New protocol paper (https://doi.org/10.37349/en.2026.1006138) describing Phases 4-5 of the Cam-CAN study of healthy ageing, led by Ina Demetriou Includes MRI and MEG data up to 14 years after baseline. Data available soon on https://cam-can.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/dataset/

Chan, Robinson and Lambon Ralph explore the neural and cognitive bases of creative thought: doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2026.06.022

A multiple-demand or cognitive control network in well known in the human brain. Using an on-screen maze, we directly compare brain activity in human and macaque. Both species show demand-related activation in lateral and medial frontal, parietal and temporo-occipital cortex:

The Genomics and Mental Health Research Day was held to great success – providing a forum to share insights, identify gaps in knowledge, and shape future research priorities. Read more about the event here: www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/blog/2026/06/genomics-and-mental-health-research-day-2026/

Does signed prediction error influence declarative memory? This recent study takes a closer look - replicating prior findings, but uncovering an alternative explanation along the way! Doi.org/10.3758/s13421-026-01864-8

The UK government says under-16s will be banned from social media by spring 2027. @orbenamy.bsky.social from @mrccbu.bsky.social gives her reaction to today's announcement, and measures it against the evidence we already have about social media restrictions. More expert reactions 👉 bit.ly/3Qq453H

Genomics & Mental Health Research Day 2026 is taking place tomorrow at @newnhamcollege.bsky.social. Hosted by the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and the NHS Genomics and Mental Health Network of Excellence, it explores post-diagnostic challenges in rare neurodevelopmental conditions.

Applications Open! We are looking for a motivated summer intern to support a podcast in development in collaboration with the Plasticity Lab, exploring what restorative, assistive, and augmentative neurotechnology reveals about hidden human capacity 🦾 Full details here: forms.office.com/e/PDjanEYkSE

Questionnaires need to be relevant and accessible. The CamQUAIT is designed with these goals in mind. This new questionnaire measures apathy and impulsivity in people with frontotemporal dementia,providing a helpful outcome measure to test symptomatic treatments: Doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0345545

Across 1,000+ people, eating disorder symptoms were linked to “empathic disequilibrium”, feeling others’ emotions strongly while finding them harder to understand. Heightened emotional reactivity helped explain the link: DOI.org/10.1186/s40337-026-01600-2 #EatingDisorders #Empathy

Using a stochastic dynamical model, Grodem et al show that, before age 60, inter-individual differences in neuroanatomical volumes almost exclusively reflect stable differences between individuals, rather than systematic differences in rate-of-change: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1242

Intracranial electrophysiology and multivariate decoding reveal that all spectral frequencies of neural activity encode semantic information: https://doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1201

Delighted to celebrate today @jvonseth.bsky.social from @mrccbu.bsky.social passing her PhD viva. Special thanks to examiners @olafhauk.bsky.social and @pattiadank.bsky.social for asking all the right questions

Congratulations to CBU Director, Prof. Matthew Lambon Ralph, on receiving an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Málaga, recognising his internationally leading work on language, semantic cognition and aphasia, and long standing Cambridge–Málaga collaboration.

Code (python) is available at github: github.com/rl671/heterorc Should be readily applicable to your own EEG/MEG decoding pipelines! Great collaboration with @alexwoolgar.bsky.social @rhens.bsky.social , Sichao, Yanan, and John, during my time at @mrccbu.bsky.social & @theneuro.bsky.social ! (6/6)

The University approves plans for the Cambridge Mind and Brain Institute (CMBi). An evolution of the renowned CBU, bridging across Schools and Departments, the new Institute will integrate discovery science with clinical innovation to transform brain health. #Neuroscience #MentalHealth

Postdoc position in visual cognitive computational neuroscience in Jozwik lab at the University of Cambridge - https://kamilajozwik.com/join_lab.html

How does the brain adapt when a child is born with an upper limb difference? Research from @mrccbu.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk reveals widespread changes across the brain, highlighting its remarkable ability to reorganise and support adaptation to the world around them. Find out more: bit.ly/3Ov88dT

PhD position in visual cognitive computational neuroscience in Jozwik lab at the University of Cambridge https://kamilajozwik.com/join_lab.html

New paper reports frequency-dependent differences in resting-state haemodynamics of gliomas, potentially indicative of non-neural changes such as neovascularisation. DOI: 10.1007/s11060-026-05443-4

Take part in a University of Cambridge study testing whether AI chatbots can help track PTSD symptoms — earn £70 for your time. UK-based adults with PTSD or related symptoms welcome. Sign up here: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4Znqz5loh8N71Lo

A new perspective on the confusing term of “cognitive reserve” from Rik Henson the importance of multiple brain measures in explaining why some people maintain their cognition into late life: https://doi.org/10.1177/23982128261422282

Do novel experiences shortly before or after learning improve memory for what was learned? They don’t according to Raza et al., but simply resting might. Read about novel VR experiences versus wakeful rest as ways to improve memory: https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218251346156

Do metabolic rewards drive action? New study by Fleming et al. finds they shape preferences but not behaviour – a surprising dissociation with implications for understanding metabolic interoception in health and disease. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109187

Are episodic and semantic memory really that different? Using closely matched tasks, we found no substantial neural differences between recalling personal experiences and general knowledge: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-025-02390-4

Newly accepted 🎉 Decoding of speech acoustics from EEG: Going beyond the amplitude envelope doi.org/10.1088/1741... via @ioppublishing.bsky.social @tobiasgoehring.bsky.social @mrccbu.bsky.social

Professor @orbenamy.bsky.social from @mrccbu.bsky.social will co-lead the world’s first major trial to test whether reducing social media use can improve teen mental health. Find out more about the IRL Trial: https://bit.ly/4a2FZmB #socialmedia #research

You still have two weeks to register for COGNESTIC, 14-25 September 2026. We provide training in state-of-the-art methods for neuroimaging analysis and great opportunities for professional networking, especially for early-career researchers. For more info: www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/events/cogne...

What should you stop doing in 2026? ⛔ Here are 12 ways to improve your wellbeing and productivity – based on decades of world-leading #research from experts at @mrccbu.bsky.social @eng.cam.ac.uk and @psychiatry-ucam.bsky.social#research👇 https://bit.ly/49aIX8p

New preregistered study: A week of cognitive training can reduce automatic avoidance tendencies—showing that Pavlovian biases aren’t fixed, but flexible and trainable: https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2027-02467-001.html #CognitiveTraining #DecisionMaking #ComputationalPsychi

New paper alert: Comparing the effect of multi-gradient echo and multi-band fMRI during a semantic task: https://doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1043

Across three experiments, de Montpellier et al. (2025) report that negative emotion does not impair hippocampal-dependent associative memory, contrary to the Dual Representation Account of PTSD: https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-025-01371-4

Congratulations to Dr Lewis Owens, leading CBU supporter and fundraiser, on his MBE in the New Year’s Honours List. Thoroughly deserved for his amazing amount of fundraising, volunteering and charitable work over so many years.

Season's Greetings! From all at the MRC CBU 🎄☃️🎅

🚨new work with the dream team @danakarca.bsky.social @loopyluppi.bsky.social @fatemehhadaeghi.bsky.social @stuartoldham.bsky.social @duncanastle.bsky.social We use game theory and show the brain is not optimally wired for communication and there’s more to its story: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Fathers’ and Mothers’ support needs and support experiences after rapid genome sequencing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Huge congratulations to @mrccbu.bsky.social's @charlottegarcia.bsky.social for receiving the “Outstanding Contributions to EDI in the Workplace” award at yesterday’s School of Clinical Medicine EDI event! So well-deserved.

New paper introduces a novel way to study brain degeneracy: we identify group of people with distinct neural activation but similar task performance and demographics – showing that multiple brain activation patterns can support the same cognitive outcome: https://ow.ly/sX9O50XG7RM

Apathy is a common symptom in a wide range of conditions with limited treatment. In this opinion article, we highlight a novel approach to apathy based on a reduction in confidence on action outcomes, & include testable hypotheses at a cognitive & neuroanatomical level: www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Congratulations to MRC CBU’s PhD student Annalise Whines, who won the runner-up prize at the MRC Max Perutz Science Communication Awards in the video category. ‘Does motivation change across the menstrual cycle?’ https://www.ukri.org/publications/mrc-max-perutz-science-writing-award-2025/

What if it’s not about having “too much” or “too little” empathy, but about the balance between understanding and sharing others’ emotions? A new paper review empathic disequilibrium in autism and mental health, moving beyond deficit-oriented narratives: https://ow.ly/p5lH50XzTUW

A special issue of Neuropsychologia celebrates John Duncan’s career at the time of his retirement: https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/10QN6R7VQSM. Read the editorial by Daniel Mitchell, Moataz Assem and Alexandra Woolgar here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109323

Why do some people lose memory faster with age? A mega-analysis of 13 longitudinal datasets (3,700+ adults, 10,000+ MRIs) shows that memory decline tracks brain atrophy, especially in the hippocampus, and that these links strengthen with age, but not APOE status: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Researchers from MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties. Find out more in the BBC article 👉 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl6klez226o

We introduces Nonlinear TL-MDPC, a neural-network-based method to capture multidimensional, time-lagged brain connectivity in EEG/MEG data. While it outperforms linear methods in simulations, it only shows subtle gains in real data: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1533034

Happy LGBTQ+STEM Day! To mark the occasion, LGBTQ+ and ally scientists alike introduced our new pride flag to the @mrccbu.bsky.social

One week to go! Get your tickets on the link below...

We are excited to announce #COGNESTIC 2026 @mrccbu.bsky.social in Cambridge, between 14-25 Sep 2026. Our 2-week summer school provides training in state-of-the-art methods for open neuroimaging analysis and great opportunities for professional networking: www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/events/cogne...

Cambridge researchers: Want your work to be recognised for its real‐world impact? 🌍 The application deadline for the Cambridge Awards for #Research Impact and Engagement has been extended! Apply before 21 November and get your story heard 👇 https://bit.ly/43lwECT @cambridgefestival.bsky.social

New research by Henderson and colleagues found graded distinctions among typical amnestic and atypical (language, visual) Alzheimer’s phenotypes. The findings support a transdiagnostic, multidimensional model of AD that spans all subtypes: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-025-01873-w