Alex Emmendorfer, PhD 🗣️〰️🧠 🟥

We're seeking the next Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics! Lead cutting-edge research in language & cognition. Nominations (incl. self) due 19 Dec 2025.
mpi.nl/career-education/vacancies/vacancy/nominations-and-self-nominations-sought-position-director-max

Never been to a conference concert before, but if not the International Conference on Auditory Cortex, where else? #icac2025 @icac2025.bsky.social

My son is calling this car blue and I'm having flashbacks to 2015 #thedress

You know it's time for vacation when you arrive in the office only to find that you left your laptop at home 🙃

That was a crazy note to end the day on! 🤯 Sad to be missing out on the conference dinner discussions!

Great poster session today, thanks to everyone who stopped by! If you're still curious about this, find me tomorrow (or online) for a chat! #isgs2025

Facial signals shape predictions about the nature of upcoming conversational responses - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Facial signals shape predictions about the nature of upcoming conversational responses

This study is a follow-up on our recent publication in Scientific Reports:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Making the trip up to Nijmegen again today for @isgs2025.bsky.social! Stop by today's poster session to see some new data on conversational expectations elicited by facial signals.

@judithholler.bsky.social
#isgs2025

Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia

Our demands, see link

Hello & HAPPY FRIDAY, as promised an open letter by my lovely colleagues and myself. Everybody, feel free to sign this even if you are not NL-based and ‼️ share ‼️ (anonymous signature is poss):

Open Letter: Stop the Uncritical Adoption of AI Technologies in Academia

openletter.earth/open-letter-...

[Dyslexia] Emmendorfer et al.: "This is the first study to simultaneously assess neural sensitivity to phonological and temporal regularities in Dutch adult dyslexic readers and highlights distinct change detection for different sublexical features." doi.org/10.1016/j.cl...

Strike in Amsterdam June 10!

The Dutch cabinet may have fallen, but the future of higher education in the Netherlands is still uncertain. We need to let the caretaker government and all the political parties know that the recently adopted budget with its drastic cuts to higher ed cannot stand...

“Neurophysiological responses to phonological and temporal regularities in speech in dyslexic and typical readers” by Alexandra K. Emmendorfer, Bernadette M. Jansma, Sonja A. Kotz and Milene Bonte (May ’25) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

🚨 New Paper!

Final chapter of my PhD at @maastrichtu.bsky.social is now (finally) out in Clinical Neurophysiology!

doi.org/10.1016/j.cl...

The book "seven and a half lessons about the brain" by Lisa Feldman Barrett

The book my toddler brought me to read this morning. Like mother like son? (He left to play with his cars as soon as I started reading)

🟥 CALL FOR A NATIONAL STRIKE - June 10 🟥

A week ago, we stood together on the Vrijthof to defend our universities.

On Friday, the cabinet announced its plans to cut another 400 million a year from primary and secondary education. Yesterday, the minister confirmed he will force universities...

Left: Four different avatars were used (two female avatars: AF1, AF2; and two male avatars: AM1, AM2) along with two real human observers (HF1, HM1). For privacy considerations, pictures of real human observers (HF1, HM1 in the top-right human panel) were replaced with AI-generated images which were created by using the AI Human Images. Right: Amygdala response to feedback uncertainty explains differential risk-taking in avatar and human conditions. Upper panel: Whole-brain subtraction analysis comparing avatar and human observer conditions revealed lower amygdala activity in the avatar condition. Peak activity was identified in the central amygdala. Lower panel: To find brain regions associated with differential valuation of feedback uncertainty the authors weighted differential activity correlated with feedback uncertainty (avatar–human) by the differential behavioral coefficient for feedback uncertainty. A significant correlation was observed in the central amygdala, with an FWE-corrected p-value of 0.039 at the peak.

How does our brain process interactions with an #avatar compared to another human being? This study shows that feedback from an avatar increases #RiskTaking behavior in humans and is associated with lower activity in the #amygdala & ventral #striatum @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3S3Esmw

For all the talk of avoiding academic conferences in US, it must also be recognised that if you host a conference in the UK this is no longer a safe place for trans people to be.

The march is underway. The crowd has left Vrijthof and is making its way through the city center.

The message: our region's economy is at risk! UM is the largest employer in Limburg. Citizens hold also a stake in defending all other educational institutions against these cuts!

#WOinActie

Higher education institutions in Maastricht are on strike today to protest destructive cuts of more than 1 billion €. These cuts will impact our research, teaching quality, and our unique position as a border region university. To Minister Bruins we say: HANDS OFF our higher education! #WOinACTIE

🟥 Maastricht University is on strike today to protest devastating cuts in higher ed 🟥

👉 Show up @ Vrijthof @ 12:30!
👉 Bring your colleagues!
👉 Post your photos & tag us!
👉 Help us to spread the word - share this post!

#WOinACTIE #DefendMaastrichtUniversity #KabinetSlooptHogerOnderwijs #StakingHO

Maastricht University strikes against the higher education budget cuts today (@woinactielimburg.bsky.social). The strike day kicks off with guest lectures by UM staff at high schools.

Follow the news troughout the day in our liveblog:

www.observantonline.nl/english/Home...

cover image of the protest song Eppo Ciao (which is Bella Ciao reimagined in Dutch regarding the minister of education Eppo Bruins and his terrible budget cuts) with fists raised in protest, giving the date of the relay strike in Maastricht (April 16)

Saturday morning listening recommendation: "Eppo Ciao" protest song performed by the UM choir: tinyurl.com/yc6jk3ws

The choir will do a live session on April 16 at the Vrijthof podium in Maastricht. Sing with us & join the protest!

Special thanks and credits to the UM choir: www.umchoir.com

A thread:

We know a lot of colleagues and students still doubting to strike. Here is why it matters:

Imagine a long row of dominoes, perfectly aligned. The first one stands at the edge – seemingly insignificant on its own. But once it falls, a chain reaction becomes inevitable.

See the program below for @maastrichtu.bsky.social's strike day April 16th!
#WOinActie

Next week on April 16th I am joining many colleagues and students at @maastrichtu.bsky.social to strike against the budget cuts to higher education.
Read and sign our letter of support here: www.supportscienceandeducation.com
See you on the Vrijthof!
#woinactie 🟥

The abstract submission deadline for ICAC 2025 has been extended to the 11th of April!
Check the webpage for links and relevant information

www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/icac2025/int...

Eyebrow movements as signals of communicative problems in human face-to-face interaction | Royal Society Open Science Repair is a core building block of human communication, allowing us to address problems of understanding in conversation. Past research has uncovered the basic mechanisms by which interactants signal ...

Eyebrow movements as signals of communicative problems in human face-to-face interaction. New paper by Paul Hömke, Stephen C. Levinson, Alexandra K. Emmendorfer & @judithholler.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241632

This is not intended as a brag btw, the key to submitting 5 first-author manuscripts in a couple of months is to fail to submit them in a more timely manner years ago.

The abstract submission and registration for ICAC 2025 in Maastricht is now open!

www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/icac2025/int...

Pictures of Lise Meitner Group leaders: Sofie Valk, Flore Kunst, Anna-Maria Meister, Maria Sokolova, Heidi Colleran, Nathalie Feiner und Ulrike Kraft.

A new round of the Lise Meitner Excellence Program for #tenuretrack group leaders opened today - please consider applying! The program aims to recruit and promote exceptionally qualified female scientists. www.mpg.de/lise-meitner... #LiseMeitnerGroups #WomeninScience #ScienceCareer