We're organizing a full-day Neuro-AI workshop at OHBM with a 90-minute-long hands-on session to cover all the nitty-gritty of it. If you're around, come join us. Besides the practical aspects, we have a stellar line-up of speakers to learn from and discuss with: kuffmode.github.io/OHBM2026Neur...

Our NeuroAI study made it onto the cover of Nature Machine Intelligence ❤️. In it, we demonstrate that a developmentally-inspired visual diet can drastically improve the robustness of ANN-based vision systems. www.nature.com/articles/s42... open access, open code, open weights, open science.

🚨 The actual paper is now out on @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... In this opinion piece, @duncanastle.bsky.social and I explore the human brain through the lens of optimality and Pareto-optimality theory.

Excited to share our new paper asking a simple question: Why do mental and metabolic health so often go hand in hand? We (@camillanord.bsky.social @hugofleming.bsky.social) tested whether shared neurocognitive signatures play a role in this relationship www.nature.com/articles/s41...

University of Sussex overturns £585,000 fine as high court rejects free speech breach claim www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This defines success of the SEND reforms not in specific accommodations, “but by whether neurodivergent children fundamentally feel that they belong and are wanted in school, and that they are supported to achieve, attain and prepare for adulthood.

Alongside the government's #SENDwhitepaper the The Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group have published their recommendations for mainstream education. assets.publishing.se...

A bit old now, but great Registered Report by Maya Raza (not on here)

Quite apart from the policy issues here, why did UKRI choose to release this important letter on a Sunday teatime???

New preprint 🎉 Psych constructs are complex. Symptoms overlap, people rarely fit neat categories, and patterns are non-linear. Most methods compromise this richness. Self-Organising Maps don't. We provide a step-by-step tutorial with annotated R code to make them accessible. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

🚨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...

A new study shows brain development isn’t as linear as expected. After analyzing nearly 4,000 scans from ages 0–90, researchers found major structural shifts at ages 9, 32, 66, and 83 — dividing life into five distinct phases.

Had a great time talking to Maggie Penman about new research on lifespan brain development led by @alexamousley.bsky.social in @duncanastle.bsky.social's group. This is a great summary of the study and a broader discussion of what brain research can teach us about important developmental phases.

Utterly delighted to have been awarded 5 years of research funding from the ERC to study low-activity brain states that could underpin flexible rule use. Let’s see what "pinging" can tell us about how task sets are assembled and changed!

Impact of demographic change in one image.

Our brain wiring seems to undergo four major turning points at ages 9, 32, 66 and 83, which could influence our capacity to learn and our risk of certain conditions

Open access link to new study in Nature Communications: Topological turning points across the human lifespan. 🧪🧠 #neuroskyence www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The human brain goes through distinct phases in life, with turning points at ages 9, 32, 66 & 83, scientists have revealed. ~4,000 people up to the age of 90 had scans to reveal the connections between their brain cells. We "peak" in our early 30s ... 🧪🧠 #neuroskyence www.bbc.com/news/article...

One of our top-rated posts on @altmetric.com this past week was published open access in @natcomms.nature.com. You can read 'Topological turning points across the human lifespan' here: spklr.io/63329BX7zL #Neuroskyence #neuroimaging 🧠

Another reason why you really can't beat yourself up over mistakes in the past - Human #brains have 5 distinct 'epochs' in a lifetime, study finds www.nbcnews.com/science/scie... #braindevelopment #research #neuroimaging #neuralnetwork #mentalhealth #brainarchitecture

New @mrccbu.bsky.social @campsydept.bsky.social study by Alexa Mousley, Richard Bethlehem, Fang-Cheng Yeh & @duncanastle.bsky.social shows four pivotal ages during brain development bbc.com/news/article... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now it's the @mrccbu.bsky.social's @duncanastle.bsky.social's turn to excite our #COGNESTIC audience. No problem when you are "Building networks to understand neurodevelopment".

*New Paper* How genes for IQ shape brain organisation. Amazing work led by Alicja Monaghan @mrccbu.bsky.social reveals 2 ways. First, they’re associated w/ the ‘costs’ of network formation. Second, they define ‘high value’ areas within the network. How she did it…🧵 doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

*New Paper* How genes for IQ shape brain organisation. Amazing work led by Alicja Monaghan @mrccbu.bsky.social reveals 2 ways. First, they’re associated w/ the ‘costs’ of network formation. Second, they define ‘high value’ areas within the network. How she did it…🧵 doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Alert! ... for the child development world! @fluxsociety.bsky.social @fitngin.bsky.social ‪ The Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study has released its first data wave - it’s massive. Check here: docs.hbcdstudy.org and here: nbdc-datahub.org Here’s why it matters 🧠🍼

Absolute honour to chair this panel of superstars @royalsociety.org yesterday, including @duncanastle.bsky.social & @tamsinford.bsky.social

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Alicja Monaghan, Danyal Akarca, and Duncan E. Astle: Brain wiring economics, network organisation and population-level genomics doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

🧠⚖️📉 How does the cortical excitation-inhibition ratio mature during adolescence? We asked this in our new paper just out in #ScienceAdvances ✨ “Adolescent maturation of cortical excitation-inhibition ratio based on individualized biophysical network modeling” 📄 www.science.org/doi/full/10.... 🧵⤵️

Opportunity to do a PhD in developmental science alongside some absolutely fantastic scientists!! Share widely!

Amazing funded phd opportunity with great supervisors👇👇👇👇👇

Do you like brain network hubs?🧠🌐✳️Do you like genes?🧬What about neurodevelopment?👶What if I told you the latest work by @garedaba.bsky.social and myself combined all of these?🤯🤯🤯 See Gareth's thread for a primer of our findings, then read the paper for the details! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This is a really cool project! Please repost to anyone interested at the intersection between developmental cognitive neuroscience and education!

PhD studentship available in developmental cognitive neuroscience, in Cambridge - please publicise. Open to women candidates, as the student will be based at Newnham College.

Funded PhD opportunity with @sjblakemore.bsky.social and I, at Cambridge. We are looking for someone interested in developmental science, to start in the coming academic year. Please share it with anyone you think might be interested (see details attached 😁). drive.google.com/file/d/1RIvg...

New study out now (doi.org/10.1111/ejn....)! Modelling MEG dynamics with RNNs reveals how reduced inhibition may shape neural signatures in ZDHHC9-linked neurodivergence!🧠🧬 Thanks to all co-authors! @achterbrain.bsky.social @danakarca.bsky.social @kbgenesbrains.bsky.social @duncanastle.bsky.social

We are hiring! We're looking for a great project manager to help with a large-scale Wellcome funded study. If you know of anyone that this might appeal to, please share. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49880/

We are hiring! We're looking for a great project manager to help with a large-scale Wellcome funded study. If you know of anyone that this might appeal to, please share. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49880/

New year, a new chapter 🎇. I am super excited to begin my postdoctoral fellowship at the @mrccbu.bsky.social with @duncanastle.bsky.social 's incredible 4D group, where I'll continue studying aspects of how the social environment affects brain networks and health 🧠 🧑‍🔬🧪 #posdoc #Cambridge_Uni

Incredible visit to Wimpole Hall Christmas lights. Genuinely magical. @nationaltrust.bsky.social

Fish and chip shop called... "FRYING NEMO" You're welcome.

**We are recruiting** Seeking a postdoc to work on a Wellcome-funded cohort study focusing on social-cognitive processing in typically developing children and adolescents (aged 8-18 years) and children and adolescents with 22q11.1 deletion syndrome. www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49291/

*standing applause* I agree with the sentiment in this blog. The Royal Society and by extension its members are tacitly endorsing Elon Musk by him being a fellow, and will be associated with him by the public too. FRS is the fourth word of his Wikipedia entry.

Dorothy Bishop explains why Elon Musk’s membership in the Royal Society devalues the entire organization.

When principles trump prestige. Thank you @deevybee.bsky.social.

I feel at this point, we've surely got to admit we're in some kind of parody... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Barbara sends her best regards to the good people of bluesky...

I just set up @jcogneurosci.bsky.social ; at some point it will post papers as they publish, if folks want to friend that account. thx

Reposting this because: (1) The linked paper is a super interesting perspective piece on theory of computation (2) Discussion on modularity in the thread this post is attached to! #compneuro #neuroAI