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Rocco Chiou

@rocco-chiou.bsky.social
226 followers 168 following 172 posts

I study how the brain processes language, mental imagery, and synaesthesia 🧠 I'm a lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London. More info in my website: roccochiou.weebly.com Our synaesthesia research: birkbeck-synaesthesia.weebly.com

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Reposted by Rocco Chiou
Caroline Robertson @carolinerobertson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Our newest work: a voxel-level retinotopic code structures the functional coupling of large-scale cortical networks — led by the brilliant @neurosteel.bsky.social and @pangeli95.bsky.social!
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Steve Fleming @smfleming.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
What if consciousness isn't real? By @timbayne.bsky.social in @sciam.bsky.social "we should ask whether bees, babies or bots are conscious. But in asking that question, we should be alive to the possibility that the question itself might need replacing." www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...
scientificamerican.com
What if ‘consciousness’ isn’t real?
Our understanding of consciousness could be fundamentally wrong
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Rebecca Saxe @rebeccasaxe.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have a question about the future of metrics for hiring and promoting faculty in science. Academic journal articles have been our currency for a long time, but are under extreme & mounting pressure. Is any dept or field already using a better metric *for hiring and promoting faculty*?
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Derek Arnold @visnerd.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
This is our summary of where we think the field of Aphantasia research stands. Congenital aphantasia: what we (think we) know, what we thought we knew but were mistaken about, and what we don't know. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Congenital aphantasia: what we (think we) know, what we thought we knew but were mistaken about, and what we don't know
Congenital Aphantasia initially described a lifelong inability to visualise. But it is now understood to manifest as imaginative inabilities that can …
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I'm very excited about this recent study, led by @pieterbarkema.bsky.social. We find that stimulus representations in the deep layers of V1 can be affected by *later* information: postdiction. See Pieter's thread for more information - and of course the preprint! @jhaarsma.bsky.social #neuroskyence
biorxiv.org
The post-hoc montage of perception: deep layers of primary visual cortex encode postdictive percepts
One of the most puzzling aspects of perception is postdiction: later information can change how a previous stimulus is perceived [1,2]. This indicates that perception is not a livestream of the extern...
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Daniel Yon @danieljamesyon.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
On my way to Edinburgh Book Festival - to consider consciousness this evening with @michaelpollan.bsky.social and @aldersonday.bsky.social @edbookfest.bsky.social
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Very interesting, findings show when different people hear unfamiliar music and are asked to envision a story to go with it, there is a lot of overlap in what parts of the brain activate, and narrative details, showing music conveys clear cues about narrative content. No specific story examples alas
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Peter Angeli @pangeli95.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
New paper out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social with @neurosteel.bsky.social and @carolinerobertson.bsky.social! We use 7T data from the NSD to characterize a bivalent (positive and negative) retinotopic code in the hippocampus that patterns hippocampal activity even during rest. tinyurl.com/3pm43w6s
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Sam Nastase @samnastase.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
New perspective piece out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social with Zaid Zada, @adelegoldberg.bsky.social, and Uri Hasson! We try to articulate some of our excitement about LLMs and discuss what kinds of insights they might provide into the neural computations supporting natural language in the human brain.
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A letter from Professor Sally Wheeler #RestInPower #JasonArday #Birkbeck
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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
gidmk.substack.com/p/the-jason-...
gidmk.substack.com
The Jason Arday Saga Is Terrible And Everyone Involved Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves
The whole thing makes me furious
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Bcz of the Jason Arday controversy, I spent some time looking into his accuser, the “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, & found this video. He struggled to articulate his theory & defend his position. Didn’t come across as particularly intelligent to me.
youtube.com
Nick Ferrari challenges Cambridge academic at centre of race row | LBC debate
YouTube video by LBC
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I believe the Jason Arday controversy was never only about allegations of academic misconduct. While questions about his track record were legitimate, they soon became part of a much wider political battle. My condolences to his loved ones. #RestInPeace #JasonArday
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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🚨Preprint alert!🚨 Have you ever wondered what imagination is good for? A new preprint from our lab tests the idea that imagination helps us develop generalizable strategies by bootstrapping experiences that haven’t happened in order to learn. We look at this in both man and machine. 1/9
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Nadine Dijkstra @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Excited to share our Preview about this excellent recent paper. In this Preview, @giuliacabbai.bsky.social and I explore how these findings connect with the rich literature on sensory reinstatement during imagery, and outline important questions for future imagery research! doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
At long last, I’m excited to share our latest preprint on the cortical topography of mental imagery! Building on the tethering hypothesis of brain evolution, we examined the spatial layout of imagery-driven neural activities to know how visual, auditory, tactile & multisensory imagery is organised.
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Serge Dumoulin @sergedumoulin.net · 21/07/2026
👁️🧠🧪 Vision takes time. But how does visual information flow through the human brain? Our new PLOS Computational Biology paper uses population receptive field (pRF) modelling to bring the spatial precision of fMRI to MEG, revealing the temporal dynamics of visual areas. 📖 doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org
Non-invasive mapping of the temporal processing hierarchy in the human visual cortex
Author summary Vision doesn’t happen instantaneously, but unfolds over time. While we understand a lot about how the brain processes visual space, understanding how the brain processes information ove...
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Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
And for our own contribution to the theme issue: Oliver Warrington and I show that the dentate gyrus encodes prediction errors during learning of perceptual predictions. This finding complements our previous work showing a transition from errors to predictions during learning (Aitken & Kok 2022). 🧠🟦
royalsocietypublishing.org
Dentate gyrus encodes prediction errors during learning of perceptual predictions
Abstract. The hippocampus is involved in learning predictive associations, responding to prediction errors as well as representing predictions of future in
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
An absolute banger of an exclusive from the Sunday Times. It's devastating. For the first time, I'm uncertain if Farage can actually survive this www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
thetimes.com
Revealed: Nigel Farage secretly funded by convicted criminal
The Reform UK leader did not declare benefits including staff, security and housing by crypto-gambler George Cottrell, our investigation reveals
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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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Jenni Rodd @jennirodd.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Finally out at @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social. Everything I think I know about word meanings. Particular focus on words that are unfamiliar or ambiguous. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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The vOICe vision BCI 🧠🇪🇺 @seeingwithsound.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
(YouTube) Steve Fleming on "Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision" www.youtube.com/watch?v=euGC... with @smfleming.bsky.social
youtube.com
Prof Steve Fleming on "Sensory horizons and the functions of conscious vision"
YouTube video by BIU Vision Science
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Worms & Bones @homemadehorrors.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Nothing makes you feel like a witch like making bread with backyard herbs. #bread #baking
A picture of a full tray focacia bread. There are edible leaves and flowers pressed into it like a bouquette, and tiny cut tomatoes.
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Sam Verschooren @samversc.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
🎉New paper out today in Nature Reviews Psychology🎉 with @mjdahl.bsky.social, @mariamaly.bsky.social, and @thiasmittner.bsky.social. We've been working on a unified framework for attentional states and the dynamics of transitions between them. 🧵
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Hyo Yoon Kang 강효윤 @hyoyoonkang.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
I love you, my students, who write genuinely awkward, human essays. That’s the whole point. We try.
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Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 01/06/2026
@senthorun.bsky.social @manmetuni.bsky.social explores how a critical-creative re-imagining of facial recognition in asylum law steers how AI might authenticate sexuality and what this means for legal truth-making. Read now in the Trust's latest newsletter: www.flipsnack.com/leverhulmetr...
flipsnack.com
Prefiguring a legal nightmare: how can facial recognition affect queer refugees?
Senthorun Raj explores how a critical-creative re-imagining of facial recognition in asylum law steers how AI might authenticate sexuality and what this means for legal truth-making
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I had not actively worked on synaesthesia research for more than 12 years. After moving from Sydney to the UK, my research over the past decade focused primarily on the brain basis of semantic cognition. It wasn't until joining Birkbeck last year that I decided to revisit synaesthesia tssues.
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Professor Anina Rich was presenting her work on decoding the temporal profiles of synaesthetic versus real colours - how can we use MEG to assess different theories of synaesthesia? #synaesthesia @mqpsy.bsky.social #synesthesia
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Professor Jamie Ward was presenting his work on #musicality and #synaesthesia 🎶🎵 🎶🎵 #IASAS2036 #Amsterdam #science
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
People with music-colour synaesthesia often see colours and shapes when they listen to music 🎶 #synaesthesia #synesthesia
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Synaesthesia is not a disability, not a disorder, not abnormal. Adults, parents, teachers often dismiss their kids' synaesthetic experiences or believe they might be just "making up stories" or "seeking attention." We need to raise awareness & support kids with this unique condition. #synaesthesia
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
This is probably the most visually pleasing & aesthetically satisfying conference I've been to! 😃 #synaesthesia #IASAS2026 #Amsterdam #synesthesia
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
A small note for our reviewers: In the responses, we stated that revisions were in blue text. Following the journal's request, it's later changed to yellow highlighting, but we forgot to update blue to yellow in the response letter. Thank you for your suggestions, & please forgive this small slip 💝
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
n this project, generously funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk, we'll explore the cognitive and neural basis of the fascinating experiences of #synaesthesia! If you suspect you may have synaesthesia and want to get involved, visit surveymars.com/q/3O5k0Ax5H 🌈🧠🌞
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
In this project, generously funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk, we'll explore the cognitive and neural basis of the fascinating experiences of #synaesthesia! If you suspect you may have synaesthesia and want to get involved, visit surveymars.com/q/3O5k0Ax5H 🌈🧠🌞
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
How does synaesthesia shape the way we perceive and think? How does it happen in the brain? We're excited to launch our new project, funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk . Learn more & get involved in our research - visit our website: birkbeck-synaesthesia.weebly.com
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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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practiCal fMRI @practicalfmri.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
See also the commentary by Chen, Rosen & Polimeni in the same issue: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
BOLD fMRI reflects both vascular and metabolic signals - Nature Neuroscience
A recent study by Epp et al. uses advanced, quantitative functional MRI measures to demonstrate that the ‘canonical’ interpretation of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) — ...
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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
My grant was almost funded but then rev 2 did something...
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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Re the council elections, I'm not surprised by the results but still feel disappointed. Good to see LibDem & Green have gained seats. The surge of Reform is expected but worrisome. I guess if Farage becomes the PM, his Home Secretary will curb the number of international students 😪Bad for all uni
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John Duncan @john-duncan.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Last year my book The Animal and the Thinker came out. Basic idea – how the operating principles of instinct and reason together answer big human questions. Right and wrong. Culture wars. Family and work. The meaning of life. That sort of thing. Now as an add-on I’m starting a blog…
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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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Rocco Chiou @rocco-chiou.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
YNiC is a fantastic workplace - something I can personally attest to! 👍
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BadgerNoonan @badgernoonan.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
(•_•) <) )╯Bluesky Servers / \ \(•_•) ( (> Can only handle / \ (•_•) <) )> ASCII Memes / \
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Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 15/04/2026
Art nurtures creativity and innovation, plays an important role in sharing knowledge, and encourages curiosity and dialogue. Today, on #WorldArtDay, we take a look at inspiring research in the arts.
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Chris Baker @cibaker.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Alex Martin talked about his "eclectic" career spanning over 4 decades, including 31 years in the Laboratory of Cognition (NIH), with some reflections on what makes a successful scientific career: "the right place at the right time", "it's good to be first", "controversy is helpful"
Alex Martin talking about his science career
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Vlad Ayzenberg @vayzenb.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Should AI have a childhood? Had a great conversation with Chris over at Rewild Magazine on how developmental principles can help address a range of challenges with current AI models fenwick.media/rewild/magaz...
fenwick.media
What can babies teach us about making more climate-friendly models?
His coworkers are mostly one-year-olds. Together, along with the lab, they have ideas to make AI more climate-friendly.
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Aidan Horner @aidanhorner.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
Interesting article. I've definitely felt this recently. It's great having multiple paths to go down career-wise, but eventually you have to choose/prioritize. I'm not sure I've got to that point yet, but it feels like it's getting closer.
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Nature Reviews Neuroscience @natrevneuro.nature.com · 20/03/2026
Clarifying the conceptual dimensions of representation in neuroscience — a Perspective by Stephan Pohl, Edgar Y. Walker, David L. Barack, Jennifer Lee, Rachel N. Denison, Ned Block, Florent Meyniel & Wei Ji Ma www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Clarifying the conceptual dimensions of representation in neuroscience - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Appeals to representation are widespread, despite neuroscientists’ uncertainty about what kind of findings count as evidence for such claims. In this Perspective, Pohl and colleagues develop a unified...
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Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Fantastic interactive explanation of #Transformers right here, including tokenization, what embeddings are, how self-attention works... Perfect for teaching or brushing up on your own understanding! poloclub.github.io/transformer-...
poloclub.github.io
Transformer Explainer: LLM Transformer Model Visually Explained
An interactive visualization tool showing you how transformer models work in large language models (LLM) like GPT.
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