Workshop on Spatial Cognition and Spatial Communication in Ageing. We invite submissions for this international workshop on all aspects of spatial communication and spatial cognition development and change throughout the lifespan. www.istc.cnr.it/en/media/eve...

The 10th International Conference of the Scandinavian Association for Language and Cognition (SALC10)

We invite proposals for oral presentation sessions as part of SALC10: www.salc-sssk.org www.salc10.com at Umeå University, June 23-25, 2026.

In the new paper, Line Kruse shows how prediction of depression for the DCT replicates across languages, including English, Italian, Spanish, German, Filipino and Russian. Chinese was the odd one out, potentially due to small sample size (4/4).

Inferring Depression and Its Semantic Underpinnings from Simple Lexical Choices Spatial demonstratives are highly frequent linguistic universals, with at least two contrastive expressions (proximal (“this”) vs. distal (“that”)) indicating physical, social, or functional proximit...

Line Kruse has previously shown how the semantic response structure for the DCT can be used to predict depression of participants (3/4). onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/...

The Demonstrative Choice Task is a simple taske where participants are shown words word and for each given a simple choice between "this" or "that". The task has no right or wrong responses, but across participants, we find highly structured behaviour: www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

This and that in depression: Cross-linguistic semantic effects Demonstratives (in English “this” and “that”) are pivotal to human communication, facilitating joint attention and the establishment of a common ground of reference. All languages have at least two fo...

In our new paper Line Kruse shows that The Demonstrative Choice Task (DCT) can be used to predict depression across a number of languages. dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

<em>Psychophysiology</em> | SPR Journal | Wiley Online Library We investigate how inner speech may be involved in evoking emotion with important implications for theories on stress and rumination. In two preregistered experiments, we show that emotional inner sp...

Work with Line Kruse, Xinyi Yan, Paula Samide, Anja F. Meerwald, David T. Fjendbo & Johanne S.K. Nedergaard Published in Psychophysiology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... (5/5)

Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no difference between positive and negative inner speech. Heart rate variability analyses suggest both an upregulation of sympathetic and down-regulation of parasympathetic responses are involved in the increased heart rate. (4/5)

We applied motion tracking, measures of respiration and articulatory subarticulation to rule out confounding effects. They all had an effect on the heart rate signal, but removing these effects did not remove the effect of emotional inner speech. (3/5)

We asked participants to talk to themselves in either a positive self-encouraging manner, in a negative self-degrading manner or to perform inner counting as a neutral control condition. We found that both positive and negative inner speech resulted in an increased heart rate of 1-2 BPM.. (2/5)

Heart talk! Does emotional inner speech have a direct influence on cadiac physiology? Across two experiments we test to see if emotional inner speech alters heart rate. The short version is: Yes! It does. (1/5)

Evidence for inner speech in reading!?

Vascular draining confounds laminar decoding in fMRI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08....

Nothing in life is either good or bad. It is only judged against its alternative that you can see how valuable free speech is.

In our new preprint we show (and replicate) that emotional inner speech leads to increased heart rate relative to non-emotional inner speech, while controlling for movement. With Line Kruse, Xinyi Yan, Paula Samide, Anja F. Meerwald, David T. Fjendbo & Johanne S.K. Nedergaard osf.io/preprints/ps...

Gesture Reduces Mapping Difficulties in the Development of Spatial Language Depending on the Complexity of Spatial Relations In spoken languages, children acquire locative terms in a cross-linguistically stable order. Terms similar in meaning to in and on emerge earlier than those similar to front and behind, followed by l...

New paper out !!Children use spatial gestures to complement speech more for complex than simpler spatial relations - gestures might reduce mapping difficulties of complex spatial concepts to arbitrary speech symbols - in Cognitive Science !! @ercenurunal.bsky.social @dilaykaradoller @beyzasumer

Our Ready to Connect (eigsti.psy.uconn.edu/home-2/ready...) project is hiring a postdoc (at UConn): eigsti.psy.uconn.edu/open-postdoc...

We investigate conversational success in autistic and non-autistic teenagers during realistic social interactions. Ideal start date: May 15, 2025

PhD call: Investigate how spatial language and mental body maps are modulated by ageing. Behavioral exps and f/MRI & MEG used to map the structural and functional variability of brain regions known to be involved in linguistic and non-linguistic spatial processing.
Deadline 15 March.

A study with 5M+ data points explores the link between cognitive parameters and socioeconomic outcomes: The stability of processing speed was the strongest predictor.

BayesFlow facilitated efficient inference for complex decision-making models, scaling Bayesian workflows to big data.

🔗Paper

We have a new reproduction. Siepe et al. reproduce: "A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of the acoustic features of infant-directed speech" by Cox et al. @naturehumbehav.bsky.social. Full report below.

We are looking for a Phd student for a project on modeling second language learning using adaptive cognitive tutors.

Please share with anyone who might be interested! phd.arts.au.dk/applicants/o...

PhD position to work on the neural correlates of spatial communication at Aarhus University and in a European Training Network. Please pass on. Deadline 15 March.
phd.arts.au.dk/applicants/o...

Across nine single participant experiments, we investigated if emotional inner speech influences vascular physiology (heart rate and blood pressure) relative to a number of control conditions (inner speech rate, respiration, cognitive load and muscle tension. And it does. Next step: group studies.

My system is to keep browser tabs open until my laptop crashes and then start over.

Systematic Review and Meta‐Analyses Reveal no Gender Difference in Neonatal Social Perception Women score higher than men on measures of social cognition such as empathy and reading non-verbal cues. How early does this gender difference emerge? Systematic review and meta-analyses were used to...

Just published! "Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses Reveal No Gender Difference in Neonatal Social Perception"
doi.org/10.1111/sode...

I agree, but it also becomes a very wide definition. Another definition could be to preserve the term for the cells that seem to have it as their primary function to process information and control other cells, i.e. neurons and perhaps hormonal glands. But it may be an artificial distinction.

My neurocentric definition: "Cognition is a set of processes in a larger collection of cells, the organism, enabled by a subset of cells called neurons. The aim of cognition is to prevent the organism from falling into decay. The assumption is that neurons accomplish this by processing information."

In and between all cells?

Does it have to be in the brain?