@languagemit.bsky.social

Remember Chomsky's arguments about language innateness based on its putative un-learnability? Those arguments hinge on a pretty crazy theory of grammar. Here is Ted Gibson's summary of the original claims and a proposed solution in the form of dependency grammar:
tinyurl.com/yzjrpbb8

New 🦍 💭 paper in @psychscience.bsky.social

We continue to ask simple questions that are hard to answer

"Individual Differences in Great Ape Cognition Across Time and Domains: Stability, Structure, and Predictability"

Bonus: Rasch models in the supplement 🤓

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Yay, go Jacob!!

To accompany my textbook (Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience) and the class I taught this semester, I'm open-sourcing my lectures slides:
gershmanlab.com/lectures.html
I'll continue to update these as I improve them.

An opposing molecular gradient axis underlies primate cortical organization The principles organizing cellular diversity and connectivity in primate brains remain elusive. By integrating spatial transcriptomics, magnetic resonance imaging, and retrograde labeling in marmosets, we identified two opposing molecular gradients that ...

“An axis in primate brains links molecular profiles to anatomical & functional architecture, offering a precise biological basis for delineating cortical boundaries, elucidating cortical-subcortical relationships, characterizing functional networks, & identifying species specific specializations.”👇🧪

Recent news from SQI: April 2026 From automating developmental neuroscience studies to facilitating LLM "brainstorming" sessions, this spring, the MIT Siegel Family Quest for Intelligence supported research across neuroscience, AI, a...

Recent news on automating developmental neuroscience studies, facilitating LLM "brainstorming" sessions, and studying how language is implemented in biological and artificial systems.
@evfedorenko.bsky.social @gretatuckute.bsky.social @halieolson.bsky.social
sqi.mit.edu/news/recent-...

A week ago, @nature.com published a very special issue on reliable research in the social and behavioral sciences. It features four papers that look at reproducibility, robustness and replicability and represents an amazing amount of work. Check it out here: www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Really excited about our new work on aphasia! Even in fairly profound aphasia, we can recover semantic maps through visual stimuli and use them to decode language. This is a big step! Language BCIs in aphasia might be possible!

The Causality in Cognition Lab -- a supportive, bluesky-colored team -- is looking for a predoc to join us! Here are infos about the lab (cicl.stanford.edu) and the position (careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/iriss-p...). The application deadline is May 1st.

Please share, thank you 🙏

I finally got to watch this stunningly clear explanation of transformers from the amazing Idan Blank. I agree with Ev, Idan is the best teacher I know. This lecture is a gift to the field. Thank you Idan!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...

Flyer with information about the Genetics & Neurobiology of Language summer course at Cold Spring Harbor, held on July 27th to August 3rd 2026, applications due by April 10th 2026. Instructors are Simon Fisher from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands, David Poeppel from New York University and Kate Watkins from the University of Oxford, UK. The course description is as follows: Why are children able to acquire highly sophisticated language abilities without needing to be taught? What are the neurobiological and neurophysiological processes that underpin human speech and language, and how do they go awry in developmental and acquired disorders? Which genetic factors contribute to this remarkable suite of human skills, and are there evolutionary precursors that we can study in other species? This unique CSHL course, in its sixth iteration, addresses these core questions about the bases and origins of speech and language, through talks, interactive sessions, keynotes and debates, involving leading experts from a range of disciplines. It integrates the state-of-the-art from complementary perspectives, including development, cognitive models, neural basis, gene identification, functional genomics, model systems and comparative/evolutionary studies. The invited speakers are: Jennifer Below, Vanderbilt University Elika Bergelson, Harvard University Esti Blanco-Elorrieta, New York University Jonathan Brennan, University of Michigan Karen Emmorey, San Diego State University Evelina Fedorenko, MIT Julia Fischer, Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, Germany Tecumseh Fitch, University of Vienna, Austria Adeen Flinker, NYU Langone Timothy Gentner, University of California, San Diego Liberty Hamilton, UC Berkeley Catherine Hobaiter, Wild Minds Lab, University of St. Andrews, UK Sonja Vernes, The University of St. Andrews, UK Sandra Waxman, Northwestern University For funding opportunities and additional course information, please go to: meetings.cshl.edu/courses

“An absolute highlight of my career so far. Academically, I was challenged, provoked, & inspired. I loved how much discussion & thought we packed in, broadening my outlook on the study of language.” Kind words from an alumnus of our summer course. Apply by April 10: meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...

New paper led by @jsrozner.bsky.social proposing and validating a way of studying LM representations as conduits for learning. Infect a model by training it on an adversarial example and trace the impacts on behavior. This has lots of perks explained in Josh's thread.

Are you going to #HSP2026? CLiMBLab is! We hope to see you there. Check out our posters and talks below (chronological order):

1/5

Cosyne 2026 - Cosyne Tutorial: Comparative Analysis of Neural Population Codes YouTube video by Cosyne Talks

Cosyne invited me to give a long tutorial (4 hours!) on methods to quantify differences high-d neural recordings across animals, brain regions, deep neural nets, etc.

The recording is up on youtube. I hope it inspires more research on this fundamental topic!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n44x...

From maybe the best teacher I know: Idan Blank explains transformers in a super intuitive and fun way!

How Transformers Work: A Detailed, Conceptual Explanation (No Coding / Math) YouTube video by IbanDlank

Idan Blank (UCLA, psych) makes the complex intuitive
if you want to learn how LLMs work, watch👇
newly posted to YouTube (no ads)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGMn...

I think Fodor & Pylyshyn's 1988 paper is possibly the most mischaracterized paper in the history of cognitive science. It's often cited as arguing that neural networks cannot achieve systematicity, compositionality, and productivity. But that's not what they actually argue...

On Saturday, @itsneuronal.bsky.social will be kindly presenting our work on "Modulating Cross-Modal Convergence with Single-Stimulus, Intra-Modal Dispersion."
📍 Poster 3-194.
a collaboration with @thisismyhat.bsky.social and
@evfedorenko.bsky.social. Be sure to stop by their poster and say hi :)

Excited to share these two works at @cosynemeeting.bsky.social !

On Friday, Jack King presents his work on "Representational curvature shapes uncertainty in large language models."
📍 Poster 2-223
Done in collaboration with
@evfedorenko.bsky.social. 🧵👇

Congratulations @judithfan.bsky.social on winning the Lila R. Gleitman Prize for early-career contributions to Cognitive Science 🥳 Amazing!!

cognitivesciencesociety.org/gleitman-pri...

​​UMD LEAD Lab Manager Ad The Language, Experience, and Development (LEAD) lab at the University of Maryland, College Park, directed by Dr. Rachel Romeo (she/her/hers), is seeking a lab manager. Expected start date is early su...

I am hiring a new lab manager for the @umdleadlab.bsky.social to start this summer! Job ad and link to apply here. Please re-post and share with your seniors, and/or anyone else who would be a good fit! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

📢 PhD position in the NeuroAI of Language

Why can LLMs predict brain activity so well? We're hiring a PhD student to find out -- AI interpretability meets neuroimaging
Deadline March 20
Please RT 🙏
👇
mpi.nl/career-education/vacancies/vacancy/fully-funded-4-year-phd-position-neuroai-language

Group photograph of faculty and participants of the very first Cold Spring Harbor summer course on Genetics and Neurobiology of Language in 2014, taken as the sun was going down at the Banbury Campus, Lloyd Harbor.

Please tell friends & colleagues about our unique course “Genetics & Neurobiology of Language” July 27-Aug 3 2026. Expert tutors, interactive talks, panel discussions, all in a beautiful setting. Scholarships available: meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...
@cshlnews.bsky.social @cshlbanbury.bsky.social

❤️

So proud and honored to have shared the floor with amazing women scientists for a panel discussion on Women in Neuroscience at NYU Abu Dhabi. It’s appalling to see that no matter where you are, women in science face the same big challenges. But changes are happening and we now have each other 💪

Go Jingnan!!

I am thrilled to share that I’ll be joining the University of Notre Dame (@notredame.bsky.social) as an Assistant Professor of Psychology this July!☘️🧠 Please reach out if you're interested in joining my lab! More details to follow soon.

Soon hiring a lab manager! Looking for someone who is really interested in language neuroscience, who is organised, motivated, a great communicator, and who works well in a research team. Express interest by submitting this form: tinyurl.com/glysn-labman...

Reposts appreciated!

Trump Drops Demand for Cash From Harvard After Stiff Resistance

Fighting wins!
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...