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.

With @imarinescu.bsky.social I argue that the economy is bottlenecked by the physical, rendering anything resembling a singularity unlikely: www.transformernews.ai/p/the-key-de...

The key detail everyone’s getting wrong about AI and the economy

Opinion: Konrad Körding and Ioana Marinescu from the University of Pennsylvania argue artificial intelligence will likely have a limited impact on jobs because of the realities of physical work

transformernews.ai

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/

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

⏲️ 3 DAYS LEFT!!! 🏃‍➡️ Hurry up, submit your work now! 🌐 Posters: fitng.org/poster-oral-... 🌐 Symposium: fitng.org/symposium-su... Deadline: February 25 #FITNG2026 #Neuroscience #Neuorimaging #MRI #Brain

a cartoon of a penguin sitting at a desk with a computer and a clock behind it that says deadline

ALT: a cartoon of a penguin sitting at a desk with a computer and a clock behind it that says deadline

media.tenor.com

Language areas in the cerebellar mapped by @coltoncasto.bsky.social: www.thetransmitter.org/language/cer... Very consistent with @carobellum.bsky.social functional atlas, but providing deeper details. By now the "terra incognita" of the cerebellum isn't so "incognita" anymore!

Cerebellum responds to language like cortical areas

One of four language-responsive cerebellar regions may encode meaningful information, much like the cortical language network in the left hemisphere, according to a new study.

thetransmitter.org

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!

Infants organise their visual world into categories at two-months-old! So happy to see these results published - congratulations Cliona and the rest of the FOUNDCOG team.

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.

Delighted to announce with my colleagues Prof Yvonne Daly, Dublin City Uni; Prof Dave Walsh Walsh, De Montfort Uni; Prof Bennett Kleinberg, Tilburg Uni, we have secured an ERC Synergy grant entitled JUSTICE (or ‘Joining Unique Strategies Together For Interrogative Coercion Elimination).

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · 9mo ago

📣 Meet the new ERC Synergy Grant awardees! Sixty-six research teams have been selected for funding, bringing together 239 scientists. Congratulations to all! ➡️ buff.ly/PSn3bi9 #EUfunded #HorizonEurope #ERCSyG

We are delighted to be able to thank the @erc.europa.eu European Research Council (ERC) for the funding award of €10,403,517 for this six-year project. @tcddublin.bsky.social @trinityneuro.bsky.social & @tcdpsychology.bsky.social Trinity College Dublin will host my work.

Ever wonder how habituation works? Here's our attempt to understand: A stimulus-computable rational model of visual habituation in infants and adults doi.org/10.7554/eLif... This is the thesis of two wonderful students: @anjiecao.bsky.social @galraz.bsky.social, w/ @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social

Amazing talk from @sjblakemore.bsky.social at #flux2025 - childhood and the age of legal responsibility; voting age; graduated driving licenses.

Wearable TCD brain scanner a 'gamechanger' for research www.rte.ie/news/ireland... @trinityneuro.bsky.social

Finally got around to this interesting exchange. Much to like! However, in my view neonate cortex is building a foundation model while sub-cortical sensorimotor routes support newborn behaviours and, importantly, bias the inputs to the foundation model (e.g. orienting toward faces).

Ireland launches global talent fund! www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob... If you're a neuroscience professor (assistant/associate/full) and would consider relocating to the vibrant and booming city of Dublin, please get in touch!

Very pleased that my commentary on Jonathan Birch's fantastic "The Edge of Sentience" has finally appeared. @birchlse.bsky.social and I agree on many things, but there was enough distance between our views to make this a productive exchange.

Jonathan Birch@birchlse.bsky.social · last yr.

Wonderful to read Tim Bayne's review of The Edge of Sentience in Mind & Language. Subscribers to the journal can read the full review and my responses. doi.org/10.1111/mila...

Thank you very much for the discussion, Martin, @marielgoddu.bsky.social and Ruthe! Look forward to discussing more. Will any of you make it to CCN in Amsterdam?

Martin Zettersten@mzettersten.bsky.social · last yr.

Enjoyed this interesting discussion with Rhodri Cusack & co-author team about their foundation model perspective on infant development! Both the letter by @marielgoddu.bsky.social, Ruthe, and I (www.cell.com/trends/cogni... and a thoughtful response from the original authors are now officially out.

Thanks to fellow defenders @clionaod.bsky.social, Marc'Aurelio Ranzato, and @charvetcj.bsky.social Defending the foundation model view of infant development www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Defending the foundation model view of infant development

sciencedirect.com

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

Excited to see our response published www.cell.com/trends/cogni... to Zettersten at al's thoughtful commentary www.cell.com/trends/cogni... on our TiCS perspective "Helpless infants are learning a foundation model" www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @trinityneuro.bsky.social @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social

Defending the foundation model view of infant development

In response to the opinion article by Cusack et al. [1], Zettersten et al. [2] challenge the proposal that human infants undergo a stage-like development from sensory to goal-directed actions. Zetters...

cell.com

Great to see this award to Peter Gorman, from Trinity-Columbia's joint BA programme. www.tcd.ie/news_events/... @trinityneuro.bsky.social

We are recruiting for 5 permanent staff positions (Prof, Senior-, Lecturer) including for 7T-MRI. Please have a look and share widely. (Closing date: May 12) www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Professor, Senior Lecturer/Lecturer and Lecturer posts - Glasgow City (GB) job with University of Glasgow | 12838283

University of Glasgow College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences  School of Psychology & Neuroscience Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience/Psy...

nature.com

Fabulous chance to study brain health in athletes!

@lorinanaci.bsky.social · last yr.

📢 Join my group as a #PhD or #RA in advanced #neuroimaging #biomarkers of #risk and #resilience factors for #dementia. DM me if interested. Looking for PhD and RA applicants. Please RT 👇 www.theresolvestudy.org www.lorinanaci.org universityvacancies.com/trinity-coll...

Very pleased to share the fMRI pipeline paper from the fetal release or the developing human connectome project, a true labour of love and incredible work from Slava Karolis #dhcp #connectome #fmri direct.mit.edu/imag/article...

The developing Human Connectome Project fetal functional MRI release: Methods and data structures

Abstract. Recent advances in fetal fMRI present a new opportunity for neuroscience to study functional human brain connectivity at the time of its emergence. Progress in the field, however, has been h...

direct.mit.edu

Join us as an Associate Professor in Developmental Psychology. my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui...

The latest paper from my PhD is now out in Nature Human Behavior! rdcu.be/edRwQ

White matter connections of human ventral temporal cortex are organized by cytoarchitecture, eccentricity and category-selectivity from birth

Nature Human Behaviour - Kubota et al. find that white matter connections of ventral temporal cortex are innately organized by cytoarchitecture, category and eccentricity from birth, and also...

rdcu.be

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

Why academia is sleepwalking into self-destruction. My editorial @brain1878.bsky.social If you agree with the sentiments please repost. It's important for all our sakes to stop the madness academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

Cortical maturation unfolds hierarchically, endowing the PFC with extended plasticity. But do timeframes of plasticity vary across PFC layers? With 7T quantitative myelin imaging, EEG, and cognitive data, we uncover heterochronous laminar maturation in the PFC 1/n. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...