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Preston Thakral

@prestonthakral.bsky.social
244 followers 468 following 8 posts

Assistant Professor, Smith College. PI of the Neuroscience of Memory and Flexible Cognition Laboratory t.co/BEC27XDM7w

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Reposted by Preston Thakral
Michelle Greene @mgreenephd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🚨New paper alert! 🚨 The visual system tunes itself to the statistics of its input. How do individual experiences differently tune vision? In this work, @bjbalas.bsky.social and I examined how one individual difference—height—changes the visual diet and how this affects perception. 1/
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Adrian Duszkiewicz @adrian-du.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Interesting new study from the Frank lab: Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands
cell.com
Hippocampal representations of alternative possibilities are flexibly generated to meet cognitive demands
Comrie et al. show that the hippocampus flexibly represents different alternative possibilities—including paths ahead, behind, and far away—to meet distinct cognitive demands related to decision-makin...
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Zhiqing Deng @zhiqingdeng.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
🧠Excited to share that our paper has been accepted at PNAS! We found hierarchical plasticity in people born without hands. ❤️Thanks to @striemamit.bsky.social @yuqiliu1179.bsky.social @Florencia Martinez-Addiego www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Experience-driven plasticity in the secondary somatosensory cortex in people born without hands | PNAS
In congenital handlessness, where individuals rely on their feet for compensatory manual functions, reorganization in the primary somatosensory cor...
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Jon Simons @jonsimons.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Delighted to see the great Daniel Schacter among those recognised with an APS Mentor Award. I have been so grateful for Dan's mentorship during my career, and try my best to model his example with my own mentees www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...
psychologicalscience.org
APS Recognizes 11 Psychological Scientists With 2027 Lifetime Achievement Awards
The 2027 recipients have advanced research in sleep disorders, cross-cultural comparisons of parenting, emotional regulation, and many other topics.
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Preston Thakral @prestonthakral.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
youtu.be/Yr_6rA68eOw?...
youtu.be
NYC says yes to bodega cats
YouTube video by FOX 5 New York
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Functional Neuroimaging of Memory Lab @fnim-lab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
New Paper! Monier et al. reveal scene- and object-selective regions exhibit convergent patterns of functional connectivity during encoding and retrieval of episodic memory, with age-related differences in scene-selective networks and their association with memory performance. doi.org/10.1093/cerc...
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Micaela Chan @micaelachan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Combining data to study lifespan brain aging is tempting: more data and wider age range! But mixing data across scanners/protocols without proper harmonization can bias age effects, including studies using high-quality HCP data. Imaging Neuroscience🔔doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1338
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Brock Kirwan @brockkirwan.com · 13/08/2026
In honor of International Left-Handers Day, we have an updated preprint on scanning left-handed participants in fMRI studies. Although they're 11% of the population, we routinely screen LH people out of fMRI studies due to concerns about functional lateralization 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Left Out: The Effect of Handedness on fMRI Activation in Memory Paradigms
About 11% of the population is left-handed, a significant minority of the potential participant pool for functional MRI (fMRI) studies. However, convention in fMRI research dictates these potential pa...
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Annick Tanguay @annicktanguay.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
TL;DR THREAD – Properties of personal semantics ⏳ (link.springer.com/article/10.3...) The backstory. In previous work, we observed a gradient of hippocampal activity 🍤 : general semantic knowledge < personal semantic knowledge < episodic memory 📈 (elifesciences.org/articles/83645)
link.springer.com
The properties of personal semantics - Memory & Cognition
Recent cognitive neuroscience research has uncovered some similarities and some differences between general semantic memory (GS; e.g., knowledge about family in general) and personal semantic memory (...
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Stephen Emrich @emrich.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I'm really excited to share the results of a new study that @bjbalas.bsky.social and I have been working on this summer. This project was a bit of a labor of love. If you're interested in #chess, mental imagery, #aphantasia, or the value of a sabbatical, this is a 🧵 for you: 1/?
static.klipy.com
Clever Cat Plays Chess
ALT: Clever Cat Plays Chess
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Admirable Women @admirablewomen.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Neuroscientist Dr. Brenda Milner is recognized as one of the fundamental founders of modern cognitive neuropsychology. She proved the hippocampus is essential for forming long-term "declarative" memory (facts, names & events). She was born #OTD in 1918--she's 108 years old today! #WomenInSTEM
A color photograph of Dr. Brenda Milner (born 1918), the pioneering British-Canadian founder of cognitive neuropsychology whose landmark work mapped localized memory in the human hippocampus. Seated and facing left, she engages an audience with an expressive, animated posture, both hands raised in gestural emphasis. Her short, silver-gray hair is styled back with soft volume, framing a deeply lined, intent face with a focused expression. She wears a tailored, dark navy and black textured tweed jacket over a simple cream blouse. A multi-strand necklace of dark, polished beads hangs around her neck, and a small, delicate pin is affixed to her left lapel. A flesh-colored over-ear microphone wire curves across her cheek. The dimly lit stage setting shows a blurred equipment in the background under subtle stage lighting, giving the composition a dynamic, scholarly atmosphere that highlights her enduring intellectual passion.
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Rik Henson @rhens.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Thanks to Kshipra Guranandan, my notebook on how to design efficient fMRI experiments (for activity, connectivity and pattern analysis) is now available in Python as a Jupyter notebook (as well as previous Matlab): github.com/RikHenson/fM...
github.com
GitHub - RikHenson/fMRIefficiency
Contribute to RikHenson/fMRIefficiency development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Preston Thakral @prestonthakral.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
New paper from our lab in collaboration with @adevitt.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Episodic and semantic memory contributions to imagination and creativity
The ability to generate novel creative ideas (divergent thinking) is closely linked with our ability to imagine novel future events (episodic simulation). Here, we employed an individual difference...
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Cats of Yore @catsofyore.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
The Marcels of the Backrooms remind you that shelter kitties need our help. Please donate if you can! givebutter.com/mollys-birth...
Photo of "the backrooms" - a picture that has become famous on the internet as being a prime example of liminal space, an asthetic known for spooky looking empty spaces. The photo is of an empty furniture store that someone was renovating, weird open rooms and endless hallways and odd random walls with no furniture in any of them. Everything is in light beige and off-white but has a strange greenish tone. I have photoshopped numerous photos of my black tuxedo cat Marcel into the scene, peeking out from various corners.
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Alexander Huth @alexanderhuth.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
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🍁🎃Eski🎃🍁 @eskiworks.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
LOAF IS IN SPACE! SHE MADE IT TO THE HEAVENS! We submitted this pic of her to Crunchlabs' space selfie project the day it debuted, and her turn finally came up! #NaniAndDashi
REAL photo of a display showing my beloved tortie cat Loaf, with the planet earth behind her.
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Metal Injection @metalinjection.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
GEEZER BUTLER (BLACK SABBATH) Backs Effort To Rehome 1,500 Beagles From Wisconsin Lab: "We Can Pursue Better Science Without Animal Suffering" metalinjection.net/news/geezer-...
metalinjection.net
GEEZER BUTLER (BLACK SABBATH) Backs Effort To Rehome 1,500 Beagles From Wisconsin Lab: "We Can Pursue Better Science Without Animal Suffering" - Metal Injection
Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath spoke at a press conference in support of rescue efforts made for 1,500 dogs in animal testing facilities.
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Simon W Davis @woodforbrains.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Totally wired to share this: TMS affects memory representations in MCI! Parietal TMS is emerging as an intervention for AD, but relies on a systems explanation (connectivity w/ hippocampus) Here's data for a complimentary view: these benefits emerge due to boosting memory representations
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Gagan Wig @gaganwig.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
We're hiring! FT research assistant @ UT Dallas Join our team to work on a longitudinal neuroimaging study of midlife brain aging. Strong opportunity for those interested in brain networks, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease risk. App. deadline May 6. Details: jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/31680
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Nick Gaspelin @ngaspelin.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Last chance to apply for our virtual summer workshop on R Programming for Psychology and Neuroscience. Funded by NSF, this FREE workshop provides direct training in using R to analyze data from psychological experiments. Open to students from any university. Apps due May 15! rworkshop.missouri.edu
sites.google.com
Home
This virtual workshop teaches basic principles of computer programming for psychology and neuroscience. Specific emphasis is given on the skills needed to analyze data from psychological tasks using R...
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James Kragel @jkragel.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
New paper from our group out in @pnas.org! doi.org/10.1073/pnas.... Big thank you to coauthors @vosstacular.bsky.social and @anikka-jordan.bsky.social. Anikka spearheaded this project during her time as an RA and is now a grad student at Yale.
doi.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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Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The Memory Disorders Research Society (www.memorydisorders.org) is now seeking nominations for new members! Self-nominations are welcome. Application is open until April 15 @ 11:59pm PT. Reach out if you have questions about the society or its (amazing) annual meeting! forms.gle/Qn7mchoPpaqL...
memorydisorders.org
MDRS
MDRS is a professional society dedicated to the study of memory. Members engage in basic and clinical research into how memory works and why it fails.
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Jonathan Peelle @jpeelle.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Woof
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Cognitive Neuroscience Society @cogneuronews.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
ICYMI at #CNS2026, we have a new mentorship program! Learn more and sign up NOW to be a mentee or mentor: www.cogneurosociety.org/new-cns-ment... #neuroscience
cogneurosociety.org
New CNS Mentorship Program Now Open
New mentorship program for CNS!
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J. Brendan Ritchie @jbrendanritchie.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Our reply to 11 commentaries on our article ("Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex") is out in Cognitive Neuroscience! Thanks to @susanwardle.bsky.social @maryamvaziri.bsky.social Dwight Kravitz @cibaker.bsky.social and all who contributed! 1/x www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
What behavioral relevance is (not)
We are thankful for the thoughtful commentaries of our colleagues. In our discussion article, we argued for a course correction to how the field approaches the organization of visual function in oc...
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Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Kat For Illinois Valentine to send to a friend (or more than a friend ;) that reads:

"Looking forward to walking down the IL-09 with you." 
with a photo of a Kat volunteer holding a wagon of yard signs and campaign lit.Kat For Illinois Valentine to send to a friend (or more than a friend ;) that reads:

"You're my primary candidate." 
with a photo of a 'Cat For Kat' sporting a KFI sticker.Kat For Illinois Valentine to send to a friend (or more than a friend ;) that reads:

"BE MY VOTER!" 
with a photo of Kat.
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Karen Campbell @karampbell.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
New preprint by @sarahehenderson.bsky.social. The *real* blood, sweat, and tears of her PhD - trying to develop an intervention to improve episodic memory in older adults under naturalistic conditions. "Event tagging" is simple, but holds real promise. #PsychSciSky #memory doi.org/10.31234/osf...
doi.org
OSF
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Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world: gershmanlab.com/textbook.html It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class. My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
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Brian Levine @brianlevine.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Aligning eye tracking and free recall time series, we found that increased saccades predict episodic (vs. non-episodic) by 0.5 s. Just out in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social, led by Ryan Barker with the inimitable @drjenryan.bsky.social. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
A few days after the presidential election one year ago, we went to Fordham Road in the Bronx. It was a little different last week.
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Maureen Ritchey @maureenritchey.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
PhD student Nina Curko and I wrote a short article about the superpowers of memory! Now published in Frontiers for Young Minds: kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
kids.frontiersin.org
Traveling Through Space and Time With our Memories
A person wearing headphones and a red hoodie walks through an airport with a suitcase, gazing at a boarding gate sign marked C7 with a French flag. Thought bubbles depict the Eiffel Tower and a map of...
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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Michael X Cohen on why he left academia/neuroscience. mikexcohen.substack.com/p/why-i-left...
mikexcohen.substack.com
Why I left academia and neuroscience
Don't worry, this isn't yet another story of rage-quitting.
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Chaz Firestone @chazfirestone.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Out today! www.cell.com/current-biol...
Screenshot of the PDF of: 

Boger, T., & Firestone, C. (2025). Visual anagrams reveal high-level effects with 'identical' stimuli. Current Biology, 35, PR910–R912.
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Karen Campbell @karampbell.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The brain represents the world around us as a series of neural states - stable patterns of activity that change as we move from one event to the next. New paper by @selmalugtmeijer.bsky.social showing that neural states get longer as people age. #PsychSciSky nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08792-4
nature.com
Temporal dedifferentiation of neural states with age during naturalistic viewing - Communications Biology
Movie fMRI data reveals age-related lengthening of neural states in visual and prefrontal regions, reflecting reduced temporal differentiation while preserved alignment with perceived events suggests stable coarse event segmentation.
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Brock Kirwan @brockkirwan.com · 24/09/2025
This is awesome. Drag and drop a brain MRI scan into the window and it does tissue segmentation in the browser (in about 8 seconds), then creates a 3D mesh suitable for 3D printing. This has been an hours-to-days long process for us in the past, all in a couple minutes. 🤯 brain2print.org
brain2print.org
brain2print
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Barack Obama @barackobama.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Susan, I hope I look as good as you at 102!
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Abhilasha Joshi, PhD @rhythmicspikes.bsky.social · 14/09/2025
1/ Something surreal happened to me recently 🍀 I ordered “A Feeling for the Organism” — Evelyn Fox Keller’s biography of #BarbaraMcClintock, the 1983 Nobel prize winner who discovered “jumping genes.” 🧬
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Ingo Helmich @ingohelmich.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Our new lab space @smith-college.bsky.social! Decked out with an embedded force plate, motion-tracking cameras, EMG, IMUs, and fNIRS equipment, the HuMAN Lab is ready for research 🙌 Human Motion Analysis & Neuroimaging Lab (Dr. Jones & Dr. Helmich) #fNIRS #Concussion #MotorCognition #Neuroscience
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Tomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
thinking about the time someone tried to impersonate our Department Chair on July 4th
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Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Excited to share our new paper w/ @cibaker.bsky.social in @natcomms.nature.com linking active vision & memory! We provide evidence that gaze reinstatement & neural reactivation are deeply related phenomena that jointly reflect the experiences constructed during recall. doi.org/10.1038/s414... 🧵1/9
doi.org
Neural and behavioral reinstatement jointly reflect retrieval of narrative events - Nature Communications
When people recall a movie, their eye movements and brain activity resemble those observed during the viewing. These behavioral and neural reactivations are linked through a common process, likely ref...
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Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
It's a surreal experience to find myself on the cover of Time Magazine but it's truly a reflection of what we have built together over these past ten months. Read the story: time.com/7308924/zohr... ...and sign up to canvass: zohranfornyc.com/canvasslaunch
The cover of Time Magazine. Zohran fixes his tie and looks into the camera. The headline reads, "The Meaning of Zohran Mamdani."
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Roland Benoit @rolandbenoit.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Evidence for dlPFC contribution to #memory suppression using #TMS! Now accepted @jocn.bsky.social. Great team effort and collaboration with Gesa Hartwigsen’s lab @mpicbs.bsky.social‬. We also had an exemplary experience at the journal with editors @barense.bsky.social‬ & @bradpostle.bsky.social‬.
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 01/07/2025
This @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social video is absolutely INCREDIBLE. The numbers he cites, the strategy and results they produced — it’s the future. When have you heard *any* campaign talk about this, ever? (Video split in 2 to fit in Bluesky’s limits)
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✨BelleChere✨🡲 Ragged Coast Pottery @bellechere.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
I couldn't NOT do this.
A tabby cat that's meowing or yawning and reaching out towards the camera, looking generally surprised, has been photoshopped into the still from Die Hard where Hans Gruber is falling off Nakatomi Tower.
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Tomer Ullman @tomerullman.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
getting a review request from an editor while waiting on that editor to get back to you with reviews
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cats being weird little guys @weirdlilguys.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
a tweet that shows a cat sitting on a trash can with the caption “I have two jobs: 1. calm my humans when they are stressed. 2. stress my humans when they are calm.”
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Jon Simons @jonsimons.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Listened to the first two episodes of @catherineloveday.bsky.social's new podcast while rowing this morning. It's insightful, warm, moving and informative, with practical tips to help families of people with memory loss. If you're in this situation, or might one day be, it's well worth a listen.
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Gintautas Dumcius @gintautasd.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
The same day she's getting endorsed by David Ortiz, Mayor Wu throws a heater of a statement at challenger Josh Kraft
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