Emiko J Muraki

I am excited to share that I’ll be joining Penn State as an Assistant Professor in August 2026 🎉

My lab will study how the mind simulates concept meaning, bridging perception, action, imagery, and language.

sites.psu.edu/cisclab/

I am recruiting grad students for Fall 2026. Connect if interested!

Excited to share that I’ve joined the @culhamari-lab.bsky.social Lab at Western University as a postdoctoral researcher ! I will be exploring 💭 mental imagery in 🫳🏼 visually-guided actions, especially in aphantasia. Can’t wait to dig in!

I'm not great at taking notes, but this might be a new low for me 🙃

Join us on August 22nd in collaboration with CSBBCS and SPARK Society for a free online webinar on finding postdoc opportunities!
Visit the following link to register for the event: shorturl.at/BVPtC
We hope to see you there!!
Please note that the meeting will be held exclusively in English.

Thanks! There's still a lot to unpack about why people with aphantasia may still unconsciously access sensory representations for higher-order cognitive processes like language processing. But @juhasilvanto.bsky.social has some interesting papers on this topic of disrupted conscious imagery ☺️

➡️ Faster processing of motor-linked words in aphantasia suggest that mental simulation is intact even in the absence of conscious mental imagery.

📄 Full article in this Neuropsychologia special issue (doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...)

🧠 Just out with @pennypexman.bsky.social “Simulation in the ‘Blind’ Mind”.

We found that even without conscious imagery (aphantasia), people still simulate sensorimotor info when processing language. 💭🔤

As I wrap up my PhD journey, I want to profoundly thank my supervisor @pennypexman.bsky.social .

Her generous mentorship shaped my vision of what research can be and guided my next big steps – a postdoc and tenure track position (more on those soon!)

I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. 🙏🧠💫

Excited to announce a call for papers for a new virtual special issue in Cortex on Concept Knowledge.

Our opening editorial, plus further information and guidance for authors can be found here:

www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

Huge thanks to Faris Mahmood, @veronicadiveica.bsky.social, @rjbinney.bsky.social, @drandreaprotzner.bsky.social‬, and @pennypexman.bsky.social for a great collaboration!

Check out the full paper at 🔗 rdcu.be/ethPV

#CognitiveScience #LanguageDevelopment #AbstractConcepts #Psycholinguistics

When emotional valence was included, the benefit of socialness for abstract words weakened.

💏 An interaction suggests highly social/emotional words are learned early, regardless of concreteness

Our results highlight the complexity of social relevance in word learning.

🚨📄 New paper!

Abstract words are hard to acquire: Does social relevance help?

We tested if social experience helps children learn words—analyzing >4,000 words by socialness, valence, and concreteness.

👬 More social words were learned earlier
💭 Socialness particularly helped abstract words, but…

Join us on June 5th, 2025 for a virtual Teams panel from 12-1:30 PM EDT featuring professionals who have successfully navigated the transition from PhD studies to fulfilling careers in industry, academic administration, and government.

This is a FREE virtual event!
Register here: shorturl.at/5vWjR

Mapping Contributions of the Anterior Temporal Semantic Hub to the Processing of Abstract and Concrete Verbs We tested hypotheses derived from the hub-and-spoke model and multiple representation theories of semantic memory, providing novel evidence that (1) the ventral anterior temporal lobe (ATL) is engage...

🔗 Read the paper: dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm....

🔍 Using distortion-corrected fMRI, we found consistent activity within the ventral ATL for abstract verbs, reinforcing its role as a semantic hub.

🙏 Huge thanks to @bangorimagingunit.bsky.social, @psychbangor.bsky.social, @mitacscanada.bsky.social, and NSERC for hosting and supporting this work.

🚨 New paper out in Human Brain Mapping! 🚨
with @pennypexman.bsky.social and @rjbinney.bsky.social

🧠 We show that the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) semantic hub supports abstract verb processing—with distinct activity patterns for:
• Emotional verbs
• Mental verbs
• Non-embodied verbs

🚨 NEW PAPER 🚨
We show that concrete (e.g., FLAG) and abstract (e.g., DEMOCRACY) concepts differ not just in the info they contain (e.g., sensorimotor, affective, social, linguistic) but in how these conceptual dimensions interrelate. 🔗 Link: rdcu.be/eb53b