New paper alert! We developed a theoretically grounded, scalable metric of Divergent thinking, #perplexity, applicable to a range of human verbal production. Limited time open access here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

One more CNS presentation done, #CNS2026, utterly enjoying the conversation with people from different fields, and bullish on the applications of LLM at the frontier of cognitive neuroscience.

I’m presenting at #CNS2026 in Vancouver! 🧠 Poster session D (Monday morning): A pleasant surprise: perplexity from large language models assesses divergent thinking [D128] Can't wait for another year of brain extravaganza! Who want's to catch up? #Neuroscience #AcademicChatter #CNS2026

🚨 New article in #NCONSC Creative problem-solving after experimentally provoking dreams of unsolved puzzles during REM sleep academic.oup.com/nc/article/2... @paller.bsky.social #consciousness 🧠🧪

Excited to share the official version of my brain state paper on the dynamics of spontaneous thought using fMRI under the think-aloud paradigm. Mapping content and dynamics in the stream of consciousness through latent brain state analysis: iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Preprint alert: an out-of-the-box LLM metric for assessing Divergent Thinking, linking process-centered theory of creativity, spontaneous cognition and entropy. #perplexity www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Wow! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@sciam.bsky.social has a new special edition entitled The Conscious Brain (www.scientificamerican.com/issue/specia...). It contains our feature article "The Brain Science of Elusive 'Aha moments'" from the March 2025 issue which you can read here: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Excited to share our new preprint on the brain-wide organization of intrinsic timescales at single neuron resolution. Work w/ @roxana-zeraati.bsky.social, @intlbrainlab.bsky.social, Anna Levina, @engeltatiana.bsky.social : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

My first, first author paper, comparing the properties of memory-augmented large language models and human episodic memory, out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social! authors.elsevier.com/a/1lV174sIRv... Here’s a quick 🧵(1/n)

When you walk into the ER, you could get a doc: 1. Fresh from a week of not working 2. Tired from working too many shifts @oziadias.bsky.social has been both and thinks that they're different! But can you tell from their notes? Yes we can! Paper @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Eureka! The brain science behind lightbulb moments" - Excellent coverage in Nature of research on the neuroscience of Aha moments, including our research on this phenomenon. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This is cool!

I helped explain to the Chicago Tribune the enourmous and irrational damage the NIH funding freeze is causing at Northwestern. “You’re at risk of losing an entire next generation of scientists" "it’s terrifying; it’s completely senseless." www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/07/w...

Neuroscientists discover how “aha” moments rewire the brain to enhance memory

SfNC 2025 is NEXT WEEK in Paris! 🧠 Check our FAQ for full schedule, maps, poster printing info & more: www.tsfnc.org/sfnc2025-faq. Register by Thursday 5/15 to join our biggest and best meeting yet (and 10th anniversary péniche party)!

Northwestern has a great new website explaining why the federally-funded research we do benefits everybody: www.northwestern.edu/research-nu/...

Enhancing creativity through neurofeedback: Check out our recent paper where we use covert neurofeedback to entrain default-executive coupling during creative thinking! Xinbing (Jack) Zhang, Jack White, Michael Luehrs, Michal Ramot, & @roger-beaty.bsky.social t.co/glnpPNmJ6R

Such an honor to be part of this symposium with @neuroperson.bsky.social , Julia Kam, Kalina Christoff Hadjiilieva, Matthias Mittner

#CNS2025 Symposium Session 9 | Happening now Hosted by Aaron Kucyi kicking-off immerging cool research area in “Decoding spontaneous thought from neural activity.”

The mood was defiant at many of the rallies, where chants of “Scientists will not be silenced”, “Facts over fear” and “What do we want? Peer review! When do we want it? Now!” were heard. https://go.nature.com/3F8T6FX

Registration is OPEN for SfNC 2025 in Paris on our member site! tsfnc.org/sfnc2025-creativity-changing-brains Please note the following additions to our program when you register: 📅 May 21 | AI, Creativity & a Changing World symposium 🎉 May 23 | 10th Anniversary Soirée on the Seine (ticketed)

8/11 are completed and the last 3 (DMB, Response, Visual), will be completed soon, and compiled into a free book "Cognitive Modes Detectable by fMRI", complete with anatomical doodles, ***and a way to determine function using task-induced BOLD changes for evidence*** jocnf.pubpub.org/pub/wck63qhg...

We get a WHOLE EXTRA DAY OF SFNC THIS YEAR

Join us on May 21 for AI, Creativity & a Changing World, a special symposium on the latest in Creativity & AI research: 🔹 AI & Human Co-Creativity 🔹 Advances in Automated Creativity Scoring 🔹 Expert panel on future trends led by @roger-beaty.bsky.social Registration opens next week! #SfNC2025

Intriguing findings!

My favorite midwest event + my favorite oscillationist 😍

Yvette Kounios (my wife) and I wrote the cover story about the science of insight (i.e., the "Aha! moment") for the March issue of @sciam which is available now. #ahamoment #insight #creativity static.scientificamerican.com/dam/m/4da289...

Paper alert - the sister series on metaphor generation! Insight (aha!) has been traditionally studied in a problem-solving context. Does insight during idea generation have the same characteristics and impact?https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cogs.13488

My latest installment of brain state modeling in creativity is out @ Psychophysiology! We found generating novel metaphors is associated with widespread alpha-band synchronization early on in ideation and, paradoxically, alpha-desynch right before response. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Five years in the making: our meta-analysis of 10 fMRI datasets across Asia, Europe, and North America (N=2,433). We find creative ability emerges from dynamic switching between default and executive brain networks, with optimal creativity at a "sweet spot."

So happy that our paper on event segmentation in large language models is now out in Behavior Research Methods! tinyurl.com/2j76882b With @mtoneva.bsky.social, @ptoncompmemlab.bsky.social, and Manoj Kumar, we show that LLMs can segment narrative text into meaningful events similarly to humans.

1/ New paper and first real foray into “precision fMRI”: Individual variability in neural representations of mind-wandering direct.mit.edu/netn/article...