Super excited to be back @cogcompneuro.bsky.social in NYU - this year presenting new exciting work from Project Simsom with @camerontellis.bsky.social, Dan Yamins and the team. Are we ready to build an AI model of infant development? We think so ... come check it out Thursday 10:30 E39 👶🤖
Cliona O'Doherty
@clionaod.bsky.social
Postdoc at Stanford | Developmental NeuroAI
Lots of exciting work coming from the Stanford NeuroAI Lab! Come check out everyone's posters @cogcompneuro.bsky.social in NYU
Our Stanford NeuroAI Lab is presenting at the Cognitive Computational Neuroscience conference #CCN2026 🥳 Come say hi to us!! Imran, @norcalneuro.bsky.social, @dyamins.bsky.social, Khaled, @ynshah.bsky.social @seojinlee.bsky.social , @clionaod.bsky.social , Khai
Excited to share our review in @cp-neuron.bsky.social with @lauriebayet.bsky.social and @mickbonner.bsky.social! We describe how implementing principles from child development can advance the mechanistic plausibility and capacities of AI models We packed A LOT into this review, here's a quick 🧵
Latest from the Baby Blog: Uncovering cognition in young infants using deep neural networks and awake fMRI by @clionaod.bsky.social and @ainedineen.bsky.social infantstudies.org/uncovering-c... #infantstudies #EarlyYears #Research #science #DevPsySky #PsychSciSky
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.
My paper with @mikearcaro.bsky.social exploring the organization of the visual system in newborn infants is now out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social !
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!
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
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
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
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.
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language. tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬 1/n
It's been a great FIT'NG so far 🧠👶🏻 I'm always excited to present the work from the amazing FOUNDCOG team, and chat all things developmental cog comp neuro. Feel free to reach out to me or find me on the last day tomorrow!
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!
Hi, we will have three NeuroAI postdoc openings (3 years each, fully funded) to work with Sebastian Musslick (@musslick.bsky.social), Pascal Nieters and myself on task-switching, replay, and visual information routing. Reach out if you are interested in any of the above, I'll be at CCN next week!
This was so fun to write! Grateful to ICIS and the Baby Blog for the space to reflect on infant memory
New on the Baby Blog - Episodic-like memory in infancy: Insights from the developing hippocampus by Tristan S. Yates #EarlyYears #DevPsychSky #PsychSciSky #infantstudies infantstudies.org/episodic-lik...
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
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
Excited for CCN this year! The lineup is full of super interesting developmental work👶🏻🧠🤖 Looking forward to presenting my results as a contributed talk as well!
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/...
What makes humans similar or different to AI? In a paper out in @natmachintell.nature.com led by @florianmahner.bsky.social & @lukasmut.bsky.social, w/ Umut Güclü, we took a deep look at the factors underlying their representational alignment, with surprising results. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Dimensions underlying the representational alignment of deep neural networks with humans - Nature Machine Intelligence
An interpretability framework that compares how humans and deep neural networks process images has been presented. Their findings reveal that, unlike humans, deep neural networks focus more on visual ...
nature.com
There are 2 PhD positions in my lab in Amsterdam (collaboration with Sander Bohte, @tessamdekker.bsky.social and Ingmar Visser) on NeuroAI of developmental vision. academicpositions.nl/ad/centrum-w...
2 PHD-STUDENTS IN NEUROAI OF DEVELOPMENTAL VISION (M/F/X) - Academic Positions
Join an interdisciplinary team to research developmental vision in NeuroAI. Requires a strong computational background, deep learning skills, and a Master's ...
academicpositions.nl
Thinking about brain development is hard ... but modern computational models can hint towards potential learning mechanisms! Of course, these need to be contextualised within the findings from developmental psychology. Check out the discussion out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
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
Please help: Do you know a baby, less than 12 months old, who can walk? We are trying to complete a project, 7 years in the works. And all we need are 3 infants who are less than a year old and can walk, to do a short online looking-time study. 🆘
Fascinating talk by @rhodricusack.bsky.social showing his & @clionaod.bsky.social’s work on 2 and 9-month olds with 130 (!) infants & 20 min (!) data showing a largely similar representation of medial ventral vision but a largely absent response in LO, dovetailing with myelin development. #CAOS2025
"How infants learn and explore: From behavior to computations" 👶⚙️ This review outlines my take on early development, mostly driven by frustration that infancy research focuses on what infants can do, not how. Still a Preprint! Missing-literature suggestions welcome :) osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
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
A brave (and patient) group of neuroscientists have figured out how to do task-based fMRI in babies and toddlers. They aim to uncover how the infant mind takes shape—and the method has already provided new insight into infantile amnesia. My latest www.thetransmitter.org/cognitive-ne... #neuroskyence
What infant fMRI is revealing about the developing mind
Cognitive neuroscientists have finally clocked how to perform task-based fMRI experiments in awake babies. Now they want watch cognition take shape.
thetransmitter.org
The Saxe Lab @ MIT is hiring! We seek one lab manager to start in summer 2025. Research in our lab focuses on social cognition (learn more on saxelab.mit.edu). Please apply at: tinyurl.com/saxe2025 (Job ID 31993). Review of applications starts on March 24, 2025. Sharing appreciated. Thank you!
Saxelab Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at MIT |
saxelab.mit.edu
JOB ALERT: Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Postdoc position in Osaka, Japan! Plus PhD positions for April 2026. PLEASE REPOST! #postdocjobs #neuroskyence #neuroscience #psychscisky #compneurosky We had to re-start the process after our preferred candidate withdrew. Info 👇.
PLEASE SHARE: apply to my postdoc in Osaka. Comp cogneuro of learning, control, & concept representation. fMRI, cognitive models & deep nets. Initial deadline Oct 18. The deadline will be extended once so don't worry if u need more time. #neuroskyence #psychscisky #compneurosky
If you are a member of the FIT'NG society then please consider voting for me! To vote, check for the email, and here is a link describing the candidates... fitng.org/elections/ I can't believe this is my first ever election!! @fitngin.bsky.social
Elections | fitng.org
fitng.org
🥁 FIT'NG is thrilled to announce our 2025 destination is 🌎 Dublin, Ireland. Join us next fall September 7 - 8, 2025! 🌐 Learn more about this beautiful and historic city by visiting: fitng.org/destination/ #FITNG2025 #RSNA2024 #BrainDevelopment