Estherina Trachtenberg

I enjoyed writing this post for The Mental Elf about my favourite topic: the effects of social connection on physical health! I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you, dear @eimearfoley.bsky.social , for the opportunity.

Yessssss, I know that feeling

😳

Delighted to present our SOMs tutorial with fresh-out-of-print slides at @mrccbu.bsky.social Weekly Seminar today! Even better getting to present alongside @estherina.bsky.social 🙌

This Thursday (Feb 5th) we're hosting Dr. Salvador Durá-Bernal with a talk on “Large-scale biophysical models of neuronal circuits to study brain function and disease”.
Here's the registration link and the abstract:
cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Reminder that this is happening today.

New preprint 🎉 Psych constructs are complex. Symptoms overlap, people rarely fit neat categories, and patterns are non-linear. Most methods compromise this richness. Self-Organising Maps don't. We provide a step-by-step tutorial with annotated R code to make them accessible.

doi.org/10.31234/osf...

🚨new work with the dream team @danakarca.bsky.social @loopyluppi.bsky.social @fatemehhadaeghi.bsky.social @stuartoldham.bsky.social @duncanastle.bsky.social
We use game theory and show the brain is not optimally wired for communication and there’s more to its story:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Incredibly gorgeous figures 🤩🤩👏👏

Researchers from MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties. Find out more in the BBC article 👉 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl6klez226o

Happy LGBTQ+STEM Day! To mark the occasion, LGBTQ+ and ally scientists alike introduced our new pride flag to the @mrccbu.bsky.social

We are excited to announce #COGNESTIC 2026 @mrccbu.bsky.social in Cambridge, between 14-25 Sep 2026. Our 2-week summer school provides training in state-of-the-art methods for open neuroimaging analysis and great opportunities for professional networking:
www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/events/cogne...

🤘👏

Congratulations 👏🎉

🚨 We’re hiring: Associate Professor/Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

🧠 Lead pioneering imaging-informed cognitive neuroscience research
🌍 Open to international applicants | Visa sponsorship available
📍 Permanent, full-time, on-site
🔗 Apply now: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Assimilation-induced dehumanization: Psychology research uncovers a dark side effect of AI As AI becomes more empathetic, a surprising psychological shift occurs. New research finds that interacting with emotionally intelligent machines can make us see real people as more machine-like, subtly eroding our respect for humanity.

Assimilation-induced dehumanization: Psychology research uncovers a dark side effect of AI

Image of an old building in Oxford with the heading 'postdoc opportunities' and the text 'computational approaches to improve rare disease diagnosis and treatment' and 'Big Data Institute, University of Oxford'

📣 We are recruiting! Please share!!

Are you a bioinformatician / computational scientist who wants to apply your skills to understanding regulatory biology and improving rare disease diagnosis and treatment? 🧠 💻 🧬 🩺

We have two roles available 👇

🧵 1/4

Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health - Nature Mental Health Using a relatively large and diverse sample of mostly young adults, this study by Banellis, Rebollo and colleagues examines associations between regional stomach–brain coupling and mental health and i...

I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!

📣 We are expanding! Repost 🙏🏽

- Postdoc (funded by @simonsfoundation.org grant on synchronisation between cognitive representations and stepping)
- Project Associates
- Create your role! (Reach out if you are keen on these topics and these roles do not define you 👀🤗)

www.neuroact.in

Brain wiring economics, network organisation and population-level genomics Abstract. What role do our genes play in shaping the structural organisation of the living human brain? Across a sample of 2,153 children (9–11 years old), we address this question, focusing on common...

*New Paper* How genes for IQ shape brain organisation. Amazing work led by Alicja Monaghan @mrccbu.bsky.social reveals 2 ways. First, they’re associated w/ the ‘costs’ of network formation. Second, they define ‘high value’ areas within the network. How she did it…🧵
doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
-Dalai Lama

home sweet home
catch you on the other side🌈🎶🌲😊

I'm hiring 2+ 2.5-year postdocs over the next few months.

Job 1: looking for someone with deep expertise in computational modelling (reinforcement learning, agent based modelling) on real-world/complex data (closing: 18 August, starting: October-December), www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/52059/

So delighted to be a Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychology, Sapienza University. Many thanks to my sponsor @giusiporciello.bsky.social and @scnl-agliotilab.bsky.social. If you are in Rome come to my seminar!

An illustration of a young girl in silhouette with a ponytail, standing against a fiery orange and red background. Over her figure is a handwritten quote in white text that reads: “The wicked become even worse when they are tolerated.” – Tolstoy. The intense backdrop and the child's silhouette create a haunting, powerful visual emphasizing the quote's message about the dangers of complacency toward evil.

❤️🤍💙

Excellent paper by the amazing @idoshal.bsky.social 👏☺️

Alert! ... for the child development world!

@fluxsociety.bsky.social @fitngin.bsky.social ‪

The Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study has released its first data wave - it’s massive.

Check here:
docs.hbcdstudy.org

and here:
nbdc-datahub.org

Here’s why it matters 🧠🍼

Highly recommend working with Julie!!! An incredible researcher and, more importantly, a fantastic human being!!

The Cognitive Computational Neuroscience conference is in Amsterdam this year, but you don't have to go that far to attend. Local meetups/watch parties are being organized all over, including the one I'm hosting in New York!

Check them out and register (free!) here 👇
#neuroskyence #compneurosky