NSF Update (Awards through 2/27/26) Directorates to follow 1/10

Now published in Perception (@pec-ipe.bsky.social)! Schulz-Hildebrandt, H. (2026). When purple perceived only at fixation: A fixation- and distance-dependent color illusion. Perception, 0(0). doi.org/10.1177/0301...

Our new paper is now out showing how time perception in animals is linked to their ecology. Using data from 237 species we show temporal perception is faster in species that fly and pursuit predators www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌐

Why do children struggle to recognise objects in cluttered scenes more than adults? Our new paper looks at the development of visual acuity and crowding across childhood, and the way the visual system fine tunes our ability to see detail: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is

Two more posters from our lab at ARO today: T152 A Model of Speech Recognition Reproduces Signatures of Human Speech Perception and Reveals Mechanisms of Contextual Integration, by Gasser Elbanna T171 Hearing-Impaired Deep Neural Networks Predict Real-World Hearing Difficulties, by Mark Saddler

If at ARO today, check out the presentations from our lab: talk at 3:15pm: Optimized Models of Uncertainty Explain Human Confidence in Auditory Perception, by Lakshmi Govindarajan poster 28: In-Silico fMRI Experiments Enable Comparisons of Speech Models to Human Auditory Cortex, by Gasser Elbanna

If at ARO, please check out four posters from our lab today: SA53 A Deep Learning Framework for Understanding Cochlear Implants, by Annesya Banerjee SA189 Robustness to Noise Reveals Cross-Culturally Consistent Properties of Pitch Perception for Harmonic and Inharmonic Sounds, by Malinda McPherson

Just published my review of neuroscience in 2025, on The Spike. The 10th of these, would you believe? This year we have foundation models, breakthroughs in using light to understand the brain, a gene therapy, and more Enjoy! medium.com/the-spike/20...

This head is spinning continuously, but we see it rotating back and forth... ...presumably because of our strong prior expectation that faces are convex. This is a very nice example of the Hollow-Face illusion promoted by Richard Gregory: www.richardgregory.org/experiments/

If you are at NeurIPS I encourage you to check out Gasser's poster showing his ongoing work on models of speech perception.

Excited to announce that our latest paper is now out: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... Here we uncover a simple cortical code for loudness and leverage it reverse sound hypersensitivity disorders in mice. #neuroskyence

Two weeks left to apply! MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working with nonhuman animals in some way. Application deadline is Dec. 1. Full posting: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30586

🚨I am looking for a POSTDOC, LAB MANAGER/TECH and GRAD STUDENTS to join my new lab in beautiful Madison, WI. We study how our brains perceive and represent the physical world around us using behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging methods. paulunlab.psych.wisc.edu #VisionScience #NeuroSkyence

If you are at APAN today, check out these posters from members of our lab: 1. Cross-culturally shared sensitivity to harmonic structure underlies some aspects of pitch perception - Malinda McPherson-McNato

New pre-print from our lab, by Lakshmi Govindarajan with help from Sagarika Alavilli, introducing a new type of model for studying sensory uncertainty. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Here is a summary. (1/n)

if you see this post, your actions are: - if you have a spare buck, give it to Wikipedia, then repost this - if you don't have a spare buck, just repost your action is mandatory for the world's best source of information to survive

Excited that this work discovering cross-species signatures of stabilizing foot placement control is now out in PNAS! pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @antoinecomite.bsky.social

Want to make publication-ready figures come straight from Python without having to do any manual editing? Are you fed up with axes labels being unreadable during your presentations? Follow this short tutorial including code examples! 👇🧵

Excited to share that I'm joining WashU in January as an Assistant Prof in Psych & Brain Sciences! 🧠✨! I'm also recruiting grad students to start next September - come hang out with us! Details about our lab here: www.deckerlab.com Reposts are very welcome! 🙌 Please help spread the word!

Brown’s Department of Cognitive & Psychological Sciences is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working in the area of AI and the Mind (start July 1, 2026). Apply by Nov 8, 2025 👉 apply.interfolio.com/173939 #AI #CognitiveScience #AcademicJobs #BrownUniversity

Variance partitioning is used to quantify the overlap of two models. Over the years, I have found that this can be a very confusing and misleading concept. So we finally we decided to write a short blog to explain why. @martinhebart.bsky.social @gallantlab.org diedrichsenlab.org/BrainDataSci...

🔊New paper! Recomposer allows editing sound events within complex scenes based on textual descriptions and event roll representations. And we discuss the details that matter! Work by the Sound Understanding folks @GoogleDeepMind arxiv.org/abs/2509.05256

If you are attending the Kempner symposium I encourage you to check out @gelbanna.bsky.social 's poster on models and benchmarks of continuous speech perception. He has many interesting results.

How bad will it be? Catastrophic. Proposed cuts to #NSF, #NIH, and #NASA will set the US R&D landscape back 25 yrs+, cause economic and job loss now, and undermine innovations to come. But, this is the WH's *proposed* budget. Speak up now before it is too late. (inflation adjusted $-s below)

We are presenting our work “Discriminating image representations with principal distortions” at #ICLR2025 today (4/24) at 3pm! If you are interested in comparing model representations with other models or human perception, stop by poster #63. Highlights in 🧵 openreview.net/forum?id=ugX...

My father-in-law, Jack Strominger, and I wrote a letter to the @wsj.com editor about the current threats to science due to Trump's funding freeze. Please repost! www.wsj.com/opinion/scie...

Impressive work to stimulate only the M-cones of the retina and make green appear greener than ever. Coming (not too) soon to a theater near you! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I’m hiring a full-time lab tech for two years starting May/June. Strong coding skills required, ML a plus. Our research on the human brain uses fMRI, ANNs, intracranial recording, and behavior. A great stepping stone to grad school. Apply here: careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl... ......

Now accepting applications for the summer 2025 cohort: STEMM opportunities for college students with Hearing loss to Engage in Auditory Research (STEMM-HEAR) www.stemm-hear.bme.jhu.edu

Applications are open for the 2025 Flatiron Institute Junior Theoretical Neuroscience Workshop! A two-day workshop 7/10-7/11 in NYC for PhD students and postdocs. All travel paid. Apply by April 14th.🧠🗽🧑‍🔬http://jtnworkshop2025.flatironinstitute.org/ @flatironinstitute.org @simonsfoundation.org

We are experiencing an assault on science unparalleled by anything I’ve seen in my life. It’s not one issue or another anymore, the entire institution is under attack by the most powerful individuals in the country. This Friday, where will you be? standupforscience2025.org

Hope to see you there! www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/20/m...

If you are here at the last day of ARO, don’t miss Sagarika Alavilli’s talk on “Measuring and Modeling Multi-Source Environmental Sound Recognition”, happening at 9:45 in Ocean Ballroom 9 - 12.

Two posters from our lab on deep auditory models, presented today at ARO: T107 - “Modeling Normal and Impaired Hearing With Deep Neural Networks Optimized for Ecological Tasks” by Mark Saddler et al. T138 - “Modeling Continuous Speech Perception Using Artificial Neural Networks” by Gasser Elbanna

Two more posters from our lab are being presented today at ARO: M133 - “Neural Network Models of Hearing Clarify Factors Limiting Cochlear Implant Outcomes” by Annesya Banerjee et al. M166 - “Preferences for Loudness and Pitch Vary Across Cultures” by Malinda McPherson et al.

If you are at ARO today, lots of stuff to see from our lab. Posters: SU181 - “Optimization Under Ecological Realism Reproduces Signatures of Human Speech Recognition” by Annika Magaro et al. SU184 - “Texture Streaming in Auditory Scenes” by Jarrod Hicks

If at ARO today, check out Lakshmi Govindarajan's poster on "Confidence in Sound Localization Reflects Calibrated Uncertainty Estimation". Number S147 if you are at the meeting.

Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com

Please to announce the successful thesis defense of Dr. Jarrod Hicks! His thesis provides the first thorough exploration of auditory scene analysis with environmental sounds. I’m excited to see what he does next.

New essay on NIH and indirect costs: goodscience.substack.com/p/indirect-c...

If you live in AK, AL, IN, FL, KS, KY, LA, ME, MO, OH, and SC, your reps are on the Senate HELP Committee which has jurisdiction over NIH. Write to them pointing out the jobs and money coming to your state from NIH: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-... describe impact of NIH cuts on....

I'm pleased to announce the successful thesis defense of Dr. Vin Agarwal! His thesis compiles an impressive body of work on auditory intuitive physics. Stay tuned for some great papers. It has been a pleasure working with him.

What's the right way to think about modularity in the brain? This devilish 😈 question is a big part of my research now, and it started with this paper with @solarpunkgabs.bsky.social, finally published after the first preprint in 2021! 🤖🧠🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bluetorial-A dream and a bit of a nightmare Serving as Editor-in-Chief at Science was fascinating. I greatly enjoyed working with talented and committed editorial, news, graphics, and production staff. But the inside look into scientific publishing and AAAS was also deeply disillusioning.

Very cool paper by Emily Oby and colleagues: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Interesting insights into the flexibility (or lack thereof) of neural dynamics for motor control

Do you want to study cognitive science and live in Paris? Our master’s program in Cognitive Science at @ENS_ULM, @psl_univ, and @EHESS_fr is now accepting applications for 2025-2026. All courses are in English. Deadline: 13 March 2025 More info: master-cognitive-science.ens.psl.eu/en

Wow, just wow. V different approach reveals numerous problems in Scientific Reports - cf deevybee.blogspot.com/2024/10/an-o... I do hope @springernature.bsky.social will start to publish reviewer reports and editor info as we suggested

Pre-print 🧠🧪 Is mechanism modeling dead in the AI era? ML models trained to predict neural activity fail to generalize to unseen opto perturbations. But mechanism modeling can solve that. We say "perturbation testing" is the right way to evaluate mechanisms in data-constrained models 1/8