their reported results.

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Concern About Predictive Performance of a Pain Sensitivity Biomarker

To the Editor Chowdhury et al1 evaluated a biomarker for pain sensitivity, combining peak alpha frequency and corticomotor excitability. The authors report outstanding performance (validation set area...

jamanetwork.com

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Reposted by tor

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Jul 23

I have a new paper on "The Psychology of Virality" with @steverathje.bsky.social

We explain how similar psychological processes (eg preferential attention to negativity, social motives, etc.) drive the spread of information across online and offline contexts: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 23

Online #fMRI course coming up August 6-8!
3-day intensive with lectures and hands-on analysis for all skill levels. #SPM, #ICA, #DataScience with @vcalhoun.bsky.social and Kent Kiehl. We love teaching this course and meeting students from all areas! Info+Reg here:
sites.google.com/dartmouth.ed...

fMRI Course

Instructors

sites.google.com

25 51

Reposted by tor

Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · Jul 2

“This suggests that expectations don’t change early perceptual processing, but rather how we interpret and react to those sensations.” (Generally) true for seeing. But what about pain? Huge open question (and much debate). Here’s some data.

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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tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jul 18

This is a beautiful poem. It makes me think of my dad and the times I’ve felt him with me since he passed away.

www.facebook.com/share/v/19G1...

Redirecting...

www.facebook.com

2

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 tor

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Jul 1

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one.

This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

I work as an elder and hospice caregiver, which I am oddly passionate about. I can love on them shamelessly and no one complains about my codependence. It's a win-win situation.

Many of my caregiving colleagues complain about the repetitive questions and, sometimes reactions, of the elderly, especially when those patients happen to read the newspaper, especially with the current downward spiral of our country — as if these people haven't lived through enough horror...

I love my dementia peeps, but sometimes wonder if there's a Guinness Book World Record for how many times an hour a dementia patient can repeat the same question — it's got to be in the hundreds. At least with small children, they ask different questions. Dementia patients will get stuck on one short question and ask it until you can interrupt their train(carousel) of thought and successfully redirect their attention. That carousel is pretty manic sometimes.

A couple days ago, I picked up my mail from the post office and drove over to the nursing home to take (let's call her "Miss Daisy") Miss Daisy out for a drive. Before we took off on our road trip, to the end of The Road and back, in our landlocked little town (Juneau, Alaska), I set my copy of The Onion down in front of her.

Over our two-hour excursion, tiny Miss Daisy read that front page at least a dozen times and each time she would snicker, giggle, and guffaw, then put it down on the dash board and, a minute later, discover it anew. I think it was the best afternoon of my life. We don't often hear them laugh and when they do, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard.

...

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the really important work all of you do. You make the world a better place.

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tor @torwager.bsky.social · Jun 10

There are subfields of fMRI that are corticocentric, but many research groups, focusing on striatum, forebrain, brainstem, cerebellum, and connecting pathways! We see robust signals in PAG and more at 3T and 1.5T. Harder to localize yes, but that’s an ongoing issue. 7T great but not the only way.

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Reposted by tor

Jordan Theriault @jtheriault.bsky.social · May 19

Also, @torwager.bsky.social has been building a nice collection of subcortical atlases, which are being updated here:
github.com/canlab/Neuro...

This includes Marta's atlas above, but also many more!

Neuroimaging_Pattern_Masks/Atlases_and_parcellations at master · canlab/Neuroimaging_Pattern_Masks

Brain signature patterns, atlases of regions, and meta-analysis masks for neuroimaging data analysis. - canlab/Neuroimaging_Pattern_Masks

github.com

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