Tarek Amer's Avatar

Tarek Amer

@tarekamer.bsky.social

Psych Assistant Prof at The University of Victoria. Interested in memory, aging, and cognitive control.

94 Followers  |  99 Following  |  2 Posts  |  Joined: 29.12.2024  |  1.6273

Latest posts by tarekamer.bsky.social on Bluesky

Love this article! We need more real-life memory studies.
Here is an example study and review from our labโ€ฆchild development focus.

cognitiveresearchjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10....

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

03.10.2025 18:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Excited to present our new work reading minds!

Ok, not *that* kind of mind reading, but we have created a deep learning method capable of using single neuron recordings from people watching episodes of TV that can predict when they recall specific memories from the episode. 1/6

28.08.2025 19:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 44    ๐Ÿ” 16    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Decoding memory function through naturalistic gaze patterns | PNAS Eye movements are closely linked to encoding and retrieval processes, with changes in viewing behavior reflecting age- and pathology-related memory...

Slowly making my way through that grad school data!

Decoding memory function through naturalistic gaze patterns | PNAS share.google/vuOSbiRk9nBH...

19.08.2025 21:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 47    ๐Ÿ” 14    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

๐ŸšจNew Preprint Alert!๐Ÿšจ
We just dropped a new paper on medRxiv that uses machine learning to rethink how we diagnose cognitive decline โ€” and the results are ๐Ÿ”ฅ.
Letโ€™s talk about brain data, hidden clusters, and how we might catch dementia before itโ€™s diagnosed.
๐Ÿงต๐Ÿ‘‡
๐Ÿ“„ doi.org/10.1101/2025...

05.04.2025 18:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 29    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

I have an opening for a graduate student at @carleton.ca (Carleton University) in the Department of Cognitive Science for fall 2025. Project is a multimodal MRI study examining how Hearing Loss affects cognition in older adults - contact me with a CV if youโ€™re interested & have relevant expertise!

04.04.2025 22:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 15    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The Memory Disorders Research Society (MDRS) has extended its deadline in seeking nominations for new members to next Wednesday (4/9)! Self-nominations welcome. Feel free to DM me if you have questions about the society or the membership process. Application link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

04.04.2025 00:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 10    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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CANAL Lab - Contact We are always interested in hearing from motivated and talented prospective undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.

I'm currently interested in recruiting a master's student for this Fall 2025 to the CANAL lab. We're about to launch an MRI project focused on the intersection of #aging, #hearing, and #cognitivereserve

Please get in touch!

www.canallab.ca/contact #neuroscience @carleton-cogsci.bsky.social

08.02.2025 22:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 13    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Temporal dedifferentiation of neural states with age during naturalistic viewing While life is experienced continuously, we tend to perceive it as a series of events. At a neural level, this event segmentation process has been linked to changes in neural states. An open question i...

New preprint led by @selmalugtmeijer.bsky.social and Linda Geerligs

We used fMRI movie data from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing & Neuroscience (CamCAN; N = 577) to examine how aging affects the brain's representation of real-world events. ๐Ÿงต๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿป #PsychSciSky #NeuroSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

27.01.2025 21:21 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
Sample images sorted by evoked valence/arousal and memorability. Scene images were selected to span a wide range of average valence and arousal scores. The figure above shows examples of memorable and forgettable images from across the spectra of valence and arousal. Examples include a tornado (negative and memorable), pollution from a factory (negative and forgettable), a field of sunflowers (positive and memorable), a frosty field in early morning (positive and forgettable), a car crash (high arousal and memorable), and a mountain scene (high arousal and forgettable).

Sample images sorted by evoked valence/arousal and memorability. Scene images were selected to span a wide range of average valence and arousal scores. The figure above shows examples of memorable and forgettable images from across the spectra of valence and arousal. Examples include a tornado (negative and memorable), pollution from a factory (negative and forgettable), a field of sunflowers (positive and memorable), a frosty field in early morning (positive and forgettable), a car crash (high arousal and memorable), and a mountain scene (high arousal and forgettable).

How is the memorability of an image influenced by how it makes us feel?

@hartwakeland.bsky.social created an image set (VAMOS) of over 900 scene images, along with their valence, arousal, and memorability ratings. They then showed that *moderately* negative images are more memorable!

(1/2)

16.01.2025 16:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 66    ๐Ÿ” 21    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Impaired hippocampal circuitry and memory dysfunction in schizophrenia Nature Mental Health - Dysfunction in the hippocampal circuitry in individuals with first-episode schizophrenia and delusions is linked to deficits in behavioral pattern separation and recognition...

๐ŸŽˆNew paper๐ŸŽˆ Led by the inimitable @asieh.bsky.social Hippocampal dysfunction in medication naive patients with schizophrenia during a memory task resolves with drug treatment. Incredible team effort! urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=htt...

15.01.2025 23:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 29    ๐Ÿ” 9    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Congrats, John!

14.01.2025 18:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Toward a functional future for the cognitive neuroscience of human aging Mooraj et al. outline why task-based functional neuroimaging must move center-stage to better understand the neural bases of human cognitive aging. In turn, the authors sketch a framework intended to reorient the field toward a functionally imaged, multimodally interrogated, behavior-first perspective.

Toward a functional future for the cognitive neuroscience of human aging

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

I do love me a good anti-resting state screed

11.01.2025 18:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Schemas, reinforcement learning and the medial prefrontal cortex - Nature Reviews Neuroscience A computational account of how schemas are learned through experience is lacking. In this Perspective, Bein and Niv synthesize schema theory and reinforcement learning research to derive computational...

Excited to share this perspective with @yaelniv.bsky.social about how schemas might be learned and instantiated via reinforcement learning, latent cause inference, and dimensionality reduction, and what's the medial prefrontal cortex might be doing for all of these www.nature.com/articles/s41...

07.01.2025 18:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 143    ๐Ÿ” 50    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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PSYC 280-194 - Faculty & staff - University of Victoria Inspired by and honouring place, we are a community-minded, globally engaged university where we transform ideas into meaningful impact.

Calling all social psychologists- come join us in beautiful Victoria, BC!

Please share!

www.uvic.ca/faculty-staf...

02.01.2025 23:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Starting my first #MisconceptionMonday with a common one in seismology: do small earthquakes relieve the pressure on faults? Are small quakes a good thing?

๐Ÿงต. Long ๐Ÿงต. But hopefully worth it.

30.12.2024 19:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 51    ๐Ÿ” 22    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 6

Happy to see a lot of familiar accounts and be back on academic social media!

29.12.2024 19:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

@tarekamer is following 20 prominent accounts