Susan Wardle

Announcing the next AFNI Bootcamp: Sep 23-25, 2025.

Free, open & virtual.

This "Part 1" will focus on basic visualization and single subject FMRI processing, including discussions of alignment, templates, regression, ROIs and quality control.

Details & registration: afni.nimh.nih.gov/bootcamp

Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex A wealth of studies report evidence that occipitotemporal cortex tessellates into ‘category-selective’ brain regions that are apparently specialized for representing ecologically important visual s...

doi.org/10.1080/1758...

If you’d like to write a commentary to accompany our new article arguing for a rethinking of how we approach understanding visual function in occipitotemporal cortex, now is your chance!

Now out in @natneuro.nature.com

What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed?

Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation

www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7

🧵1/18

High-frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (hf-tRNS) targeted at motion processing region hMT+ does not improve visual motion discrimination. Failed #replication in #registeredreport

@ryanruhde.bsky.social Mica Carroll @cibaker.bsky.social

#trns #nibs #NIMH

doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

1/6

Representation of locomotive action affordances in human behavior, brains, and deep neural networks | PNAS To decide how to move around the world, we must determine which locomotive actions (e.g., walking, swimming, or climbing) are afforded by the immed...

In these tumultuous times, still happy to report a scientific achievement: our preprint on affordance perception was just published in PNAS!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Using behavior, fMRI and deep network analyses, we report two key findings. To recapitulate (preprint 🧵lost on other place):

The result of a large (42 authors!) collaboration:
"Go Figure: Transparency in neuroscience images preserves context and clarifies interpretation"
arxiv.org/abs/2504.07824
TL;DR: The FMRI world can (and should) improve results interpretation and reproducibility *today*, via transparent thresholding.

Two more days until our workshop 🥳@cosynemeeting.bsky.social #Cosyne2025

Object-centric neural representations across species 🐒🐁🕷️🐝🖥️

Check out our homepage: toliaslab.org/workshop/cos...

Excellent speakers include @dyamins.bsky.social @hansopdebeeck.bsky.social & many more 🙌

COSYNE 2025 Workshop - Building a foundation model for the brain Join us to explore neuro-foundation models. March 31-April 1, 2025 in Mont Tremblant, Canada.

I'll be giving a talk at the foundation model workshop #Cosyne2025 tomorrow: neurofm-workshop.github.io

In response to @thetransmitter.bsky.social article by @tyrellturing.bsky.social & Eva Dyer I'll be talking about:

How do "foundation"/AI models help us (experimenters) study the brain?

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/...

How modular are modules in visual cortex? This scientific commentary refers to ‘Visual feature processing in a large stroke cohort: evidence against modular organization’ by Lugtmeijer, Sobolewska

I wrote a commentary on a very nice paper that just appeared in @brain1878.bsky.social by @selmalugtmeijer.bsky.social, Sobolewska, de Haan & @neurosteven.bsky.social.

Spoiler: It's about modularity in mid-level vision. 🤓

Original paper:
doi.org/10.1093/brai...

Commentary:
doi.org/10.1093/brai...

The dynamic version is even more disturbing...

A body detection inversion effect revealed by a large-scale inattentional blindness experiment As a social species, humans preferentially attend to the faces and bodies of other people. Previous research revealed specialized cognitive mechanisms…

New Paper out in @Cognition with @peelen.bsky.social !🚨📣
In a large-scale (N = 13539!) inattentional blindness experiment ran on naive museum visitors we demonstrate visual sensitivity to the 🚶‍♀️ upright human form 🚶‍♂️
@dondersinst.bsky.social

Open access link
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

People talk a lot about objects, but what about the softness of a cushion, the greenness of an emerald, or the viscosity of oil? In our work just published @pnas.org, we shed light on how we make sense of the hundreds of materials around us.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Brain-wide presynaptic networks of functionally distinct cortical neurons - Nature Behavioural-state-dependent pyramidal neurons have a distinct pattern of long-range glutamatergic inputs, with a larger proportion of thalamic versus motor cortex inputs compared with non-behavio...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... awesome new work out today! From the Lee lab in the intramural research program at NIMH!

Why is it hard to make bathroom tiles look random? I really enjoyed discussing how our pattern-seeking visual brains make it tricky to perceive randomness with the BBC CrowdScience team.

🚨PhD opportunity Fall/Winter
2025🚨
Join me in Geneva Switzerland #unige to learn more about colour perception. Using neuroimaging & computational modelling, you'll be working with an international & interdisciplinary team to understand how we transform light into a colourful world!🧠👁️🌈 #neurojobs

Embracing the complexity of visual understanding

Chris Baker's talk now at University of Maryland
#neuroscience

Sculpting new visual categories into the human brain | PNAS Learning requires changing the brain. This typically occurs through experience, study, or instruction. We report an alternate route for humans to a...

New paper story time (now out in PNAS)! We developed a method that caused people to learn new categories of visual objects, not by teaching them what the categories were, but by changing how their brains worked when they looked at individual objects in those categories.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Leslie Ungerleider (1946 - 2020) was an extraordinary, pioneering neuroscientist. The latest issue of @jocn.bsky.social honors her legacy with articles authored by former colleagues & trainees that highlight critical aspects of her work and its influence https://buff.ly/4156UKw #cogsci #neuroscience

We are editing a Special Issue in JoV #VisionScience following our VSS symposium on 'The Temporal Evolution of Visual Perception'. More details:

arvojournals.org/DocumentLibrar…

@cibaker.bsky.social @dimafic.bsky.social @irisgroen.bsky.social @tgro.bsky.social @rdenison @melcherpaclab.bsky.social

Excited to share our recent work investigating the temporal dynamics of object space! It’s been wonderful working with @tgro.bsky.social and @drquekles.bsky.social at @marcsinstitute.bsky.social on this fun project😊

Natural image showing perceptual borders

How do we segregate objects from the background?

Here, we show that early visual cortex (V1) enhances object borders and rapidly (±50ms) discriminates them, indicating V1 neurons are tuned to perceptually relevant borders in natural images.

Full paper: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

go.bsky.app/JGjCBpe

Super excited to be co-hosting scientist Nancy Hopkins and author Kate Zernike at NIH this Wednesday as part of a event jointly organized by the Porter Book Club, Women Scientists Advisors (WSA) and Women Scientist Fellows (WSF).

Details:
linktr.ee/wsf.nih?utm_...
videocast.nih.gov/watch=55349

Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex A wealth of studies report evidence that occipitotemporal cortex tessellates into "category-selective" brain regions that are apparently specialized for representing ecologically important visual stim...

arxiv.org/abs/2411.08251

In this new perspective piece, we argue for an alternative framework of visual function in occipitotemporal cortex that prioritizes the behavioral relevance of visual properties in real-world environments.