We’re hiring a full-time Research Coordinator in the Preston Lab at UT Austin (start May/June 2026). Work on behavioral + fMRI studies of how memory & decision-making develop from childhood to adulthood. Learn more & apply: preston.clm.utexas.edu/news/join-th... Please repost!

One of the most valuable things trainees can see is how scientists think through uncertainty. We do this each year at #MPMD. Each PI brings a question instead of a talk—and we work through it together. I hope others consider this format created by Simona Ghetti, hosted this year by Jeni Pathman.

Had a blast co-hosting a booth with the Church Lab at @utwistem.bsky.social UT STEM Girl Day! So fun meeting curious kids and families and sharing our research on memory and brain development. Visit our website to learn more and get involved! 🧠 preston.clm.utexas.edu/participate

We only experience time moving forward. But memory can both predict what comes next and reconstruct what must have happened before. In a new @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint, we show how hippocampal development enables this flexible representation of time 🧵

Excited to join the Toronto Area Memory Group (TAMeG) for #TAMeG2026 in May as keynote speaker! I’m especially looking forward to the panel discussion on scientific mentorship and how we support the next generation of scientists.

Every time you experience something new, your brain faces a decision: Should it update an existing memory or create a new one? In our new paper in @sfnjournals.bsky.social #JNeurosci, we isolate that exact decision, moment-by-moment during learning 🧵

One thing I've learned about grad student interviews is to stop asking "Why do you want to go to graduate school?" and start asking candidates to reason backward from the end of the PhD. Who will you become? What will you do that you couldn't before? You learn so much more.

🧠✨ The future of science starts here! The Preston & Church Labs will be at UT STEM Girl Day, hosted by @utwistem.bsky.social! Visit us to: ➡️ Explore how memory works ➡️ Try our pretend MRI ➡️ Meet our research team ➡️ Learn how you can participate in UT research Learn more: girlday.utexas.edu

Thrilled to be part of this event! Such a fantastic lineup and an exciting, interdisciplinary space for thinking deeply about spatial cognition. Looking forward to the conversations and encourage folks to submit!

✨ That’s a wrap on 2025! From research milestones to community connections, we’ve accomplished so much this past year. Here’s a look back at everything we did together...

(1/5) 🧵Our new preprint shows how the brain develops to transform how kids, teens & adults represent & navigate their world: shifting from local, moment-to-moment memories in childhood to integrated, global cognitive maps in adulthood 🧠 Paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We love connecting with curious minds at UT Hot Science – Cool Talks, hosted by UT Environmental Science Institute! 🔬 We always have fun sharing the wonders of science with our community & watching their interest spark! Are you in the Austin area? Check it out: www.esi.utexas.edu/community-en...

Looking for a nice way to build team connection before the holiday? Our lab drew names (gift exchange style) & shared aloud why we're grateful for that teammate, what makes us proud of them & how they strengthen the team. Such a sweet, grounding moment. Highly recommend 💛🧠

(1/4) Encouraging children & teens to manage their schedules independently has positive impacts for their memory! Our new study reveals that age & independence combine to enhance memory development 🧵 Read here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

(1/4) Encouraging children & teens to manage their schedules independently has positive impacts for their memory! Our new study reveals that age & independence combine to enhance memory development 🧵 Read here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2025 Science Education and Outreach Awards These researchers are advancing neuroscience through groundbreaking discoveries, mentorship, & scientific excellence. Listen to their remarks: vist.ly/4f8cn #SfN25 #neurosky #neuroskyence

#SfN25, what a week! So proud watching lab members Omer, Nicole & Owen shine at their posters. Loved catching up with colleagues, former students & neuroscientists I deeply admire. Thank you for a fantastic event @sfn.org! 🧠

Beautiful watercolor brain paintings each one of a kind, at the Art of Neuroscience area at #sfn #sfn25

If you're at @sfn.org #SfN2025, hope you can swing by and see us today! 🧠

The Preston Lab will be at @sfn.org #SfN2025! Come see what we've been working on 🧠 We'll discuss how kids & adults remember when things happen, how memory changes impact reasoning & how we learn different actions have different consequences based on the setting. Find us Monday & Wednesday 🤘

Happy New Preprint Friday!* Thrilled to share new results in collab with Sarah Lichenstein & @yiplab.bsky.social showing our brain's functional connections reflect the environments we grow up in! tinyurl.com/exposomeConnectivity #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #DevPsy #cognition *can this be a thing??

The Preston Lab will be at @sfn.org #SfN2025! Come see what we've been working on 🧠 We'll discuss how kids & adults remember when things happen, how memory changes impact reasoning & how we learn different actions have different consequences based on the setting. Find us Monday & Wednesday 🤘

(1/4) 🧠 Did you know that kids remember time differently than adults? Our new preprint review w/ @drjeni-mdlab.bsky.social discusses the real implications for juvenile justice & why we need to ask about timing in ways that match kids' developing brains ⚖️ Paper: osf.io/preprints/ps...

It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice. Caveats: -*-*-*-* 
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees 
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases

Met a celebrity the other day! Bevo is the ultimate longhorn 🤘🐂

Big thanks to #ThinkeryATX Children's Museum for hosting us at their STEAM Sunday Halloween celebration! 🎃 We love connecting with families and future scientists while sharing what we do at the Preston Lab 🤘 #SciComm #AustinScience

It was great fun working with @alexanderhuth.bsky.social and @mujianing.bsky.social on these theoretical ideas. We are excited for everyone to check out the preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New paper with @mujianing.bsky.social & @prestonlab.bsky.social! We propose a simple model for human memory of narratives: we uniformly sample incoming information at a constant rate. This explains behavioral data much better than variable-rate sampling triggered by event segmentation or surprisal.