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Mark H Johnson

@markhjoh.bsky.social
135 followers 26 following 21 posts

Professor of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge; Developmental cognitive neuroscience; Interactive Specialization & brain development; Neurodiversity and brain plasticity; University leadership

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Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Nick Holmes @thehandlab.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Neuroscience & mental health: 4.4% success rate for #MRC #UKRI grants assessed in Spring 2026 Years & years & years of wasted effort 👇
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ingmarvisser.bsky.social @ingmarvisser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This was a fantastic team effort across 30+ labs 🌍 Paper (open access), data & code all public. > 📄 doi.org/10.1111/desc... > 💻 github.com/manybabies/m... > #ManyBabies #InfantCognition #OpenScience #DevSci, lead team: Andreea Geambaşu, Melanie Soderstrom, and Claartje Levelt
doi.org
ManyBabies 3: A Multi‐Lab Study of Infant Algebraic Rule Learning
The ability to learn and apply rules lies at the heart of cognition. In a seminal study, Marcus et al. (1999) reported that 7-month-old infants learned abstract rules over syllable sequences and were...
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 21/09/2026
How do the brain's anatomical architecture & functional activity patterns become established during early life? This study of developmental changes in the #brain from perinatal to toddlerhood reveals the organization of networks & #cognitive development @plosbiology.org 🧪 buff.ly/UESbFve
Top: This illustration depicts the evolving spatial pattern of brain structure–function coupling from the perinatal period through infancy. Cortical colors represent regional coupling strength, while the circular arrangement and arrows indicate the temporal progression of early brain development. Bottom: This image separately visualizes the brain’s structural and functional organization. The left panel shows colored white-matter fiber pathways, whereas the right panel displays cortical functional connections as colored nodes and edges embedded within a brain surface. Image created by Ruoke Zhao, Dan Wu.
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Prof Anthony Isles @profantisles.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
🧠🧬 doi.org/10.1038/s415...
nature.com
The need to consider complexity in the future of behavioral genetics - Nature Genetics
Human behavior is often framed around the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate, but a ‘this or that’ dichotomy does not reflect the current research in genetics and hinders meaningful dialogue. We describe ...
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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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Ricard Solé @ricardsole.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Is the human brain really an optimal template for AI? Probably not. The connectome is a compromise among competing objectives, shaped by evolution, development, and biological constraints. Check this @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social paper www.cell.com/trends/cogni... @brigan.bsky.social
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Further evidence for chronogeneity just out: heterogeneity in autism may be partly explained by distinct developmental trajectories with early or later onset. And intriguingly this associates with stages of brain processing. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Distinct Temporal Stages of Infant Brain Processing Associate With Early Versus Later Autism Diagnosis
The expression of autism traits sufficient to meet criteria for a diagnosis can occur early (by 3 years) or later (from mid-childhood onwards). It remains unknown whether variation in age of onset i...
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Ev Fedorenko @evfedorenko.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I am so excited about this finding from @pengrui-han.bsky.social and @andreadevarda.bsky.social, also with Jacob Andreas! Perhaps modularity is inevitable in intelligent systems, biological or in silico. :)
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Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Review of CH Waddington's influence on developmental biology and evo-devo: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... includes supp info with his 50th birthday songs!
journals.biologists.com
C.H. Waddington's lasting achievements in development and evolution
ABSTRACT. C.H. Waddington (1905-1975) was a British biologist and perhaps the major figure in developmental biology between the 1940s and 1960s. He is one of the few pre-molecular-age developmental bi...
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Cambridge Psychology Department @campsydept.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
New podcast alert 🎧👶 The Baby Fact Check sees science communicator Greg Foot (BBC's Sliced Bread) investigate popular claims about babies and parenting, separating evidence from myth in an accessible and engaging way. #BabyFactCheck #Parenting #ChildDevelopment #Psychology
youtube.com
Welcome to The Baby Fact Check with Greg Foot - Trailer
YouTube video by The Baby Fact Check
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Uta Frith @utafrith.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Is this a model of how the brain works?
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MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge @mrccbu.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
The University approves plans for the Cambridge Mind and Brain Institute (CMBi). An evolution of the renowned CBU, bridging across Schools and Departments, the new Institute will integrate discovery science with clinical innovation to transform brain health. #Neuroscience #MentalHealth
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Our review of 103 studies of the neonatal brain at rest shows group-level developmental changes in functional connectivity, but also evidence for significant inter-individual variability. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The neonatal brain at rest: A systematic review of task-free functional connectivity in the first 100 days
Over the first 100 days post-partum human brain functions may undergo rapid changes, with plasticity peaking. Studies of task-free functional connecti…
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Reposted by Mark H Johnson
PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 30/03/2026
How do #prenatal & #postnatal periods shape the developing human #cortex? This study uses #neonatal MRI to show that time in the womb drives widespread, uniform maturation, whereas time after birth produces more region- & depth-specific changes across the cortex @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/47o6rpk
Left: Intracortical intensity profiles were extracted at each vertex of infant structural MRI scans. Intensities were sampled at 12 equivolumetric intracortical surfaces, spanning from the pial boundary (blue) to the white matter boundary (yellow), capturing signal variations across cortical depths, defined as microstructure profiles. Top right: Systematic changes in profile shape with respect to (i) center of gravity and (ii) variance. To illustrate this relationship, all profiles (across participants and regions) were sorted according to the respective moment, then averaged within 100 bins. Bottom right: Parcel-wise central moment distributions mapped on the dHCP 40-week surface template (see S1 Data). Excluded regions (i.e., von Economo areas LA1, LA2, LC1, LC2, LC3, LD, and LE and the cortical wall) are shown in gray.
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University of Cambridge @cam.ac.uk · 24/02/2026
How does the brain adapt when a child is born with an upper limb difference? Research from @mrccbu.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk reveals widespread changes across the brain, highlighting its remarkable ability to reorganise and support adaptation to the world around them. Find out more: bit.ly/3Ov88dT
bit.ly
Children born with upper limb difference show the incredible adaptability of the young brain
Children born with upper limb difference show the incredible adaptability of the young brain
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Reposted by Mark H Johnson
TCD School of Psychology @tcdpsychology.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
"Babies can categorise objects better at two months than previously known." - Professor Rhodri Cusack from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and co-author of the research speaks to NewsTalk. Listen to the interview: ow.ly/MqA650Y8ZbB @rhodricusack.bsky.social @trinityneuro.bsky.social
ow.ly
Babies can categorise objects better at two months than previously known | Newstalk
Babies as young as two-months-old can categorise objects in their brains, which is far younger th...
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
Results almost exactly as predicted by the two-process theory: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25454353/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The two-process theory of face processing: modifications based on two decades of data from infants and adults - PubMed
Johnson and Morton (1991. Biology and Cognitive Development: The Case of Face Recognition. Blackwell, Oxford) used Gabriel Horn's work on the filial imprinting model to inspire a two-process theory of the development of face processing in humans. In this paper we review evidence accrued over the pas …
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
I'm very fortunate to have been continuously funded by the MRC for most of my career despite some funding squeezes. However, things now look dire; first cutting all proper unit funding, then scrapping programme grants, and now circa 2% funding rate: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
researchprofessionalnews.com
MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News
Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls
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Stephan Krohn @skrohn.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Thrilled to share our paper on the formation of brain shape in human newborns, just out @natneuro.nature.com: tinyurl.com/2ty4ef43 Using #fractal analysis of #MRI data from the developing Human Connectome Project (lnkd.in/dxeHbJX6), we show that brain shape closely captures infant age and genetics ⬇️
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
After her death I imagined what her last lecture would have been like: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Annette’s last lecture: A work of informed imagination
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Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience @kingsioppn.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Subtle changes in the body may reveal how the #brain develops before behaviours emerge. In their new blog, Drs Chloe Wong & Laurel Fish explore how #DNA methylation is linked to the pupillary light reflex, offering insight into #autism development. 🔗 www.kcl.ac.uk/what-the-eye...
kcl.ac.uk
What the eyes may reveal about the epigenetics of early autism…
Subtle changes in the body can reveal a great deal about early brain development. One such change is the pupillary light reflex (PLR): the automatic constriction of the pupil in response to…
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Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Kevin Mitchell @wiringthebrain.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
Direct Fit to Nature: An Evolutionary Perspective on Biological and Artificial Neural Networks www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - thought-provoking (2019) paper from @urihasson.bsky.social and colleagues
sciencedirect.com
Direct Fit to Nature: An Evolutionary Perspective on Biological and Artificial Neural Networks
Evolution is a blind fitting process by which organisms become adapted to their environment. Does the brain use similar brute-force fitting processes …
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Marc L Seal @parkvillegeek.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Mapping the Developmental Trajectory of Functional Brain Networks in Early Infancy: Insights into Typical Maturation | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment” in @npp-journal.bsky.social! We examine neurobiological, environmental & behavioral evidence for human critical periods in sensory and association cortex +discuss new research directions rdcu.be/eMkVU 🧵
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Lynda Boothroyd @drboothroyd.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Annette Karmiloff-Smith. She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too. I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Sound advice, but perhaps our objective should be to eliminate the dreaded word completely and replace it with new scientific terminology. In this respect, I disagreed with my co-authors of "Rethinking Innateness" - as noted in the Preface.
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Liz Simpson @simpson.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
First human newborn paper from my NSF CAREER Award! Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - with our amazing @umiamipsych.bsky.social team: Guangyu Zung, Yeojin Amy Ahn, @tiffany6390.bsky.social, @semaylott.bsky.social, Arushi Malik, @dmessinger.bsky.social doi.org/10.3758/s134...
doi.org
Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - Behavior Research Methods
Automated behavioral measurement using machine learning is gaining ground in psychological research. Automated approaches have the potential to reduce the labor and time associated with manual behavio...
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Elisabetta Versace @elisabettaversace.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
pnas.org
The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias | PNAS
The structure of the environment includes more horizontal and vertical (i.e. cardinal) orientations than oblique orientations, meaning that edges t...
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Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Varun Warrier @vw1234.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
And a very helpful and informative commentary on the paper by @tuckerdrob.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Early- and late-diagnosed autism are genetically distinct
Analyses of symptoms and genomic data indicate that autism that manifests in early childhood is distinct from autism that is diagnosed later in development.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
I was one of those academics who benefited from an H1B visa, and I like to think the US benefited from this also. I can't imagine many US universities can afford to cough up 100k extra for recruitment, so sad to see this....
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Cambridge Psychology Department @campsydept.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
👀
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 “Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist,” in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
thetimes.com
Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist
Academic who showed little tolerance for IQ testing, but made steps towards a treatment for Alzheimer’s, dies aged 87
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Cambridge Psychology Department @campsydept.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Join our #NewBONDS study at #Cambridge #Babylab ✨ Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brain🔎🧠🐣 📨Get in touch to learn more! #developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction
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Cambridge Neuroscience @camneuro.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Join us for a 2-day international conference "Interventions & Recovery"🧠 bit.ly/46QQ1WG We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology Check out our Programme!👇https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Finally got around to this interesting exchange. Much to like! However, in my view neonate cortex is building a foundation model while sub-cortical sensorimotor routes support newborn behaviours and, importantly, bias the inputs to the foundation model (e.g. orienting toward faces).
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Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam @laurelgd.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
thrilled to share this project over a decade in the making out now in @pnas.org! We show that precocious GABA boosting in neonates by early sevoflurane/propofol anesthetic exposure accelerates visual cortical maturation in human infants www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
Excellent work from my colleague Daniel Wechsler showing that "Mother–child autism trait similarity positively predicted both social functioning and psychological well-being in children..". Trait similarity may act as a protective or promotive factor. acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em> | ACAMH Pediatric Journal | Wiley Online Library
Background There is a pressing need for research on neurodevelopmental conditions to focus on predictors of resilient or positive outcomes, rather than core symptoms and impairment. One promising av.....
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Lukas Vogelsang @lukasvogelsang.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
1/ New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com, led by @marinv.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1038/s420...! Across several past studies, we showed how newborns' degraded vision may benefit human development and inspire more robust deep networks. We have referred to this as Adaptive Initial Degradations (AID).
doi.org
Potential role of developmental experience in the emergence of the parvo-magno distinction - Communications Biology
Developmentally-driven computational modeling study suggests that early sensory experience shapes distinct neuronal response properties in the visual system, providing a potential account of the emerg...
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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
DNA is often called a “blueprint for life”. In common parlance a blueprint refers to (e.g.) an architect plan, technical drawing or engineering design. DNA does indeed contain information to guide construction, in this case of a living organism. But beyond that, similarities rapidly break down. 2/n
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Emily Singer @emilysingerneuro.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
The latest essay in our #NeuroAI series explores how inspiration from how babies learn language might improve language models.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Delighted to be part of the team on this breakthrough infant behaviour genetics study led by @angelicaronald.bsky.social and Anna Gui: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Genome-wide association meta-analysis of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants of European ancestry - Nature Human Behaviour
A genome-wide association study of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants found 11 significant loci. Age at onset of walking showed SNP heritability of 24%, a reliable polygenic score and gene...
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
From our 'infant sibs' cohorts we are finding increasing evidence for Chronogeneity as a way to view heterogeneity in autism. In other words, different ages of onset may reflect different types of neurodiversity. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
medrxiv.org
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Congratulations Karla! Great to see how much your research has grown from those PhD days...😀
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Along with the new statue, proud that my College (Kings) has now acquired some of Turing's notebooks (thanks to a generous donation). Kings was also an early career haven for David Marr and Geoff Hinton, so there must be something in the water? www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/al...
kings.cam.ac.uk
Alan Turing's 'Delilah' papers saved for the nation
Following his ground-breaking work on the Enigma machines at Bletchley Park, in 1943 Turing (KC 1931) turned to building a portable voice encoder for short-distance transmission to be used in military...
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Gregory Kohn @kohngregory.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
The media circus on the slightly modified wolf mixed with the nonsensical hype of de-extinction only highlights the need to greatly shift how we talk about genes and genetic "information" in popular discourse. Oyama's groundbreaking book and Lewontin's prescient forward should be a starting point.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Great paper adding to the recent evidence for pulvinar as an organiser of human cortical development, and potentially "training" cortical specialisation. www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
An intrinsic hierarchical, retinotopic organization of visual pulvinar connectivity in the human neonate
Despite the immaturity of the visual cortex, infants exhibit remarkable perceptual abilities. The pulvinar is hypothesized to support perceptual abilities in infancy and even scaffold the initial deve...
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Shocked at the cuts to University staff and research funding across UK, Netherlands and, of course, the situation in US. I'm old enough to remember the massive cuts to science in the early Thatcher years, but at least we young scientists could join the 'brain drain' to the US at the time.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
But what is the solution? We certainly don't want to increase further the admin load on academics. A proportion of this is driven by new government and funder requirements. Some also responds to perceived threat of legal action. And some is self-generated as you say.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
I agree with sentiments of the editorial, but also agree that there are some amazing and very hard working people in these roles. The question is what is driving this ever increasing administrative loads and how to curtail it.
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Mark H Johnson @markhjoh.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
There is still a week left to apply! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49974/
jobs.cam.ac.uk
The Dawson Professorship of Young People's Mental Health - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
The Dawson Professorship of Young People's Mental Health in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.
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