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Akram Bakkour
@akrambakkour.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. I study how we use memory to make better decisions.
📣 We're hiring! The Saez Lab at Mount Sinai is seeking a postdoctoral researcher with experience in intracranial recordings, electrophysiology, BCIs, mood disorders, and/or computational modeling, to explore the neural basis of human cognition. 🗓️ Apply by September 30, 2026. Please share widely!
New preprint! Using a task based on Battleship, we find that older adults persistently forage for information, even at the cost of reward and learning speed. Why do older adults display this costly info-seeking exploratory behavior?
Older Adults Forage Broadly for Information Despite Cost https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.14.751536v1
I expect to recruit a PhD student this cycle! The Control and Decision Making Lab at WashU studies control, effort, and decision making, combining behavioral experiments with modeling and neuroimaging. If that sounds cool, check out our work: cdmlab.wustl.edu. How to apply: psych.washu.edu/apply
Control and Decision Making Lab
cdmlab.wustl.edu
The CATS Lab is moving to Columbia next year, and I am recruiting a PhD student this cycle to start Fall 2027 in the Department of Psychology. Learn more about how to apply here: psychology.columbia.edu/content/prep... I am also recruiting a postdoc and staff for 2027. More info coming soon!
Preparing to Apply | Department of Psychology
psychology.columbia.edu
We are searching for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, with a research focus on developmental and/or social psychology. Please apply or forward to anyone who might be interested! facultypositions.stanford.edu/jobs/assista...
Assistant Professor, Psychology - Stanford University, California, United States
The Department of Psychology at Stanford University is seeking applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, with a research focus on developmental and/or social psychology. In addition ...
facultypositions.stanford.edu
How can we design experiments that make computational models disagree? One section of our new @natrevneuro.nature.com Review with @kriegeskorte.bsky.social and @heikoschuett.bsky.social examines studies that used stimulus sets designed to elicit distinct predictions from competing models. 1/16
Our new preprint w/ @edvogel.bsky.social presents a neural marker of a competition/interaction taking place in working memory between memory and current goals. We label it r-CDA Check out preprint for details about r-CDA and other interesting neural dynamics osf.io/preprints/ps...
Come work with me at Google! We have an open 6-month temp role on my team - it’s a great opportunity for someone with a cog neuro or psych background interested in exploring big tech. Looking for comp modeling experience (e.g. RL, DDMs) and Python/JS. Reach out to learn more or pass along any names!
A new paper shows that reward spreads across multiple links in memory and selectively preserves the structure of related items. In other words: reward doesn't just travel through memory, it shapes it to guide what you choose next.
📢New paper out today in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social led by Seoyoung Lee! Does reward spread across multiple links in memory organized in a cognitive graph? Yes! We see graded spread through a recalled (even if incorrect) learned graph. Reward preserves proximal structure to support decisions.
How do we make good decisions with little experience? Adults can rely on memories of past choices. In our new study in @pnas.org we show kids & teens do something similar–but what they remember turns out to be quite different! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Developmental changes in memory structure and precision alter the use of retrieved episodes during decisions for reward | PNAS
Most widely studied option evaluation strategies rely on knowledge accumulated across repeated experiences. But how should options be evaluated in ...
pnas.org
📢New paper out today in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social led by Seoyoung Lee! Does reward spread across multiple links in memory organized in a cognitive graph? Yes! We see graded spread through a recalled (even if incorrect) learned graph. Reward preserves proximal structure to support decisions.
Reward selectively preserves relational structure in memory
Memories tend to form networks that reflect relationships between experiences. These networks, or cognitive graphs, have been used to study how struct…
authors.elsevier.com
I’ve been enjoying #CCN2026! Come by Euan’s poster this Wednesday morning at 9:30am to check out what we’ve been up to! Poster C20: Super-diffusive memory search drives fast and accurate decisions
Excited for the lab's presentations at @cogcompneuch.bsky.social 2026! see you in ✨New✨York✨City✨ (🧵 1/7)
Please spread the word: We’re recruiting a postdoc! 📣 We study how shifting brain & attentional states shape memory and how people experience their worlds. fMRI/iEEG + a fun, supportive lab community + space to pursue your own ideas. 📅 Apply by Aug 15 tinyurl.com/fx5k7teb
tinyurl.com
How does the brain represent the value of knowledge? In our paper--out now at Nature Neuroscience--we identify a representation of intrinsic information value within neural population structures in the orbitofrontal cortex in mice. www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02377-y #neuroskyence 🧠🧪 (1/8)
Representations of the intrinsic value of information in mouse orbitofrontal cortex - Nature Neuroscience
Mice are motivated to seek information of no extrinsic value. Recording neural activity in orbitofrontal cortex reveals a representation of the value of information that is distinct from the value of ...
nature.com
Excited to share that my first-ever first-author paper (w/ @atabk.bsky.social @AngeliqueDelarazan @zreagh.bsky.social) is now out in PNAS! Building a story to link two objects boosts associative memory and inference, but not memory for the objects themselves. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵
Active linking through narratives facilitates associative inference | PNAS
In daily life, we often draw inferences about novel associations from prior experiences. This ability, associative inference, is thought to be a ke...
pnas.org
#JNeurosci: Findings from van Geen et al. support an integrated view of decision-making where mnemonic and value-based systems interact even in basic learning contexts, and highlight age-related disruptions in the transfer of info across brain regions. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1459-25.2026
Come to ICOM next summer, it's going to be lit! Rumor has it that the first memory-based comedy show (ICOMedy) may be taking place.
We've now highlighted all our amazing confirmed keynote speakers! Please sign up to our email list as this will be the main way we will communicate. Stay tuned for news about submissions, registration, and lots more! icom-memory.org #neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition #ICOM2027 #philosophysky 🧪
Looking to work with a postdoc. Prior experience with fMRI and computational modeling required, interest in psychiatry desired. Fellowship provides three years salary plus independent travel/equipment funds. Send CV and 2-3 manuscripts (preprints OK).
🚨 Big news 🚨 After 10 years at Harvard, my lab is moving to Barcelona in Spring 2027 to join @cbc-upf.bsky.social and the Department of Engineering at @upf.edu. 1/4
After five years in the US 🇺🇸, I'll soon be returning to my hometown of Strasbourg, where I'll join INSERM as a tenure-track Junior Group Leader and launch the MInD (Motivation, Inattention & Distraction) Research Group. 🇫🇷🇪🇺 Two graduate positions available: matthieuchidharom.wixsite.com/mind
How do people build new ideas from existing knowledge? By tracking Wikipedia searches, we found that novel ideas emerged when people balanced exploration with exploitation—alternating between distant topics and deep dives into related information.
Hippocampal engrams configure prefrontal context representations to guide flexible decisions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.06.732916v1
In a new preprint, @keisukefukuda.bsky.social and I investigated stimulus-specific memorability with ROC analysis. We find that the variability of latent memory effects (familiarity) caused by individual memory items across people is a game-changing dimension of memorability osf.io/c62an/files/...
As of today, I'm officially an Assistant Professor at the University of California Davis! I'm so excited to be joining the Department of Psychology and the Center for Mind and Brain, and I'm looking forward to getting settled into the new lab and embarking on a lot of fun new research this year
New preprint! We show low arousal states promote hippocampal ripple genesis in sleep and wake. This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Arousal state modulates human hippocampal ripples
Hippocampal ripples are transient, high-frequency oscillations linked to memory replay and consolidation. Ripples are well-characterized in rodents to occur during periods of behavioral inactivity (i....
biorxiv.org
I've been told my discussion with NPR about US academics/scientists moving overseas will be on NPR later today on All Things Considered! Live broadcast 4-6pm Eastern. Don’t know when my segment will be within this, but tune in! Huge thanks to @npr.org for the opportunity to share my perspective.
It feels strange to share good news, but: I’m moving to UCSD in July!! 🥳 I'm very grateful for my time at Princeton and SO excited for what comes next. We're building multiplayer games to study how teams are shaped by the problems they solve. If that sounds fun to you, I'm accepting grad students!