A *super* exciting new paper from @lizsiefert.bsky.social!! Human hippocampal ripple rates track very closely with several indicators of low arousal, during both sleep and wake. This is probably the most compelling data I have ever been associated with.

This work is now published in Nature Communications! We were able to train participants to have near-perfect memory for lists of 40 words - they added creative details to their memory representations that we could measure in their behavior and brains 🧠 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Our new paper is out this week in Nature Neuroscience! www.nature.com/articles/s41... We built a BCI that works with the brain's natural geometry — and we found that people could learn to play a video game with their brains in <1 hr of training. This efficiency is groundbreaking & here's why:

Which factors are more vs. less important in predicting memory? We systematically investigated the contributions of image memorability, valence, arousal, attention, and test delay. Image memorability was the strongest predictor of memory. Proud of this work led by @hartwakeland.bsky.social!

🎊New Lab Alert! I'll be starting at the 🧡University of Texas at Austin🧡 this August! More info to come. thesonglab.github.io I send my deep gratitude to my mentors, Monica @monicarosenb.bsky.social, YC @ycleong.bsky.social, ShiNung @shinung.bsky.social & Zach @zreagh.bsky.social, for everything.

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!

👋 Happy to see this paper published in PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2529176123 Asking: is curiosity a homeostatic drive, or a policy learned through reinforcement? How can we tell, and why does it matter? 🧵👇 With Jane Mok, @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social, Caroline Marvin, and Daphna Shohamy 🙏

Attention fluctuates over time and across contexts—how is this reflected in the brain?🧠 Fitting a dynamical systems model to fMRI data, we show that the geometry of neural dynamics along the attractor landscape reflects changes in attention. Out in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very happy that this paper from our lab is now out in @pnas.org! What happens when the *same* person experiences the *same* information with a *different* interpretation? Nearly the whole 🧠—well, at least nearly all association cortex—changes how it represents that information! tinyurl.com/p8chj2j7

#CNS2026 Young Investigator Award Lecture 1 - Neural Signatures of Sustained Attention Across Time Scales and Individuals, Monica Rosenberg, Ph.D. Monday, March 9, 2026, 1:30 - 2:00 pm Find out more: www.cogneurosociety.org/young-invest... @cogneuronews.bsky.social

How does the brain🧠 make causal inferences and use memories to understand narratives🎬? We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do! Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇

New preprint! 🧠 Our mind wanders at rest. By periodically probing ongoing thoughts during resting-state fMRI, we show these thoughts are reflected in brain network dynamics and contribute to pervasive links between functional brain architecture and everyday behavior (1/10). doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#neuroskyence #academicsky #psychskyscience #psychology

New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We’re surprised in many situations, like surprise parties, lab tasks, & suspenseful basketball games. Despite being in completely different situations, does our brain process unexpectedness similarly? 1/9

For my first post on bsky I am thrilled to advertise an NIMH-funded open postdoc position in my lab in collaboration with Jen Wildes at UChicago. Please spread the word! For more info and instructions to apply, please see: bakkourlab.uchicago.edu/join-us/post...

How do we resolve competition between memories to behave adaptively? Hippocampal differentiation of competing memories predicts the precision of preparatory coding in visual cortex during memory-guided attention Excited to share this work by the inimitable Serra Favila! #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky

Stress tends to enhance memory for emotional events. Yet stress is also thought to hurt the hippocampus (which supports episodic memory). With @evgoldfarb.bsky.social & others, we explore this paradox and demonstrate how cortisol can *enhance* hippocampal function to support emotional episodic mems!

First post! I'll be starting as an assistant professor at Northwestern next year! I'm recruiting PhD students this cycle! I'll be reviewing applications through the Brain, Behavior, and Cognition area in Northwestern's Department of Psychology. Apply! Learn more about the lab here: nucatslab.com

I’m excited to announce the Adaptive Memory Lab is moving to Univ. of Oregon summer 2024. I’ve been a lucky duck to forge such great relationships at Temple and am looking forward to developing new ones. I’ll be recruiting grad students next year so feel free to reach out. #OMG/OregonMemoryGroup

Resting state, or sleeping state? We know that wakefulness matters for adult functional brain network organization. In our new paper, we show that wakefulness can also be important in infant fMRI! 1/9

First empirical pub from the lab! Fear generalization - spreading ⚡️ assoc to similar stimuli - characterizes anxiety. Here we show that 🍷 assoc also spread to similar stimuli for indiv engaging in risky drinking pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37682597/