A 2D Gabor-wavelet baseline model out-performs a 3D surface model in scene-responsive cortex Author summary To gain a more complete picture of human visual processing, it is critical to understand the precise format of representations of naturalistic visual scenes. Recent work has approached ...

Excited that this work with @serences.bsky.social and @timbrady.bsky.social is now out! Our Gabor-wavelet model better predicted voxel responses in scene regions than 3D models. Does this mean that scene areas aren’t “for” processing 3D scene structure? NO, we argue. 1/
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

How do hippocampal pathways contribute to learning regularities and exceptions?

To answer this, Melisa Gumus & @drmack.bsky.social use diffusion imaging to identify the endpoints of different hippocampal pathways, and then analyze functional activity within those "footprints". Super innovative!

It won't actually exist for another month or so, but because it now 'exists' on amazon, I'll humbly observe that, after working through this book, your student/trainee would be able to read and understand all but two or three papers in this week's J. Neurosci. Check it out:

Wanna compare dynamics across neural data, RNNs, or dynamical systems? We got a fast and furious method🏎️
The 1st preprint of my PhD 🥳 fast dynamical similarity analysis (fastDSA):
📜: arxiv.org/abs/2511.22828
💻: github.com/CMC-lab/fast...
I’ll be @cosynemeeting.bsky.social - happy to chat 😉

New preprint from the lab!

Illustration of the hypothesized flows of information between perception, memory and cognitive control in a conceptual model of working memory. Stimuli attributes are processed to varying degrees of abstraction and parts of these representations can be loaded into working memory under the guidance of cognitive control. Familiar stimuli such as the letter B activate visually abstract representations while less familiar stimuli are limited to sensory representations. Information can be shifted both up and down levels of the perceptual hierarchy to build either more or less abstract representations of either perceived or imagined stimuli. Working memories can be shifted into or out of the hierarchy as needed.

We recently published a theoretical review about how compositional and generative mechanisms in working memory provide a flexible engine for creative perception and imagery.

Pre-print:
osf.io/preprints/ps...

Paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Sensory reformatting for a working visual memory A core function of visual working memory (WM) is to sustain mental representations of recent visual inputs, thereby bridging moments of experience. This is thought to occur in part by recruiting early...

new paper in TICS officially out today. great learning from and writing with Anastasia, and super cool cover art from Prof. Pinar Yoldas.
www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Distributed and drifting signals for working memory load in human cortex Increasing working memory (WM) load incurs behavioral costs, and whether the neural constraints on behavioral costs are localized (i.e., emanating from the intraparietal sulcus) or distributed across ...

New pre-print day! Distributed and drifting signals for working memory load in human cortex 🧠 (with Ed Awh & @serences.bsky.social)

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

Near-random connections support top-down feature-based attentional modulations in early sensory cortex Author summary In everyday life, we focus on what matters—like finding our car keys on a messy desk—by sending signals from higher control brain areas to earlier sensory brain areas. These “top-down” ...

I gave a talk in 2009 about feature-based attention and a famous vision scientist asked how top down signals from PFC could possibly target the right sensory neurons. The best I could do was "uh, dunno". sunyoungp.bsky.social has a much more thoughtful answer journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Attention Alters Population Spatial Frequency Tuning Spatial frequency (SF) selectivity serves as a fundamental building block within the visual system, determining what we can and cannot see. Attention is theorized to augment the visibility of items in...

Cool new paper from @luisdr.bsky.social, Feiyi Wang, and Sam Ling on the impact of attention on spatial frequency processing: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/2...

Come chat with me about visual working memory and sensory recruitment this Tuesday! Work with the fabulous @kirsten-adam.bsky.social and @serences.bsky.social #VSS2025

Dynamic categorization rules alter representations in human visual cortex - Nature Communications This study shows that neural representations of shape stimuli in human visual cortex are adaptively modulated when participants switch between different variants of a categorization task, becoming mor...

How do we flexibly categorize objects under changing task requirements? Our new paper in Nature Communications (@serences.bsky.social & @nuttidanuttida.bsky.social) examines this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

see 🧵👇

Assistant Professor - Computational Mechanisms of Behavior (Department of Psychology) University of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now!

My department, Psychology at UC San Diego, just posted an assistant professor position focused on computational approaches to understanding behavior. Open area search, and more information can be found here: apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04049