Helen Tager-Flusberg

CE-Letter to Congress Requesting Protection of Science Funding in the FY26 Budget To: The Honorable Members of the United States Congress Dear Honorable Senators and Representatives, We write in our individual capacities as U.S. citizens to urge you to prevent the far-reaching cons...

A letter signed by thoysands of members of the National Academies but also open for community endorsement . Please sign! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Excited to co-host this workshop! Lots of great speakers and opportunities to learn about best practices for fNIRS research with autistic children

Why are American kids getting sicker? What MAHA gets wrong about kids’ health.

We're taking major steps back in #publichealth and instead of addressing the important issues we're creating more distractions. #SDOH

Why are American kids getting sicker? www.vox.com/life/421703/... by @annanorth.bsky.social via @vox.com CC: @laurenwisk.bsky.social @htagerf.bsky.social

A remarkable lack of perspective taking!

Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned under RFK Jr. Seventeen experts ousted from a U.S. vaccine committee are expressing little faith in what the panel has become.

Ousted members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices describe RFK Jr.’s first meeting—featuring anti-vaccine presenters pushing unfounded claims.

They now call for the creation of an independent vaccine panel outside the federal government.

zurl.co/x2itL

Nora S. Newcombe and Robert Glushko stand together smiling on stage at CogSci 2025. Nora wears the Rumelhart Prize medal around her neck

Huge congratulations to the brilliant Nora Newcombe, recipient of the 2025 David E. Rumelhart Prize! 🏅#CogSci2025

Sketchnote of Nora Newcombe's Rumelhart Prize Talk, posing three questions and case studies for cognitive science: (1) innateness (with the geometric module as a case study), (2) representations (featuring cognitive maps vs. graphs), and (3) embodiment (featuring mental rotation)

Notes from @noranewcombe.bsky.social 's beautiful Rumelhart Prize "tasting menu" - congratulations Nora!!! #CogSci2025

Congratulations!

Delighted to share Resources for Researchers webpage has received a 2025 Commendation from @improvingpsych.org! We look forward to continuing this work to help everyone navigate academia and help academia be more welcoming to everyone!
www.plasticityinneurodevelopmentlab.com/resourcesfor...

HHS Hunts for New Autism Links While David Geier Searches for 'Lost' Vaccine Data Autism research undergoing a major shift under RFK Jr.

What we heard this week 🧵 #Medsky
"I think the NIH director understands that if you would say 'whenever possible,' that's the end. That's the kiss of death." -- @htagerf.bsky.social, of @bostonu.bsky.social, discussing patient privacy in federal #autism research.
www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/au...

How children master language in early life is one of the central questions of human biology. My fab colleague & friend @carorowland.bsky.social has an important new framework paper, which she breaks down in this fascinating thread. Big implications for how we think about genetic contributions too.👇🧪

NIH will reinstate 900 grants in response to court order Projects touching on sensitive topics such as DEI had been illegally terminated, judge found

Breaking news: The NIH yesterday moved to reinstate about 900 grants that a judge last week ruled had been canceled illegally because their topics, ranging from vaccine hesitancy or promoting diversity in the scientific workforce, had been blacklisted by the Trump administration. scim.ag/4lq9UrQ

The evolution of infant-directed communication: Comparing vocal input across all great apes Human infants receive more directed communication than other great ape infants, indicating that it evolved alongside language.

"Language is unique among communication systems, many elements are learned & transmitted across generations. Investigating directed & surrounding vocal communication in human infants & infants of wild nonhuman great apes revealed that humans receive dramatically more infant-directed communication."🧪

Did Baby Talk Give Rise to Language?

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/s...
Lovely article!

Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with ProPublica what is being lost.

Few are telling this trainwreck's tale with as much rigor and passion as @anniewaldman.bsky.social‬ @ #ProPublica.

"[Trump] ...has terminated more than 1,450 [#NIH] grants withholding more than $750 million in funds."

Read the full piece zurl.co/fCpUU & join us to fight back.
#StandUpForScience

‘Unrecognizable and highly toxic’: NIH staffers speak out ahead of Senate hearing on budget cuts - The Boston Globe More than 300 staffers signed a letter to the NIH director urging him to stop politically motivated cuts to research grants.

"...the workers behind the letter said grants are being terminated based on political preferences and without input from scientific staff or Congress, which amounts to censorship of critical research."

zurl.co/zEzKM
#StandUpForScience
#BethesdaDeclaration

ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.

What does 18,000+ brave signatories look like standing together in massive solidarity with the #NIH heroes of the historic Bethesda Declaration??...

Find out by adding YOUR NAME to our #NIHLove letter here! -

actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na...

#StandUpForScience
#BethesdaDeclaration
#StopTrump

NIH scientists call on director to protect biomedical research In a public letter, hundreds of scientists expressed their dissent to the Trump administration's policies affecting the National Institutes of Health and called on its director to support the agency.

"It's a horror show. We're under attack in every way all the time," says Sarah Kobrin, who has worked at the National Cancer Institute for more than 21 years. "We're told we're worthless. We're told we're cheats.… They're breaking things that won't be repairable."

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Exciting new game! Who wants to play? publishorperish.games

Right-Hemispheric White Matter Organization Is Associated With Speech Timing in Autistic Children Purpose: Converging research suggests that speech timing, including altered rate and pausing when speaking, can distinguish autistic individuals ...

Our work on speech timing & white matter organization in autistic and non-autistic children is out in JSHLR. Thankful for the research team on this project! @jenniferzuk.bsky.social @talialiu.bsky.social @neurotyler.bsky.social @htagerf.bsky.social @qzhever.bsky.social
pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/...

Right-Hemispheric White Matter Organization Is Associated With Speech Timing in Autistic Children Purpose: Converging research suggests that speech timing, including altered rate and pausing when speaking, can distinguish autistic individuals ...

🆓🔓in @ashajournals.bsky.social Davison, K. E., Liu, T., Belisle, R. M., Perrachione, T. K., Qi, Z., Gabrieli, J. D. E., @htagerf.bsky.social, & Zuk, J. (2025). Right-Hemispheric White Matter Organization is Associated with Speech Timing in #Autistic Chn JSLHR doi.org/10.1044/2025...
🦋 #bskySPEECHIES

Sign The Open Letter to Stand Up For Science Now! Science is under siege. Trump’s latest Executive Order calls for politically appointed science commissars to evaluate research. Join us in adding your name to our open letter condemning Trump’s escala...

Science is under siege. Join us in adding your name to our open letter condemning Trump’s escalated assault on science in America. #StandUpForScience actionnetwork.org/petitions/op...

Congratulations @noranewcombe.bsky.social !

An Acoustic Analysis of Speech Motor Performance in Autistic Children Purpose: Despite known motor and spoken language impairments in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the motor skills underlying speech production and...

💰🔐 In @ashajournals.bsky.social Maffei, M. F., Chenausky, K. V., @htagerf.bsky.social, & Green, J. R. (2025). An Acoustic Analysis of Speech Motor Performance in #Autistic Children. JSLHR, 1–23. doi.org/10.1044/2025... 🦋 #bskySPEECHIES #ChildSpeechDis #autism #slpeeps

LouAnn Gerken Obituary (1959 - 2025) - Tucson, AZ - Arizona Daily Star View LouAnn A. Gerken's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.

Very sorry to learn of the passing of LouAnn Gerken, who had such an impact on our understanding of the acquisition of speech sounds and sound patterns obits.mlive.com/us/obituarie...

Exclusive: Trump administration cut autism-related research by 26% so far in 2025 Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has vowed to address rising U.S. autism rates as a top health priority for the Trump administration .

There's no bigger priority for JFK Jr than autism, and yet NIH funding for autism research is down 26% since the beginning of the year.

Why? Research on diverse populations has been defunded in the anti-DEI and 'gender ideology' purge.

Reuters exclusive
www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Long arcuate fascicle in wild and captive chimpanzees as a potential structural precursor of the language network - Nature Communications The arcuate fascicle connection with the middle temporal gyrus has been considered unique to humans. Using high-resolution diffusion MRI, the authors systematically show this connection in chimpanzees...

"Language-related neural specialisation in humans likely evolved through gradual strengthening of a pre-existing connection rather than arising de novo." Important conclusion from state-of-the-art neuroimaging in wild & captive chimpanzees by @ybecker.bsky.social, @alfredanwander.bsky.social & co.👇🧪

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants.

"This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."

I had what I found to be an insightful conversation with @htagerf.bsky.social about the newly formed Coalition of Autism Scientists, including why she started the coalition, the work they plan to do, and the strength of the autism research community. Read more below!

The scientific community is at a pivotal moment right now. And we are seeing things start to shift. Now is the time for scientists and scientific institutions to step up. No one is coming to save us. 🧵