UR Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences

Asymmetries in foveal vision Visual perception is characterized by known asymmetries in the visual field; human’s visual sensitivity is higher along the horizontal than the vertical meridian, and along the lower than the upper…

New article in J. Neuroscience from Sam Jenks & Martina Poletti: Asymmetries in foveal vision.
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
#URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social @aplabur.bsky.social

Higher dopamine D1 receptor expression in prefrontal parvalbumin neurons underlies higher distractibility in marmosets versus macaques - Communications Biology Integrative anatomical, molecular, behavioral, and modeling evidence suggests that higher dopamine D1 receptor expression in prefrontal cortical parvalbumin neurons in marmosets likely contributes to…

NEW research from Jude Mitchell shows that marmosets are more easily distracted than macaques. Their brain cells have more dopamine receptors, which may make it harder to stay focused when unexpected things happen.
#URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1038/s420...

The speed of visual discrimination differs between foveola and perifovea: a combined EEG and behavioral investigation Despite the vivid experience of homogeneous vision, our visual system is inherently endowed with highly inhomogeneous structures. Although the temporal characteristics of visual responses vary with…

OUT NOW from @aplabur.bsky.social The speed of visual discrimination differs between foveola and perifovea: a combined EEG and behavioral investigation, published in eNeuro.
doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...
#URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social

New article from Greg DeAngelis: When we move our eyes and body, the resulting image motion complicates visual scene analysis. This article reviews how the brain uses these signals to compute the motion and depth of objects while an observer is moving.
doi.org/10.1146/annu... #URochesterResearch

Congrats to the recent UR recipients of the Fulbright US Student program, including 2 BCS/NSC students: Isabelle Miranda (neuroscience) & Daniel Pyskaty. More: www.rochester.edu/college/stud...

Even though the foveal region takes up a large portion of the brain’s visual processing area, it hasn’t been studied as much as other parts of our visual field, mostly because it's technically challenging to precisely track where people are looking.”

Yue Guzhang is a fourth-year student in the @uor-braincogsci.bsky.social at the @urochester.bsky.social in the @aplabur.bsky.social studying how attention and fixational eye movements influence our ability to see fine details in the fovea #URochesterResearch
Read More ➡️ bit.ly/3GcWIaO

2of2) This distinction supports the idea that attention and motor planning are mediated by distinct neural mechanisms depending on whether the task involves attention or motor intention.

doi.org/10.1038/s415...
#URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social @aplabur.bsky.social

Distinct modulation of microsaccades in motor planning and covert attention - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Distinct modulation of microsaccades in motor planning and covert attention

1of2) NEW from Martina Poletti: Distinct modulation of microsaccades in motor planning and covert attention, published in Scientific Reports.

This study found that microsaccades are a reliable indicator of attentional shifts but not of motor intentions...

Sex-mediated Gene Flow in Grayfoot Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique - International Journal of Primatology Dispersal behavior influences gene flow and the spatial distribution of genetic diversity, which is crucial for a species' evolutionary trajectory and population persistence under environmental…

OUT NOW from @dorabiro.bsky.social Sex-mediated Gene Flow in Grayfoot Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus griseipes) in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique in International Journal of Primatology.
doi.org/10.1007/s107... #URochesterResearch

Rewarding animals based on their subjective percepts is enabled by online Bayesian estimation of perceptual biases Rewarding animals to accurately report their subjective percept is a key challenge in studying higher-level perception and cognition. This study formalizes this problem and overcomes it with a…

New from Ralf Haefner & Greg DeAngelis: How can we measure the subjective percepts of animals, for instance for visual illusions? Scientists have developed a new method using Bayesian math and context cues

doi.org/10.1371/jour...
#URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social

Congratulations Jude!🎊

students standing together on stairwell

students, bench mentors, and PI's standing together on stairwell

bench mentor showing student part of lab

PI showing students mock MRI room

Welcome Scholars! We've kicked off another summer of NEURO RocHS. Looking forward to seeing what these high school students will accomplish this summer! @urochestersmd.bsky.social @uor-braincogsci.bsky.social #URochesterResearch

NEW from @dorabiro.bsky.social West Side Story: Regional Inter-Troop Variation in Baboon Bark-Stripping at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique
doi.org/10.1002/ajpa... #URochesterResearch

During undergrad at @urochester.bsky.social, Yue Guzhang learned a programming language from grad students while working in a lab

Today, as a @uor-braincogsci.bsky.social grad student, she is meeting undergrads in the classroom, teaching them
@matlab4neuro.bsky.social before they enter a lab 👇

Talking Science

🧠 How do the brain & mind work?
Students from the BCS Class of 2025 created short videos breaking down key concepts in brain and cognitive science — clear, fun, and informative! 🎓 Check them out: shorturl.at/Qr6m2

New publication from Dora Biro in American Journal of Biological Anthropology, "Landscape-Scale Effects of Season and Predation Risk on the Terrestrial Behavior of Chacma Baboons (Papio ursinus)."
doi.org/10.1002/ajpa... #URochesterResearch

Hierarchical motion perception as causal inference - Nature Communications "Motion perception depends on reference frames, but it is unclear what the brain’s reference frame is. Here, the authors show that human motion perception follows a hierarchical causal inference…

NEW from Sabya Shivkumar, Greg DeAngelis & Ralf Haefner in Nat. Commun. on how motion is always defined with respect to a reference frame. This study shows how the brain uses causal inference to find the right reference frame to guide our perception.
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
#URochesterResearch

2of2) This study used EEG and VR to see how touch affects the brain in autistic and non-autistic adults. It found that both groups reacted similarly to self-generated touch, but differed in their responses to externally generated touch.

1of2) New in NeuroImage: Adults on the autism spectrum differ from neurotypical peers when self-generating but not passively-experiencing somatosensation: a high-density electrophysiological (EEG) mapping and virtual reality study.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
#URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social

New from Scott & Snyder: This study uses deep neural networks to create naturalistic stimuli that better map to neural responses in visual areas, helping understand complex neural activity more efficiently than simpler stimuli.
doi.org/10.1111/ejn.... #URochesterResearch @urneuroscience.bsky.social

2 of 2) This study found that stable patterns of neural activity in the visual cortex are generally associated with fewer errors in visual tasks. However, overly stable activity was linked to impulsive mistakes, while unstable activity was linked to mistakes involving incorrectly seeing something.

Neural Dynamics in Extrastriate Cortex Underlying False Alarms The unfolding of neural population activity can be described as a dynamical system. Stability in the latent dynamics that characterize neural population activity has been linked with consistency in…

1 of 2) OUT NOW from Bikash Sahoo & Adam Snyder in J. Neuroscience: Neural Dynamics in Extrastriate Cortex Underlying False Alarms.
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU... #URochesterResearch @cvsuor.bsky.social

Congrats to Riesa Cassano & Rithwik Cherian, recipients of this year’s Open Scholarship Awards, & Sanjana Kapisthalam, recipient of the Edward Peck Curtis Award for excellence in teaching!
opensci.lib.rochester.edu/open-scholar...

Dr. Nathan Smith, wearing a NY Yankees baseball cap, smiles and points to Dr. Cory J White as they pose for a photo together after Dr. White's research presentation, "Evaluating how HIV infection and antiretroviral therapies impact brain lipid metabolism".

Dr. Cory J. White stands at the lectern next to the title slide his research presentation, "Evaluating how HIV infection and antiretroviral therapies impact brain lipid metabolism".

Thank you, @coryjwhite.bsky.social for an engaging #research talk! We are delighted to welcome another NEUROYES speaker, Dr. Cellas Ari’ka Hayes, on 4/10/25! @c3llas.bsky.social @drnathanasmith.bsky.social #URochesterResearch @urneuroscience.bsky.social @uor-braincogsci.bsky.social #neuroskyence

How artificial general intelligence could learn like a human Computer scientist Christopher Kanan discusses AI, large language models, and responsible usage of artificial general intelligence.

Computer scientist Christopher Kanan offers a primer on generative AI, large language models, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence. #URochesterResearch
www.rochester.edu/newscenter/a... @cvsuor.bsky.social @chriskanan.bsky.social

Congrats to Ruby Zeng who won a best poster award for her poster “Prosodic and other paralinguistic features of speech differ across social contexts and roles” at the Graduate Research Day. This is a fantastic achievement Ruby, well done!! 🎉
@elisepiazza.bsky.social

Support our students Yue, Howard, Riesa and Ruby at Graduate Research Day. Check out the event program: www.rochester.edu/college/grad...
All are welcome to attend.

Frontiers | Distractor anticipation during working memory is associated with theta and beta oscillations across spatial scales ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

NEW from Dennis Jung, Bikash Sahoo, & Adam Snyder in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience: Distractor anticipation during working memory is associated with theta and beta oscillations across spatial scales.
doi.org/10.3389/fnin... #URochesterResearch @urneuroscience.bsky.social 
@cvsuor.bsky.social

1 of 2) NEW in JOV: The visual system does not operate like a camera, co-authored by Michele Rucci & Martina Poletti.
buff.ly/2S7Qa1u
#URochesterResearch @uor-braincogsci.bsky.social @aplabur.bsky.social

2 of 2) Listeners adjust how much subcategorical info they keep based on how informative the following context has been in recent input, suggesting flexibility in memory.
#URochesterResearch @hlplab.bsky.social