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Beth Fisher

@bethfisher.bsky.social
272 followers 221 following 19 posts

post doc researching the optimism bias, co-host @mindsmatter.bsky.social

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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
New paper is out! 🌟 Here we consider challenges in computational psychiatry and address them drawing on ideas from philosophy of science. This paper came together during my PhD through many wonderful discussions with Noor, Laura and Jakob. No surprises that I have an optimistic take 😊
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Really looking forward to ASPP this year! The keynote program is fantastic, including @claireocallaghan.bsky.social on neuromodulatory systems and @cmurrupstewart.bsky.social on First Nations social and emotional wellbeing. Both always give amazing talks!
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Anikó Kusztor @anikokusztor.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Have you ever felt like your surroundings look unreal? Our new Registered Report (accepted in Neuroscience of Consciousness) studied derealisation and shows that altered visual experiences don’t change how we assess vividness. To find our more: doi.org/10.31219/osf...
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Anikó Kusztor @anikokusztor.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Thank you so much for having me!! I always have a blast chatting with @bethfisher.bsky.social and this time was no different! 💕 Also I loved your reflections in the end and how both of you have change your mind perhaps a bit through sharing your experiences with each other. So cool and precious!
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
A very special episode with @anikokusztor.bsky.social ! @monash-m3cs.bsky.social
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Claire O'Callaghan @claireocallaghan.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Adaptive learning is coordinated across behaviour, time and neurobiology (from synapses and dendrites, to astrocytes and the systems level). If you’ve ever wondered how noradrenaline helps shape these multiscale learning processes, you might like this: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
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Ava Ma de Sousa @avamadesousa.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
So excited to share that my first first-author paper is out in @commspsychol.nature.com 🎉 In a mini-meta analysis of seven studies, we looked at whether loneliness is related to altered expectations of one’s own and others' emotion transitions. www.nature.com/articles/s44... (1/4)
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Claire O'Callaghan @claireocallaghan.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Position open for a neuroimaging focused postdoc to come work with us in Sydney Feel free to get in touch for a chat if you have any questions about it :) usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/USYD_E...
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
New Episode! Dr. Aenne Brielmann (aennebrielmann.bsky.social) joins Ava and Beth to talk about their research on beauty and how computational models can be used to understand how we experience beauty. Link in bio! 🔗
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Abhilasha Ravichander @lasha.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
📣 Life update: Thrilled to announce that I’ll be starting as faculty at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems this Fall! I’ll be recruiting PhD students in the upcoming cycle, as well as research interns throughout the year: lasharavichander.github.io/contact.html
Kaiserslautern, Germany
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Razia Sahi @raziasahi.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
How do we regulate each other's emotions? We talk big strategies (reappraisal, validation) and subtle mechanisms (acoustics, linguistics) in this new ep of @mindsmatter.bsky.social! Thanks for the fun convo @avamadesousa.bsky.social!
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
New Episode! Dr. Razia Sahi (@raziasahi.bsky.social) joins Ava and Beth to discuss the details of social emotion regulation, including the use of reappraisal and validation to help navigate difficult emotions! Links in 🧵
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
New Episode! What is addiction, and how does it show up in everyday habits? Dr. Keanan Joyner (@keananjoyner.bsky.social‬ ) joins Ava & Beth to talk dopamine, disinhibition, and why addiction isn't just about choice. Plus: EEG bias, screen use & science with compassion. 🎧 Links below!
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Christopher Whyte @christopherjwhyte.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
New preprint modelling suppression depth in binocular rivalry and continuous flash suppression with Hugh Wilson, @macshine.bsky.social, & David Alais
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
New Episode!🤖 Have you ever seen a robot that looks almost human, but something feels a bit off? This week, we are joined by Dr. Julija Vaitonyté as she discusses her research regarding the phenomenon of the uncanny valley. Links in 🧵!
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Borjan (Boki) Milinković @neuromorphicboki.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
🎉 FINALLY PUBLISHED! 🎉 We outline how to capture the #emergent dynamical structure in #biophysical neural models. coauthored with a team dear to my heart; @thomasandrillon.bsky.social, @anilseth.bsky.social, Lionel Barnett, and Olivia Carter. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
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Annie G. Bryant @anniegbryant.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
🎨🧑‍🎨 Looking for a tool to visualize subcortical/thalamic data in 2D? Check out this python-based package I put together (subcortex-visualization on PyPI), plus a guide for creating your own custom atlas meshes and vector graphics! All feedback/tips welcome 😊 anniegbryant.github.io/subcortex_vi...
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
A beautiful piece from @claireocallaghan.bsky.social
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Annie G. Bryant @anniegbryant.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
@christopherjwhyte.bsky.social and I introduce a novel data-driven framework to evaluate >200 connectivity-based neural correlates of consciousness! Results are used to quantitatively compare predictions from neurodynamical models tailored to theoretic predictions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Mikaela Spruill @spruill.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Thank you all so much for having me!! It was a joy to share more about my research in psychology and law. If you want to learn more about legal judgment & decision making, intriguing Supreme Court cases and what “objectively reasonable” actually means to people, listen to this episode!
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Marginalia Science @marginaliascience.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Don't miss the new Minds Matter Podcast episode with guest editor @spruill.bsky.social!!
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
New ep! What comes to mind when you hear the term “objectively reasonable”? @spruill.bsky.social shares her research on how legal standards in criminal justice aren't as neutral as they may seem and how lived experience influence jurors' priors links in 🧵 @monash-m3cs.bsky.social
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Have you ever wondered how the built environment effects your mood? 💭🏘️ Is it true that red rooms make you angry? 😡 This week we sit down with Dr. Isabella Bower to discuss her on research on how the built environment can impact our mental health 🌇 (links in 🧵) @monash-m3cs.bsky.social
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
How do our beliefs about ourselves and the world influence the way we learn and make decisions? Tune into this week's episode as @hayleydorfman.bsky.social shares how our sense of control shapes our learning processes, using Bayesian & reinforcement learning frameworks (links in 🧵)
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Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies (M3CS) @monash-m3cs.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
A fabulous day of M3CS PhD presentations - Lars Sandved-Smith on pure awareness, @shawnprest.bsky.social on defabrication in meditation, @bethfisher.bsky.social Fisher on optimism and gratitude. All done brilliantly with active inference and FEP modelling. #neuroskyence #philsky
Lars Sandved-Smith giving a presentationShawn Prest giving a presentationBeth Fisher giving a presentation
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Jordan Wylie @jowylie.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
I’m hiring a lab manager to start July 2025! Submit CV and cover letter as soon as possible as review will begin immediately. Link to the job ad is here: tinyurl.com/22ye3wsv Please share with any undergrads or mentees who might be interested!
tinyurl.com
Lab Manager - Department of Psychology (CAS) - Research Aide III
The Cross-College Department of Psychology spans the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) and Cornell Human Ecology (CHE) and is recognized for excellence in advancing knowledge of psychological science...
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
New episode!! We sit down with Dr. Nina Rajcic to discuss her work using LLMs in her art practice giving us a new perspectives for thinking about AI 💭🤖 We share our thoughts about the future of AI in art and its connections to tech 🎨 #philsky #ai @monash-m3cs.bsky.social
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Jakob Hohwy @hohwy.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Frame and relevance problems from the perspective of predictive processing - new paper led by @monash-m3cs.bsky.social's Tom Darling #philsky www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Solving the relevance problem with predictive processing
The frame or relevance problem is a classic problem in cognitive science and philosophy. We attempt to resolve this problem by appealing to predictive processing, a growing theory of cognition. As ...
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Excited to have our new paper out in @cpsyjournal.bsky.social 🎉✨ with my amazing co-authors @christopherjwhyte.bsky.social @hohwy.bsky.social We develop an active inference model of the optimism bias to model development, belief updating and optimistic action. cpsyjournal.org/articles/10....
cpsyjournal.org
An Active Inference Model of the Optimism Bias | Computational Psychiatry
Computational Psychiatry publishes original research articles and reviews that involve the application, analysis, or invention of theoretical, computational and statistical approaches to mental functi...
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Oded Bein @odedbein.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Excited to share this perspective with @yaelniv.bsky.social about how schemas might be learned and instantiated via reinforcement learning, latent cause inference, and dimensionality reduction, and what's the medial prefrontal cortex might be doing for all of these www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Schemas, reinforcement learning and the medial prefrontal cortex - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
A computational account of how schemas are learned through experience is lacking. In this Perspective, Bein and Niv synthesize schema theory and reinforcement learning research to derive computational...
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Annie G. Bryant @anniegbryant.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
📣 First three years of my PhD have culminated in this work now published at PLoS Computational Biology! 🥳 We take a deep dive into all the many ways we can slice n dice fMRI dynamics to quantify biologically relevant properties 🧠🧮 doi.org/10.1371/jour...
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Iwan Williams @iwan-williams.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
My paper with Tim Bayne "Chatting with bots: AI, speech acts, and the edge of assertion" is now up at Inquiry. Our question: can large language model powered chatbots make assertions (can they state, claim or affirm things)? [1/5] www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Chatting with bots: AI, speech acts, and the edge of assertion
This paper addresses the question of whether large language model-powered chatbots are capable of assertion. According to what we call the Thesis of Chatbot Assertion (TCA), chatbots are the kinds ...
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
We are so lucky to have the best supervisor!
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Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies (M3CS) @monash-m3cs.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Exciting research by @bethfisher.bsky.social shows that psilocybin boosts optimism and engagement in rats, potentially offering insights into its use for treating depression. Just some of the wonderful research our PhD students are doing.
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Minds Matter Podcast @mindsmatter.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Minds Matter Spotify wrapped! Thank you to everyone who supports us! It means so much that we get to showcase so many amazing researchers ❤️ And to @claireocallaghan.bsky.social for our top episode!! Listen back to all our 2024 episodes here: www.mindsmatterpodcast.com/podcast-epis...
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Abhilasha Ravichander @lasha.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
✨I am on the faculty job market in the 2024-2025 cycle!✨ My research centers on advancing Responsible AI, specifically enhancing factuality, robustness, and transparency in AI systems. If you have relevant positions, let me know! lasharavichander.github.io Please share/RT!
lasharavichander.github.io
Abhilasha Ravichander - Home
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Yuan Chang Leong @ycleong.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Social rejection sucks, but they also provide a learning signal. Here we show that the two aspects of social rejection can be dissociated using computational modeling and neuroimaging. Delighted to have been able to be part of this work, definitely one of the most fun collaborations I've had!
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Minds Matter is now on Bluesky! Listening back to this episode I love the way you can feel the support I have from @avamadesousa.bsky.social 🥹 Forever grateful for the best podcast co-host, science peer, and best friend 💕
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Shawn Prest @shawnprest.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Excited to be here with @bethfisher.bsky.social and Mengting Zhang from @monash-m3cs.bsky.social at ACNS mers.cventevents.com/event/ACNS20... @acnsau.bsky.social I'll be presenting active inference modelling work on meditative deconstruction and letting go.
mers.cventevents.com
HOME - ACNS 2024 Conference
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
A very nice write up of our study on PsyPost!
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Monash Centre for Consciousness & Contemplative Studies (M3CS) @monash-m3cs.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Congratulations to our Director @hohwy.bsky.social who was awarded the Monash Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Supervision (HASS)! This award celebrates exceptional mentorship and guidance for graduate research students, enriching their journeys and shaping future leaders.
Jakob hosting a masterclass with his PhD students
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Joe Melling @joemelling.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Excited to share my first paper: a novel visual illusion discovered by my co-authors Will Turner and Hinze Hogendoorn which we call the "Split-Stimulus Effect", in which a single flashed stimulus is perceived to be in two different locations simultaneously jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx... [1/5]
jov.arvojournals.org
Concurrent perception of competing predictions: A “split-stimulus effect” | JOV | ARVO Journals
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
@avamadesousa.bsky.social and I spoke to Rachit about his work on Minds Matter last month. He is doing very inspiring and impactful research and we excited to follow his lab at UCLA 🌎♻️ open.spotify.com/episode/10a0...
open.spotify.com
S4 EP4 Your Mind on Climate Inaction with Dr. Rachit Dubey
Minds Matter · Episode
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 30/09/2024
Very excited to have this out in Translational Psychiatry!! 🍄🐀 A proud moment of my PhD with a truly amazing team www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Psilocybin increases optimistic engagement over time: computational modelling of behaviour in rats - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Psilocybin increases optimistic engagement over time: computational modelling of behaviour in rats
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Jakob Hohwy @hohwy.bsky.social · 03/06/2024
Two new preprints out using active inference to model *optimism bias*, led by @bethfisher.bsky.social 1. One model for development, beliefs and actions w/ @christopherjwhyte.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps... 2. Psilocybin in rats, behavioural data www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #neuroskyence
biorxiv.org
Psilocybin increases optimistic engagement over time: computational modelling of behavior in rats
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
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Laura Ana Bustamante, PhD @lauraabusta.bsky.social · 26/01/2024
I'm elated to share my PhD keystone paper published @PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... I've poured my heart & soul into this project since 2016 (8 yrs!) & I'm happy to introduce the Effort Foraging Task to the world #CognitivePsychology #Motivation #Effort #Foraging #DecisionMaking 🧵
Figure 1: Foraging trial diagram. On each trial participants chose to harvest the tree they were at (down arrow key) or travel to a new tree (right arrow key), during the travel they completed an effortful task, after which they arrived at a new patch with a replenished supply of apples. The tree is a green circle and rectangular brown trunk. The apples are red and lined up in a row on the bottom of the screen. There is a warrior avatar with a shield, helmet, and sword who jumps to harvest the apples.
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Laura Ana Bustamante, PhD @lauraabusta.bsky.social · 26/01/2024
You can hear me explain the high-level findings and some of cool applications of the Effort #Foraging Task in conversational style on Minds Matter Podcast www.mindsmatterpodcast.com/ep-5-your-mi... And now, for the skeet thread version of results!
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 02/01/2024
New Minds Matter episode! We speak with @emmatempleton.bsky.social about conversation ! Emma explains why we feel like we 'click' with some people and how gap time in conversation can be different between strangers and friends www.mindsmatterpodcast.com/s3-ep-9-your...
mindsmatterpodcast.com
S3 Ep 9: Your Mind on Conversation
What makes a for a good conversation? Why do we feel we 'click' with some people and not others? This week we speak to Dr. Emma Templeton about research on conversation.  She discusses why gap length...
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Andrew Corcoran @corcorana.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
'Action imagery as active inference: A commentary on Rieger et al. (2023)' -- Maarten Immink & I offer a few thoughts on active inference as a framework for understanding covert & overt action t.co/58SBnibKAq | www.researchgate.net/publication/...
t.co
Action imagery as active inference: a commentary on Rieger et al. (2023)
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Beth Fisher @bethfisher.bsky.social · 11/12/2023
New Minds Matter episode! This week we speak to Dr. Aya Osman who researches how the gut microbiome influences our brain and behaviour. Dr Osman explains the role of the gut microbiome in addiction and autism and how we can study these connections. www.mindsmatterpodcast.com/s3-ep-8-your...
mindsmatterpodcast.com
S3 Ep 8: Your Mind on the Gut Microbiome
Are we really what we eat? Research on the gut microbiome suggests we really are! This week we speak to Dr. Aya Osman who researches how the gut microbiome influences our brain and behaviour. Dr Osman...
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