Ziyi (Zoe) Duan

Processes and measurements: a framework for understanding neural oscillations in field potentials Various neuroscientific theories maintain that brain oscillations are important for neuronal computation, but opposing views claim that these macroscale dynamics are ‘exhaust fumes’ of more relevant p...

Processes and measurements: a framework for understanding neural oscillations in field potentials: Trends in Cognitive Sciences www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

From MRI to Ozempic: breakthroughs that show why fundamental research must be protected In these financially straitened times, funders must recognize that great discoveries often arise from work that was looking for something completely different.

Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake

go.nature.com/47zrzYZ

The adaptive value of stubborn goals Humans exhibit a striking tendency to persist with chosen goals. This strong attachment to goals can often appear irrational – a perspective captured by terms such as perseverance or sunk-cost biases. In this review, we explore how goal commitment could stem from several adaptive mechanisms, including those that optimise cognitive resources, shield decisions from interference, and scaffold motivation in the absence of accessible reward signals. We propose that these computational considerations have important implications for algorithmic architectures supporting decision making, including separate algorithms for goal selection and implementation, and for monitoring ongoing goals versus alternative sources of reward. Finally, we discuss how a variety of mechanisms supporting goal commitment and abandonment could relate to dimensions affected in mental health.

Online Now: The adaptive value of stubborn goals

Unattended working memory items are coded by persistent activity in human medial temporal lobe neurons Nature Human Behaviour - Paluch et al. show that unattended working memory items, as well as attended ones, are encoded in persistent activity in the medial temporal lobe.

Unattended working memory items are coded by persistent activity in human medial temporal lobe neurons
rdcu.be/eMytF

Congrats!!

Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combin...

@dotproduct.bsky.social's first first author paper is finally out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! Her findings show that content-specific predictions fluctuate with alpha frequencies, suggesting a more specific role for alpha oscillations than we may have thought. With @jhaarsma.bsky.social. 🧠🟦 🧠🤖

Working memory readout varies with frontal theta rhythms Han et al. show that frontal theta oscillations rhythmically control access to working memory. The theta rhythm sweeps across the mental image, shaping behavior by coordinating spikes and beta oscilla...

New paper: Working memory readout varies with frontal theta rhythms. A theta traveling wave swept across the frontal cortex like radar, modulating performance of a working memory task. Because cognition is rhythmic.
www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...
#neuroscience @picowerinstitute.bsky.social

Principles for proper peer review

doi.org/10.21428/8e6...

Sensory reformatting for a working visual memory A core function of visual working memory (WM) is to sustain mental representations of recent visual inputs, thereby bridging moments of experience. This is thought to occur in part by recruiting early...

Very cool and in-season trends!!!
Sensory reformatting for a working visual memory: Trends in Cognitive Sciences www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

We’re looking for a postdoc to join our Max Planck group in Germany some time in 2026. If you have computational and/or neuroimaging expertise, and are interested in questions intersecting perception and cognition, please reach out! I’ll also be happy to chat at the #Bernsteinconference this week.

Effects of TMS on the decoding, electrophysiology, and representational geometry of priority in working memory The flexible control of working memory (WM) requires prioritizing immediately task-relevant information while maintaining information with potential future relevance in a deprioritized state. Using do...

New work led by Jackie Fulvio that adds to growing evidence that dynamics in parietooccipital low-beta oscillations play an important role in the encoding of priority in visual working memory. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Now out in @natneuro.nature.com

What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed?

Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation

www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7

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Near-random connections support top-down feature-based attentional modulations in early sensory cortex Author summary In everyday life, we focus on what matters—like finding our car keys on a messy desk—by sending signals from higher control brain areas to earlier sensory brain areas. These “top-down” ...

I gave a talk in 2009 about feature-based attention and a famous vision scientist asked how top down signals from PFC could possibly target the right sensory neurons. The best I could do was "uh, dunno". sunyoungp.bsky.social has a much more thoughtful answer journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Me holding 2 books

Just look what was waiting for me when I came back from my run. Elusive Cures is now a REAL BOOK!!

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Cool work, don't miss it!