Allyson Mackey, Ph.D.'s Avatar

Allyson Mackey, Ph.D.

@apmackey.bsky.social

Associate Professor of Psychology at Penn

1,069 Followers  |  486 Following  |  7 Posts  |  Joined: 25.08.2023  |  1.8139

Latest posts by apmackey.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's publication day for ๐Ÿ“˜Elusive Cures. What a moment! 1st book, 1st time on Mindscape (which, as many of you know, is one of my favorite podcasts).

Here, @seanmcarroll.bsky.social and I have a wide-ranging conversation around: Why are brain and mental disorders so hard to understand and treat?

10.06.2025 11:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 102    ๐Ÿ” 22    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
Dog-sled going past the Le Chรขteau Montebello.

Dog-sled going past the Le Chรขteau Montebello.

Main public room in Le Chรขteau Montebello decorated for Christmas. The building is the world's largest "log cabin".

Main public room in Le Chรขteau Montebello decorated for Christmas. The building is the world's largest "log cabin".

Le Chรขteau Montebello is situated on the banks of the Ottawa river, separating Quebec and Ontario.

Le Chรขteau Montebello is situated on the banks of the Ottawa river, separating Quebec and Ontario.

Group photo the school of 2018 at the Winter school on the Neuroscience of Consciousness

Group photo the school of 2018 at the Winter school on the Neuroscience of Consciousness

CIFAR invites applications for senior PhD and postdocs to participate in the Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, held in Montebello, Canada Dec 10-12, 2025. The Winter School is hosted by members of CIFARโ€™s Brain, Mind, and Consciousness program. Please repost.
cifar.ca/next-generat... ๐Ÿง ๐Ÿงช

03.06.2025 21:13 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 77    ๐Ÿ” 53    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 6    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
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Precise individual measures of inhibitory control Nature Human Behaviour - Collecting an extensive publicly available dataset on four inhibitory control tasks, Gratton et al. show that more than 1,000 trials per participant are necessary to reduce...

Excited to announce that our paper (led by @hyejinjadelee.bsky.social & Derek Smith) is out in @nathumbehav.nature.com
go.illinois.edu/Lee2025_NHB
We use 36 days of testing in 4 inhibitory control tasks to examine the precision of inhibitory control measures in *individuals* and how they vary
๐Ÿงต๐Ÿ‘‡

28.05.2025 14:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 53    ๐Ÿ” 19    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
Two identical shirt designs but one is magenta and one is orange. It says biology is bigger than binaries and it has a clownfish and a bee and a lily

Two identical shirt designs but one is magenta and one is orange. It says biology is bigger than binaries and it has a clownfish and a bee and a lily

You have FOUR (4) more days to order a Biology is Bigger than Binaries shirt, designed by the lovely and talented @franzanth.bsky.social.

In this nightmare of a year, merch is keeping @skypeascientist.bsky.social afloat. Even if you don't order, RT's help so much!

Get 'em: squidfacts.bigcartel.com

28.05.2025 14:21 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 651    ๐Ÿ” 365    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 13    ๐Ÿ“Œ 19
EMERGE

Have recent changes led to uncertainty in your future scientific career?

Wonder it's like in Australia?

Good news!

Monash's is seeking to hire talented EMCRs from other countries.

Come join a wonderful community of brain mappers & modellers!

www.monash.edu/research/eme...

27.05.2025 22:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 49    ๐Ÿ” 31    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2

Our R01 was part of yesterday's "mass termination" at Harvard; 1 of ~1000 NIH grants in Trump's "fight". The irony of how many Jewish (& non-Jewish) researchers/scientists/physicians/patients/students will be harmed in the name of "fighting antisemitism" is sickening.deliberately cruel. #AcademicSky

16.05.2025 17:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 102    ๐Ÿ” 36    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ“ฃ It's official: I'm super excited to share that I'll be joining Rice University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences!

Lab will launch in Summer 2026โ€” I'll be recruiting over the next year, so please spread the word! Short thread โคต๏ธ

16.05.2025 23:26 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 256    ๐Ÿ” 16    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 33    ๐Ÿ“Œ 4
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Last weekend, I had the incredible experience of sharing the science of adolescence with 3000 curious, engaged listeners at TEDx Portland. The day was filled with amazing talks and performances that opened minds โ€“ and brought tears to many pairs of eyes. It's hard to put into words... 1/

03.05.2025 00:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 44    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Amazing news! So well-deserved! Congratulations!

30.04.2025 15:18 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Lab Technician - Learning and Brain Development Lab About the Opportunity SUMMARY The Learning and Brain Development Lab (PI: Juliet Y. Davidow) at Northeastern University in Boston, MA (https://lbdlpsych.sites.northeastern.edu/) is excited to invite a...

The Learning and Brain Development Lab (PI: Juliet Y. Davidow, PhD) at Northeastern in Boston is hiring a full-time lab manager! Assist in conducting an NSF CAREER awarded project on adolescent neurocognitive development of motivated learning! northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

29.04.2025 13:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 8    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Six months ago, I accepted a postdoc offer in a fabulous lab. Three days ago, the Trump administration terminated the NSF grant supporting the position. Today, my offer had to be rescinded, and my PhD defense is a week away. (1/3)

28.04.2025 21:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 187    ๐Ÿ” 106    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 14    ๐Ÿ“Œ 14
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Come check out the lab's research at @srcdorg.bsky.social this week! @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social

28.04.2025 13:49 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 29    ๐Ÿ” 10    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Excited to head to SRCD this week! @catehartley.bsky.social and I will be giving talks on Saturday morning, 8:30-10:00 AM in Auditorium 2 as a duo address on "Development of cognition, learning, and brain plasticity". Please join us!

28.04.2025 15:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Saturday 5/3, 8:30-10:00 AM, Auditorium 2, our PI @catehartley.bsky.social will speak along with @apmackey.bsky.social as part of the duo address "Development of cognition, learning, and brain plasticity"! tinyurl.com/srcdhartley

28.04.2025 14:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

LIVID and horrified (but not surprised) to learn that our R01โ€™s diversity supplement was terminated. This is just idiotic and cruel.

Opinions / experience on submitting an appeal? I know it is very unlikely to result in funds being reinstated, but I wonder if there is still some use in submitting?

24.04.2025 13:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 65    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 10    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Cold memories control whole-body thermoregulatory responses - Nature Cold-sensitive engrams contribute to learned thermoregulation in mice that are returned to an environment in which they previously experienced a cold challenge, through a network formed betw...

Excited to share our new study:

"Cold memories control whole-body thermoregulatory responses"

by @andreamunozz.bsky.social, @aaron-douglas.bsky.social & team at @tcddublin.bsky.social, in collaboration with @lydialynch.bsky.social & @drchristineannd.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

24.04.2025 15:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 100    ๐Ÿ” 33    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 5    ๐Ÿ“Œ 8

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

02.04.2025 01:09 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 137386    ๐Ÿ” 20449    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 10780    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1634

Grateful for Sen. Cory Booker! A black man breaking the record of a segregationist on the senate floor. Powerful. We need these moments right now more than ever!!

01.04.2025 23:26 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 95    ๐Ÿ” 9    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The rhetorical victory is this: the proposal that we can and will outlast them.

01.04.2025 23:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2921    ๐Ÿ” 527    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 20    ๐Ÿ“Œ 13

Amazing!! Congratulations!!

28.03.2025 18:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

YAYYYYY!!!!

26.03.2025 18:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Hippocampal encoding of memories in human infants Humans lack memories for specific events from the first few years of life. We investigated the mechanistic basis of this infantile amnesia by scanning the brains of awake infants with functional magne...

Why do we not remember being a baby? One idea is that the hippocampus, which is essential for episodic memory in adults, is too immature to form individual memories in infancy. We tested this using awake infant fMRI, new in @science.org #ScienceResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

20.03.2025 18:36 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 482    ๐Ÿ” 166    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 23    ๐Ÿ“Œ 22
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We think of white matter as the brain's highwaysโ€”uniform conduits between cortices. But what if we study development along tracts? Turns out the journey matters as much as the cortical destination! We're thrilled to share โ€œTwo Axes of White Matter Developmentโ€ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n

20.03.2025 17:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 123    ๐Ÿ” 52    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 11    ๐Ÿ“Œ 7

Last year, I was overjoyed to receive an NIH NRSA fellowship to study toddler brains and caregiving effects on memory at Columbia. Last night, my grant was terminated.

11.03.2025 15:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1020    ๐Ÿ” 378    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 85    ๐Ÿ“Œ 18

I have confirmation from several sources now that all T32s, many F30s and F31s, and most or all Center awards (P30, P50) have been terminated at Columbia.

This is quite damaging to research and to individuals.

This is pure terrorism and cannot be legal. But litigation will take time...

11.03.2025 14:30 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 573    ๐Ÿ” 312    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 18    ๐Ÿ“Œ 84

This is outrageous, I'm so sorry.

11.03.2025 15:42 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Overparenting Is Holding Kids Backโ€”Hereโ€™s What to Do Instead Overparenting can hinder kids' independence. Research shows that reframing everyday tasks as learning opportunities helps parents step back and let kids grow.

Overparenting can hold kids backโ€”but our research shows that framing tasks as learning opportunities helps parents step back and foster kids' independence! โœจ Read more in our latest Psychology Today piece: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/deve...
@julia-a-leonard.bsky.social @mika-asaba.bsky.social

10.03.2025 16:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 24    ๐Ÿ” 11    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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We're READY.

07.03.2025 13:23 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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I'm hiring a full-time research assistant to start this Summer!

The lab studies perception and cognition from infancy to adulthood using neuroimaging, behavioral, and computational approaches

For more details about the lab and the position, see: vlad-lab.com/join

#psychjobs #neurojobs

17.02.2025 15:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 43    ๐Ÿ” 36    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Seven Psychological Scientists Honored With 2025 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award The seven recipients are honored for cutting-edge research on topics ranging from the neurocognitive mechanisms of information processing to the connections between psychopathology and addiction.

Congratulations to the 2025 APS Spence Award Recipients! ๐ŸŽ‰ #AcademicSky #Psychology

@drjuandeltoro.bsky.social @chazfirestone.bsky.social @ashleylwatts.bsky.social @minuekim.bsky.social
@julia-a-leonard.bsky.social @markthornton.bsky.social
@gemmasharpe.bsky.social

12.02.2025 18:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 106    ๐Ÿ” 22    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 8

@apmackey is following 20 prominent accounts