Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovStress & Cognition Group @stresscognition.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Thanks to a great team effort with Taly Markovits, Neomi Singer, @ayab.bsky.social , and Talma Hendler, as well as a smooth & insightful review process! @elsevierconnect.bsky.social 011
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovChristopher Honey @chrishoney.bsky.social · 16/09/20261/ How do we sustain mental continuity in the face of interruption? @xianl-explorer.bsky.social found that, while people listen to a story, posterior medial cortex expresses a slowly evolving "background" representation of the story's context, which survived through silence and interfering tasks. 26828
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovMariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 04/09/2026How do we prevent memories from competing to guide attention? More distinct hippocampal representations for competing memories are linked to precise preparatory coding in visual cortex & more accurate eye movements to target locations. Thrilled to share this work by the incomparable Serra Favila!nature.comHippocampal mechanisms underlying the resolution of competition in memory and perception - Nature CommunicationsMemory and perception both require selecting behaviorally relevant information. Here, the authors show that more distinct hippocampal memories are linked to precise anticipatory signals in visual cort... 310844
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovZach Reagh @zreagh.bsky.social · 11/08/2026Check out Adi’s new paper! In our Key Moments Adventures, we previously found they’re kinda-sorta correlated with event boundaries. We wanted to know just how kinda-sorta, and importantly, we went to great lengths to equate the way the two constructs were measured. Read on 😎 0112
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovRayna Tang @raynatang.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Excited to share that my first-ever first-author paper (w/ @atabk.bsky.social @AngeliqueDelarazan @zreagh.bsky.social) is now out in PNAS! Building a story to link two objects boosts associative memory and inference, but not memory for the objects themselves. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵pnas.orgActive linking through narratives facilitates associative inference | PNASIn daily life, we often draw inferences about novel associations from prior experiences. This ability, associative inference, is thought to be a ke... 39833
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovJuan Linde-Domingo @lindedomingo.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Replay of procedural memory is independent of the hippocampus 👀👀 www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comReplay of procedural memory is independent of the hippocampus - Nature NeuroscienceThompson, Rollik and colleagues show that, during sleep, the brain replays procedural memories in the striatum independently of the hippocampus. Replay content was shaped by prior reward and error out... 18126
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovInternational Conference On Memory 26-30 July 2027 in Glasgow @icom-memory.bsky.social · 28/04/2026🧠 ICOM is back! The International Conference on Memory (ICOM7) returns 26–30 July 2027 in Glasgow, bringing together researchers from neuroscience, psychology, and beyond. 🔗 Learn more and sign-up for the newsletter here: icom-memory.org #ICOM7 #MemoryResearch #Neuroscience #Psychology 07539
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovMariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 02/04/2026The Memory Disorders Research Society (www.memorydisorders.org) is now seeking nominations for new members! Self-nominations are welcome. Application is open until April 15 @ 11:59pm PT. Reach out if you have questions about the society or its (amazing) annual meeting! forms.gle/Qn7mchoPpaqL...memorydisorders.orgMDRSMDRS is a professional society dedicated to the study of memory. Members engage in basic and clinical research into how memory works and why it fails. 13217
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovMariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 24/03/2026How do the brain’s event representations change as we gain familiarity with an experience? Brain regions’ representations can become coarser or finer as events become familiar. Slow-timescale structure predicts memory. Excited to share this work w/ Narjes Al-Zahli & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social!jneurosci.orgRepeated Viewing of a Film Clip Changes Event Timescales in The BrainMany everyday experiences share a recurring structure: routines, familiar routes, rewatched films, and replayed songs. How do repeated encounters with such structure alter the brain’s representations ... 011240
Reposted by Aya Ben-Yakovbaror-shira.bsky.social @baror-shira.bsky.social · 11/02/2026Super thrilled to finally share the results of our team effort, from the lab of the one and only @ayab.bsky.social. Hopefully it will stir interesting discussions about how the brain balances continuity and segmentation 0186
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 11/02/2026And a huge thanks to the reviewers. With registered reports, they really become like collaborators, providing useful input from the earliest stages. 030
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 11/02/2026There is much more to explore regarding whether continuity and segmentation are independent processes or ends of a spectrum, so hopefully the paradigm will be useful for anyone interested in exploring this (getting serial dependence and segmentation to coexist in the same paradigm was not trivial) 100
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 11/02/20263. When dissociating boundaries from sensory change, two characteristic effects of boundaries on memory diverge: Higher associative memory at boundaries appears to be driven by sensory change. Reduced temporal order memory appears to be driven by "boundariness". 120
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 11/02/20262. Serial dependence is reduced even by boundaries that are signaled by *lack* of sensory change (suggesting it is affected by higher level event structure). 120
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 11/02/20261. In a pilot study and 2/3 registered main experiments, we find that event boundaries reduce serial dependence. 130
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 11/02/2026Excited to share a new paper spearheaded by the wonderful @baror-shira.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/bd8xdcum @erc.europa.eu @nathumbehav.nature.com We test the link between serial dependence (as an index of continuity) and event boundaries (indexing segmentation). A few key findings in the thread:tinyurl.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-026-02403-w 14926
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovMariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 02/09/2025How do the brain’s event representations change as we gain familiarity with an experience? Brain regions’ representations can become coarser or finer as event familiarity increases. Fine-tuning predicts memory recall. Excited to share this work with Narjes Al-Zahli & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social!biorxiv.orgRepeated Viewing of a Narrative Movie Changes Event Timescales in The BrainMany experiences occur repeatedly throughout our lives: we might watch the same movie more than once and listen to the same song on repeat. How does the brain modify its representations of events when... 112140
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovChris Baldassano @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Our new paper out in NHB! We started this back in @ptoncompmemlab.bsky.social's lab when I was a postdoc and Rolando was a grad student, showing that stable fMRI representations of places (learned in Rolando's custom-made VR world) provide the best anchors for later item learning 14114
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovNina Rouhani @ninarouhani.bsky.social · 24/10/2025I will be recruiting 🌟PhD students🌟 for my newish lab! If you're interested in learning & memory mechanisms applied to individual, interactive & collective behavior using computational modeling, real-world experiments and fMRI, email me! RTs much appreciated 🙏 rouhanilab.comrouhanilab.comInteractive Cognition Lab | USCInteractive Cognition Lab at USC, led by principal investigator, Dr. Nina Rouhani. 19378
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovChris Baldassano @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social · 16/09/2025What happens when we learn a new shortcut between places we thought were unconnected? Hannah found that the hippocampus rapidly adjusts its representations of environments to join them into a connected map - excited to share this final paper from her PhD work with me and @mariamaly.bsky.social ! 24110
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovBuddhika Bellana @buddhikabellana.bsky.social · 05/09/2025How might stories shed light on brain function? Check out this opinion piece by @alexbarnett.bsky.social and I about the DMN and "situation models" -- our understanding of the current "state of affairs" in a story (or even experience). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 35520
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovAlex Barnett @alexbarnett.bsky.social · 16/09/2025New preprint! My stellar undergrad, June Kim, & @charan-neuro.bsky.social find that intersubject pattern similarity at encoding (especially in posteromedial cortex) relates to shared/differing content between Ss at recall (measured using topic modeling) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...biorxiv.orgNatural language processing captures memory content associated with shared neural patterns at encodingPeople can experience the same event yet form distinct memories shaped by individual interpretations. Prior research shows that multivariate activity patterns in the Default Mode Network (DMN) are cor... 23810
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 15/09/2025It was such a pleasure to collaborate on this Dominika! 020
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 28/07/2025Over 450 scientists have signed and the list is growing. Israeli scientists - please consider adding your name. Even if it feels like you've signed a dozen letters, we need to keep the flame of opposition alive. 000
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovZach Reagh @zreagh.bsky.social · 28/04/2025Check out our new study by @atabk.bsky.social! He tweaked a word list memory task to have hidden rules at encoding, which shifted and created “event boundaries.” People recalled pre-boundary words more, and post-boundary words less. Other fun bits in the paper include a reinforcement learning model! 14110
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 21/04/2025An exciting new book by Nachum Ulanovsky that calls for a more ecological approach to neuroscience across disciplines, outlining the advances that make this possible. @mitpress.bsky.social 020
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovJeff Zacks @jzacks.bsky.social · 26/03/2025New preprint from Yining Ding (@liliand.bsky.social)! "Temporal order memory in naturalistic events is scaffolded by semantic knowledge and hierarchical event structure" osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 12010
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovOfer Perl @oferperl.bsky.social · 19/03/2025The craziest/loveliest part of departing from @ayab.bsky.social 's lab was this jaw dropping clip they made with KlingAI and a *single* photo of me. I guess this is what you get when you mess with masters of naturalistic stimuli 😱 Such a great gift and now the rest of the world can easily extort me 091
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovSebastian Michelmann @s-michelmann.bsky.social · 04/01/2025So happy that our paper on event segmentation in large language models is now out in Behavior Research Methods! tinyurl.com/2j76882b With @mtoneva.bsky.social, @ptoncompmemlab.bsky.social, and Manoj Kumar, we show that LLMs can segment narrative text into meaningful events similarly to humans.tinyurl.comLarge language models can segment narrative events similarly to humans - Behavior Research MethodsHumans perceive discrete events such as “restaurant visits” and “train rides” in their continuous experience. One important prerequisite for studying human event perception is the ability of researche... 37119
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 22/12/2024This is beautiful and heartbreaking. Thank you for sharing 010
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovHwamee Oh @hwameeoh.bsky.social · 28/11/2024Human hippocampal and entorhinal neurons encode the temporal structure of experience. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comHuman hippocampal and entorhinal neurons encode the temporal structure of experience - NatureSingle-neuron recordings from intracranial electrodes inserted into human brains for clinical reasons suggest that the temporal structure of human experience is encoded in human hippocampal and entorh... 0148
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovDeepu Murty @vpmurty.bsky.social · 23/11/2024I want to draw attention to a special issue that Lila Davachi and I put together to memorialize our friend and colleague Sarah DuBrow. It’s full of papers inspired by her work and her being from a group of collaborators, friends, and fans! Thanks @bradpostle.bsky.social for helping make this happen.tobradpostle.bsky.socialBluesky 614472
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovAnna Schapiro @annaschapiro.bsky.social · 25/11/2024Very excited that this paper led by @cybellesmith.bsky.social is now out in JoCN!! We show how humans and recurrent neural nets can learn statistics unfolding at multiple timescales rapidly and concurrently. direct.mit.edu/jocn/article...direct.mit.eduRapid Learning of Temporal Dependencies at Multiple TimescalesAbstract. Our environment contains temporal information unfolding simultaneously at multiple timescales. How do we learn and represent these dynamic and overlapping information streams? We investigate... 311131
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 17/11/2024Thanks for trying. This seems to be an issue others have encountered as well, not being able to add some people to starter packs despite finding them. I'll see if I can find a solution 100
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovMariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 30/09/2024Does encoding the present compete with predicting the future? Across 3 studies, we find that encoding and prediction are coupled, not competitive! Proud of co-first authors Craig Poskanzer & Hannah Tarder-Stoll, along w/ @raheemajavid.bsky.social & Edoardo Spolaore! osf.io/preprints/ps... 03617
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovNorman Lab @ptoncompmemlab.bsky.social · 09/04/2024Our paper on how blocked training supports learning of multiple schemas, with Andre Beukers, @collinsilvy.bsky.social, Ross Kempner, Nick Franklin, and @gershbrain.bsky.social, is now out in Communications Psychology! rdcu.be/dEeaG #neuroskyence #psychscisky 01711
Aya Ben-Yakov @ayab.bsky.social · 09/04/2024If you're going to be at #CNS2024 and are interested in event segmentation and serial dependence, come check out Shira Baror's poster: Monday, April 15 2:30-4:30 The project is at an early stage with very promising pilot results, so we'd love to get your feedback! 001
Reposted by Aya Ben-YakovAlex Barnett @alexbarnett.bsky.social · 08/11/2023Hippocampal-cortical interactions during event boundaries support retention of complex narrative events Officially out in Neuron with @charan-neuro.bsky.social Brendan Cohn-Sheehy, Mitchell Nguyen, Reesha Yadav, and James Spargo!: authors.elsevier.com/a/1i3703BtfH... 46031