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María Alejandra Martínez

@malejandra.bsky.social
177 followers 487 following 0 posts

Born and raised in 🇨🇴 | PhD student at Stanford | Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience | #FirstGen |

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Reposted by María Alejandra Martínez
sarah tung @sarahtung.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
1/ New preprint! 🧠👶 "Eccentricity, not category, organizes infant ventral temporal cortex." With Emily M Chen, Cleo Tay, Kylie Syzmanski, and @camerontellis.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Eccentricity, but not category, organizes infant ventral temporal cortex
Scene- and word-selective regions in adult ventral temporal cortex occupy consistent locations across individuals and align with eccentricity biases for peripheral versus central parts of the visual f...
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Cameron Ellis @camerontellis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Pumped to get this out! Sarah made an elegant design and got a cool result. It highlights a challenge of our field: infants can resemble adults under some comparisons but those comparisons could disguise fundamental differences! Also this is the lab’s first prereg and it came out pretty clean!
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Jorge Morales @jorgemorales.me · 29/09/2026
Massive congratulations to my colleague @felipedebrigard.bsky.social for being awarded a MacArthur Fellowship! today.duke.edu/2026/09/duke...
today.duke.edu
Duke Scientist Awarded MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ | Duke Today
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Tobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Amazing!! Huge congratulations @felipedebrigard.bsky.social on the MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant' 🥳🎉 www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/a...
nytimes.com
MacArthur Foundation Announces 2026 ‘Genius Grant’ Winners (Gift Article)
The 20 fellowship recipients across the arts, humanities and sciences will each receive an $800,000, no-strings-attached stipend for their work.
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Martin Zettersten @mzettersten.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Our department at UC San Diego is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor. Open area, research addressing foundational issues in cogsci using modern computational methods. I love my department, and you will too. Apply!! apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/JPF04633 #cogscisci #cogsci #DevPsyc #PsychSciSky
apol-recruit.ucsd.edu
Assistant Professor in Cognitive Science
University of California, San Diego is hiring. Apply now!
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Katie Insel @katieinsel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The CATS Lab is moving to Columbia next year, and I am recruiting a PhD student this cycle to start Fall 2027 in the Department of Psychology. Learn more about how to apply here: psychology.columbia.edu/content/prep... I am also recruiting a postdoc and staff for 2027. More info coming soon!
psychology.columbia.edu
Preparing to Apply | Department of Psychology
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Tobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The Stanford Psychology Department is having a search for a tenure-track Assistant Professor with a research focus on developmental and/or social psychology. Application deadline is 10/15. More infos here: facultypositions.stanford.edu/jobs/assista...
facultypositions.stanford.edu
Assistant Professor, Psychology - Stanford University, California, United States
The Department of Psychology at Stanford University is seeking applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, with a research focus on developmental and/or social psychology. In addition ...
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Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Writing this story was so unbelievably fun. And not only bc @mcxfrank.bsky.social says quotes like this: “Kids’ experience looks really radically different than we thought ... They’ve got these little short arms, so the objects are, like, right in front of them. And they live in a forest of knees.”
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Nora Harhen @noraharhen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
How do we make good decisions with little experience? Adults can rely on memories of past choices. In our new study in @pnas.org we show kids & teens do something similar–but what they remember turns out to be quite different! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Developmental changes in memory structure and precision alter the use of retrieved episodes during decisions for reward | PNAS
Most widely studied option evaluation strategies rely on knowledge accumulated across repeated experiences. But how should options be evaluated in ...
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Andrew Lampinen @lampinen.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
New position piece w/ @tylerbonnen.bsky.social out now in COBS! We suggest that data augmentation is a useful framework for understanding hippocampal contributions to generalization, and offers a path towards more precise modeling: 1/
Data augmentation as a framework for modeling hippocampal contributions to generalization
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The New York Times @nytimes.com · 10/08/2026
Breaking News: At least 20 people were killed when an earthquake struck 150 miles west of Bogotá, Colombia, causing significant damage, officials said. Follow updates.
nyti.ms
Live Updates: Powerful Colombia Earthquake Causes Damage in Bogotá, Cali and Beyond
The quake shook several major cities, including Bogotá, Cali and Medellín. At least 20 people were reported dead in the city of Pereira, about 35 miles from the epicenter.
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Laura Gwilliams @lauragwilliams.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
check out @irmakergin.bsky.social's review paper in "Frontiers for Young Minds"! it was such a fun and heartening experience to work with their young reviewers team. highly recommend! kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
kids.frontiersin.org
How Does Your Brain Predict the Future When You Hear Speech?
Thanks to our brains, we can talk to our families and friends and easily understand what they are saying. But did you know that our brains do not just listen—they also try to guess what we are going t...
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Science Magazine @science.org · 10/08/2026
"Our future here depends not only on me excelling as a researcher, but also on whether we can afford to remain in the U.K. legally." #ScienceWorkingLife scim.ag/4fZF1cM
An illustration of a man on a bike with two children and woman behind him riding uphill on a U.K. flag, with text: Visa stress clouds my life as a scientist and parent
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Cliona O'Doherty @clionaod.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Super excited to be back @cogcompneuro.bsky.social in NYU - this year presenting new exciting work from Project Simsom with @camerontellis.bsky.social, Dan Yamins and the team. Are we ready to build an AI model of infant development? We think so ... come check it out Thursday 10:30 E39 👶🤖
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Freddy Kamps @fkamps.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
New paper! We found basic scene selectivity arises across the scene network early in infancy (i.e., by ~3.5 months old), prior to independent navigation experience www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
The cortical scene processing network emerges in infancy, prior to independent navigation experience | PNAS
Sighted people rely on vision to recognize and navigate the local environment. By adulthood, human cortex contains at least three regions that resp...
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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Most of the statistical tests you learned in stats class — t-test, ANOVA, correlation — are actually special cases of a single thing: linear regression. Ch 7 of Experimentology argues that thinking in models, not tests, is more flexible and a better foundation for theory. 🧵 experimentology.io
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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
This week's Experimentology chapter is "Estimation". The most important move in planning an analysis isn't picking your test or your model — it's clearly defining what you're trying to estimate. 🧵 experimentology.io/005-estimat...
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Mattan S. Ben-Shachar @mattansb.msbstats.info · 31/05/2026
Psychologists doing clustering be like: #statsmeme
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Sarah Power @sarahdpower.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I am hiring a PhD student, come join the team! @mpib-berlin.bsky.social
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Alison Preston @aliprestonphd.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
When you're stressed, what happens to the mental links that let you connect related experiences and draw new conclusions? In our new @science.org #ScienceAdvances paper, we show that stress disrupts that linking process in the hippocampus🧵
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Vlad Ayzenberg @vayzenb.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
My paper with @mikearcaro.bsky.social exploring the organization of the visual system in newborn infants is now out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social !
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International 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
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Ashwini Ashokkumar @ashwinia.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
🚨🚨 My lab is hiring a Pre-doc Researcher/Lab Manager! 🚨🚨 Full-time pre-doc research opening in my lab at Harvard Psych (start: Summer/Fall 2026). Review begins April 10 Apply: jobs.smartrecruiters.com/HarvardUnive... Please repost + tag folks who might be a good fit! 👇
jobs.smartrecruiters.com
Research Assistant II
Company Description: By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds...
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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Just wrote a new blogpost trying to summarize my thoughts on the question of how and whether to use AI for research in psychology and cognitive science: babieslearninglanguage.blogspot.com/2026/04/usin...
babieslearninglanguage.blogspot.com
Using AI to improve (not automate away) academic research
Blog about fatherhood, langauge, developmental psychology, and cognitive science.
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David DeSteno @daviddesteno.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Anthropic is looking to religion to improve its AI Chatbot Claude's moral (and maybe even spiritual) development. While well-intentioned, it's not likely to work, as Claude is missing a central mechanism by which spiritual practices work: a body. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Anthropic Wants Claude to Be Moral. Is Religion Really the Answer?
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Amos Posner @amosposner.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
There is no McTry.
A McDonald’s where the sign has been reduced to McDo.
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Ani Jordan @anikka-jordan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
My first paper with @jkragel.bsky.social and Joel Voss came out yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences! It’s real! :D www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Spatial and semantic memory reorganize a hippocampal long-axis gradient | PNAS
The hippocampus supports episodic memory by binding spatial and semantic information, yet how this information is simultaneously organized along it...
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hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... "mental imagery reactivates the same sensory codes used during visual stimuli, suggesting the existence of a generative model capable of synthesizing detailed sensory contents from an abstract, semantic representation."
science.org
A shared code for perceiving and imagining objects in human ventral temporal cortex
Mental imagery allows us to remember previous experiences and imagine new ones. Animal studies have yielded rich insight into mechanisms for visual perception, but the neural mechanisms for visual imagery remain poorly understood. We determined that ...
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Mike Frank @mcxfrank.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Come join us! We have two research coordinator positions open with the Stanford IRISS predoctoral program, a program designed to mentor students for graduate study: LEVANTE: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/iriss-p... BabyView: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/iriss-p... (deadline 5/1)
careersearch.stanford.edu
IRiSS Predoctoral Researcher in School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford, California, United States
The Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) is seeking Predoctoral Researchers to participate in our 2026-2027 cohort. The...
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Tobias Gerstenberg @tobigerstenberg.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
The Causality in Cognition Lab -- a supportive, bluesky-colored team -- is looking for a predoc to join us! Here are infos about the lab (cicl.stanford.edu) and the position (careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/iriss-p...). The application deadline is May 1st. Please share, thank you 🙏
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Russ Poldrack @russpoldrack.org · 02/04/2026
These are essential questions to be asking right now. Ignoring the power of these models (which are only getting smarter by the month) is a recipe for professional obsolescence for one's self and their students.
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Mary Elizabeth Sutherland @meharpist.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Check out this @nature.com paper on how the brain’s functional hierarchy evolves from birth to 100. Infants' gradient architecture is anchored by sensory systems, differentiates along association and control axes during childhood/adolescence & dedifferentiates in aging www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Functional hierarchy of the human neocortex across the lifespan - Nature
fMRI data from individuals of a wide range of ages (from a few days to 100 years old) are used to map the key organizational axes of functional connectivity in the human cortex throughout the lifespan...
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Gisella Vetere @gisellavetere.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
How does the brain build a memory? A common assumption is that the neurons activated during an experience collectively form the memory engram. In our new Nature Neuroscience paper (finally out!), we show that this is not the case. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Deconstruction of a memory engram reveals distinct ensembles recruited at learning - Nature Neuroscience
Pouget et al. identified distinct CA1 neuron ensembles active during specific moments of fear learning and uncovered the core engram essential for memory formation.
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Tomás Ryan @tjryan.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Why can't you remember being a toddler? Or can you? Nice feature in Time of our lab's work on infantile amnesia at @tcddublin.bsky.social Also of the labs of @sarahdpower.bsky.social at MPI Berlin, @franklandlab.bsky.social at Sick Kids, and Nick Turk-Browne at Yale. time.com/7380496/why-...
time.com
Why You Can’t Remember Being a Toddler
This form of amnesia is almost universal, but has long been overlooked.
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Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam @laurelgd.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
🎉 PINE Lab is hiring a postbacc Research Coordinator! Projects include cohort studies examining brain mechanisms linking adversity to cognition/language & RCTs of early interventions on neurodevelopment. apply: forms.gle/Dyay39x2XEMn... more info: www.plasticityinneurodevelopmentlab.com/join-us
forms.gle
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Norman Lab @ptoncompmemlab.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
We are hiring a research specialist, to start this summer! This position would be a great fit for individuals looking to get more experience in computational and cognitive neuroscience research before applying to graduate school. #neurojobs Apply here: research-princeton.icims.com/jobs/21503/r...
research-princeton.icims.com
Careers | Human Resources
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Ashley Thomas @ashleyjthomas.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Hossein was supposed to come to my lab as a grad student but couldn’t because of the travel ban. I had a blast writing this paper with him, but it was bittersweet knowing he should have been in person with us. ❤️ check out 🧵below. part of a special issue on kissing led by Deb Lieberman.
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Laura Gwilliams @lauragwilliams.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Soon hiring a lab manager! Looking for someone who is really interested in language neuroscience, who is organised, motivated, a great communicator, and who works well in a research team. Express interest by submitting this form: tinyurl.com/glysn-labman... Reposts appreciated!
tinyurl.com
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Cliona O'Doherty @clionaod.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
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Bria Long @brialong.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
The Visual Learning Lab is hiring TWO lab coordinators! Both positions are ideal for someone looking for research experience before applying to graduate school. Application deadline is Feb 10th (approaching fast!)—with flexible summer start dates.
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Científico Latino @cientificolatino.com · 10/12/2025
Happy to introduce our 25 2025 Alumni Scholarship Recipients!! This year we have launched our 2025 Alumni Scholarship Fund to support 1st year grad students, graduates of our GSMI program, to cover educational expenses in their 1st year of graduate school.
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Cameron Ellis @camerontellis.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
We are recruiting a lab manager/research assistant to start in early 2026! The successful candidate will conduct awake infant fMRI, meet cute babies, and join a fun team! More details (e.g. responsibilities): soc.stanford.edu/people/#join... Apply here: careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/social-...
soc.stanford.edu
People – Scaffolding of Cognition Team
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 27/09/2025
The Milgram experiment but the guy in the white coat is a chef and he's assuring me that it's ok to add more butter
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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
The rumors are true! #CCN2026 will be held at NYU. @toddgureckis.bsky.social and I will be executive-chairing. Get in touch if you want to be involved!
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Brynn Sherman @brynnsherman.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Last month, I launched my lab at Ohio State. Our lab website is now live, and we're recruiting graduate students this cycle! If you're interested in the cognitive (neuro)science of learning & memory, please reach out! www.momentslab.org
momentslab.org
Moments Lab
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Monica Ellwood-Lowe @mellwoodlowe.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
I’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share: phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo
phxc1b.rfer.us
Research Coordinator, Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab in Graduate School of Education, Stanford, California, United States
The Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) seeks a full-time Research Coordinator (acting lab manager) to help launch and coordinate the Minds,.....
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Julia Leonard @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
I’ve been talking with the phenomenal NYTimes reporter @susandominus.bsky.social about my research since 2018, and her new book *The Family Dynamic* is finally out!
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Ignacio Saez, PhD @ignaciosaezphd.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
How is prefrontal neural activity refined as we age? Out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com‬! This study, from Elizabeth Johnson, uncovers how subtle changes in neural 'noise' impact our attention, memory, and cognition through development. Proud to have contributed! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The development of aperiodic neural activity in the human brain header
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Chaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
these are forks
a visual illusion: what appears to be some strangely shaped pink pieces of cloth are actually the background on which several forks are laying
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