iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Honoured to share this as co-first author with Dr Rachel Moseley, alongside a wonderful group led by @fuzefovsky.bsky.social: Prof Carrie Allison, Prof Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Prof Sarah Cassidy, Dr Nicola Gregory, Dr Victoria Newell, Dr Mirabel Pelton, Dr Tanya Procyshyn, and Dr Elizabeth Weir.

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These are patterns, not causes. But they might help us tailor support that actually fits. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

doi.org

OSF

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In autistic people they split into three distinct groupings, not one, and some behaviours sat close to suicide attempts while others reached suicidality only indirectly. A year on, some (like self-biting) were linked to later suicidal thoughts.

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Content warning: self-harm, suicide New preprint 🧵 Self-harm is strikingly common among autistic adults, yet we often treat it as one thing. In 327 autistic + 260 non-autistic people, we used network analysis to map how specific self-harming behaviours connect to each other and to suicidality.

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Thank you, Greg! I think there may have been an issue with the OSF server. After refreshing the page several times it worked, but here's the link just in case: doi.org/10.31234/osf...

doi.org

OSF

A huge thank you to Emily Hayun (co-first author), Dr Alal Eran, and @fuzefovsky.bsky.social

Empathic disequilibrium is a common experience and is normally distributed in the population, and people may live with it well, with some even benefiting from it. For others, it may be distressing, and for them, knowing that empathic disequilibrium can be changed may help. #empathy #mindfulness

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

🧘 New preprint! Can the way we experience empathy shift? We found 10 mins of mindfulness for 10 days nudged people towards a more balanced empathic state, narrowing the gap between emotional & cognitive empathy. Surprisingly, the shift wasn't driven by emotional reactivity. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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Figure 1 is the U-matrix from Figure 5A, combined with the coloured clustered figure (both in the code). We thought combining the two is informative for explaining the method, so it was done manually. But that's a good point, we could create a code for that which could be helpful for others. Thanks!

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Thank you! And absolutely, thanks for catching that. The csv file is now uploaded to the supplementary OSF repository.

Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

The nice thing about preprints is that they develop and improve 🤩 So here is a sharper version, featuring nicer figures and a complementary text directly comparing Self-Organising Maps with commonly used methods on the same dataset to emphasise how SOMs differ! osf.io/preprints/ps...

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MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge @mrccbu.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Across 1,000+ people, eating disorder symptoms were linked to “empathic disequilibrium”, feeling others’ emotions strongly while finding them harder to understand. Heightened emotional reactivity helped explain the link: DOI.org/10.1186/s40337-026-01600-2 #EatingDisorders #Empathy

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University of York Department of Philosophy @uoyphilosophy.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

What is it like to feel haunted by something? To find out, read Matthew Ratcliffe's new paper "From hauntology (back) to phenomenology," published yesterday in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

From hauntology (back) to phenomenology - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

Since Derrida’s introduction of the term hauntology, there has been much discussion of ghosts, spectres, and hauntings across several disciplines. This work is not exclusively phenomenological in focu...

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Miri Forbes @miriforbes.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Turns out empirically derived phenotypes (data-driven symptom sets) nested within traditional mental disorders can help reduce diagnostic heterogeneity! We learned so much cool and interesting stuff in this study. I could talk (/post) about it all day, but here’s a few highlights (🧵)

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Colette Delawalla, PhD @cdelawalla.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I consider Dr. Foa’s exposure therapy work among the most profound achievements in clinical psychology. Her work has saved so, so many lives. She led a big life. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/h...

nytimes.com

Edna Foa, Who Pioneered Exposure Therapy to Treat PTSD, Dies at 88

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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Hey friends, my new paper was just published in JAMA Psychiatry. I draw on biological species classification to sketch a new framework for psychiatric nosology. Brief summary follows below. Full text link: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... 🧪 #PsychSciSky #MentalHealth

jamanetwork.com

Mental Disorders as Homeostatic Property Clusters

This narrative review explores the idea of understanding mental disorders according to homeostatic property clusters rather than through typical classification systems.

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Also, thank you, Khadijah, Hailey, @estherina.bsky.social, Arina, and Diogo. Could not have done it without you ❤️

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I wasn’t sure whether to post, but decided I wanted to share and thank everyone who joined Saturday's focus group on identity loss in mental health conditions. When these wars end, we'll need kind, humane ways to heal and reconcile who we are with what we've lost, both in the world and in ourselves.

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The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

💕 Does oxytocin help wounds heal faster? Not on its own. In 80 healthy couples, intranasal oxytocin accelerated wound healing only when paired with affectionate touch and partner appreciation. Oxytocin acts as a "social amplifier". buff.ly/IvuBcTq #Oxytocin #SocialHealth #RelationshipScience

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Our new paper, led by Dr Giorgos Georgiou. In 4–10-year-olds, autistic traits predict empathic disequilibrium (affective > cognitive empathy), echoing adult findings. Callous–unemotional traits show lower empathy and reduced disequilibrium in both forms. doi.org/10.1007/s108...

doi.org

Empathic Disequilibrium in Autistic Traits and CU Traits: Investigating Empathy Imbalance in Children - Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology

The current study investigated the relationship between CU traits, autistic traits, and empathic disequilibrium, which reflects the imbalance between cognitive empathy (CE) and affective empathy (AE)....

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Delighted to present our SOMs tutorial with fresh-out-of-print slides at @mrccbu.bsky.social Weekly Seminar today! Even better getting to present alongside @estherina.bsky.social 🙌

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Mel Andrews @bayesianboy.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

A new study from Anthropic finds that gains in coding efficiency when relying on AI assistance did did not meet statistical significance; AI use noticeably degraded programmers’ understanding of what they were doing. Incredible.

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

New preprint 🎉 Psych constructs are complex. Symptoms overlap, people rarely fit neat categories, and patterns are non-linear. Most methods compromise this richness. Self-Organising Maps don't. We provide a step-by-step tutorial with annotated R code to make them accessible. doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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Ido Shalev @idoshal.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Empathic disequilibrium could change the way we think about empathy and help recognise and accept diverse empathic experiences, moving us beyond the usual “low” or “high” empathy narrative. #Neurodiversity #Autism #Empathy www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge @mrccbu.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

What if it’s not about having “too much” or “too little” empathy, but about the balance between understanding and sharing others’ emotions? A new paper review empathic disequilibrium in autism and mental health, moving beyond deficit-oriented narratives: ow.ly/p5lH50XzTUW

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MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge @mrccbu.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Researchers from MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge and University of Cambridge showed that the brain stays in the adolescent phase until our early thirties. Find out more in the BBC article 👉 www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl6kle…

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We then discuss current limitations of the concept, the many open questions that remain, and urge future research to investigate empathic disequilibrium carefully and together with people who share this unique experience.

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The idea has theoretical and clinical implications. It may change the way we think about empathy and help recognise and accept diverse empathic experiences, moving us beyond the usual “low” or “high” empathy narrative.

In this paper, we place empathic disequilibrium within a broader theoretical framework, showing how cognitive and emotional empathy form two global dimensions, the overall empathy level AND the balance (or imbalance) between its components. These two dimensions appear to be unrelated to one another.

Empathic disequilibrium has since emerged as a reliable correlate of neurodiverse and clinical characteristics, capturing patterns that overall empathy scores, or its components alone, often miss.

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