Delighted to share that I’ve been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for #InfantNeuroAI The project will investigate how human infants learn to understand the visual world, by combining awake infant neuroimaging (fMRI and OPM-MEG) with computational models from AI.

We are still hiring for our computational focus lab coordinator position! If you have a computational / software engineering background and are looking for more research experience before applying to graduate school, this would be a great fit. Read more about our lab here! www.vislearnlab.org

Delighted to share that I successfully defended my PhD thesis 'A Window into the Infant’s Visual World: Through a NeuroAI Lens' at @tcddublin.bsky.social, supervised by @rhodricusack.bsky.social. We used awake infant fMRI and deep neural networks to understand how infants perceive the visual world.

Why can't you remember being a toddler? Or can you? Nice feature in Time of our lab's work on infantile amnesia at @tcddublin.bsky.social Also of the labs of @sarahdpower.bsky.social at MPI Berlin, @franklandlab.bsky.social at Sick Kids, and Nick Turk-Browne at Yale. time.com/7380496/why-...

Why You Can’t Remember Being a Toddler

This form of amnesia is almost universal, but has long been overlooked.

time.com

I am very excited to be presenting our work using awake infant fMRI and developmentally inspired deep neural networks to better understand the visual features that the developing brain encodes infants view objects at #CNS2026 in Vancouver this week!

What and how do babies see? Rhodri Cusack discusses early visual development. Come to the session for the pics of babies (like the one below of baby watching "infant IMAX") and stay for the great science! @rhodricusack.bsky.social #CNS2026 2/

Tasks include watching movies, like Moana, while tracking brain development every 2 weeks A limitation of the work is that it's so far an n of 1, Ellis' daughter #CNS2026 7/ @camerontellis.bsky.social

The Transmitter writes about @clionaod.bsky.social's work with @ainedineen.bsky.social, @annatruzzi.bsky.social, Graham King, @lorinanaci.bsky.social, Keelin Harrison, Enna-Louise D'Arcy, Jessica White, @chiarac.bsky.social, Tamrin Holloway, Anna Kravchenko, @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social!

Infant brain categorizes common objects by two months of age

Brain activity patterns in the ventral visual cortex appear to distinguish images across 12 categories, including birds and trees, fMRI scans suggest.

thetransmitter.org

Functional MRI scans of more than 100 2-month-old infants suggest that they are capable of distinguishing among a variety of different objects. The findings challenge perceptions of cognitive development as a gradual process. By @helenak.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/cognitive-ne...

Infant brain categorizes common objects by two months of age

Brain activity patterns in the ventral visual cortex appear to distinguish images across 12 categories, including birds and trees, fMRI scans suggest.

thetransmitter.org

Human babies may be able to visually categorize different objects earlier than previously thought, even at two months of age, according to research in Nature #Neuroscience. go.nature.com/4tcQOu3 🧪

Human babies may be able to visually categorize different objects earlier than previously thought, even at two months of age, according to research published in Nature Neuroscience. The results challenge our understanding of visual development in infancy: #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence 🧠

Infants have rich visual categories in ventrotemporal cortex at 2 months of age - Nature Neuroscience

Using infant fMRI, the authors show that, by 2 months of age, representations in high-level visual cortex encode visual categories that align with deep neural networks, and lateral object-selective regions are later to develop.

spklr.io

This paper was an awesome collaborative effort of a @fitngin.bsky.social working group. It provides a detailed review of how DNNs can be used to support dev neuro research @lauriebayet.bsky.social and I wrote the network modeling section about how DNNs can be used to test developmental theories 🧵

Deep learning in fetal, infant, and toddler neuroimaging research

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into everyday tasks and work environments. However, its adoption in medical image analys…

sciencedirect.com

Awake infant fMRI offers a rare window into early brain and cognitive development. In a new paper out now in Infancy, we leverage data from hundreds of infant scans from the Saxe and Turk-Browne Labs to reveal what factors drive scanning success — and how future studies can maximize data retention!

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Infants: Insights From More Than 750 Scanning Sessions

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses signifi....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Through the Foundcog project we scanned 100+ infants with awake fMRI. In this Nature Neuroscience paper led by clionaod.bsky.social, we show that, by 2-months, infants’ brains already encode rich representations of object category. Congratulations Clíona on such beautiful results! 🧠✨

Cliona O'Doherty (@clionaod.bsky.social)

Postdoc at Stanford | Developmental NeuroAI

clionaod.bsky.social

Cliona O'Doherty@clionaod.bsky.social · 6mo ago

1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.

And thank you so much to all of our participants and their families!

Cliona O'Doherty@clionaod.bsky.social · 6mo ago

7/7 Funded by @erc.europa.eu&@researchireland.ie. Thank you to the families, the Coombe & Rotunda hospitals, and the team: @rhodricusack.bsky.social, @ainedineen.bsky.social,Anna Truzzi,Graham King @lorijn.bsky.social,@chiarac.bsky.social,@ennadarcy.bsky.social,@diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social +more!

1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.

The FIT'NG Trainee Committee is excited to be recruiting new members! It’s a great way to: ✨ Build your network ✨ Gain leadership experience ✨ Shape programming for trainees across the society Interested? Fill out our form by September 23rd: tinyurl.com/TraineeCommi...

@mariesantillo.bsky.social shows that 2 month old infant show significant activity in the MD cortex which is different from 9 month olds and independent of visual complexity

Dr. Anna Truzzi shares her fascinating findings on how baby brains exhibit longer timescales using both MRI and EEG!

Cliona O'Doherty present pioneering work relating awake infant fMRI data to adults and computational models of vision, with strong correspondence at 2 months of age!

Exciting new preprint from the lab: “Adopting a human developmental visual diet yields robust, shape-based AI vision”. A most wonderful case where brain inspiration massively improved AI solutions. Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168

1/ New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com, led by @marinv.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1038/s420...! Across several past studies, we showed how newborns' degraded vision may benefit human development and inspire more robust deep networks. We have referred to this as Adaptive Initial Degradations (AID).

Potential role of developmental experience in the emergence of the parvo-magno distinction - Communications Biology

Developmentally-driven computational modeling study suggests that early sensory experience shapes distinct neuronal response properties in the visual system, providing a potential account of the emerg...

doi.org

My paper with @stellalourenco.bsky.social ‬is now out in Science Advances! We found that children have robust object recognition abilities that surpass many ANNs. Models only outperformed kids when their training far exceeded what a child could experience in their lifetime doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Fast and robust visual object recognition in young children

The visual recognition abilities of preschool children rival those of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence models.

doi.org

Not just one, but two fantastic chances to discuss how infant development can inform machine learning and vice-versa at CCN 2025 in Amsterdam!!! Satellite workshop sites.google.com/view/child2m... and Generative Adversarial Collaboration sites.google.com/ccneuro.org/...

CCN 2025 Satellite Event

Background The human visual system is full of optimisations—mechanisms designed to extract the most useful information from a constant stream of incoming data. The field of neuro-AI has made significa...

sites.google.com

First morning in Brisbane! Looking forward to exploring the city before #OHBM2025 kicks off! Excited to be here to share my research on early MD network engagement in infants. Come chat at poster #1029 🧠🌎

Why do we not remember being a baby? One idea is that the hippocampus, which is essential for episodic memory in adults, is too immature to form individual memories in infancy. We tested this using awake infant fMRI, new in @science.org #ScienceResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hippocampal encoding of memories in human infants

Humans lack memories for specific events from the first few years of life. We investigated the mechanistic basis of this infantile amnesia by scanning the brains of awake infants with functional magne...

science.org

Don't miss our next FIT'NG Together event this Thursday, April 10th at 12pm EST where we will discuss a new paper on Hippocampal Encoding of Memories in Human Infants (DOI: 10.1126/science.adt7570) with @tristansyates.bsky.social and other authors! Register for FREE at: tinyurl.com/fitngtogether

🥁FIT'NG 2024 submission site is now open! 🗓️The deadline to submit abstracts is May 15, 2024. Click the 🔗 to get more info: fitng.org/submissions/