Excited to be teaching a new undergraduate course on Models of Language and Conversation this term! Check it out here: context-lab.com/llm-course/ I've added lots of fun interactive demos of chatbots and NLP techniques that let students dig into the approaches.

If anyone's looking for ideas for wintertime lab activities, my lab did a soup exchange over the weekend. We had a great time on a day that was cold even by Chicago standards! Credit to @mystiesaturday.bsky.social for suggesting it and to @jadynpark.bsky.social for the photo.

With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world: gershmanlab.com/textbook.html It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class. My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.

netneurotools: a trainee-oriented approach to network neuroscience | doi.org/10.1101/2025... Our lab’s internal toolkit for accomplishing everyday tasks in brain imaging ⤵️

Officially out! In this review, Aaron Chuey and I discuss how existing work on ToM mostly focused on a single individual’s mental states (e.g., what Sally thinks). Extending ToM, we argue for ToMS—an understanding of how multiple individuals communicate and influence each others’ minds. t.ly/u4rtb

This study shows that human pairs adopt stable cooperative, competitive, or mixed strategies. A computational model predicts dyadic choices and links these strategies to interaction dynamics, payoffs, and cost of cooperation. @violapriesemann.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Thrilled to see this reviewed preprint by grad student extraordinaire (but bsky-less) Euan Prentis posted on @elife.bsky.social! doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Thank you to the reviewers and editors for encouraging, insightful and helpful comments. We will be revising the paper, stay tuned!

Interested in how the brain prepares for upcoming tasks? We trained a monkey on “6” different cognitive tasks and recorded prefrontal cortical activity. We examined the neural geometry and dynamics during task preparation. Come check out our poster on SUNDAY(Nov 16) from 1-5 PM!

I'm going to present our latest memory model that learns causal inference during narrative comprehension! Stop by the poster on Monday to chat about causality, memory, brain🧠, and AI🤖! #sfn2025 #sfn25

Our latest hyperscanning study tracks how neural coupling unfolds during genuine conversation and how it differs from simply reading scripted dialogue: osf.io/preprints/ps...

A new study in 'Nature Human Behavior' led by UChicago researchers combines fMRI data and natural language processing to understand how emotions lead to enhanced memory encoding, or "stickiness." Learn more: bit.ly/3Lec2Gf @jadynpark.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social

hi all— I am finishing up my last study for my dissertation and need your help! If you have/know of Asian American 7- or 8-year-olds wanting to contribute to science, please see the flyer below/fill out this short survey to sign up (tinyurl.com/asian78resea...). pls share/dm me w any questions!

What happens in the brain as people become less lonely? Intergenerational community programs can reduce loneliness, the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We collected and analysed 732 🧠-scans to find out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @introspection.bsky.social + @escross.bsky.social

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

Really excited to share a review I contributed to, out now in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social. We explore how foraging can offer a framework for studying brain and behaviour in natural contexts. It’s been a pleasure working with colleagues across species and disciplines on this. Check it out! 👇

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 &👇

Quantifying memory recall is hard! Luckily, natural language processing (incl. #LLMs) offers new, automated, and scalable ways to do that! Great new review by Fenerci & @signysheldon.bsky.social in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Excited to share our new paper w/ @cibaker.bsky.social in @natcomms.nature.com linking active vision & memory! We provide evidence that gaze reinstatement & neural reactivation are deeply related phenomena that jointly reflect the experiences constructed during recall. doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🧵1/9

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...

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...

Excited to share our new review on how neuroimaging and computational models can help uncover how people see what they want to see, now out at @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! It was a blast writing this with Haena Kim and @iancballard.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Seamless Interaction dataset with 4000+ hrs of face-to-face dyadic interactions! 🤯 Seems like it could be a game changer for studying embodied turn-taking & mutual adaptation complementary with CANDOR, etc... arxiv.org/abs/2506.22554

🗣️ New paper alert! Ever wonder how strangers navigate the messy world of casual conversation? We analyzed 200+ video calls to uncover the hidden structure behind "idle talk" – and found it's way more systematic than you'd think! Thread 👇

How do we make new connections? Ashley Binnquist, Agnieszka Pluta, Bear Goldstein, Rick Dale, @socialbrain.bsky.social and I just posted a new preprint on the neurocognitive processes that support meaningful social connection. 🧠🧠💬💬 [1/8] 🧵

Strangers chatted once a week for 6 weeks and as they became closer, their self-reported emotions were *less* aligned after conversations. Fits with recent work (by @sebospeer.bsky.social @dianatamir.bsky.social et al) suggesting friends are free to explore and diverge

Now out in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN)! academic.oup.com/scan/advance...

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

CASNL member Jadyn Park @jadynpark.bsky.social presenting her work on arousal, functional network and memory during narrative perception at #SANS2025 Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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...

Excited to share a new paper in Current Directions on the theme of merging in close relationships, with @emmamcgorray.bsky.social, @erinhughes.bsky.social , and @abdoe.bsky.social! In the paper, we discuss merging in the domains of selves, goals, processing, and reality. tinyurl.com/ynbedzys (1/4)

Calling all couples in the Chicago area! 💕 I'm launching a new study with @ycleong.bsky.social and @lydiaemery.bsky.social to explore brain responses during conversations between couples. If you're interested, please fill out our brief screener! ssd.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

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/🧵

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

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 ⭐

Thinking about using fNIRS to study the brain when people chat, play, or explore the world, but can’t give up on fMRI’s whole brain coverage? We introduce a predictive model aiming to bring together portability and coverage in neuroimaging: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.17.623979 (1/x)

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...

In this preprint, Jin Ke (@jinke.bsky.social) identified a situation-general representation of arousal encoded in patterns of dynamic FC. Collab w/ Hayoung Song, Zihan Bai, and @monicarosenb.bsky.social See below of a teaser, and more details in the preprint! (1/X)

Excited to share this tour-de-force led by the extremely talented and indefatigable @nwrim.bsky.social! We used word embeddings to study Reddit comments and news articles, finding evidence of both moral consensus and divergence across partisan lines (1/2)

(1/X) First post here as I slowly transition from "the other place" Hostile attribution bias shapes neural synchrony in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex during ambiguous social narratives www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...