Jonny Smallwood
@themindwanders.bsky.social
Psychology professor who also makes music. See link below: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4zrxJCawAG85dzMxug7HNM?si=nsT7_QR_R-ahMs0MHFgVIA
New in TiCS w @dgrand.bsky.social @gordpennycook.bsky.social It’s been ~10yrs since misinfo research exploded but our paradigms are stuck in the post-2016 “fake news” model Time for new approaches: o True/False → Content that misleads o Belief → Behavior o Eval interventions in ambiguous settings
When I started my PhD (and until my 1st fac appt) I believed advances in large-scale neuro would come from more powerful modeling. There’s still a place for that oc, but we’re still in imaging infancy, and the best value per $ in terms of new insight comes from well designed common sense experiments
Rick Betzel@richardfbetzel.bsky.social · last yr.🔥Damn. Tour de force.
Join our department! We're hiring an Assistant Professor of Teaching (Tenure-track), located at UBC's Vancouver campus, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2026. Apply by Oct 1, 2025. Learn more & apply: psych.ubc.ca/jobs. Please share!
🧠 New paper on breathing and the brain, out now @plos.org Computational Biology! 🫁 "The respiratory cycle modulates distinct dynamics of affective and perceptual decision-making" doi.org/10.1371/jour... We show how respiratory 'tidal computations' alter our decisons!
The respiratory cycle modulates distinct dynamics of affective and perceptual decision-making
Author summary Breathing is more than just a vital process for survival — it influences how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Recent research suggests that the rhythm of breathing, fr...
doi.org
Almost missed that this is out! Former postdoc Liz Necka led this long overdue FMRI study formally comparing two types of pain modulation: Placebo analgesia & predictive cues. TLDR: these are NOT the same! Placebo analgesia reduced cue effects, & brain mechanisms were nearly all dissociable. 1/4
SfN Journals@sfnjournals.bsky.social · last yr.New in #JNeurosci from Necka et al: External cues and treatments shape expectations about pain in different ways, and their mechanisms distinctly influence how people experience pain. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0050-25.2025
Hi world - its been a hard year with #cancer meaning I missed out lots of fun things. It would mean a lot if you checked out my new album of tracks. Out on all platforms including #Soundcloud (free). Let me know which tracks you like and a special prize if you work out the two levels to the project
Jonny Smallwood@themindwanders.bsky.social · last yr.Hot Summer Nights the new album by the Natural Philosophers is out now. If you would like to help: Stream it a few times Post reply mentioning a track you like by name. Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52... Apple Music music.apple.com/us/album/hot... Soundcloud soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...
Congrats @leahbanellis.bsky.social @micahgallen.com et al! This looks great.
Micah G. Allen@micahgallen.com · last yr.I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!
I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!
Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health - Nature Mental Health
Using a relatively large and diverse sample of mostly young adults, this study by Banellis, Rebollo and colleagues examines associations between regional stomach–brain coupling and mental health and i...
nature.com
Check out our new review/perspective (w/ @juangallego.bsky.social & Devika Narain) on neural manifolds in the brain! It was a lot of fun to think through these ideas over the past couple of years, and I'm excited it's finally out in the world! 🔗: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 📄: rdcu.be/ex8hW
A neural manifold view of the brain - Nature Neuroscience
Recent advances in neuroscience have revealed how neural population activity underlying behavior can be well described by topological objects called neural manifolds. Understanding how nature, nurture...
nature.com
A Friday afternoon post to share our new paper (pre-print)! We modelled brain & behaviour & physiology from 27 unconstrained social learning interactions. Learning emerged from non-linear brain-gaze coupling and asymmetric neural dependencies suggesting mutual prediction. Full thread below ⬇️
Sara De Felice@saradefelice.bsky.social · last yr.How do our brains and bodies support social learning in real time? We take an ecological and multimodal neuroscience approach to study mutual prediction and social coordination when learning with others. It took 5 full years for this one! Full open-access pre-print: osf.io/preprints/ps...
If you are in Paris on October 1-3 : we are organizing a fantastic cognitive neuroscience conference at Collège de France, on topics ranging from language to math, education and consciousness, with many of my favorite scientists ! Full program here: www.unicog.org/seeing-the-m...
Seeing the Mind, Educating the Brain
unicog.org
Call for papers @jneurolang.bsky.social: Towards a Deeper Understanding of the Relationship Between the Neurobiology of Language and Consciousness. 🧠🗨️ direct.mit.edu/DocumentLibr... ☎️ DM me for more details.
This looks interesting👇
tor@torwager.bsky.social · last yr.Predictive processing models posit top-down influences of internal models on brain processing at multiple levels...but how deeply does predictive info penetrate into perception? What are the limits? New paper with @rotembot.bsky.social and @fmristats.bsky.social link.growkudos.com/1mmf28pbmkg
Predictive processing models posit top-down influences of internal models on brain processing at multiple levels...but how deeply does predictive info penetrate into perception? What are the limits? New paper with @rotembot.bsky.social and @fmristats.bsky.social link.growkudos.com/1mmf28pbmkg
How our expectations change what we feel and see
This study explores how our expectations influence what we feel and see. We asked participants to predict how painful or visually intense an upcoming stimulus would be based on cues that they believed...
link.growkudos.com
This looks cool!! cc @hardigirl.bsky.social @ravenwallace.bsky.social
Eiko Fried@eikofried.bsky.social · last yr.1/2 Press release @unileiden.bsky.social about our upcoming JoPACS paper led by @bsiepe.bsky.social, showing that the overlap of similar constructs assessed via wearable vs EMA data is surprisingly low (n~850, 3 months). www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
1/2 Press release @unileiden.bsky.social about our upcoming JoPACS paper led by @bsiepe.bsky.social, showing that the overlap of similar constructs assessed via wearable vs EMA data is surprisingly low (n~850, 3 months). www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
Does your smartwatch say you’re stressed? It may often be wrong
Consumer grade smartwatches may not be as accurate as promised when measuring tiredness or stress. That conclusion is drawn by researchers Björn Siepe and Eiko Fried based on a comparison between smar...
universiteitleiden.nl
In a non trivial way the #climate_crisis is reducible to shortcomings in human intelligence. This idea is behind my new release with the Natural Philosophers with Attitude: "Hot Summer Nights". Please check it out! Spotify open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52... Soundcloud soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...
Excited to share my first publication! TLDR; mind-wandering is contagious & classmate behavior can cause an increase in task-unrelated thoughts! Thank you to my collaborator, @michaeljkane.bsky.social for guidance throughout this project. You can read it here - online.ucpress.edu/collabra/art...
𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (mostly cortex) Can someone recommend a recent review that is *assessible* to beginning PhD students. More/somewhat mathematical is fine. thanks #neuroskyence
So excited to share this new preprint, spearheaded by the brilliant @benjyb.bsky.social! We report that people are consistently slower to report that their imagery is weak than to report that it is vivid ✨🤔
Benjy Barnett@benjyb.bsky.social · last yr.🚨New preprint🚨 out with the dream team @matanmazor.bsky.social @giuliacabbai.bsky.social and @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social! We report a novel and robust effect across five different datasets: vivid imagery is reported faster than weak imagery. 📝: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Listened to this album in the car the other day, driving through a heatwave. In captures the feeling of cruising down a freeway with the radio on while also having a minor existential crisis about the world and your own role in its demise.
Jonny Smallwood@themindwanders.bsky.social · last yr.Hot Summer Nights the new album by the Natural Philosophers is out now. If you would like to help: Stream it a few times Post reply mentioning a track you like by name. Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52... Apple Music music.apple.com/us/album/hot... Soundcloud soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...
This Osprey is so majestic…. 🥰 And in the bird world this is considered a sick move….
cc @michaelgaebler.com You were right I have fixed the links now
Jonny Smallwood@themindwanders.bsky.social · last yr.In a non trivial way the #climate_crisis is reducible to shortcomings in human intelligence. This idea is behind my new release with the Natural Philosophers with Attitude: "Hot Summer Nights". Please check it out! Spotify open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52... Soundcloud soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...
In a non trivial way the #climate_crisis is reducible to shortcomings in human intelligence. This idea is behind my new release with the Natural Philosophers with Attitude: "Hot Summer Nights". Please check it out! Spotify open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52... Soundcloud soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...
