Jiachen Yao

Journal of Vision Special Issue The vision-language interface Call for papers Vision and language are often considered to be separate cognitive systems, studied by separate research teams. However, they interact when we use vision for linguistic communication: when reading printed text, when describing verbally the things we see, and when observing the expressions and gestures of an interlocutor (during sign language, for example). The development of these critical skills changes the brain, such that the visual and language systems influence one another. In particular, regions of the cerebral cortex that are typically responsive to visual stimuli are also recruited for linguistic tasks. But some of those ideas are controversial. For instance, for well over a century scientists have debated whether the brains of literate individuals contain a region that is specialized for recognizing written words. The Journal of Vision invites submissions for a Special Issue on the interface between vision and language. The unique perspectives and techniques of vision science contribute much to the understanding of language. This special issue welcomes empirical papers that use behavioral/psychophysical, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and stimulation methods. Topics include, but are not limited to: - Functional specialization in the brain for reading and naming - Semantic representations in the brain - Letter recognition and perceptual learning - Sign language comprehension - Eye movements during reading or other linguistic tasks - Development of visual skills for reading and communication - Links between visual cortical activity and representations in large language models - Visual processing differences in dyslexia Editors: Susana Chung Kalanit Grill-Spector Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga Hans Op de Beeck Zeynep Saygin Alex White Oscar Woolnough Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2025. All papers will be subject to peer review.

For everyone out there working at the intersection of vision and language. We are currently accepting submissions for a Journal of Vision Special Issue on the vision-language interface
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...

#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky

Respiration as a dynamic modulator of sensory sampling Respiration dynamically modulates sensory perception by orchestrating transient states of the brain and the body. Using simultaneous recordings of high-density magneto-encephalography (MEG), respirati...

New preprint with amazing work from @nchalas.bsky.social:

How does respiration influence (un-)predictable near-threshold perception? MEG, arousal modulation, excitability states, respiration phase-resolved connectivity changes - it's all there :)

#neuroskyence

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨Registration for #PracticalMEEG 2025 opens June 12th, 2025 at 10am CEST!
📍Aix-en-Provence | Oct 28–31, 2025
🚀Spots go fast—get ready!
💻Pick your toolbox [Brainstorm, FieldTrip, EEGLAB, MNE-python] & join hands-on training, lectures, posters, toolbox bouquet & more
👉 cuttingeeg.org/practicalmee...

Ever used open-source (neuroscience MEG/EEG) software? Please take a moment to check out this report from within.

This paper is very close to my heart, because we are moving towards a crisis … 🧵

bsky.app/profile/imag...

In @elife.bsky.social: Stimulus dependencies—rather than next-word prediction—can explain pre-onset brain encoding during natural listening doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Phase of firing does not reflect temporal order in sequence memory of humans and recurrent neural networks - Nature Neuroscience The temporal order of events in working memory is thought to be reflected by ordered neuronal firing at different phases. Here the authors show that this is not the case and that phase order is linked...

Science Alert 🚨: Our paper is now out in @natureneuro.bsky.social - We show that the firing phase of neurons in human MTL doesn’t reflect the order of events, challenging a long-standing theory of human memory.
nature.com/articles/s41593-025-01893-7

What are you doing on 28-31 October 2025?
Save the date & join us at PracticalMEEG 3d edition in Aix-en-Pce with hands-on training in MEEG data, plenary lectures & other exciting new features like posters sessions, toolbox bouquet and more: cuttingeeg.org/practicalmee...
Registration coming soon!

YouTube video by DW Documentary How Germany's elite research institution fails young scientists | DW Documentary

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5nE...
Important and painful

Our latest studies on the decoding text from brain activity, reviewed by MIT Tech Review @technologyreview.com

www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/07/1...

Left–right-alternating theta sweeps in entorhinal–hippocampal maps of space - Nature A study in rats proposes a mechanism for how the brain maps the surrounding environment, including places it has never seen, by alternating left and right forward sweeps in successive theta cycles.

Grid cells have a geometry in time. Thanks to @azvollan.bsky.social l & @rjgardner.bsky.social for this heroic discovery. @ercresearch.bsky.social
#KiloNeurons @m-bmoser.bsky.social @kavlintnu.bsky.social @nature.com
@kavlifoundation.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🗣️ Language is widely distributed throughout the brain 🧠

In a recent correspondence in @natrevneurosci.bsky.social, we suggest that there is no 'language network' in the brain. What appears as such is an inevitable illusion created in part by the methods we use.

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

Episodic and associative memory from spatial scaffolds in the hippocampus - Nature A neocortical–entorhinal–hippocampal network model based on grid cell states recapitulates experimental results and reconciles the spatial, associative and episodic memory roles of the hippocampus.

Nature

Episodic and associative memory from spatial scaffolds in the hippocampus

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

Are physiological oscillations physiological? Abstract figure legend Mechanisms and functions of physiological oscillations.

The Journal of Physiology

Are physiological oscillations physiological?

physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...

✨i'm hiring a lab manager, with a start date of ~September 2025! to express interest, please complete this google form: forms.gle/GLyAbuD779Rz...

looking for someone to join our multi-disciplinary team, using OPM, EEG, iEEG and computational techniques to study speech and language processing! 🧠

Open call for PhD at Rothschild Hospital (Paris) w/ Dr Pierre Bourdillon and me to study the brain bases of language production with intracranial recordings:
dim-cbrains.fr/en/phd-progr...
- MSc outside France and no work in France in the past 2 years.
- Deadline Jan 30th 2025