📢 New preprint with @aidanhorner.bsky.social and @marwimber.bsky.social investigating how schematic violations shape memory for sequences of events. Memory Benefits for Schematically Incongruent Sequences Depend on the Type of Violation osf.io/preprints/ps...

***New preprint from the lab*** showing “Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits”. In sleep we show spiking sequences in V1 (sensory neocortex!) that represent information that has not been directly experienced www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @bndu.ox.ac.uk @ndcnoxford.bsky.social

Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits

To make flexible decisions, the brain needs to make inferences between events that were not directly experienced together. In sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events, during periods of rest and sleep, spiking ...

biorxiv.org

Admirable clarity @science.org

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 2w ago

Whew, the editors of @science.org are getting real.

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

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

arxiv.org

We're finally getting the tools to study replay in humans. But why bother? What can we learn from it that we don't know from rodent recordings? Our thoughts are now out in a new TICS Forum Great fun writing this w @smfleming.bsky.social + @maritpetzka.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

What can we learn from studying replay in humans?

Noninvasive methods are making it possible to study neural replay in humans. Although focused on alignment with rodent findings, human research often …

authors.elsevier.com

Are the traveling dynamics of sleep slow waves functionally involved in memory consolidation? A new paper from the lab led by @norarouast.bsky.social shows that auditory stimulation during sleep disturbs SWS and affects the traveling dynamics of SWs - which mediated impaired memory consolidation!

Nora Roüast@norarouast.bsky.social · last mo.

Ever wondered what having auditory stimulation does to the sleep itself? Random stimulation disturbs SWS, memory, and travelling dynamics of slow waves. New paper in iScience with @mschoenauer.bsky.social, @denizkumral.bsky.social, and Steffen Gais! doi.org/10.1016/j.is... #sleep #neuroskyence

Ever wondered what having auditory stimulation does to the sleep itself? Random stimulation disturbs SWS, memory, and travelling dynamics of slow waves. New paper in iScience with @mschoenauer.bsky.social, @denizkumral.bsky.social, and Steffen Gais! doi.org/10.1016/j.is... #sleep #neuroskyence

How does the structure of the human #brain change during #learning? This study by Griffa, Huang, Della-Maggiore &co shows that learning induces both transient and sustained changes in neuronal morphology, consistent with structural #plasticity 🧪#AcademicSky plos.io/3SgWogV

New results! The prefrontal cortex uses a compact, low-dimensional “coding space”. Information can be captured in just 3–6 dimensions. The brain compresses what we remember. Low-dimensional prefrontal representations of objects during working memory doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

Now out in Nature Neuroscience: "Fixation duration on natural scenes is explained by memory encoding not processing demand". www.nature.com/articles/s41... Our eyes don't linger because recognition is hard; they linger to remember. Let me take you on a quick tour. 🧵

Fixation duration on natural scenes is explained by memory encoding not processing demand - Nature Neuroscience

By combining magnetoencephalography and eye tracking, this study sheds light on why people fixate on some parts of natural scenes longer than others. Rather than visual complexity, fixation durations ...

nature.com

Very excited to have this officially published: A neural state space for episodic memories A brief thread... #neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪 @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social

A neural state space for episodic memories

Episodic memories are highly dynamic and change in nonlinear ways over time. This dynamism is not captured by existing systems consolidation theories …

sciencedirect.com

📍2003 marked the year in which the retro-cue paradigm was born. Fast forward, 23 years later, we adapt this logic to long-term memory and ask how does attention shape retrieval from long-term memory? 🤔 w/ @william-nm.bsky.social Kia Nobre, Nahid Zokaei and Nora Roüast osf.io/preprints/ps... 1/n

New lab paper! Older adults sometimes appear to be impaired at multi-step inference. Is this explained by memory specificity? Can we improve performance by simply adding structure to experience? Yes and yes! See 🧵 below, & our related computational framework here: bsky.app/profile/aaro...

@sharonmnoh.bsky.social · 3mo ago

New paper! Multistep inference across the human lifespan can be improved with individualized memory interventions, with co-first @kwcooper.bsky.social @lovecrabmeat.bsky.social @dalezhou.bsky.social, Craig Stark, and @aaronbornstein.bsky.social (🧵): academic.oup.com/psychsocgero...

New paper from the lab. Using longitudinal ca imaging, activity-dependent tagging and optogenetics, we show that newly allocated fear engram neurons in amygdala undergo a brief period of coordinated “offline reverberation” immediately after learning. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Where, exactly, does learning happen in the brain? Out today in @nature.com, we identify a synaptic locus of birdsong learning and show that the circuit can be tuned to make birds learn faster - but at a cost. Read on👇 #neuroskyence 🧪 #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics Shareable link: rdcu.be/fiyrS

A synaptic locus of song learning - Nature

Combining a computational framework and optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations within and downstream of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit identifies the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapse...

nature.com

Thrilled to have this preprint out, from the amazing Zekun Sun! "Motor abstraction training generalizes to the refinement of specific movement patterns" In brief, across 8 experiments we found evidence of a causal role for abstract representations in motor learning www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Categorization is ‘baked’ into the brain — a Perspective by Lisa Feldman Barrett & Earl K. Miller @lisafeldmanbarrett.com @earlkmiller.bsky.social #neuroscience #neuroskyence www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Categorization is ‘baked’ into the brain - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Categorization, the grouping of objects, living organisms, actions or events into equivalence clusters, is fundamental to adaptive behaviour. In this Perspective, Barrett and Miller discuss evidence t...

nature.com

I’m happy to share our new paper (with @mbartos.bsky.social) now out in Nature Neuroscience: "The dentate gyrus efficiently converges LEC and MEC inputs into multimodal, highly specific and reliable environmental representations" Download it @ rdcu.be/famDE More below 🧵

How do the brain’s event representations change as we gain familiarity with an experience? Brain regions’ representations can become coarser or finer as events become familiar. Slow-timescale structure predicts memory. Excited to share this work w/ Narjes Al-Zahli & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social!

Repeated Viewing of a Film Clip Changes Event Timescales in The Brain

Many everyday experiences share a recurring structure: routines, familiar routes, rewatched films, and replayed songs. How do repeated encounters with such structure alter the brain’s representations ...

jneurosci.org

Why is the #cerebellum (known for coordinating motor functions) also engaged in #cognition? @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social & @actlab.bsky.social investigate the problems that have made it so difficult to answer this question and outline strategies to make progress. 🧪 #NeuroSky

How does the cerebellum contribute to cognitive functions?

The role of the cerebellum in motor functions is well understood. But why is the same circuitry engaged in functions such as working memory, language, and social cognition? This Unsolved Mystery…

plos.io

Still pumped up from yesterday's international sleep replay workshop! Provocative talks, engaging discussion groups & enthusiastic engagement by all attendees from undergrads to full professors. Stay tuned for info on the next one. And now, on to @cnsmtg.bsky.social. Check out our lab's posters!

I am excited to share my first paper, showing that episodic memory formation is theta rhythmic, is now published in Nature Human Behavior! Check it out here: rdcu.be/e6pzS. Thanks to my PI, Katherine Duncan, and to my collaborators for their support on this journey! Stay tuned for iEEG follow up 🧠

Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz

Nature Human Behaviour - Biba et al. show that episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz.

rdcu.be

Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz

Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 02 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02416-5Biba et al. show that episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz.

dlvr.it

Human hippocampal theta–gamma coupling coordinates sequential planning during navigation Impressive study from Dan Bush's Lab at UCL: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@currentbiology.bsky.social I am very happy to share our latest paper, just published in @currentbiology.bsky.social! In collaboration with Olga Garaschuk's lab, we used in vivo 2P calcium imaging to investigate the role of sleep spindles in the hippocampus. 🧠💤 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Sleep spindles promote hippocampal network downregulation during sleep

Sleep is thought to globally downregulate neuronal network activity and synaptic connections enhanced during prior wakefulness and, in parallel, to up…

sciencedirect.com

Why can't you remember being a toddler? Or can you? Nice feature in Time of our lab's work on infantile amnesia at @tcddublin.bsky.social Also of the labs of @sarahdpower.bsky.social at MPI Berlin, @franklandlab.bsky.social at Sick Kids, and Nick Turk-Browne at Yale. time.com/7380496/why-...

Why You Can’t Remember Being a Toddler

This form of amnesia is almost universal, but has long been overlooked.

time.com

"You see what you look for, and you look for what you know." We are proud to release FOCUS: a 100 μm deformable human subcortical atlas precisely registered to MNI space. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper alert! 🚨 We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales 1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks 2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps. Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP

Save the date for the 1st MEEP – Heidelberg Summer School on Memory and Sleep: May 31st to June 3rd Keynote speakers: @marwimber.bsky.social @mgarvert.bsky.social & Dan Bendor Sessions on: memory processes sleep & replay analysis and stimulation techniques www.zi-mannheim.de/forschung/ab... plz rp