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Professor Dean Mobbs

@fearbrain.bsky.social
1.9K followers 6K following 42 posts

Professor at Caltech Director: Caltech Brain Imaging Center Www.deanmobbslab.com Dad of amazing daughter, Liverpool Fc, Retro synthwave(in order).

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Reposted by Professor Dean Mobbs
Ketika Garg @ketikagarg.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
🚨This preprint is now out in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... We combine a dyadic foraging paradigm w/ computational modeling + ABM to study how people navigate differing preferences, share responsibility for shared outcomes & what that means for the group! more in 🧵⬇️ @fearbrain.bsky.social
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AI Firehose @ai-firehose.column.social · 25/04/2026
Google DeepMind researchers have transformed classic psychological theories of attitude change into executable models using generative AI, simulating historical behavior patterns. This work clarifies theoretical ambiguities and highlights context's role. arxiv.org/abs/2604.19791
arxiv.org
Stabilising Generative Models of Attitude Change
ArXiv link for Stabilising Generative Models of Attitude Change
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Ketika Garg @ketikagarg.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
New preprint w/ @fearbrain.bsky.social, Bo Zhang, @aanixel.bsky.social & @pandascholar.bsky.social where we examine online political debates to understand how interactions become hostile using data from Reddit, real-time online chat experiments & brain imaging during chats - osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵
schematic for study design
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
I’m excited to share our new preprint: A Multi-Level Examination of How Hostility Unfolds During Online Argumentation. osf.io/preprints/ps... This is the first paper to examine how toxicity manifests from belief differences and how they are represented in the human brain.
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Ketika Garg @ketikagarg.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
✨New Perspective out w/ Wenning Deng and @fearbrain.bsky.social in @cp-iscience.bsky.social ! We argue that social foraging gives us a unifying, and ecologically grounded way to study how decisions unfold across levels — from individuals and dyads to collectives. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
New paper from our lab on the social determinants of successful dyadic foraging. Thanks to Ketika Garg and Wenning Deng for all their hard work! osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io
OSF
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Aidan Horner @aidanhorner.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting. A neural state space for episodic memories www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
sciencedirect.com
A neural state space for episodic memories
Episodic memories are highly dynamic and change in nonlinear ways over time. This dynamism is not captured by existing systems consolidation theories …
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Richard Branson @richardbranson.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
"A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else." - John Burroughs
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hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
new preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps... aphantasics reported to feel less 'absorbed' as they read stories, but they dwelled just as much on words that typically evoke imagery. so perhaps they just didn't realize they have (non-conscious) imagery too Ali Moharramipour's 1st paper as senior author 🧠📈
osf.io
OSF
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David Amodio @davidamodio.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Postdoc opportunity in my lab at the University of Amsterdam! Our project investigates human sources of bias in AI models of face classification & implications for users' behavior. Co-supervised by me and Prof Andreas Schuck. More details here: bit.ly/4kOS8ir Deadline is April 15. DM me with Qs!
bit.ly
Vacancy — Postdoc Investigating Human Sources of Bias in AI Face Classification Models
How are human ideologies and prejudices amplified by AI models? How do human biases get into AI model training data? And how does the output of such models influence the decisions and behaviors of use...
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Chris Summerfield @summerfieldlab.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
US version. thank you very much @vikingbooks.bsky.social. I like the black cover more!
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Nanthia Suthana @suthanalab.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
🚨 New lab paper!🚨 A dream study of mine for nearly 20 yrs not possible until now thanks to NIH 🧠 funding & 1st-author lead @seeber.bsky.social We tracked hippocampal activity as people walked memory-guided paths & imagined them again. Did brain patterns reappear?🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Human neural dynamics of real-world and imagined navigation - Nature Human Behaviour
Seeber et al. studied brain recordings from implanted electrodes in freely moving humans. Neural dynamics encoded actual and imagined routes similarly, demonstrating parallels between navigational, im...
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Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.net · 06/03/2025
SO MANY STAND UP FOR SCIENCE EVENTS TO CHOOSE FROM—153 and COUNTING! To get more information on our local events and to register your own, head to www.standupforscience2025.org/local-event-information/ ☀️⬇️🌎
List of Stand Up for Science events—official events in red, solidarity events in blue.
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Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Epistemic biases in human reinforcement learning: behavioral evidence, computational characterization, normative status and possible applications. A quite self-centered review, but with a broad introduction and conclusions and very cool figures. Few main takes will follow osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
yup, that’s the distinguished scientist Elon Musk FRS @royalsociety.org
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Our new paper on the neural systems relating to safety. Great work by Sarah Tashjian and the lab(not on Bluesky).
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Jon Cryer @mrjoncryer.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
🧵 How do we know Trump is full of sh** when he shrieks about “hydrants running dry”? Because in 2016, a horrendous wildfire hit Gatlinburg Tennessee. Hydrants ran dry and 14 people died. A higher death toll than the LA Fires. But Tennessee had a GOP governor, so newly-elected Trump posted:
Excerpt from Wikipedia:

“President-elect Donald Trump
tweeted: "My thoughts and prayers are with the great people of Tennessee during these terrible wildfires. Stay safe!"[24][25]”
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Completely agree with Sam. This system needs to change. We need to bring the money back into research and/ or increase the salaries of post docs etc
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
FYI - We went to the moon😜. Photos of each of the six Apollo landing sites photographed from low orbit by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The astronauts' tracks, as well as the rover and other items, are clearly visible.
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Jupiter and the moon over Toulouse
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm RFK Jr. The letter marks the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against a Cabinet choice. But Kennedy is a threat they could not ignore, one said. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/h...
nytimes.com
Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination
Elevating Mr. Kennedy to secretary of H.H.S. “would put the public’s health in jeopardy,” more than 75 laureates wrote.
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I agree - I love this movie
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Me on the way home from karaoke after drinking a bottle of soju: ohhh that’s my website
An ad for Bluesky in New York City that says “No Trolls” with a man wearing a USA hat in a 🚫 symbol
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Jon Cryer @mrjoncryer.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
The early steps of rewriting the shameful history of Trump’s 2020 coup attempt.
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hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
🧠📈 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... "Enacting welfare legislation [...] without strong scientific evidence is a societal and political choice that risks creating scientific and interpretational problems as well as major policy challenges, including [...] unintended consequences. ... "
tandfonline.com
Reasons to Be Skeptical about Sentience and Pain in Fishes and Aquatic Invertebrates
The welfare of fishes and aquatic invertebrates is important, and several jurisdictions have included these taxa under welfare regulation in recent years. Regulation of welfare requires use of scie...
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
This is Ket @ketikagarg.bsky.social; she is a postdoc in the lab and freaking awesome! She put this together over a weekend. Bonus: Ket is on the job market for an Assistant Professor position! Here is her website: ketikagarg.com
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Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
First time this has happened.
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
I’ve personally experienced and seen anger at talks. Likewise, we have all experienced the angry reviewer. Both cases are unprofessional and unscientific. Yes, debate, but anger has no place in science (maybe one exception is pseudoscience or religion rejecting real science…).
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Erik Nook 🏳️‍🌈 @eriknook.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Huge congrats to @talvaldivia.bsky.social on her first first-author paper accepted at Emotion! An outstanding contribution to what we know about how children, teens, and young adults bring to mind emotion words. Check it out! Many thanks to coauthors for an excellent collab! osf.io/preprints/os...
osf.io
OSF
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Excellent paper from @mjcrockett.bsky.social et al. And gives more reason to leave that toxic shit hole called Twitter/X!
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Tim Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
OK If we are moving to Bluesky I am rescuing my favourite ever twitter thread (Jan 2019). The renamed: Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
The word of the year is “brain rot” These days, it’s invoked by young people on social media to describe the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state,” particularly stemming from overconsumption of trivial online content. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/01/a...
nytimes.com
Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year Is…
A slang term for supposed mental damage done by overconsumption of trivial online content triumphed over a shortlist that also included “lore,” “demure” and “slop.”
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Kevin @emptymindz.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Special mention about Joe Gomez. Absolutely top notch performance from him. We didn't look like we were missing Ibou today. I can't give higher praise.
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
100%👇
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Brian Tyler Cohen @briantylercohen.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Wonder how Republicans are going to spin this statement from Pete Hegseth’s OWN MOTHER. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/u...
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The sunsets in Toulouse are stunning. Fallen in love with this city(especially its food😀)
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Bradley Love @profdata.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
"Large language models surpass human experts in predicting neuroscience results" w @ken-lxl.bsky.social and braingpt.org. LLMs integrate a noisy yet interrelated scientific literature to forecast outcomes. nature.com/articles/s41... 1/8
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Awesome new paper by @paulbsharp.bsky.social
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The dates for the Summer School on Affective Neuroscience are now open! More details to come in the new year!
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Mel Goodale @action-brain.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I feel so honored by the publication of this special issue of Neuropsychologia. Thanks so much to my friends and colleagues who put this together. And thanks to all the contributors. There are so many wonderful articles. I can't tell you how delighted I am. 🧪🧠 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The title page of the special issue, which reads "Introduction to the special issue on visual cognition and visuomotor control: A tribute to Mel Goodale" The authors of the Intro are: Jody C. Culham, Gavin Buckingham, Monika Harvey, Irene Sperandio, Ingrid S. Johnsrude
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Gabrielle A. Perry, MPH @geauxgabrielle.blacksky.app · 26/11/2024
I think this book is the one I’d recommend to every single woman. Teenage girls need to read it. Start early. Women have been socialized completely out of trusting our instincts. I tweeted yesterday that emotions are a COMPASS. And you should not suppress them This book will stay with you #booksky
Photo of the cover of The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Congrats @deevybee.bsky.social - I hope others follow until the Royal Society kicks him out!
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Nice article on Tariffs - what the economists say. dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories...
dornsife.usc.edu
Tariffs: What are they, who pays for them and who benefits?
Interest in tariffs has risen due to recent political proposals — a USC Dornsife economics professor explains these international taxes
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Nigel Warburton @nigelwarburton.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Would you go to Bertrand Russell for advice on how to live a virtuous life? Can we separate the singer from the song. His advice is interesting Open Culture www.openculture.com/2024/11/bert...
openculture.com
Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments for Living Virtuously (1930)
Image by J. F. Horrabin, via Wikimedia Commons Bertrand Russell may have lived his long life concerned with big topics in logic, mathematics, politics, and society, but that didn't keep him from thin...
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Ask AI to put our dog on a bike with a Christmas hat on.
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Just saw this article by the wonderful Sheena Josselyn on role models. I fully back up what Sheena is saying - Joe (@theamygdaloid.bsky.social) is a great scientist, thinker, and human being. academic.oup.com/cercor/advan...
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Professor Dean Mobbs @fearbrain.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Here is a piece I wrote on Affective Neuroscience for the new Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. oecs.mit.edu/pub/qwrz95aw... For those interested in human psychology and related fields, I highly recommend reading these free articles. oecs.mit.edu/open-encyclo...
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