Ata Karagoz

Hell, I'm probably not prepared for it either.

My grandpa fell for one of these back in the day because they photoshopped something and then cut to an unrelated Anderson Cooper interview. I can only imagine how bad it is now.

A brain-inspired agentic architecture to improve planning with LLMs - Nature Communications Multi-step planning is a challenge for LLMs. Here, the authors introduce a brain-inspired Modular Agentic Planner that decomposes planning into specialized LLM modules, improving performance across tasks and highlighting the value of cognitive neuroscience for LLM design.

Very excited to share that our work (together with co-first author Shanka Subhra Mondal and @neuroai.bsky.social ) on a brain-inspired architecture for planning with LLMs is now out in Nature Communications! www.nature.com/articles/s41... (thread below)

If you're interested in the cognitive neuroscience of memory feel free to email me!

I do experimental psychology, brain imaging (fMRI and MEG) and a bit of modelling. Lab is doing stuff on forgetting, aging, schemas, and event boundaries, but we're not limited to that.

#psychscisky #neuroskyence

I'm recruiting grad students!! 🎓

The CoDec Lab @ NYU (codec-lab.github.io) is looking for PhD students (Fall 2026) interested in computational approaches to social cognition & problem solving 🧠

Applications through Psych (tinyurl.com/nyucp) are due Dec 1. Reach out with Qs & please repost! 🙏

A brain-inspired agentic architecture to improve planning with LLMs - Nature Communications Multi-step planning is a challenge for LLMs. Here, the authors introduce a brain-inspired Modular Agentic Planner that decomposes planning into specialized LLM modules, improving performance across tasks and highlighting the value of cognitive neuroscience for LLM design.

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

Strong mnemonic prediction errors increase cognitive control, attention, and arousal https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.02.680173v1

I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.

Developmental changes in memory structure and precision alter the use of retrieved episodes during decisions for reward: https://osf.io/78zmx

New eLife preprint from Tan Nguyen—Pattern-based functional MRI and computational modeling show evidence for multiple signals contributing to updating the brain's representations of events: elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

📢 My lab at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine is considering graduate student applications this fall

We welcome applicants interested in using computational modeling & fMRI to study social connection

🗓️ Deadline: December 1, 2025
🔗 Learn more: sinclaboratory.com/apply

#comppsychiatry #socialneuro

New in @pnas.org: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

We study how humans explore a 61-state environment with a stochastic region that mimics a “noisy-TV.”

Results: Participants keep exploring the stochastic part even when it’s unhelpful, and novelty-seeking best explains this behavior.

#cogsci #neuroskyence

Careers at Drexel - Human Resources

The MAC lab at Drexel is looking for a new post-doc to work on NIH-funded projects investigating the intersection of prior knowledge and long-term memory consolidation. Please pass along to any interested lab members! careers.drexel.edu/cw/en-us/job...

Pixi by prefix.dev Pixi Documentation — Next-gen package manager for reproducible development setups

I just started using pixi pixi.sh/latest/ as it's supposed to be more of a replacement for conda in case you have R dependencies. Otherwise uv seems outstanding!

Moments Lab

Last month, I launched my lab at Ohio State. Our lab website is now live, and we're recruiting graduate students this cycle! If you're interested in the cognitive (neuro)science of learning & memory, please reach out!

www.momentslab.org

Sinclair Lab The Learning & Behavior Change Lab at Rice University, directed by Dr. Sinclair

🌟 Excited to share that I'm recruiting PhD students in Psychology for my new lab at Rice University this cycle (Signal boost appreciated!)

To learn more, check out the Learning & Behavior Change Lab website:
www.sinclairlab-rice.com

Applications are due Dec 1st: psychology.rice.edu/graduate/pro...

1/ 🚨 Preprint alert!
How does the brain make sense of continuous experience?
We find that continuous experiences can be compressed using a subset of key moments that dominate comprehension and recall.
👉 https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.30.673233

A neural network with episodic memory learns causal relationships between narrative events Humans reflect on past memories to make sense of an ongoing event. Past work has shown that people retrieve causally related past events during comprehension, but the exact process by which this causa...

How does the brain🧠 make causal inferences and use memories to understand narratives🎬?

We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do!

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

w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇

🚀Excited to share our project: Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience. @schottdorflab.bsky.social and I propose a novel multivariate method to isolate neural representations aligned with specific cognitive hypotheses 🧵https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1

Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1

On the left: an illustration from Brooke's 1904 rendition of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where Little bear discovers their favourite chair is broken 😲. On the right, a sketch of what a corresponding "situation model" might contain.

How might stories shed light on brain function? Check out this opinion piece by @alexbarnett.bsky.social and I about the DMN and "situation models" -- our understanding of the current "state of affairs" in a story (or even experience).

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In a fun bit of synchronicity I found a copy among some free books right as I left lab today!

[Aly Lab Logo: schematic of brain in shades of blue with two cut-out seahorses facing each other]. Postdoctoral Position in the Aly Lab at UC Berkeley. We are recruiting a postdoctoral scholar to work on NSF-funded research examining competition and cooperation in memory-guided attention. The position will be supervised by Dr. Mariam Aly (https://www.alylab.org/) in the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley. Candidates should have a PhD in Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, or a related field, and expertise in studies of behavior as well as neuroimaging and/or eye tracking. This is a two-year position with a flexible start date. More details here: https://tinyurl.com/alylabpostdoc

I can't quite believe it – I got a new NSF grant! 😲🤯

I'm incredibly grateful to the program officers & reviewers for their dedication and efforts to keep science going 🌟👏🏼

So, I'll be hiring! Looking for a postdoc to study competition in memory-guided attention. See flyer for details! 🎉

We’re Hiring: Technology Policy Fellow – FABBS Location: Washington, D.C. (hybrid) Salary: Approximately $7,000 per month Start Date: September 15, 2025 Duration: 3 months, with potential for longer Position

The Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (@fabbs.org) is searching for a short-term technology policy fellow. Great opportunity for a new PhD interested in policy, maybe before a research postdoc or faculty position:
fabbs.org/news/2025/08...

Come work with us! @princetonneuro.bsky.social and the Department of Psychology at Princeton University are searching for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of human cognitive neuroscience, to be hired jointly in Psychology and Neuroscience: puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/app...

As some of you might know, I am also hiring a postdoc in Osaka. Feel free to talk to Akilles about what it's like to work with me :). 3/3

bsky.app/profile/robm...

Moved to Chicago and watched the sunrise with my boy :)

Job announcement 📢

@shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social and I are looking for a joint postdoc interested in computational models of social interaction!

Interested? If you’ll be at #rlc2025 (or I missed you at #cogsci2025) feel free to reach out with any questions!

apply.interfolio.com/165809

This was one of my favorite reads this year so far! The bit where Cristobal Junta and Sasha go from being very pleased with a piece of work and wanting it published to saying they're both incompetent and should be fertilizer really got me.

The audiobook version of the maniac is fun!