Mariam Aly
@mariamaly.bsky.social
📤 7675
📥 497
📝 588
I study brains and sometimes use one.
https://www.alylab.org/
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Yonette Joseph
about 18 hours ago
An open revolt is taking place on Capitol Hill over the bill the Senate approved this morning to reopen the Homeland Security. House Republicans are irate at their Senate counterparts for passing a bill that does not include money for ICE and Border Patrol
www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...
loading . . .
Trump Administration Live Updates: Revolt by House Republicans Threatens Senate-Passed Measure to Fund D.H.S.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03/27/us/trump-news?unlocked_article_code=1.WVA.jaZl.acSkXPcR4r-6&smid=nytcore-ios-share
3
23
11
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Pam Herd
about 17 hours ago
While the situation is grim at NIH, it's closer to catastrophic at NSF. They're just not able to move any money out the door. It appears OMB has them on lockdown.
www.science.org/content/arti...
.
add a skeleton here at some point
8
335
252
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Sherrilyn Ifill
about 23 hours ago
So are the headlines saying the Democrats won this round, or nah? Cause they did. Funding for TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, no funding for ICE. That’s the deal Dems have been offering over & over. Republicans caved.
205
6131
1663
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Jennifer Groh
about 22 hours ago
Science peeps! Excited to share first of two preprints just uploaded. This one concerns a person who hears sounds when she moves her eyes! We could actually record these sounds and verify they were connected to eye movements 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
loading . . .
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.24.713974v1
2
36
15
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Jörn Diedrichsen
4 days ago
Also out today - A quick intro piece on the role of the cerebellum in cognition. What does it do? How will we find out? This is what
@actlab.bsky.social
and I think the critical questions are right now. It was fun to write - especially the section on evolution....
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
loading . . .
How does the cerebellum contribute to cognitive functions?
The role of the cerebellum in motor functions is well understood. But why is the same circuitry engaged in functions such as working memory, language, and social cognition? This Unsolved Mystery looks...
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003688
3
92
43
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Ziyao Zhang
3 days ago
new preprint! 🐍 In a dynamic Snake game inspired task, we show participants flexibly replan their behaviors after distraction, but this ability is constrained by memory load and distraction strength. EEG results coming soon👀
osf.io/preprints/ps...
loading . . .
OSF
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/x2rdc_v1
0
29
7
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Mariko Bennett
4 days ago
I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.
44
1532
543
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Jesse Rissman
4 days ago
🚨NEW PREPRINT (w/ Fleming Peck & Hongjing Lu) "Spontaneous emergence of context-dependent statistical learning in humans and neural networks" We are constantly predicting what will happen next. Yet the same cue can lead to different predictions depending on context. How might this work...? 🧵1/8
1
35
14
reposted by
Mariam Aly
aaron bornstein
4 days ago
New lab paper! We built a new computational model that explains several disparate observations about the conditions that promote (or hinder) associative learning. Main finding is that different kinds of experience (blocked, interleaved) have opposing effect at high vs low memory capacity. 🧵 below!
add a skeleton here at some point
0
34
11
How do the brain’s event representations change as we gain familiarity with an experience? Brain regions’ representations can become coarser or finer as events become familiar. Slow-timescale structure predicts memory. Excited to share this work w/ Narjes Al-Zahli &
@chrisbaldassano.bsky.social
!
loading . . .
Repeated Viewing of a Film Clip Changes Event Timescales in The Brain
Many everyday experiences share a recurring structure: routines, familiar routes, rewatched films, and replayed songs. How do repeated encounters with such structure alter the brain’s representations ...
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2026/03/23/JNEUROSCI.1657-25.2026
4 days ago
0
100
38
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Cognitive Neuroscience Society
5 days ago
ICYMI at
#CNS2026
, we have a new mentorship program! Learn more and sign up NOW to be a mentee or mentor:
www.cogneurosociety.org/new-cns-ment...
#neuroscience
loading . . .
New CNS Mentorship Program Now Open
New mentorship program for CNS!
https://www.cogneurosociety.org/new-cns-mentorship-program-now-open/
0
11
9
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Marlene Cohen
5 days ago
More new results, this time from the amazing Lily Kramer! 🎉 “Sequential experience reshapes population representations in visual cortex”
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Visual experience unfolds in time. We asked how temporal structure reshapes population activity in visual cortex. 🧪🧵1/
2
32
12
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Nicholas Gaspelin
9 days ago
Excited to see this work out! We show that attention can rapidly learn to ignore salient distractions within 1-2 exposures. Interestingly, this learned suppression is highly contingent on an initial instance of capture! More to come!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@yuezhang-mu.bsky.social
loading . . .
From Capture to Control: Initial Capture Increases Learned Suppression - Yue Zhang, Nicholas Gaspelin, 2026
Salient stimuli have the potential to distract us from our immediate goals. Much research has therefore aimed to understand how we learn to use attention to res...
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09567976261430288
0
21
10
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Stand Up for Science!
10 days ago
Email your senators to urge them not to confirm Jim O’Neill as Director of the National Science Foundation. He's not a scientist, has no relevant expertise, promoted vaccine misinformation, helped gut the CDC, and his Silicon Valley ties raise questions about protecting the public interest. (1/2🧵)
11
429
324
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Juan Linde-Domingo
10 days ago
New paper! 🚨 ~1.8K Mooney images from THINGS + ~1K participants to study visual ambiguity resolution. Results suggest the visual system shifts from a top-down guess to bottom-up matching after disambiguation, and a U-shaped link between info gain and identification.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
1
52
28
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Dr Jen Ryan
12 days ago
Hi Colleagues who use eyetracking! 👋 👀
@shen4brains.bsky.social
,
@jordwynn.bsky.social
, Zhong Xu Liu and I are guest editing a Special Issue for Neuropsychologia on Contributions of eyetracking to cognitive neuroscience.
1
20
12
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Nanthia Suthana
11 days ago
New lab paper! 🧠 Human hippocampal & MTL theta activity is linked to eye movements, but only during memory-guided navigation. Theta is also strongest during longer, more exploratory eye movements.
plos.io/4dwJhR8
Huge congrats to Humza & team! 👏
add a skeleton here at some point
4
93
41
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Max Kozlov
11 days ago
BREAKING:
@delauro.house.gov
announces at a House Oversight hearing with NIH director Jay Bhattacharya that OMB approved the agency's apportionment last night. That means the agency should have access to its appropriated funds — 42 days after its spending bill passed.
add a skeleton here at some point
6
182
102
reposted by
Mariam Aly
The Transmitter
11 days ago
A new data-sharing policy proposed by the NIH would result in “substantial harm to scientific progress,” a neuroimaging consortium says. By
@claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/data-sharing...
loading . . .
Neuroscientists challenge NIH’s proposed data-access policy
The changes would restrict the sharing of human neuroimaging, transcriptomic and genetic data.
https://www.thetransmitter.org/data-sharing/neuroscientists-challenge-nihs-proposed-human-data-access-policy/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=org-social&utm_campaign=20260317-news-neuroscientists-challenge-NIH-proposed-human-data-policy
1
23
16
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Jeffrey Mervis
12 days ago
Wondering why NIH and NSF aren't making new grants? We explain what's happening at OMB.
www.science.org/content/arti...
loading . . .
Analysis: Why the research money isn’t flowing from NSF and NIH
White House review of agency spending plans for this year is causing delays
https://www.science.org/content/article/analysis-why-research-money-isn-t-flowing-nsf-and-nih
4
132
114
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Angela Radulescu
12 days ago
Proud to share the lab’s first preprint, led by the fantastic
@christinamaher.bsky.social
! 🎉 Real-world environments are high-dimensional and noisy. Selective attention is thought to shape the state representations that make reinforcement learning tractable.
1
48
19
We have to direct attention to both the outside world and our internal thoughts and memories. This process of attentional selection occurs rhythmically, with a shared theta rhythm associated with sampling internal and external information. Neat work by Cavanah & Fiebelkorn!
loading . . .
A Shared Theta-Rhythmic Process for Selective Sampling of Environmental Information and Internally Stored Information
Selective attention is the collection of mechanisms through which the brain preferentially processes behaviorally important information. Many everyday tasks, such as shopping for groceries, require se...
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/46/10/e1560252026?rss=1
17 days ago
1
26
3
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Athena Akrami
17 days ago
Very happy to share our review on Reinforcement Learning vs Statistical Learning, with
@ambrafer.bsky.social
and
@predictivebrain.bsky.social
:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A nice summary:
www.sainsburywellcome.org/blog/two-eng...
add a skeleton here at some point
0
50
14
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Lauren Atlas
17 days ago
NIH is requesting comments on a new draft policy that may require human brain imaging data (and other data) from nih-funded research to only be shared via controlled access, & only with certain countries. I suggest neuroimagers read closely & submit comments by 3/18.
osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form...
loading . . .
Comment Form: Draft NIH Controlled-Access Data Policy and Proposed Revisions to NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Science Policy (OSP): Request for Information on Draft NIH Controlled-Access Data Policy and Proposed Revisions to NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy
https://osp.od.nih.gov/comment-form-draft-nih-controlled-access-data-policy-and-proposed-revisions-to-nih-genomic-data-sharing-policy/
4
37
47
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Retraction Watch
18 days ago
We're thrilled to announce the Ctrl-Z Award, a US$2,500 prize for researchers “who discover substantial errors in their published work and take meaningful steps to correct the scientific record." Covered by
@nature.com
today; read more here:
centerforscientificintegrity.org/2026/03/10/a...
loading . . .
Keep calm and be transparent: advice from scientists who retracted their papers
Retractions correct the scientific record, but they have stigma attached to them. Some in the research community want that to change.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00763-x
6
468
215
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Dan Levenstein
19 days ago
Compositional representation of self, others, and gaze direction in *human* hippocampus - super cool.
arxiv.org/abs/2603.04747
loading . . .
Neural geometry in the human hippocampus enables generalization across spatial position and gaze
Hippocampal neurons track positions of self, others, and gaze direction. However, it is unclear how their respective neural codes differ enough to avoid confusion while allowing for abstraction. We re...
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04747
0
60
18
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Mark Histed
19 days ago
The most impt change at
#NIH
and to US science this year is bigger than grant cancellations— it’s how the agency is governed. For 75 years NIH has been largely independent of presidential control. That’s changed this year. New piece from me and
@nataliebaviles.bsky.social
in
@nature.com
🧪
loading . . .
How Congress can restore the independence of US science
Members must go beyond reinstating US government research spending and re-establish decentralized governance at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00703-9
7
347
199
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Brendan Nyhan
20 days ago
The sky is not falling; high-quality platforms (Prolific, Verasight, CR Connect) have low rates of apparent bots.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
But also not zero; vigilance is very much needed!
1
106
51
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Christoph Strauch
21 days ago
We show that synesthesia is sensory and automatic in nature: the pupil scales with the brightness of experienced synesthetic colors.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Now in its new dress
@elife.bsky.social
(convincing & valuable in round 1). If anyone wants to pick up the method, happy to share & explain!
add a skeleton here at some point
4
83
25
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Alison Preston
22 days ago
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 🧵
3
135
47
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Brad Postle
23 days ago
New this year at
@cogneuronews.bsky.social
2026: All abstracts will be published in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society
jocnf.pubpub.org/cns2026
. Functionality includes ability to append a visual abstract, like this:
doi.org/10.21428/8e6...
loading . . .
Priority-Driven Transformation of Visual Working Memory Content
https://doi.org/10.21428/8e6ba8ef.66d34867
2
19
7
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Adi Upadhyayula
24 days ago
1/ 🚨 New preprint Key Moments Scaffold the Semantic Structure of Narratives Using spoken recall and annotations from three naturalistic datasets with topic modeling, we ask: which parts of a narrative contribute most to its semantic structure and subsequently memory? Preprint:
osf.io/dcfvw
loading . . .
OSF
https://osf.io/dcfvw
1
24
12
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Jeremy Berg
24 days ago
So... A friend was supposed to give a PURELY SCIENTIFIC talk at NIH within the next couple of weeks and it was cancelled because of a "new process" where all speakers/talks have to be CLEARED BY A POLITICAL APPOINTEE.
26
550
269
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Andrey Chetverikov
24 days ago
Recently, van der Stigchel and colleagues posted a provocative commentary suggesting that we should be wary of bots in online behavioral data collection (🧵by
@cstrauch.bsky.social
here:
bsky.app/profile/cstr...
). But should we? Here is my response letter
osf.io/preprints/ps...
. 1/5
6
54
38
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Yining Ding
25 days ago
Excited to share our paper (with
@jzacks.bsky.social
), now out in JEP:LMC! Event boundaries sometimes disrupt temporal order memory in list-based paradigms—but what happens in narratives with more complex structures that better resemble real life? ✨ Link:
psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...
loading . . .
APA PsycNet
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-27655-001
2
41
13
reposted by
Mariam Aly
tbiba.bsky.social
26 days ago
I am excited to share my first paper, showing that episodic memory formation is theta rhythmic, is now published in Nature Human Behavior! Check it out here:
rdcu.be/e6pzS
. Thanks to my PI, Katherine Duncan, and to my collaborators for their support on this journey! Stay tuned for iEEG follow up 🧠
loading . . .
Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz
Nature Human Behaviour - Biba et al. show that episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz.
https://rdcu.be/e6pzS
3
106
46
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Nature Human Behaviour
26 days ago
Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz
loading . . .
Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 02 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02416-5Biba et al. show that episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz.
http://dlvr.it/TRFjmR
0
51
19
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Jeremy Berg
27 days ago
NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26) Directorates to follow 1/10
29
671
563
Sorry for the delay – the PsyArXiv link works now 😅
add a skeleton here at some point
29 days ago
0
14
3
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Matthew Logie
29 days ago
1/6 Happy to share our new paper with
@grassocamille.bsky.social
and
@virginievanw.bsky.social
: "Nested contextual change and the temporal compression of episodic memory".
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
loading . . .
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.26.708184v1
1
26
12
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Melinda Sabo
30 days ago
📍2003 marked the year in which the retro-cue paradigm was born. Fast forward, 23 years later, we adapt this logic to long-term memory and ask how does attention shape retrieval from long-term memory? 🤔 w/
@william-nm.bsky.social
Kia Nobre, Nahid Zokaei and Nora Roüast
osf.io/preprints/ps...
1/n
loading . . .
OSF
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/axbqf_v1
1
19
8
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Stand Up for Science!
about 1 month ago
America needs a Surgeon General who follows the science, not trending conspiracies and pseudoscience. Tell your Senator to vote against Casey Means as our nation’s doctor!
add a skeleton here at some point
1
90
29
How do we balance external attention to the outside world and internal attention to our thoughts & memories? We review evidence that external and internal attention can compete, unfold concurrently, or cooperate! Loved working on this with
@samversc.bsky.social
&
@tobiasegner.bsky.social
!
loading . . .
OSF
http://psyarxiv.com/ry94x_v1
about 1 month ago
1
92
37
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Sam Verschooren
about 1 month ago
New with
@tobiasegner.bsky.social
&
@mariamaly.bsky.social
! The relationship between external and internal attention is not fixed but varies between competition, concurrence, and cooperation. We shed light on the conditions that allow for each of these relationships to occur🔍
psyarxiv.com/ry94x_v1
2
17
7
reposted by
Mariam Aly
PLOS Biology
about 1 month ago
Attentional resources vary rhythmically, but what about susceptibility to
#
[email protected]
&co show that theta & alpha phases modulate sensitivity & distractor impact, revealing rhythm-specific mechanisms shaping
#attention
& distractability
@plosbiology.org
🧪
plos.io/4tU0vh4
0
12
5
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Angela Radulescu
about 1 month ago
Where you look next isn’t arbitrary. In our new paper, we model human eye movements in immersive visual search as reinforcement learning under cognitive constraints. 🧵
1
35
14
reposted by
Mariam Aly
Yong Hoon Chung
about 1 month ago
New paper with
@timbrady.bsky.social
and
@violastoermer.bsky.social
now out in JoCN! "Real-world Objects Scaffold Visual Working Memory for Features: Increased Neural Engagement When Colors Are Remembered as Part of Meaningful Objects"
doi.org/10.1162/JOCN...
loading . . .
Real-world Objects Scaffold Visual Working Memory for Features: Increased Neural Engagement When Colors Are Remembered as Part of Meaningful Objects
Abstract. Visual working memory is a core cognitive function that allows active storage of task-relevant visual information. Contrary to the common assumption that the capacity of this system is fixed...
https://doi.org/10.1162/JOCN.a.2427
2
39
11
reposted by
Mariam Aly
(((Dr Hannah Wirtshafter))) 🔬
about 1 month ago
New preprint out 🎉 What happens to the hippocampal “place code” when an animal is actively engaged in a task? The answer surprised us (and might surprise you too!). Let's dive in ⬇️ Link: "Hippocampal trace coding dominates and disrupts place coding"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
loading . . .
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.17.706430v1
3
61
25
reposted by
Mariam Aly
bioRxiv Neuroscience
about 1 month ago
Hippocampal trace coding dominates and disrupts place coding
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.17.706430v1
0
17
12
reposted by
Mariam Aly
about 1 month ago
Excited to share my first PhD paper with
@ashenhav.bsky.social
@shenhavlab.bsky.social
“Rejection-based choices discourage people from opting out of voting.”
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
loading . . .
Rejection-based choices discourage people from opting out of voting - Nature Communications
When people dislike their options for candidates, they tend to refrain from voting rather than voting for the candidate they like best. Here, the authors show that this tendency to opt out of lose-los...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-68472-7
1
20
12
Load more
feeds!
log in