Jon Roiser

l'chaim!

Preprint alert!!! We recorded directly from the human ventral tegmental area (VTA), the principal source of cortical dopaminergic innervation, while patients performed an instrumental learning task. 🧵👇

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Dr Kareem Carr man: i wish to publish @kareem_carr Jan 21 reviewer 2: your paper is no good man: i'll do anything to improve reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini Andre Pagliarini @apagliar Jan 21 a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC

I just thought everyone should see this

Huo Family Foundation Awards $17.6M for Groundbreaking Research on the Impact of Digital Technology on Young People – Huo Family Foundation The Huo Family Foundation is pleased to announce the award of 20 major multi-year research grants, totalling $17.6 million, through its inaugural Science Programme on the Effects of the Usage of Digit...

I'm delighted to have received a junior faculty grant from The Huo Family Foundation to investigate mechanisms linking social media use to mental health outcomes in young people.

huofamilyfoundation.org/news/updates...

Reminder: Haidt is not actually an "expert" in this field and actual experts have called out that he's just wrong about almost everything.

www.techdirt.com/2025/09/10/e...

very disappointing - governments just love simplistic solutions to complex social problems. They could at least wait to see the impact in Australia

I thought the first half in particular was superb

incredible resource for aspiring (and indeed existing!) computational cognitive neuroscientists

With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.

My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.

This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!

⚠️ Job Alert ⚠️

I'm recruiting a postdoc to work with me and Professor @jonroiser.bsky.social on an exciting new project examining the link between young people's decision-making on social media and their mental health.

there are a few connections it's important not to ignore - e.g. JLC chair is married to a right-wing influencer and councillor who just defected to Reform from the Tories

Inside Haaretz, Israel's voice of dissent The newspaper is revered and reviled for its unflinching coverage of the Gaza war. Can it survive a possible future succession crisis?

How should a newspaper behave when its own country is at war? The Israeli newspaper @haaretzcom is both revered and reviled for the path it has chosen. My long read profile of a remarkable institution www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/israel...

Man answering his phone on the train: Yes? Correct, I’m not at work (pause) I’m not going to answer that because I am not at work today. No, you’re going to have to ask someone who is. Goodbye.

a woman says we have to work together in front of a wentworth sign ALT: a woman says we have to work together in front of a wentworth sign

Passionate about women's mental health?

Interested in brain stimulation?

Excited by cutting edge neurotech?

Come do a PhD with me!

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

(thread)

🚀 We're hiring !

🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.

🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling

Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e

🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌

ah - I didn't notice that you adjusted for age. Was this based on mean age in each sample, or categorical?

"especially ... GDS, affect treatment effect estimates" in the abstract seems like a strong claim for GDS! Isn't the fact it's likely an elderly cohort where this instrument is used (clue's in the name!) more likely to explain lower treatment efficacy?

oof - always the worst day, hang on in there

A neuro-metabolic account of why daylong cognitive work alters the control of economic decisions - PubMed Behavioral activities that require control over automatic routines typically feel effortful and result in cognitive fatigue. Beyond subjective report, cognitive fatigue has been conceived as an inflated cost of cognitive control, objectified by more impulsive decisions. However, the origins of such …

I'm skeptical it's "metabolic" in terms of straight-up brain energy consumption: the visual system uses masses of energy but people don't get tired watching films like they do with cognitive control. Pessiglione has data on glutamate buildup, but it's early days pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35961314/

congrats!

(credit to Paulina Lukow, sadly not on Bluesky)

also this equation LOL

please enjoy this excellent equation from the paper

see this is why AI is going to take away science jobs

Professor Jonathan Roiser and Dr Luca Bernardi on the impact of politics on our mental health How do major political events affect our mental health? Professor Jonathan Roiser and Dr Luca Bernardi have received funding from UCL Grand Challenges and the University of Liverpool to find out.

🗳️ Is political engagement actually good for us?
Professor @jonroiser.bsky.social and Dr @lbernardi.bsky.social talk to us about the impact of politics on our mental health.

Oxford University Has Failed Women Over Harassment Concerns, Staff Say The university has repeatedly been slow to act against male academics accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, a Bloomberg investigation found.

This—on my former university, department, and advisor—is harrowing but required reading for all social psychologists. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

thank you for your service

Art.