🎊New Lab Alert! I'll be starting at the 🧡University of Texas at Austin🧡 this August! More info to come. thesonglab.github.io I send my deep gratitude to my mentors, Monica @monicarosenb.bsky.social, YC @ycleong.bsky.social, ShiNung @shinung.bsky.social & Zach @zreagh.bsky.social, for everything.

Preprint alert! 🧠 Using movie-watching fMRI and NLP, we show that prior social impressions shape how new social information is processed and updated over time, while moments of sudden insight ("aha"!) accompany transient shifts in brain activity that predict impression updates. (1/10)

Deeply honored that our paper was recognized with the #SANS2026 Award! SANS was an important part of this paper's journey! @jadynpark.bsky.social first presented this work at SANS2023, and again in SANS2025, and we benefited greatly from the feedback and discussion!

SANS@sansmeeting.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Congratulations to @jadynpark.bsky.social and colleagues for winning the #SANS2026 Innovation Award for their paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Out now in @nathumbehav.nature.com! We applied graph theoretic analyses to fMRI data of participants watching movies/listening to stories. Integration across large-scale functional networks mediates arousal-dependent enhancement of narrative memories. Open access link: rdcu.be/eKKAw

Nature Human Behaviour@nathumbehav.nature.com · 10mo ago

In this article, @jadynpark.bsky.social et al find that emotionally arousing moments during a narrative are associated with heightened integration across functional brain networks, which in turn predict how well those moments are then remembered.

How does the brain🧠 make causal inferences and use memories to understand narratives🎬? We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do! Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇

A neural network with episodic memory learns causal relationships between narrative events

Humans reflect on past memories to make sense of an ongoing event. Past work has shown that people retrieve causally related past events during comprehension, but the exact process by which this causa...

biorxiv.org

New preprint! 🧠 Our mind wanders at rest. By periodically probing ongoing thoughts during resting-state fMRI, we show these thoughts are reflected in brain network dynamics and contribute to pervasive links between functional brain architecture and everyday behavior (1/10). doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Ongoing thoughts at rest reflect functional brain organization and behavior

Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC)-brain connectivity observed when people rest with no external tasks-predicts individual differences in behavior. Yet, rest is not idle; it involves streams...

biorxiv.org

Preprint⭐ Our attention changes over time and differs across contexts—which is reflected in the brain🧠 Fitting a dynamical systems model to fMRI data, we find that the geometry of neural dynamics along the attractor landscape reflects such changes in attention! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Geometry of neural dynamics along the cortical attractor landscape reflects changes in attention

The brain is a complex dynamical system whose activity reflects changes in internal states, such as attention. While prior work has shown that large-scale brain activity reflects attention, the mechan...

biorxiv.org

I’m thrilled to announce that I will start as a presidential assistant professor in Neuroscience at the City U of Hong Kong in Jan 2026! I have RA, PhD, and postdoc positions available! Come work with me on neural network models + experiments on human memory! RT appreciated! (1/5)

Feeling fortunate that #SANS2025 was in Chicago, and so much of the lab was able to be part of the meeting! It's crazy how much the lab has grown over the past 3y10m, and I'm so proud of the work we are doing together! Happy that we could host the lab, alums (and surprise guests)! #CASNL@SANS

Curious how the human brain updates social impression in a naturalistic setting? We scanned participants watching This Is Us, and found that sudden neural pattern shifts at insight moments of comprehension reflect impression updating. Come and chat Friday 4:15–5:15pm at #SANS2025, Poster P2-G-69.

New preprint! Excited to share our latest work “Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry” ft. outstanding former undergraduate Chandra Fincke, @glajoie.bsky.social, @krishnaswamylab.bsky.social, and @wutsaiyale.bsky.social's Nick Turk-Browne 1/8

Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore and enhance a wide range of human capabilities. However, a barrier to the adoption of BCIs is how long it can take users to learn to control them. W...

doi.org

Now out in Plos Computational Biology! We identified a generalizable neural signature of emotional arousal across contexts and individuals during movie watching. work with the best team: @hayoungsong.bsky.social @Zihan Bai @monicarosenb.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Dynamic brain connectivity predicts emotional arousal during naturalistic movie-watching

Author summary This study explores how the brain represents two key dimensions of emotional experience: valence (how positive or negative an experience feels) and arousal (the level of emotional activ...

dx.plos.org

Remember what your partner said during a heated argument? Or the rush of getting your first job offer? Why do these emotionally arousing moments stick? Across 3 studies, and 3 arousal measures, we found that emotional arousal enhances memory encoding by promoting functional integration in the 🧠 1/🧵

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.

Emotional arousal enhances narrative memories through functional integration of large-scale brain networks https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.13.643125v1

Attention here! We found ind. diff. & fMRI evidence that sustained attention is more closely related to long term memory than to attentional control. With the best team @monicarosenb.bsky.social @edvogel.bsky.social @annacorriveau.bsky.social @jinke.bsky.social

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.

Sustained attention is more closely related to long-term memory than to attentional control https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.13.643171v1

If you are curious about the brain🧠 on causal inference, insight💡, memory retrieval, and narrative comprehension🎬, this will be the one. work by dream team @jinke.bsky.social Rhea Madhogarhia @ycleong.bsky.social @monicarosenb.bsky.social ⭐

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.

Cortical reinstatement of causally related events sparks narrative insights by updating neural representation patterns https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642853v1

Excited to share a new preprint with Alfred Chao, @mdebettencourt.bsky.social & @monicarosenb.bsky.social showing that memory for relevant and irrelevant images fluctuates with attentional state! osf.io/preprints/ps... 1/5

For my first post on bsky I am thrilled to advertise an NIMH-funded open postdoc position in my lab in collaboration with Jen Wildes at UChicago. Please spread the word! For more info and instructions to apply, please see: bakkourlab.uchicago.edu/join-us/post...

Excited to share this new preprint in collaboration with Hayoung Song, Zihan Bai, @monicarosenb.bsky.social and @ycleong.bsky.social: Dynamic functional connectivity encodes generalizable representations of emotional arousal but not valence (1/10) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dynamic Functional Connectivity Encodes Generalizable Representations of Emotional Arousal But Not V...

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