Our new paper is out this week in Nature Neuroscience! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We built a BCI that works with the brain's natural geometry — and we found that people could learn to play a video game with their brains in <1 hr of training. This efficiency is groundbreaking & here's why:

Human learning of noninvasive brain–computer interfaces via manifold geometry - Nature Neuroscience

Busch et al. use nonlinear neural manifolds to help humans gain rapid control over a noninvasive brain–computer interface, allowing them to learn how to play a video game with real-time fMRI neurofeed...

nature.com

Recruiting a fully funded PhD student at Lancaster: decoding spontaneous inner speech with wearable EEG + ultrasound tongue imaging. UK home applicants only, Oct 2026 start. Application Deadline 17 July 2026. Details: www.lancaster.ac.uk/psychology/s...

PhD - Lancaster University

lancaster.ac.uk

Visual attention relies on coordinated activity across brain areas. Computational neural dynamics of goal-directed visual attention in macaques doi.org/10.1126/scia... #neuroscience

Computational neural dynamics of goal-directed visual attention in macaques

Large-scale brain activity patterns coordinate goals, perception, and memory to guide efficient visual search.

doi.org

Congratulations to Dubheasa, PhD student (second from left) for best oral presentation at the Nott PGR conference. She presented our work on interpersonal synchrony and executive functions. We are lucky to be her supervisors!

School of Psychology, University of Nottingham@notts-psych.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Fantastic talks and posters at our #PGRConference today! Huge congratulations to the runners-up and winners of the Open Research, Best Poster, and Best Talk awards!

New work from my lab! Young children find it easier to represent mutually-exclusive possible identities of an object than possible locations of an object - an early object-rep-architecture limitation on possibility reasoning! Work led by @esranur.bsky.social recently accepted in Open Mind ✨

Esra Nur Turan-Küçük@esranur.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New paper in Open Mind! 2-to-4-year-olds find it easier to reason about an object's possible identity than its possible location, and we argue this asymmetry traces back to the architecture of early object representations. 🧵

Research led by Dr Sam Forbes and Prof John Spencer shows that young children who experience richer, face to face interaction develop stronger neural pathways for language processing than those primarily exposed to screens www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... @samhforbes.bsky.social

The parents using play to stop children getting 'trapped' by screens

Researchers say more speech and interaction around children can aid the development of young brains.

bbc.co.uk

Our review of 103 studies of the neonatal brain at rest shows group-level developmental changes in functional connectivity, but also evidence for significant inter-individual variability. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The neonatal brain at rest: A systematic review of task-free functional connectivity in the first 100 days

Over the first 100 days post-partum human brain functions may undergo rapid changes, with plasticity peaking. Studies of task-free functional connecti…

sciencedirect.com

My friend @samhforbes.bsky.social doing the most incredible research www.instagram.com/reel/DXT1kiu...

Instagram

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

instagram.com

New paper 🌟out now in Nat. Neurosci.: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... With advisors @davidpoeppel.bsky.social and @Nai! We show that, while LLMs are optimized to predict the next word, the human brain modulates prediction efficiency by strategically grouping words into constituents. 1/n More 👇

How does blood flow relate to brain activity? We discovered that it reflects two neural populations affected oppositely by arousal. Together, they explain neurovascular coupling in all brain regions and brain states! Out today in Nature: rdcu.be/fdC2A @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

One thing that's been frustrating me INTENSELY this last few years is a pattern of brilliant Autistic autism researchers, doing important & fascinating work, struggling to get jobs in academia, or being pushed out of jobs they had before. Most universities seem unable to see how valuable they are.

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism@thinkingautism.com · 5mo ago

Autism research is a revolving door which Autistic people virtually never get to enter and allistics virtually never bother to exit. On tokenism in autism research, from autistic AAC user, side-eyer, and conference-goer Xavier Penn. New, at TPGA: thinkingautismguide.com/2026/03/the-... #INSAR2026

New paper from our lab, led by postdoc @jmedrano.bsky.social, on executive functions, spatial/relational reasoning and prior knowledge relate to children’s fraction understanding. Proud of Josh for leading this work! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Executive functions and spatial/relational reasoning relate to individual differences in fraction understanding

Studies have shown the importance of executive functions (EFs) and spatial and relational reasoning for fraction understanding; however, few studies h…

sciencedirect.com

Currrently reading "Where learning paths meet..." in my decades long search for the actual mechanisms behind child language acquisition. Surprisingly elusive in our literature, which has (almost certainly) spent too much time focussing on what is/isn't innate. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Where learning paths meet: Convergence and divergence of statistical and reinforcement learning

Learning enables organisms to adapt to a dynamic world by forming and updating internal representations of their environment. Statistical Learning (SL…

sciencedirect.com

Very cool paper relevant to social imitation www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Avalanches of choice: How stranger-to-stranger interactions shape crowd dynamics | PNAS

Pedestrian routing choices play a crucial role in shaping collective crowd dynamics, yet the influence of interactions among unfamiliar individuals...

pnas.org

The Developmental and Brain Sciences program at UMass Boston is looking for a half-time Program Coordinator. This colleague will be working directly with me (the Director of the program). Feel free to DM me with any questions! employmentopportunities.umb.edu/boston/en-us...

It’s out!

2 x full-time teaching associate roles in psychology at the University of Nottingham. One role is for a fixed-term contract for 18 months from 1 April 2026 and the second role is for a fixed-term contract ending on 31st July 2027. jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

The deadline for this fully-funded PhD studentship with me and @alexhendry.bsky.social is tomorrow (18th Feb). Apply if you are interested in improving executive functions in children from neurotypical and neurodiverse families.

Dr. Sobana Wijeakumar@drswijeakumar.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Funded ESRC DTP Strategic joint PhD studentship with me at @notts-psych.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social on play interactions to improve executive functions. Application details in the link. Deadline: 18th Feb. Please share widely with interested students! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQE738/e...

Sharing a fantastic paper using Miro-E I was lucky to be involved in. Led by the amazing Nikhil Deshpande, Aly Magassouba and others at @uoncompsci.bsky.social @notts-psych.bsky.social. A Multimodal Adaptive Framework for Social Interaction with the MiRo-E Robot mdpi.com/3727124 #mdpisensors

Only one week left to apply for this ESRC PhD studentship with me and @alexhendry.bsky.social. If you are interested in how to improve executive functions through caregiver-child play interactions in neurotypical and neurodiverse families, consider applying!

Dr. Sobana Wijeakumar@drswijeakumar.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Two weeks till the deadline for this fully funded ESRC DTP studentship with me and @alexhendry.bsky.social looking at play interactions and executive functions in neurotypical and neurodiverse families. Please share!

START – a new programme supporting toddlers at elevated likelihood of autism or ADHD – shows promising findings tinyurl.com/5n92yuzy   #DevPsyc #devsky #devsci #AutRes

Feasibility and acceptability of a parent‐toddler programme to support the development of executive functions in children at elevated likelihood of autism or ADHD: Pilot findings

This study reports feasibility, fidelity and acceptability of a pilot of START; a 12-week parent-toddler, group-based, neurodiversity-affirming programme aiming to support executive function developm...

tinyurl.com

Two weeks till the deadline for this fully funded ESRC DTP studentship with me and @alexhendry.bsky.social looking at play interactions and executive functions in neurotypical and neurodiverse families. Please share!

Dr. Sobana Wijeakumar@drswijeakumar.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Funded ESRC DTP Strategic joint PhD studentship with me at @notts-psych.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social on play interactions to improve executive functions. Application details in the link. Deadline: 18th Feb. Please share widely with interested students! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQE738/e...

Congratulations to @lillianbehm.bsky.social, Nick Turk-Browne, and a huge team for putting together this paper (out today) on lessons from a decade of attempts to study awake infants with fMRI: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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

Apply now for a PhD in our school with @drswijeakumar.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social 👇

Dr. Sobana Wijeakumar@drswijeakumar.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Three weeks until the deadline for the fully funded ESRC DTP position with me @notts-psych.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social. Please share with colleagues and interested students.

Three weeks until the deadline for the fully funded ESRC DTP position with me @notts-psych.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social. Please share with colleagues and interested students.

Dr. Sobana Wijeakumar@drswijeakumar.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Funded ESRC DTP Strategic joint PhD studentship with me at @notts-psych.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social on play interactions to improve executive functions. Application details in the link. Deadline: 18th Feb. Please share widely with interested students! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQE738/e...

Funded ESRC DTP Strategic joint PhD studentship with me at @notts-psych.bsky.social and @alexhendry.bsky.social on play interactions to improve executive functions. Application details in the link. Deadline: 18th Feb. Please share widely with interested students! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQE738/e...

ESRC DTP Strategic Joint Studentship: Adopting a Research-Informed Approach to Develop Play Interactions to Improve Executive Functions in Neurotypical and Neurodiverse Families. at Midlands Graduate ...

Find a ESRC DTP Strategic Joint Studentship: Adopting a Research-Informed Approach to Develop Play Interactions to Improve Executive Functions in Neurotypical and Neurodiverse Families. on jobs.ac.uk,...

jobs.ac.uk

Thank you to Dr. Schwarzlose for contributing the fantastic review article "Infant sensory gating and a developmental cascade to autistic traits and anxiety" this year 🤩 #ACNP2026 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Throwback 🧪 REVIEW | Feeding gut microbes to nourish the brain: unravelling the diet–microbiota–gut–brain axis @elizschneider.bsky.social‬, ‪@jfcryan.bsky.social et al

Feeding gut microbes to nourish the brain: unravelling the diet–microbiota–gut–brain axis - Nature Metabolism

This Review provides an overview of the interplay between host diet and the gut microbiota, and how this affects brain function.

nature.com

Full ref: Duda-Goławska, J., Laudańska, Z., et al. Vocalisations are coupled with movement of all limbs throughout infancy. Sci Rep 15, 44899 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Vocalisations are coupled with movement of all limbs throughout infancy - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Vocalisations are coupled with movement of all limbs throughout infancy

doi.org

New paper alert from BabylabPAN Spontaneous speech-like vocalisations of infants are coupled with increased arm and leg movements. Across most of the first year (4-12 mo) the onset of a vocalisation is coupled with a brief limb movements. A🧵below OA text: rdcu.be/eWOko Funding @ncn.gov.pl