iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

That was such a great piece! It has profoundly shaped how I have thought about Trump and responded to him. In the past 10 years, I have almost never listened to his words, because I do not consider those words as honest efforts to communicate an actual mental state.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

They may call it an Institute but it will always be a Unit in my heart

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

I heard that you had a new one too (?)

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I am please to report that NEI has renewed our R01 "Neural mechanism of landmark-based navigation" for another 4 years. Hooray!!!!! In this era, getting any NIH money at all is a miracle, so I am extremely grateful to NEI for supporting this and to the study section reviewers for seeing its value.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

New paper! @samiyousif.bsky.social and I opine on Cognitive Maps as a Medium for Thought....now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social We discuss what cog maps are and how they might interact with a Language of Thought. This was a fun one, spanning philosophy, cog sci, and rodent neurophysiology!

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Congratulations to Alex on a long and illustrious career!

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

In Dec 2024, I had the great pleasure of participating in an Ernst Strüngmann Forum on the future of navigation research organized by @noranewcombe.bsky.social and Ken Cheng. The book from that meeting is now out...lots of great chapters to read...open access... link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

link.springer.com

Challenges in Navigation Research

This open access book explores navigation across species using a multidisciplinary approach to address challenges in research and clinical applications.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Hey Vision Science folks...@gkaguirre.com is a candidate for the VSS board. He will do an awesome job...you could not ask for a better representative. Consider giving him your vote.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I will also note that it is quite a feeling to have one of your mentors win an award named for another one of your mentors. I feel immensely privileged to have learned so much from these giants of the field.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Congratulations to @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, winner of the 2026 Ken Nakayama medal from @vssmtg.bsky.social! Nancy is not only a brilliant scientist, she has also been an inspiring mentor to several generations of vision scientists (including me).

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Cool...but I'm mostly just amazed to find out that there is a "Nature Cities" (!)

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Come to the CRaNE conference in Atlanta in May. Some folks I know will be speaking about spatial navigation (one of them is me!)

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

My main scenario of concern is that D senate wins in red states (OH, GA, TX, AK) will *not* be certified by R election authorities.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Our new paper in @sfnjournals.bsky.social shows different neural systems for integrating views into places--PPA integrates views *of* a location (e.g., views of a landmark), while RSC integrates views *from* a location (e.g., views of a panorama). Work by the bluesky-less Linfeng Tony Han.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

Some nice publicity on our recent "Neural compass" paper, from @sfnjournals.bsky.social.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

This is a great Postdoc opportunity at UPenn, for recent Ph.D.s who want to collaborate with CogSci (psych, neuro, ling, philo, cs, etc.) faculty and have their own research direction.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Penn faculty senate passes resolution urging the Penn admin to reject the compact, as MIT and Brown have already done.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

It's really not clear to me how U.S. democracy gets out of this one alive. Dems would need +6 on the popular vote to have a 50/50 chance of controlling the House. That's a recipe for a one-party state. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/u...

nytimes.com

The Supreme Court Case That Could Hand the House to Republicans

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Interested in navigation, VR, fMRI, aging? Here's a great postdoc opportunity in @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social's new lab at U Texas Arlington.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Our new paper Cognitive maps for hierarchical spaces in the human brain is out in Cerebral Cortex! Work by first-author Michael Peer. academic-oup-com.proxy.library.upenn.edu/cercor/artic...

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Thanks for the post. You knew that it was out before we did!

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

I downloaded an electronic version this summer and started to read it...many, many good chapters. I can highly recommend!

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

This work builds on an extensive line of previous fMRI studies on heading codes (by @wolberslab.bsky.social, @doellerlab.bsky.social, @matthiasnau.bsky.social, @hugospiers.bsky.social, Baumann & Mattingley, Kim & Maguire + others). It was a LONG time in the making so we are thrilled to see it out!!!

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

When we looked at the model weights, we found that voxelwise peaks were distributed across all directions (like a compass), but the voxelwise troughs tended to be aligned with the main axis of the space. The latter result was unexpected and we think it’s pretty cool!

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

These heading codes generalized across perceptually different versions of the city, different locations in the city, and different phases of the taxi-cab task—thus fulfilling the expected characteristics of a “neural compass”.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

We found heading-related response in retrosplenial complex (RSC) and superior parietal lobe (SPL). This is nicely consistent with previous studies that observed heading codes in these regions using trial-based designs.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

How do we keep track of our sense of direction during navigation? Head direction cells in rodents are well-studied, but what about humans? To answer this question, we used an encoding model to analyze fMRI responses while participants performed a “taxi-cab” task in a VR city.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Our new paper, “A neural compass in the human brain during naturalistic human navigation” is out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! First-author @zhenganglu.bsky.social led the charge, with Josh Julian and collaborator @gkaguirre.com. www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

"Things the reviewers care more about than we do" + "Things we care about, but we're pretty sure you don't"

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

This is some very cool work that @ainsleybonin.bsky.social did at Colby College, working with Derek Huffman. If you are fortunate enough to be at CogSci, give it a look.

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Reposted by Russell Epstein

Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God. Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well. forward.com/opinion/7575...

forward.com

Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders?

A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Supposedly AI is going to take over the world, but I just spent 30 minutes unsuccessfully trying to get ChatGPT to change the axis labels of a chart. Which it kept failing to do, each time saying "now I've done what you asked!" without changing a thing. So I am skeptical.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

This little document is immensely helpful.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Super cool! Sending you best wishes for a safe trip and many moments of brilliant insight.

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Reposted by Russell Epstein

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Democracies do not use their military to try and intimidate their own citizens with “shows of presence”. This is fascism.

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Reposted by Russell Epstein

Allison Gill @muellershewrote.com · 22/06/2025

We’ve bombed Iran. And dismantled our joint terrorism task force. And sent a third of the FBI to help ICE. And gutted the National Security Council. And a drunk guy is in charge at the pentagon. And our intelligence allies probably won’t share intel with us. Because people couldn’t vote for a woman.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Thank you for doing what is right.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Democracy...use it or lose it. There are hundreds of events planned all across the country on June 14. Find one near you. Trump can't send the Marines to all of them. app.sosha.ai/s/lmwrRNh3

app.sosha.ai

Join me on June 14

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I signed this letter and I urge all my colleagues to do the same. I am very impressed by the bravery of the NIH staff who put their names to this. We should stand behind them. It's the least we can do.

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Reposted by Russell Epstein

David Roberts @volts.wtf · 23/05/2025

The political theory behind IRA was roughly as follows: We have lost control of the information landscape and can no longer win rhetorical or purely political battles; however, if we make substantive policy progress that directly touches voters' lives, they will notice and reward us.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Very interesting. At a minimum, it suggests that a good exercise is to put one's own manuscripts through a LLM review, to see what it comes up with.

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

This week, I had the pleasure of talking (virtually) to the BIU vision science seminar about our recent studies on cog maps and navigational strategies. Highlighting work by Michael Peer, @cgahnstrom.bsky.social, and Zhengang Lu. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAkC...

youtube.com

Prof Russell Epstein on "Cognitive maps, navigational strategies, and the human brain"

YouTube video by BIU Vision Science

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Russell Epstein @russellepstein.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Will Bunch: "The TV talking heads are clueless, because they are asking the president-who-would-be-king and his minions to do something that would cause the entire regime to unravel like a ball of thread: acknowledge that Abrego Garcia is a human being." www.inquirer.com/opinion/kilm...

inquirer.com

Why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the Jenga piece that could topple the American Experiment | Will Bunch

The Trump regime lies about a Salvadoran laborer and dad because the truth of his humanity could unravel their dream of autocracy.

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