The #JNeurosci Town Hall is your chance to connect with journal editors and learn about new and ongoing journal initiatives. 🔗 Register for free now: https://neuronline.sfn.org/professional-development/jneurosci-town-hall-dialogue-community

My excuse for skipping #SfN26 this year 😉💛

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Jonas Kransberg, Kristine B. Walhovd, et al: Failure to detect entorhinal grid-like signals in a passive navigation human fMRI study doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Replicability of representational similarity and its role in successful memory retrieval direct.mit.edu/imag/article...

Replicability of representational similarity and its role in successful memory retrieval

Abstract. Studies of hippocampal pattern similarity during event encoding and its relationship to subsequent memory retrieval have revealed inconsistent results. Our lab recently found evidence that d...

direct.mit.edu

This book has just been published, open access, edited by Ken Cheng and me. It contains multiple chapters originating in a wonderful Strungmann Forum held in Frankfurt around a year ago. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Challenges in Navigation Research

This open access book explores navigation across species using a multidisciplinary approach to address challenges in research and clinical applications.

link.springer.com

Aging reorganizes human large-scale brain networks, with consequences for cognition & dementia risk. We’ve now mapped brain network changes over a wide range of the mouse lifespan. The changes mirror key features of human aging, but not entirely New @pnas.org paper🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Honoring Dr. Denise C. Park, the Aging, Neuropsychology, & Cognition journal invites manuscripts building on her work. Send your 200-word abstract and cover letter to Dr. Ian McDonough: imcdonough@binghamton.edu by Aug 31. Decisions on invitations for full submissions will be made by Sep 30.

Online Now: Toward embodied, ecological cognition with ambulatory virtual reality

Toward embodied, ecological cognition with ambulatory virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful tool for bridging ecological validity and experimental control in cognitive science. VR techniques enable more naturalistic behavior and offer value for assessment and rehabilitation in aging and clinical populations. In this review, we describe how emerging ambulatory VR approaches that support more naturalistic movements, actions, and interactions within immersive environments offer important advances for studying cognition and neural systems in ecologically valid contexts. We highlight the ways in which ambulatory VR paradigms enrich memory, navigation, and cognitive control through embodied sensorimotor engagement, and explore the mechanistic basis for these enhancements, including potential compensatory components in aging and disease. We also discuss methodological challenges and opportunities for combining ambulatory VR with mobile neuroimaging.

dlvr.it

Excited to announce our new paper in Trends in Cognitive Science (TICS) on the importance of naturalistic body movements and mobile immersive virtual reality to the study of cognition! Check it out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We are deeply saddened to share that Dr. Denise C. Park, founder of CVL, passed away on Sunday, Feb 1. A pioneering cognitive neuroscientist, mentor, & leader, Dr. Park shaped the study of memory, aging, & the brain. Read the full remembrance here: cvl.utdallas.edu/in-memory-of-dr-denise-c-park/

In Memory of Dr. Denise C. Park

In Memory of Dr. Denise C. Park Dr. Denise C. Park passed away on Sunday, February 1, 2026, at age 74. She was a beloved cognitive neuroscientist and colleague whose remarkable career spanned over 50…

cvl.utdallas.edu

Impressive MEGA-analysis: Vulnerability to memory decline in aging revealed by a mega-analysis of structural brain change www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Headed to SfN? My group will be presenting new work on aging, memory, and immersive VR, including early Alzheimer’s markers, aphantasia, and a new VR tool for spatial behavior. Come check us out.

Update: our latest paper is now available with open access: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG... Hou and colleagues reveal the unique role of both the hippocampus and angular gyrus in supporting high fidelity episodic memories!

fMRI BOLD signals in the left angular gyrus and hippocampus are associated with memory precision

Abstract. It has been proposed that the neural correlates of successful memory retrieval can be dissociated from the correlates of retrieval precision (fidelity). The specific findings supporting this...

doi.org

Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex actions are naturally exhibited in kitchens from chopping to 🧽! arxiv.org/abs/2506.01608

EPFL-Smart-Kitchen-30: Densely annotated cooking dataset with 3D kinematics to challenge video and language models

Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex...

arxiv.org

New paper alert! 🚨 We show that age-related neural dedifferentiation in scene-selective cortex is tied to changes in eye movements. Using simultaneous fMRI + eye-tracking, we found that younger adults’ fixations covary with scene specificity, but this link weakens with age. Link in post below 👇

1/ 🚨 New preprint! 🚨 Excited and proud (& a little nervous 😅) to share our latest work on the importance of #theta-timescale spiking during #locomotion in #learning. If you care about how organisms learn, buckle up. 🧵👇 📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 💻 code + data 🔗 below 🤩 #neuroskyence

Out of 800+ studies on blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's, not a single one measured actual changes in patient outcomes. doi.org/10.1136/bmj-...

Evidence gap in blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease

Willem van Gool and colleagues argue that moves to use blood biomarkers in clinical practice or population screening are inappropriate without evidence on outcomes important to patients and carers T...

doi.org

Delighted to share our latest review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience! We examine the growing evidence that vascular dysfunction plays a key role in cognitive decline in ageing and dementia, and argue that preserving/restoring CBF should be central to future therapies. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The vascular contribution to cognitive decline in ageing and dementia - Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Growing evidence suggests that reduced cerebral blood flow contributes to cognitive decline in ageing and dementia. Attwell and colleagues discuss the underlying mechanisms and functional consequences...

nature.com

🚨 New paper in Journal of Vision! We show that scene affordances—what you can do in a space—shape how we perceive and categorize scenes. This shapes your similarity preferences, predicts your categorization false alarms, and even alters neural representations. 🧵👇 🔗 doi.org/10.1167/jov.... (1/7)

JNeurosci’s Early career researcher (ECR) Advisory Board just opened a call for applications (due July 18 at 5pm ET). Join our team for a unique opportunity to serve the ECR community and advocate for ECR needs in scientific publishing: www.jneurosci.org/content/ecr-... @sfnjournals.bsky.social

New Paper Alert! de Chastelaine et al found that young adults are able to employ 'retrieval gating' to allow mnemonic content to be aligned with a retrieval goal, but older adults failed to do this even when their memory was boosted to match young adults! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Representation of locomotive action affordances in human behavior, brains, and deep neural networks www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

In a recent review, @adekstreme.bsky.social and I revisit how spatial navigation breaks down in aging and early Alzheimer’s disease - and why it’s not just about the brain. doi.org/10.1016/j.co... #SpatialNavigation #AgingBrain #EmbodiedCognition #AlzheimerResearch

Please share; My lab at @psychologyuea.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social is recruiting a post-doc for a cognitive neuroscience memory project. It is a 3-year post, with a proposed start date of 8th September. Application deadline is 15th of June. vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/15...

Senior Research Associate (RA2312) in University of East Anglia | UEA

View details and apply for this Senior Research Associate (RA2312) vacancy in University of East Anglia. School of Psychology Faculty of Social Sciences Senior Research Associate Ref: RA...

vacancies.uea.ac.uk

It is important now more than ever for scientists to share their work with the general public. I am pleased to have contributed to investNScience’s campaign which they are currently running across numerous social media platforms. It is a great initiative that makes science more relevant to everyone.

investNscience@investnscience.bsky.social · 2y ago

Flagging warning signs of dementia, @sabina-srokova.bsky.social studies memory and brain changes in aging. #academicsky #neurosky #aging #dementia #Alzheimers #investinscience

Are you attending #CNS2025 ? If so, then you should stop by my poster on Tuesday morning for a fun chat about fmri and spatial memory!!

www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

On the origin of memory neurons in the human hippocampus

The hippocampus is essential for episodic memory, yet its coding mechanism remains debated. In humans, two main theories have been proposed: one suggests that concept neurons represent specific elemen...

cell.com

First post and first paper of the year! We show that semantic memory space becomes denser with age. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... .

The relationship between neural differentiation and exploratory eye movements in healthy young and older adults https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.30.635806v1

Instead of listing my publications, as the year draws to an end, I want to shine the spotlight on the commonplace assumption that productivity must always increase. Good research is disruptive and thinking time is central to high quality scholarship and necessary for disruptive research.