jim magnuson

Recurrent neural networks as neuro-computational models of human speech recognition Author summary Human brains deal with a constantly evolving stream of information acquired by the senses. The transitory nature of this input requires strategies for integrating information over time....

✍️ A new paper led by McMaster University with the collaboration of #BCBL researcher @jimmagnuson.bsky.social has been published in @plos.org #ComputationalBiology.

+info ⬇️

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Join us Monday, September 15th from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm ET for a talk by Simona Mancini, Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor / Neurolinguistics and Aphasia group leader at the Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language.

Register now at https://bit.ly/45LjrF1

Interested in doing a PhD with me and lacns.github.io? Or with any of the incredible fellows in the IMPRS School of Cognition www.maxplanckschools.org/cognition-en - apply before Dec 1st at cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en/application

📢 PhD opening @bcbl_ (San Sebastián, Spain)
Join our ERC project CORTICAL RHYTHMS 🧠 to study how brain rhythms shape second language learning (spoken & signed) with MEG/MRI.
📅 Start Jan 2026 | ⏳ Apply by Sept 15, 2025
👉 tinyurl.com/bdwkumn3

Great piece on the administration's attack on our epistemic infrastructure--and shout-out to my work-- by @peterbakernyt.bsky.social in today's paper.

Michael's points out that so many of this administration's attacks are on "epistemic infrastructure" (museums, libraries, universities, agencies that collect data).

Farm to faculty: How federal research funding changes lives and boosts Minnesota's economy When I was growing up on a farm near Cambridge, I never met a scientist. I didn’t know what scientific research was or how people became scientists. I graduated from

My contribution to the @sciencehomecoming.bsky.social effort to communicate the value of federal science funding:

www.hometownsource.com/county_news_...

Do we adapt when the structure of our environment changes?

Check out our new preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Really looking forward to this!

(PDF) The Tracking Umbrella: Diverse Interpretations Under a Common Neural Term PDF | Neural tracking, the alignment of brain activity with the temporal dynamics of sensory input, is a crucial mechanism underlying perception,... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ...

Neural tracking: evoked or oscillatory? 🎧🧠 The #TrackingUmbrella paper argues it’s not either/or — both perspectives reveal how our brains align with speech, music, and more. Method matters. Let’s rethink how we measure and interpret tracking! tinyurl.com/ywbe7rrz

Have others experienced major problems with collecting data via Prolific (@joinprolific.bsky.social)? For a lexical decision study we ran 3 years ago, we excluded less than 2% of participants for clear non-compliance/random responding. Now it's closer to 25% for the exact same study.

US-CAN Doctoral Excellence Award Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

My university has announced a special international graduate fellowship for PhD students whose acceptance at a US university has been rescinded. Check it out: grad.uwo.ca/finances/wes...

Trump’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ tour was a calculated celebration of the dystopian The detention center visit seemed to represent a landmark in a defining issue since even before his first term: migration

Imagine if you and your children fled from immediately life-threatening conditions (or simply poverty!) to the USA, only to be thrown into a camp — or onto a plane to South Sudan. We need to wake up and speak up. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ tour was a calculated celebration of the dystopian The detention center visit seemed to represent a landmark in a defining issue since even before his first term: migration

Do we understand that we actually have concentration camps in the USA now? The cruel, casual dehumanization of our neighbors is happening, now, with ‘jokes’ about alligators killing prisoners at Alligator Alcatraz.

You are a busy beaver

The MIT stopword list has MANY open class words in it. That's a no no. Here's a new stopword list tagged with part-of-speech that includes idioms and other collocatives. reilly-lab.github.io/Jamie_Stopwo...

Join @nihfellowsunited.bsky.social in calling your legislator on 5/13 to tell them to sign onto letters opposing cuts to the NIH, cosponsored by Senators @warren.senate.gov, @padilla.senate.gov, and Tillis, as well as Representatives @ocasio-cortez.house.gov and @carson.house.gov.

Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is proposing a rule to increase career employee accountability. Agency supervisors report great difficulty removing employees for poor performance or misconduc...

You can comment on this proposed policy change by May 23rd.

The proposed policy defines science agency grant making program officers, among other positions, as “policy-making” and removes civil service protections.

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

A chocolate cake with red and white decorations and lit candles shaped as the number 75. Bold text reads: ‘The NSF Turns 75 Today. What has it done over the past 7 decades?’ The background is a celebratory red with a spray-paint texture.

HAPPY 75th, NSF!

We’re celebrating this milestone by highlighting some of NSF’s most transformative accomplishments—innovations that have shaped our world and continue to drive progress in health, technology, the environment, and beyond.

Read on 🧵(1/11):

Please RT🙏

Reach out if you want to help understand cognition by modelling, analyzing and/or collect large scale intracortical data from 👩🐒🐁

We're a friendly, diverse group (n>25) w/ this terrace 😎 in the center of Paris! See👇 for + info about the lab

We have funding to support your application!

More Than Words by Maryellen MacDonald, PhD: 9780593545270 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books "This beautifully written book by Maryellen MacDonald demonstrates how 'word-work' shapes both our experience of the world and the very brain that produced our capacity to articulate and generate our ...

My book reveals the mostly hidden effects of talking *on talkers.* Talking boosts focus & learning, regulates emotions, changes perception, & more. The reason lies in how utterance planning for talking works. It's a book for gen'l audiences, but w scientific claims for production & its consequences

Fun new study by Ellie Breitfeld!

Russell, come visit so you can shop in Coventry for your dream Japanese work van

jdmimportsct.com/collections/...

Skilled readers use information from upcoming words to boost efficiency, but at what cost? We discovered that nearby words interfere with lexical activation of the fixated word, calling for a more nuanced approach to the role of preview in fluent reading. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jm...

screenshot of semantic distance R package information

New R package almost birthed - SemanticDistance - computes two semantic distance metrics (experiential and embedding) for any rolling chunk size (ngram-to-ngram, word-to-word, turn-to-turn, ngram-to-word). You give it your language sample. It does the rest, including lemmatize and stopword omit

Psychological Assn. Pauses Diversity in Recruitment Requirements American Psychological Association bows to political pressure and suspends DEI requirements for postgraduate programs.

why am I not surprised? #cogsci #devpsy #psychscisky #blackinstem
wordinblack.com/2025/04/psyc...
#AmericanPsychologicalAssociation #DiversityInRecruitment #DiversityEquityInclusion #PostgraduatePrograms #PoliticalPressure
#InclusionMatters

On Truth in Politics: Why Democracy Demands It On Truth in Politics: Why Democracy Demands It [Lynch, Michael Patrick] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. On Truth in Politics: Why Democracy Demands It

Publication day!

www.amazon.com/Truth-Politi...

I’ve created a website to look up phonological features (frequency, age of acquisition, neighbors) of real and nonwords. rpomper.github.io/phono/

It’s still in progress (manuscript coming) please let me know if you have any recommendations or feature requests!

(It takes 1-2 minutes to load)

GOING ABOUT DAILY LIFE: The buddy system and knowing your rights 1. In every moment you can, be with a buddy. If you do not have a roommate, consider staying with someone. During the day, walk with a buddy when leaving your room. 2. Consider emailing professors to request remote/hybrid or other accommodations. They are allowed to do so under Academic Senate rules. 3. If ICE comes to your door, do not open the door. You do not have to open your door, and you do not have to speak with them. Do not say anything. If you are alone, call someone to help you stay calm and stay silent. If they force their way in, do not resist, instead say "I do not consent to your entry." 4. You have the right to ask to see a judicially signed warrant. Unless ICE/DHS has a judicially signed warrant to search or arrest, one can refuse ICE entry. This judicial warrant must be signed by a judge; it is different from an administrative warrant which ICE often presents/has when making immigration-related arrests. 5. If you are detained, don't say anything to ICE. Don't sign anything.

In light of the recent visa withdrawals, here is a PDF with advice for international students at UCLA. I’m so sorry to have to share this. drive.google.com/file/d/1x8_z...

Temporal Structure of Music Improves the Cortical Encoding of Speech This study demonstrates that regular musical rhythms can act as a temporal guide for brain oscillations, enhancing synchronization with the speech envelope. This effect was observed across different ...

Happy to share my very first first-author paper! In this study, we show that rhythms can shape how our brains track speech (in very simple words). Work with Marina Kalashnikova, @nicolaml.bsky.social and Mikel Lizarazu.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....