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Chris Baker

@cibaker.bsky.social
889 followers 592 following 13 posts

Cognitive neuroscientist interested in high level vision (faces, scenes etc.), learning and plasticity. All views are my own.

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Reposted by Chris Baker
Michelle Greene @mgreenephd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🚨New paper alert! 🚨 The visual system tunes itself to the statistics of its input. How do individual experiences differently tune vision? In this work, @bjbalas.bsky.social and I examined how one individual difference—height—changes the visual diet and how this affects perception. 1/
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Peter Angeli @pangeli95.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New paper with @neurosteel.bsky.social and @carolinerobertson.bsky.social out now in @elife.bsky.social! We're really proud of this work exploring how internally and externally focused brain networks communicate through a shared visual code. Check it out!
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Adam Steel @neurosteel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Out today with @pangeli95.bsky.social (co-lead) & @carolinerobertson.bsky.social ! The brain integrates internal thoughts with sensory information. Yet the networks serving functions are viewed as independent. How does the brain integrate across these systems? elifesciences.org/articles/110...
elifesciences.org
Retinotopic coding organizes the interaction between internally and externally oriented brain networks
Internally and externally oriented brain networks are functionally coupled at a voxel scale through a common visuospatial code.
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David Moorman @davidmoorman.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Our 🧠lab is hiring a new RA to help study neural changes associated with chronic alcohol, start date ASAP. Ideal for recent college graduates looking for research experience. Please send me any recommendations or have them reach out to me, and please forward/share with your colleagues – thanks!
Aerial view of the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, May 2018. Credit: Greg Saulmon / The Republican file
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Steven Scholte @neurosteven.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Now out in Current Biology! Object decoding and DNN–brain alignment dissociate: more object information ≠ more alignment. What neural networks share with the brain is mid-level image statistics. Free 50-day access: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Two weeks left to sign up for Re:vision! Let's figure out how well visual neuroscience findings replicate! Participants can: - become a coauthor on the paper - win cash prizes up to $2500 - use your replication to write a separate paper. Sign up now, it's super easy: re-vision-initiative.org
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Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your #fmri results? Have you been worried about potential reproducibility issues? Well, this new @natmethods.nature.com article with 40+ coauthors shows how the simple change to transparent thresholding helps both. Go Figure! rdcu.be/B4tikBETdQZa
A comparison of old and new thresholding approaches for fMRI data. The newer, transparent thresholding allows for interpreting context, more complete modeling, a reduction of biases and an increase in meaningful content. This all leads to more accurate interpretations and improved reproducibility evaluations.
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Communications Biology @commsbio.nature.com · 26/08/2026
Simultaneous EEG and fMRI recording suggests that repetition-related changes in behavior and neural activity may result from earlier, more rapid increases in synchronized neural activity in task-involved brain regions. PDF available: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Repetition-related reductions in neural activity support improved behavior through increases in oscillatory power - Communications Biology
Simultaneous EEG and fMRI recording suggests that repetition-related changes in behavior and neural activity may result from earlier, more rapid increases in synchronized neural activity in task-invol...
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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I have been meaning to write a post about a preprint that I'm pretty excited about: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... In neuroscience we often assume that we can learn something general about “the brain” using different species. But is this true? Do monkeys even see the world the way we do?
On the left, an image of a rhesus macaque looking towards its left, and on the right, an AI-generated zoomed-out rendering of a human in the same pose. Both are looking.
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Andy Baxevanis @baxevanislab.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
📢 Applications are now open for the NIH Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator Program! We're recruiting early-career scientists across all areas of biomedical research for tenure-track faculty positions in the NIH Intramural Research Program. Deadline: Sept 30, 2026. 🔗 tinyurl.com/stadtman26
irp.nih.gov
Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigators | NIH Intramural Research Program
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Lisa DeBruine @debruine.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Today is the only day you can experience Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” on the day it is set. Audio: archive.org/details/brad... PDF: thephilosopher.net/bredberi/wp-...
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Susan Wardle @susanwardle.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Recruiting grad students for Fall 2027!
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Susan Wardle @susanwardle.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Very excited to start my lab in NY this August as an Assistant Professor in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience & Simons Empire Faculty Fellow at the University at Albany – SUNY. My lab will focus on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying real-world visual cognition (perception & memory).
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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This is a really interesting and important study: www.nature.com/articles/s41... However, isn't it concerning that sweeping conclusions about functional organization of cortex are being reached on the basis of a single task?
nature.com
Rarely categorical, highly separable representations along the cortical hierarchy - Nature
Cortical circuits prioritize diversity over categorical structure, supporting a computational regime geared towards high-dimensional, highly separable neural representations.
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Zach Nudelman @zednud.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Excited to share my first #preprint with @matthiasnau.bsky.social on how gaze behavior shapes brain activity during eyes-closed rest and sleep! Gaze-dependent activity was widespread even during sleep, including in many visual cortices, and altered brain-wide functional connectivity! 🧵 1/8
biorxiv.org
Brain-wide gaze-dependent activity during eyes-closed rest and sleep
Gaze behavior and brain activity are tightly coupled during perception and mental imagery. Whether this coupling extends to eyes-closed states remains largely unknown, primarily because measuring eye ...
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Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Thrilled to share our new #preprint, and super proud of @zednud.bsky.social and our work on eye–brain dynamics during eyes-closed rest and sleep! Also excited to share that Zach started his PhD with me recently! 🎉 Lots of ideas and cool work ahead. Follow him on Bluesky and check out his thread! 🧵
Zach
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Dan Handwerker @danielhandwerker.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
The 2026 fMRI Summer Course with @fmri-today.bsky.social has begun and the recordings and slides are shared here: fmrif.nimh.nih.gov/SummerCourse
fmrif.nimh.nih.gov
FMRIF Summer Course
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Andrea Costantino @costantinoai.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
🎉 This is finally out on @natcomms.nature.com @natureportfolio.nature.com! Ever wondered what happens to your #brain when you become an expert at something? 🧠 If the answer is “yes” (+bonus points if you like #chess), check out our latest #fMRI work below! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Low-dimensional and optimised representations of high-level information in the expert brain - Nature Communications
What transforms a novice into an expert? In an fMRI study of chess players, the authors show that expert codes prioritise relational content, are more compressed, and reside in domain-general frontopa...
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Neuroskeptic @neuroskeptic.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
In-scanner thoughts contribute to resting-state functional connectivity pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42365014/ I've long thought that this is the "elephant in the room" of resting state #fMRI esp. for comparing groups. If two groups think & feel differently in the scanner, of course rsfMRI will differ!
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Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...
open.substack.com
My Peer Review of The 1%
I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student, funded by a new ERC grant. The grant focuses on the role of the hippocampus in visual perception, using 7T fMRI (hippocampal subfields, cortical layers) and MEG+iEEG. The intended start dates for both positions are in early 2027. 🧠🟦 1/3
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Freek van Ede @freekvanede.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Finally out: my review in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social covering how my lab and others have been ‘Looking into working memory through micro eye movements’ over the years. What does the microsaccade bias buy us? A lot I argue. Go see for yourself at: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Christopher Honey @chrishoney.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Some findings from our national survey of U.S. population attitudes toward AI. First, feelings about AI are actually very similar across political parties (and many other demographics). They vary most by people's experience with AI tools. Explore the data: futurerealities.org/poll/2026/ 🧵
Bar chart titled "Positive feeling toward AI varies by experience, not by party," showing the percentage who feel positive about AI overall. By experience using AI: never used AI 12%, tried it a few times 24%, use it weekly 50%, skilled daily user 80%. By political party: Republicans 39%, Democrats 36% (nearly identical).
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Christopher Honey @chrishoney.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
And if you are in the Washington DC area this coming weekend, feel free to come to our conference! futurerealities.org/FOR2026/
futurerealities.org
FOR 2026 | The Future of Our Realities: Work and Truth
A June 20, 2026 conference in Washington, DC about how AI is reshaping work, truth, media, labor, and shared reality.
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Leyla Isik @lisik.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
📢 We are recruiting a full-time lab manager/RA joint between our lab and @marinabedny.bsky.social 's lab. A great opportunity for a recent grad interested in gaining more research experience in cognitive neuroscience. Details and apply here: hiring.jhu.edu/careers/job/...
hiring.jhu.edu
Research Assistant (KSAS - Cognitive Science) | Johns Hopkins University
We are seeking a Research Assistant who will work jointly in the Isik and Bedny labs on projects involving neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG), behavioral testing, and computational approaches. The position is p...
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Brad Postle @bradpostle.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Postdoc position available at postlab.psych.wisc.edu. Pls send cv to postle@wisc.edu
postlab.psych.wisc.edu
PO-STL-AB
Our interests in human memory and cognition encompass the cognitive and neural basis of working memory, attention, control, and consciousness.News  Madison Symposium on Memory & Control. On 30 May 202...
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Caroline Robertson @carolinerobertson.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Very excited to share this paper, led by @ajhaskins.bsky.social ! We find that how people look around the world is stable and idiosyncratic — and that these gaze patterns are shaped in part by the conceptual priorities each person brings to a scene. 1/3 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Dan Handwerker @danielhandwerker.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
About to start my travel to #OHBM2026 Excited to help organize a full day ed course on multi-echo fMRI. Schedule is here: me-ica.github.io/ohbm-2026-mu... @enekourunuela.com @drjuliamoser.bsky.social @dowdlelt.bsky.social @ohbmofficial.bsky.social
me-ica.github.io
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Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Job ad (2/2): data scientist in the AFNI group (SSCC, NIMH, NIH, USA). FMRI/MRI methods dev, software design, statistics, analysis, data viz, quality control, machine learning and more! Please see: discuss.afni.nimh.nih.gov/t/job-ad-dat... I am happy to chat at OHBM+Brainhack. Please share!
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Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Job ad (1/2): Postdoc fellowship in the AFNI group (SSCC, NIMH, NIH, USA). FMRI/MRI methods dev, software design, statistics, analysis, data viz, quality control, machine learning and more! Please see: discuss.afni.nimh.nih.gov/t/job-ad-pos... I am happy to chat at OHBM+Brainhack. Please share!
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Michelle Greene @mgreenephd.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
🚨New dataset just dropped🚨 Introducing Places in the Wild: 67,000 RAW-format photographs (45 mpix) densely sampled from 810 places (260 basic-level categories). This is 11x the number of pixels in ImageNet! Preprint is here: arxiv.org/abs/2606.02481 1/
arxiv.org
Places in the Wild: A Large, High-Resolution RAW Photograph Dataset for Ecologically Valid Vision Research
Large image datasets have accelerated progress in cognitive neuroscience and computer vision. However, most datasets are low-resolution, internet-sourced JPEGs with unknown capture conditions and limi...
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Amirali Soltani Tehrani @aasolteh.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Last week, I had the chance to present our work at #VSS2026! This was my first time presenting a poster, and I was really excited! Special thanks to @maryamvaziri.bsky.social and all the collaborators for this opportunity. Looking forward to making new connections and attending future conferences.
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J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Spencer and MJ’s project is now out! Let me say something about the study, why it is important to me personally, and why I think it is important given what is happening right now at NIH and how science there is being disrupted or suppressed. 1/N (N = 19) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The visual perks of (not) being a wallflower: sociality is a stronger predictor of individual differences in face recognition than childhood experiences
Individuals vary considerably in their ability to recognize faces. Such variability may in part reflect individual differences in exposure to faces ba…
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Last weekend I received the Troland Research Award from the @nationalacademies.org. I’m so grateful to the communities who made this work possible. It's strange to receive this award at a time when much of the work being recognized is not eligible for federal funding. My remarks 👇 and a 🧵>>
youtube.com
NAS 163rd Annual Meeting - Awards Ceremony
YouTube video by National Academy of Sciences
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William Ngiam | 严祥全 @williamngiam.github.io · 28/04/2026
VSS (@vssmtg.bsky.social) is coming up! Do you have an idea for a vision experiment but want to check you haven't missed anything? Looking for collaborators or relevant resources? Wanting to chat about a theory or model? Consider the pre-data poster session! www.visionsciences.org/pre-data-col...
visionsciences.org
VSS Pre-Data-Collection Poster SessionPre-Data-Collection Poster Session – Vision Sciences Society
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Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Alex Martin talked about his "eclectic" career spanning over 4 decades, including 31 years in the Laboratory of Cognition (NIH), with some reflections on what makes a successful scientific career: "the right place at the right time", "it's good to be first", "controversy is helpful"
Alex Martin talking about his science career
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Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Second day of ‘Foundations and Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience’ in honor of Alex Martin
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Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
First day of ‘Foundations and Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience’ in honor of Alex Martin
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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Great symposium in honor of Alex Martin at the NIMH
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Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Happening Tuesday and Wednesday. Links for the online videocast can be found here: bit.ly/4bYlbxw
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Michelle Greene @mgreenephd.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
🚨New preprint alert! 🚨 Do multimodal LLMs (VLMs) reason about high-level visual perception like humans do? We asked over 2000 human observers and 18 VLMs to describe scenes using 15 different tasks, ranging from general knowledge, affordances, affect, sensory experiences, and future prediction. 1/
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Dan Handwerker @danielhandwerker.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
How do we define "good" fMRI data? Especially with resting state, there are circularity risks if we evaluate data quality as showing the networks we expect to see. Javier Gonzalez-Castillo (& me & others) developed pBOLD, a new metric that uses multi-echo info. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/8
biorxiv.org
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Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at NIH is hosting a two-day symposium on 'Foundations and Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience' in honor of Dr. Alex Martin, to be held at NIH (with online videocast) on April 7th-8th, 2026. Register to attend online or in-person at: bit.ly/4bYlbxw
Picture of Alex Martin, National Institute of Mental Health
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Plasticity Lab @plasticity-lab.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Can we use robotic augmentation limbs as flexibly as our natural limbs⁉️ 🧨 Our new study, just out in @currentbiology.bsky.social, tested this using the Third Thumb @daniclode.bsky.social: a wearable robotic extra thumb you control with your toes! www.cell.com/current-biol... ‼️‼️
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Natalie Christie Peluso 🧠 @nataliepeluso.com · 27/02/2026
Really looking forward to diving into these replies to @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social recent paper, which I found very inspiring and provoking Vision #neuroscience should work to balance the study of category-specificity without isolating our stimuli from their rich, complex behavioural relevance
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Katharina Dobs @kathadobs.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
Category selectivity vs. behavioral relevance in visual cortex? 👁️🧠 @levandyck.bsky.social and I really enjoyed diving into this piece and appreciated the authors’ thoughtful response. We're curious to see how the field moves forward from here! ➡️
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Susan Wardle @susanwardle.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Is the concept of “category-selectivity” holding the field back in understanding high-level visual cortex? Detailed discussion in our published perspective piece and accompanying commentaries:
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J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Our reply to 11 commentaries on our article ("Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex") is out in Cognitive Neuroscience! Thanks to @susanwardle.bsky.social @maryamvaziri.bsky.social Dwight Kravitz @cibaker.bsky.social and all who contributed! 1/x www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
What behavioral relevance is (not)
We are thankful for the thoughtful commentaries of our colleagues. In our discussion article, we argued for a course correction to how the field approaches the organization of visual function in oc...
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Brad Postle @bradpostle.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
It’s out!
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Yong Hoon Chung @yonghoonchung.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
New paper with @timbrady.bsky.social and @violastoermer.bsky.social now out in JoCN! "Real-world Objects Scaffold Visual Working Memory for Features: Increased Neural Engagement When Colors Are Remembered as Part of Meaningful Objects" doi.org/10.1162/JOCN...
doi.org
Real-world Objects Scaffold Visual Working Memory for Features: Increased Neural Engagement When Colors Are Remembered as Part of Meaningful Objects
Abstract. Visual working memory is a core cognitive function that allows active storage of task-relevant visual information. Contrary to the common assumption that the capacity of this system is fixed...
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