Our recent publication, 'Mechanisms underpinning the mental health impact of arts engagement', has made it onto the cover of Nature Reviews Psychology! 🎨
🔍 Find that article and explore more of our research in our Research paper library: sbbresearch.org/research-pap...
Very important and brilliant paper! 👍
Very important and interesting paper! We recently have an accordant work in which we tried to decompose the aesthetic experience as low dimensions and revealed relevant neural signatures. It will be published soon :)
New from our @cognizelab.bsky.social in Advanced Science:
Beneath the Big Five, personality consistently organises into two dimensions, each with distinct brain signatures.
Amazing work by postdoc @kaixiangzhuang.bsky.social and thanks to all our collaborators! doi.org/10.1002/advs...
Are you thinking about acquiring multi-task fMRI for your study but don’t know where to start?
@bassel_arafat
just published a toolbox to optimally select tasks and run them in the MRI scanner - with many commonly used tasks ready to go! Check out the preprint below 👇
Pycortex, our awesome brain viewer software, has a major new feature! Thanks to the hard work of Dr. Matteo Visconti and Aditya Vaidya, Pycortex now supports headless webgl viewers! You can create 3D inflated plots without needing a display, and in Jupyter notebooks!
gallantlab.org/pycortex/aut...
Voxelwise Encoding Models (VEMs) are a great framework for modeling fMRI data, but it can be difficult to implement. We've made VEM accessible by providing software, tutorials and reviews that guide its use an implementation. Get it here:
gallantlab.org/blog/2025-12...
#neuroscience, #neuroimaging
@russpoldrack.org's guidelines for AI-assisted coding can help researchers ensure the integrity of their work while accelerating progress on important scientific questions.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/artificial-i...
screenshot of my post
Big new blogpost!
My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.
--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
Due to popular demand, here is a visualisation of the custom "maze" algorithm we used to uncover gradients along the cortical surface.
🧠 New paper alert (the 1st one from our new lab)!
Led by 1st author & VR wizard @jaquent.bsky.social
@natcomms.nature.com
How do our brains distinguish novel from familiar places as we explore our environments, e.g., a new city?
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
🧵 Thread below with key findings ⬇️
Conceptual Roadmap of the present study. To examine the relationship between the metabolic costs of visual processing and aesthetic pleasure, we used both computational and physiological measures to quantify metabolic costs during visual processing: 1. Model-derived estimates of metabolic costs based on the activation of a deep neural network; 2. Metabolic activity of human brains, specifically in the visual processing areas. We found that both measures were inversely related to aesthetic pleasure.
Energy efficiency drives evolution, and humans may have evolved pleasure-based signals to optimize actions. Does this extend to aesthetic pleasure?
Yes!
Strong evidence in silico and humans, out in PNAS Nexus:
tinyurl.com/3kbu8xw4
With Yikai Tang and Wil Cunningham.
@uoftpsychology.bsky.social
Best practices for using Jupyter notebooks russpoldrack.substack.com/p/best-pract... - the latest in my Better Code, Better Science series
What makes visual stimuli memorable? Wilma Bainbridge, @keisukefukuda.bsky.social, Lore Goetschalckx, and I investigate the role of processing fluency for memorability in a new review paper in Nature Reviews Psychology. Check it out!
rdcu.be/eSyjz
The special issue celebrating John Duncan's retirement is now out! Check out all the gem articles here:
sciencedirect.com/special-issue/10QN6R7VQSM
and the editorial (see next figure in the thread for an entertaining analysis)
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
Submissions are now open!
The 2026 IAEA Congress invites researchers, scholars, and artists from different domains and countries to present and share empirical research on aesthetics, creativity, and the psychology and neurobiology of the arts and aesthetics.
View from your office onto Giessen and surrounding villages.
Please repost! I am looking for a PhD candidate in the area of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience to start in early 2026.
The position is funded as part of the Excellence Cluster "The Adaptive Mind" at @jlugiessen.bsky.social.
Please apply here until Nov 25:
www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
📣 New Paper Alert!
My PhD student Hannah Ovadia and I wrote a concise update on “The Role of the Default Mode Network (DMN) in Aesthetic Appeal” to synthesize evidence, highlight issues, and most importantly, consider theoretical alternatives.
Free access:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lz-h8MqMi...
Welcome to the IAEA Aesthetics Conference 2026 in Jena!
We are delighted to announce that the International Association for Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA) will hold its next international conference in Jena, Germany, from 5th to 8th May.
Discover more at iaea-jena2026.org (link in bio)
APA Monitor article on what happens in the brain when we view art
www.apa.org/monitor/2025...
#neuroaesthetics
Out today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Very nice meta-analysis of the neural correlates of negative aesthetic judgments from Zaira Cattaneo's lab.
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
New opinion paper linking the brain’s DMN response to cognitive transitions during narratives and task-switching; by Ashley Zhou, John Duncan and Daniel Mitchell: doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
Massive congrats to @neocosmliang.bsky.social for receiving the #OHBM Merit Award for his work on “the domain general neural signature of perceived object beauty”🌹 #ECR @ohbmtrainees.bsky.social
@cognizelab.bsky.social
✨ Thrilled to Host PREMIER's Inaugural Seminar! ✨
What an honor to welcome @choongwanwoo.bsky.social Ben Becker, Zhou Feng and their brilliant teams for the very first PREMIER: Predictive Modeling in Emotion & Cognition Research seminar at ISTBI, Fudan University! 🧠💡
@cognizelab.bsky.social
🎉 Excited to share our latest work!!!
