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Xinyu Liang

@neocosmliang.bsky.social
71 followers 114 following 9 posts

Postdoc at ISTBI, Fudan University | Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience | Exploring neuroaesthetics and hemispheric lateralization.

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Reposted by Xinyu Liang
Mustafa Alperen Ekinci @alpekinci.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The first paper of my PhD work! We show that our aesthetic experiences while watching movies can be partly explained by shared perceptual mechanisms: a combination of image-based visual features predicts our moment-to-moment aesthetic experiences, even across different movies.
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tor @torwager.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
neuromarkers.io : Browse, view, and download fMRI neuromarkers, population-level predictive brain models that can be applied to new studies and populations
canlab.github.io
Neuromarkers · CANlab
Population-level brain patterns for new studies. Browse, explore, and download published neuromarkers.
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Jörn Alexander Quent @jaquent.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I am very excited to share this. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Most of us agree that the HC is critical for associative memory but there is growing work showing it does much more (WM etc.). Recognition partly relies on a global matching, which based on influential models is not supported by HC.
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Jörn Alexander Quent @jaquent.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
My latest pre-print. If you're at #CNS2026 and wanna have a chat, come to my poster (P6/12). I will soon post a summary thread. 🧵
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
How does the brain interpret artistic beauty? Here’s our new article in The Conversation, based on our recent study:
theconversation.com
Science uncovers how the brain interprets artistic beauty – new research
An MRI study zeroes in on the brain networks that underline collective appreciation of art.
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Tilbe Göksun @tilbegoksun.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Here is a new paper I wrote with Aykut Coşkun and Anjan Chatterjee for the COPSY Special Issue on "Psychology of Art" @anjanchatterjee.bsky.social “Looking at artifacts”: The development of visual aesthetic preferences www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Mormann Lab @humansingleneuron.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
First public dataset from the Mormann/Bonn lab! Congrats to @alanadarcher.bsky.social and @franzigrkn.bsky.social 🧠🎥!
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
💡What makes some ideas spring to mind while others we have to reach for? We built an #NLP #fMRI #MachineLearning framework to find out. New study from our lab, led by @kaixiangzhuang.bsky.social out in @natcomms.nature.com 🧵 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CognitiveNeuroscience #Fudan #ISTBI
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Dirk Bernhardt-Walther @dirkbwalther.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
How can aesthetic pleasure be shaped by so many visual attributes: prototypicality, fluency, complexity, symmetry, and self-relevance? I argue that aesthetic pleasure emerges from a balance between categorization-based rewards and metabolic costs of neural activity. doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Perceptual reward as the result of multiple micro-rewards along the visual processing hierarchy. Micro-rewards may arise, for instance, from the processing of orientation in area V1, motion in the Medial Temporal area (MT), simple shapes and grouping rules in V4, objects in the Lateral Occipital Complex (LOC), faces in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA), scenes in the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA), or the processing of abstract categories in Prefrontal Cortex (PFC).Aesthetic liking as a trade-off between perceptual reward from categorization and metabolic cost. a. The experienced pleasure from a stimulus (thick black line) is derived from the combination of perceptual reward (thin black line) and metabolic cost (dashed line), resulting in an inverted U-shaped curve.Expertise moves this curve (solid line) to the right (dotted line), fatigue to the left (dashed line). Stimuli that are enjoyed in the baseline condition (circles) are enjoyed less when fatigued because they would overwhelm the visual system. Simple stimuli that are enjoyable when fatigued (triangles) are liked less in the baseline condition because they are boring and do not provide sufficient perceptual reward. Experts would not draw much pleasure from stimuli enjoyed in the baseline condition (circles) but appreciate more complex stimuli (squares), which would be too overwhelming in the baseline condition.
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Tiago Peixoto @tiago.skewed.de · 08/07/2026
Good news everyone! 🎉 The new version 3.0 of graph-tool is just out with major improvements! See below. graph-tool.skewed.de graph-tool is a comprehensive and efficient Python library to work with networks, including structural, dynamical, and statistical algorithms, as well as visualization. 1/N
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
From the "Functions of the Default Mode Network" special issue that I've co-edited with Jessica Andrews-Hanna! #COBS Two years in the making, nearly done. 30+ contributions and a remarkable breadth of perspectives on the DMN. All open to read & cite 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
sciencedirect.com
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
What if much of human thought is navigation? 🧠 New open-access review: I argue that the DMN + hippocampal–entorhinal system form a domain-general engine for "mental navigation" across physical and abstract spaces (e.g. social, conceptual, and value). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
That’s a wrap on #OHBM2026 for the COGNIZE Lab! 🧠🧠🧠 An amazing week with great science, great colleagues, and a wonderful city to do it all in. So proud of the whole team for presenting our work. Until next time! 👋 #Neuroscience #BrainMapping @ohbmofficial.bsky.social @cognizelab.bsky.social
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Xinyu Liang @neocosmliang.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
If you are interested, please find me during the Higher Cogntive Functions oral session on Wednesday afternoon, as well as the poster session in last two days :)
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Thrilled to share the full roster of presentations from our COGNIZE Lab at #OHBM2026! 🧠 From naturalistic behaviour to conceptual knowledge, hippocampal morphometry to social cognition, here is a thread on what we've been up to 🧵👇 @ohbmofficial.bsky.social #Neuroscience
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tor @torwager.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
It’s a substantial extension of our previous book on Leanpub and Principles of fMRI Part 1 and Part 2 on Coursera and Youtube. The new book is $ I know (we didn’t choose that), but these are free :). leanpub.com/principlesof... www.coursera.org/learn/functi... www.coursera.org/learn/functi...
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Tamas Spisak @tspisak.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Many of you asked how we create those pretty whole-brain plots with the cortical outline. We just made it available as a Python package: pni-lab.github.io/quickbrain/
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Xinyu Liang @neocosmliang.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🎉 🖼️🧠 Thrilled to share our latest paper "Latent neural architecture organising shared aesthetic evaluations of visual artworks", now out at @natcomms.nature.com 👏 Grateful to my supervisor @neurodenizen.bsky.social and all my amazing collaborators! #neuroaesthetics
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
What makes an artwork beautiful, and can your brain's response decode such hidden dimensions of aesthetic appeal? We built a framework to find out 🎨 🧠 @natcomms.nature.com @cognizelab.bsky.social First author: @neocosmliang.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroaesthetics #DefaultMode
nature.com
Latent neural architecture organising shared aesthetic evaluations of visual artworks - Nature Communications
Using high-resolution brain imaging, researchers reveal that aesthetic preferences for visual artworks can be captured by two key dimensions, meaning and value, offering insight into how the brain org...
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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
I'm proud to say we are releasing LAION-fMRI, a densely sampled 7T fMRI dataset of natural images, with very broad stimulus sampling for testing countless hypotheses and for deeply exploring brain representations. The dataset is now available at laion-fmri.hebartlab.com What does LAION-fMRI offer? 🧵
laion-fmri.hebartlab.com
LAION-fMRI - a 7T fMRI dataset of human vision
LAION-fMRI (LfMRI / LAION MRI dataset): 5 subjects, 25,052 launch-release natural images, 165 acquired 7T fMRI sessions with single-trial GLMsingle betas, retinotopy, localizers, and diffusion.
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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
Finally, today is the day: Josefine Zerbe will present and release our new multi-echo 7T fMRI dataset LAION-fMRI during #VSS2026, with >30 fMRI session per subject and unprecedented stimulus diversity. Come to Talk Room 1 (Scene perception) today at 5:15. Details will follow in a separate thread!
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Edward Vessel @edwardvessel.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Just in case you want to ever hear me blather on some more, I found a link to a podcast I did last year. Thanks to Ken Barrett with the Brainland podcast for the lovely interview and drawing. shows.acast.com/brainland/ep...
shows.acast.com
YOUR BRAIN ON VISUAL ART: Exploring the world of visual neuroaesthetics. | BRAINLAND
in conversation with Ed Vessel.
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Xinyu Liang @neocosmliang.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Wrapped up my first #IAEA2026, what a joyful and rewarding experience. The depth of discussion, the breadth of perspectives, and the generosity of this scholarly community were genuinely inspiring. See you next time! 😊👋
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Evan Gordon @gordonneuro.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
I always assumed that brain function had to line up with cytoarchitectonics. It turns out I was wrong. Human cortex, especially PFC, is tiled by chains of functional patches that subdivide and interlink architectonic areas into parallel processing streams. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Social Biobehavioural Research Group @ucl-sbb.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Our recent publication, 'Mechanisms underpinning the mental health impact of arts engagement', has made it onto the cover of Nature Reviews Psychology! 🎨 🔍 Find that article and explore more of our research in our Research paper library: sbbresearch.org/research-pap...
sbbresearch.org
Research papers library - SBRG
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Xinyu Liang @neocosmliang.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Very important and interesting paper! We recently have an accordant work in which we tried to decompose the aesthetic experience as low dimensions and revealed relevant neural signatures. It will be published soon :)
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
New from our @cognizelab.bsky.social in Advanced Science: Beneath the Big Five, personality consistently organises into two dimensions, each with distinct brain signatures. Amazing work by postdoc @kaixiangzhuang.bsky.social and thanks to all our collaborators! doi.org/10.1002/advs...
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Caroline Nettekoven @carobellum.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Are you thinking about acquiring multi-task fMRI for your study but don’t know where to start? @bassel_arafat just published a toolbox to optimally select tasks and run them in the MRI scanner - with many commonly used tasks ready to go! Check out the preprint below 👇
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Jack Gallant @gallantlab.org · 23/03/2026
Pycortex, our awesome brain viewer software, has a major new feature! Thanks to the hard work of Dr. Matteo Visconti and Aditya Vaidya, Pycortex now supports headless webgl viewers! You can create 3D inflated plots without needing a display, and in Jupyter notebooks! gallantlab.org/pycortex/aut...
gallantlab.org
Plot 3D Brain Views Headlessly (No Browser) — pycortex 1.3.0.dev0 documentation
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Jack Gallant @gallantlab.org · 23/12/2025
‪Voxelwise Encoding Models (VEMs) are a great framework for modeling fMRI data, but it can be difficult to implement. We've made VEM accessible by providing software, tutorials and reviews that guide its use an implementation. Get it here: gallantlab.org/blog/2025-12... #neuroscience, #neuroimaging
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Robert leech @leechbrain.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
@russpoldrack.org's guidelines for AI-assisted coding can help researchers ensure the integrity of their work while accelerating progress on important scientific questions. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/artificial-i...
thetransmitter.org
AI-assisted coding: 10 simple rules to maintain scientific rigor
These guidelines can help researchers ensure the integrity of their work while accelerating progress on important scientific questions.
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 09/12/2025
Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
screenshot of my post
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Jörn Alexander Quent @jaquent.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Due to popular demand, here is a visualisation of the custom "maze" algorithm we used to uncover gradients along the cortical surface.
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
🧠 New paper alert (the 1st one from our new lab)! Led by 1st author & VR wizard @jaquent.bsky.social @natcomms.nature.com How do our brains distinguish novel from familiar places as we explore our environments, e.g., a new city? 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🧵 Thread below with key findings ⬇️
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Dirk Bernhardt-Walther @dirkbwalther.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Energy efficiency drives evolution, and humans may have evolved pleasure-based signals to optimize actions. Does this extend to aesthetic pleasure? Yes! Strong evidence in silico and humans, out in PNAS Nexus: tinyurl.com/3kbu8xw4 With Yikai Tang and Wil Cunningham. @uoftpsychology.bsky.social
Conceptual Roadmap of the present study. To examine the relationship between the metabolic costs of visual processing and aesthetic pleasure, we used both computational and physiological measures to quantify metabolic costs during visual processing: 1. Model-derived estimates of metabolic costs based on the activation of a deep neural network; 2. Metabolic activity of human brains, specifically in the visual processing areas. We found that both measures were inversely related to aesthetic pleasure.
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Russ Poldrack @russpoldrack.org · 02/12/2025
Best practices for using Jupyter notebooks russpoldrack.substack.com/p/best-pract... - the latest in my Better Code, Better Science series
russpoldrack.substack.com
Best practices for using Jupyter notebooks
Better Code, Better Science: Chapter 6, Part 6
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Dirk Bernhardt-Walther @dirkbwalther.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
What makes visual stimuli memorable? Wilma Bainbridge, @keisukefukuda.bsky.social, Lore Goetschalckx, and I investigate the role of processing fluency for memorability in a new review paper in Nature Reviews Psychology. Check it out! rdcu.be/eSyjz
rdcu.be
Memorability of visual stimuli and the role of processing efficiency
Nature Reviews Psychology - Certain items are better remembered than others across individuals, a property known as memorability. In this Review, Bainbridge and colleagues detail memorability...
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Moataz Assem @moatazassem.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
The special issue celebrating John Duncan's retirement is now out! Check out all the gem articles here: sciencedirect.com/special-issue/10QN6R7VQSM and the editorial (see next figure in the thread for an entertaining analysis) doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
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iaea-jena2026.bsky.social @iaea-jena2026.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Submissions are now open! The 2026 IAEA Congress invites researchers, scholars, and artists from different domains and countries to present and share empirical research on aesthetics, creativity, and the psychology and neurobiology of the arts and aesthetics.
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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Please repost! I am looking for a PhD candidate in the area of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience to start in early 2026. The position is funded as part of the Excellence Cluster "The Adaptive Mind" at @jlugiessen.bsky.social. Please apply here until Nov 25: www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
View from your office onto Giessen and surrounding villages.
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Edward Vessel @edwardvessel.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
📣 New Paper Alert! My PhD student Hannah Ovadia and I wrote a concise update on “The Role of the Default Mode Network (DMN) in Aesthetic Appeal” to synthesize evidence, highlight issues, and most importantly, consider theoretical alternatives. Free access: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lz-h8MqMi...
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iaea-jena2026.bsky.social @iaea-jena2026.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Welcome to the IAEA Aesthetics Conference 2026 in Jena! We are delighted to announce that the International Association for Empirical Aesthetics (IAEA) will hold its next international conference in Jena, Germany, from 5th to 8th May. Discover more at iaea-jena2026.org (link in bio)
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Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics @pcfn.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
How we subconsciously reach towards beauty 🫳 www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brai...
psychologytoday.com
Are You Moved by Beauty?
Beauty is in the hand more than in the eye of the beholder.
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Edward Vessel @edwardvessel.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
APA Monitor article on what happens in the brain when we view art www.apa.org/monitor/2025... #neuroaesthetics
apa.org
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Chaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Out today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Screenshot of the first page of Tal and Chaz's paper, "The psychophysics of style"
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MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge @mrccbu.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
New opinion paper linking the brain’s DMN response to cognitive transitions during narratives and task-switching; by Ashley Zhou, John Duncan and Daniel Mitchell: doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
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Deniz Vatansever @neurodenizen.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Massive congrats to @neocosmliang.bsky.social for receiving the #OHBM Merit Award for his work on “the domain general neural signature of perceived object beauty”🌹 #ECR @ohbmtrainees.bsky.social @cognizelab.bsky.social
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Xinyu Liang @neocosmliang.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Welcome to see my poster and discuss with me at No. 757 #ohbm #ohbm2025
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