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Sophie Slaats

@sophieslaats.bsky.social
601 followers 605 following 55 posts

🔎 distributional information and syntactic structure in the 🧠 | 💼 postdoc @ Université de Genève | 🎓 MPI for Psycholinguistics, BCBL, Utrecht University | 🎨 | she/her

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Reposted by Sophie Slaats
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies - FENS @fens.org · 18h
Days 2️⃣ & 3️⃣ of the Brain Conference on Neural Foundations of Communication! ☀️ The conference continued in Crete with two more days packed with talks, discussions and opportunities to connect. 👉 Want to learn more? 🔗 buff.ly/I3AtVSv @brainprize.org @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I had an incredible time speaking with colleagues from all over the world and soaking up the latest language science at the @jneurolang.bsky.social conference in Geneva! 🤩 Tomorrow, my orange poster tube 🟠 and I travel to Greece to continue the conversation at the FENS Brain conference 🧳
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
my wonderful student @th-maya.bsky.social has written up her ambitious MSc project as a paper! she recruited 69 trilinguals and studied word production parametrically, as a function of these individuals' language profiles. the results are very cool! read more in her preprint below ⤵️
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Reposted by Sophie Slaats
Frog and Toad Bot @frogandtoadbot.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Toad was lying in bed. He had pulled all the covers over his head.
Toad hides under the covers in bed.

From "Spring"
In *Frog and Toad Are Friends*
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maria ruz @mruz.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We are hiring a postdoc and a predoc to do research (EEG, fMRI, MVPA, RSA) on expectation and attention at the wpd.ugr.es/~humneuro/ in beautiful Granada @cimcyc.bsky.social ! People with interest + relevant experience please reach us at mruz@ugr.es #NeuroJobs #AcademicJobs #CogNeuro #GranadaSpain
wpd.ugr.es
Human Neuroscience Lab – University of Granada
Our lab is located at the Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center. Here we have access to several behavioral testing rooms, a 3T Siemens Magnetic Resonance Imaging facility with compatible EEG and EyeLink Eyetracker, high-density EEG recording devices, and a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation device with a robotic assistant and neuronavigator.​
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Greig de Zubicaray @dezubg.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
We’re recruiting a new PhD student (full scholarship, tuition fee waiver) for our project investigating systematic form meaning mappings in natural language using fMRI and MEG. Candidates should have a masters degree with relevant training and experience. Email me for details!
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
mental state during grant writing: 〰️ oscillating between 'this is so cool 🤩' and 'this is ridiculous 😵‍💫' at 1/10800 Hz 〰️
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Reposted by Sophie Slaats
Frog and Toad Bot @frogandtoadbot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
“Frog,” asked Toad, “was that a true story?” “Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t,” said Frog.
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
yes
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ACARS Drama @acarsdrama.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Air to Ground Message: SUPER DANK JE WEL Area: Hull, UK Type: Boeing 777-200 A: #a4136710b56 F: #f6001b63321
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duncanlabuoft.bsky.social @duncanlabuoft.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Please spread the word: We’re recruiting a postdoc! 📣 We study how shifting brain & attentional states shape memory and how people experience their worlds. fMRI/iEEG + a fun, supportive lab community + space to pursue your own ideas. 📅 Apply by Aug 15 tinyurl.com/fx5k7teb
tinyurl.com
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Good Trailcams @goodtrailcams.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
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Patxi Elosegi @patxelos.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
PREPRINT: We efficiently extract a set’s mean and variance without representing each item. Yet the neural basis remains unclear. Using fMRI-MVPA, we test whether ensemble codes are shared across features—orientation, shape, & animacy—and statistics—mean & variance www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Neural Representations of Ensemble Mean and Variance Across Visual Features
Humans can rapidly extract summary statistics, such as the mean and variance of visual features, to efficiently represent complex visual environments despite limits in attention and working memory. Al...
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Cerebral Encoding of Word Classes is Distributed and Context-Dependent www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Elliot Murphy @elliot-murphy.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
This is a very thoughtful study, with a large number of terrific analyses! Asking all the right questions that we as a field should be addressing. A few comments on how these results relate to my ROSE model 🧵
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Morning
Meme: a flooffy cat lying down and looking at camera, labelled ‘himalayan’. Below, the same breed of cat standing, labelled ‘himawalkin’. An extremely childish ‘joke’. It amuses me enormously
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Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
We're hiring a Research Assistant (Dutch, 32h/wk) in Nijmegen! • Lab exp. (VR, EEG, Motion Capture) • Annotating multimodal speech & gesture data • Starts between 1 Nov 2026 and 31 Jan 2027 • Ideal for grads in Psych, Ling, CogSci & related fields Apply by 15 Sep: www.mpi.nl/career-educa...
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
new preprint! 🥳 we investigated the encoding of syntax and probability in cortical activity recorded with ECoG 🧠, and, it turns out: high-frequency cortical activity represents both features - side-by-side 🙌, and in interaction 🤝. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (thread to follow soon)
An image depicting the left hemisphere of the fsaverage brain three times; the top row shows the lateral view (three times), the bottom-row shows their medial view (three times). The left-most projection displays the 106 electrodes that encode syntactic information. The electrodes are widely distributed across the left hemisphere, with clusters in the anterior temporal lobe and the posterior temporal lobe/temporo-parietal junction, but also in the prefrontal cortex. The middle projection displays the 185 electrodes that encode lexical probabilistic information. There is a cluster of electrodes along the length of the superior temporal gyrus, and one in the inferior frontal gyrus. There are also electrodes in other areas of the cortex. The rightmost projection shows the 124 electrodes that encode both features. There are clusters in the superior- and middle temporal gyri, and also in the inferior frontal gyrus. There are also electrodes in other areas of the cortex.
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
new preprint! 🥳 we investigated the encoding of syntax and probability in cortical activity recorded with ECoG 🧠, and, it turns out: high-frequency cortical activity represents both features - side-by-side 🙌, and in interaction 🤝. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (thread to follow soon)
An image depicting the left hemisphere of the fsaverage brain three times; the top row shows the lateral view (three times), the bottom-row shows their medial view (three times). The left-most projection displays the 106 electrodes that encode syntactic information. The electrodes are widely distributed across the left hemisphere, with clusters in the anterior temporal lobe and the posterior temporal lobe/temporo-parietal junction, but also in the prefrontal cortex. The middle projection displays the 185 electrodes that encode lexical probabilistic information. There is a cluster of electrodes along the length of the superior temporal gyrus, and one in the inferior frontal gyrus. There are also electrodes in other areas of the cortex. The rightmost projection shows the 124 electrodes that encode both features. There are clusters in the superior- and middle temporal gyri, and also in the inferior frontal gyrus. There are also electrodes in other areas of the cortex.
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Reposted by Sophie Slaats
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Linguistic structure and probability are jointly encoded in high gamma power www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Sarah Mansfield MP has made a little book about The Very Hungry Data Centre
The Very Hungry Data Centre
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Litbowl @litbowl.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
This is perfect. Excerpt from a longer piece by Shawn Smucker, published here: shawnsmucker.substack.com/p/please-use-ai #poem #booksky #writing
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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Would you like to play? You are blue and I am orange. Name the vertex you want to color, and I will make it happen. Game objective: 1st person who is forced to color two connected vertices the same color loses; the other wins.
Graph G = (V,E), with vertex set V = {a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p} and edge set E = {(a,c), (b,c), (c,i), (a,g), (d,g), (b,e), (e.l), (f,m), (f,o), (i,k), (j,k), (k,l), (o,n), (l,m), (m,n), (m,o), (o,j), (d,p), (h,n), (i,p)}
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European Society for Cognitive Psychology @escop.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Postdoctoral researcher incidental language learning, Ghent University, Belgium This position is part of the FWO-funded project “Growing a Statistical Mind: The Interplay Between Emerging and Existing Linguistic Knowledge” (STATMIND). Application deadline: 17 August 2026.
jobs.ugent.be
Postdoctoral researcher incidental language learning
Postdoctoral researcher incidental language learning
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Caroline Rowland @carorowland.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
My list on what to read about theory-driven cognitive science has now been updated to add a few more thoughts and references about the role of AI as 'in silico' models of human cognition. Your comments welcome - please add to the googledoc. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Theory: What to read
The role of theory in cognitive science Or: my guide to what to read if you really want to understand how to do good, robust , theory-driven cognitive science. (disclaimer: this is an aspirational gu...
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Jonathan A. Michaels @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The Neural Control & Computation Lab is recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow to investigate the neural basis of learning, flexible neural computation, and skilled movement control using large-scale electrophysiology from single-neuron populations in non-human primates 🧠🐒 www.ncclab.ca/join-the-lab
ncclab.ca
Join the Lab — neural control & computation lab
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Marieke van Vugt @mvugt.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
First and last authors more likely to be men in leading science journals www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
First and last authors more likely to be men in leading science journals
Women’s participation in science has risen sharply, but a Nature Index analysis finds that gender gaps in first and last authorship — markers of key scientific achievements — have barely shifted over ...
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Junyuan Zhao @jyzz22.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Excited to share our work on linguistic composition x LLM-brain alignment! Syntax, compositional semantics, and associative semantics differentially modulate alignment on surprisal-matched materials, revealing shared and distinct mechanisms in LLMs and the brain www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Matt Goldrick @mattgoldrick.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Deadline 30 June: Postdoc, Speech Perception, Sociolinguistics and Speech Technology w/ É. Székely, KTH Royal Inst. of Tech. Dept. of Speech, Music, and Hearing www.kth.se/lediga-jobb/...
kth.se
KTH | Postdoc in Speech Perception, Sociolinguistics and Speech Technology
KTH jobs is where you search for jobs at www.kth.se.
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Limor Raviv 🐘🤗🦒🍄🦄 @limorraviv.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Want to do an experimental PHD on the evolution of human language? Only one more week left to submit your application!
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
a high entropy situation
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Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
We are now looking for a Head of Library (1.0 FTE) who combines strategic vision with a collaborative, hands-on approach. Read the full vacancy by following this link: www.mpi.nl/career-educa... [3/4]
mpi.nl
Head of Library (1,0 FTE) | Max Planck Institute
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Matt Goldrick @mattgoldrick.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Deadline 31 May: Postdoc, perceptual inference in the auditory system w/ A. Tabas, Basque Center on Cog. Brain + Lang. www.bcbl.eu/en/join-us/j...
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megan peters 🧠 @meganakpeters.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
🚨🚨JOB ALERT🚨🚨 I'm hiring a cogsci/philosophy/compneuro postdoc at @ucl.ac.uk @uclbrainscience.bsky.social @uclpals.bsky.social! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH486/p... Come to London & work on frameworks for "testing" for consciousness using Bayesian belief updating & latent variable modeling. Pls share!
jobs.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL
Discover Postdoctoral Research Fellow jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.
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David Poeppel @davidpoeppel.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
New paper that merits a read (Im totally unbiased...not). Simple, straightforward, impactful message. Prediction a la LLM is nice. Constituent-constrained prediction is nicer. @jiajiezou.bsky.social and Nai Ding show brain, behavioral, MEG, ECoG data. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #neuroskyence
nature.com
Constituent-constrained word prediction during language comprehension - Nature Neuroscience
Zou et al. reveal a key difference between human brains and large language models (LLMs). While LLMs are optimized to predict the next word, the human brain modulates prediction efficiency by strategi...
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Jonas Obleser @jonasobleser.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The Obleser lab will be hiring soon! New postdoc (fully funded) and new PhD or part-time postdoc position (soft-money funded). Spread the word. Start in Sept/Oct. Watch out for official announcements! Please be in touch. auditorycognition.com obleserlab.com hoerhanse.de lemmi.uni-luebeck.de
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 07/04/2026
Grammar xkcd.com/3229/
Comic. [Teacher with shoulder-length light hair talking to two students seated at desks.] TEACHER: *Grammar* is one of the most popular ways to structure a language, ahead of rival methods such as *WORDS ORDER WORDS RANDOM WORDS WORDS RANDOM GOOD* and *EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*.
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
New paper! 🥳 When reading a sentence, do you rely on probabilistic or grammatical relations between words, or both? To find out, we designed an experiment that contrasts these two pressures. 🧵 in Cognition with @andreaeyleen.bsky.social & Antje S. Meyer www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
More than words: Effects of grammaticality and lexical surprisal in self-paced reading
Language comprehension requires the integration of information from a wide variety of sources, including sensory input and memory. The present study c…
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Filiz Tezcan @tezcanfiliz.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com 🧵 Tezcan, Ten Oever, Bai, te Rietmolen & Martin (2026) @sannetenoever.bsky.social , @noemieter.bsky.social , @andreaeyleen.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... How does the brain transform speech into meaning?
nature.com
Linguistic structure and language familiarity sharpen phoneme encoding in the brain - Communications Biology
Phoneme encoding was stronger for sentences than word lists, and within words than random syllables. Similar encoding appeared for an uncomprehended language only after prior exposure. Acoustic edges ...
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Keith B. Doelling @kbdoelling.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
🚨 Post-doc Job ALERT! Interested in using AI to better understand how the brain enjoys music? Or how auditory processing changes in Hearing Loss? Want to eat your weight in 🥖, 🧀, and 🍷? Click on this! #neurojobs, #blackinneuro, #neuroskyence, #psychjobs research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...
research.pasteur.fr
Postdoctoral Position in AI, Machine Learning and Auditory Neuroscience - Research
Paris, France | Institut de l’Audition (Institut Pasteur)Duration: 24 months (flexible start)Supervisor: Keith Doelling (INSERM) About the position We are recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to focus...
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Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics @mpi-nl.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
More than words: Effects of grammaticality and lexical surprisal in self-paced reading. New paper by @sophieslaats.bsky.social , Antje Meyer, and @andreaeyleen.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.co....
doi.org
Redirecting
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Jonathan Peelle @jpeelle.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I have a joke about a grant but you probably won’t get it
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Sophie Slaats @sophieslaats.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Help my student @th-maya.bsky.social out by participating in her study if... - your native language is English, French, or German 🐣 - you speak *any level* of the other two languages (classes at school count! 👩‍🏫)
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Valentina Borghesani @vborghesani.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Proud of being part of www.winrepo.org and of all the work we do! 💙
winrepo.org
Women in Neuroscience Repo
Listing of women working in Neuroscience
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Matt Goldrick @mattgoldrick.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Deadline Mar 20: Postdoc, fNIRS+bilingual language development w/ M. Kalashnikova, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, + Language calls.bcbl.eu/index.php?op...
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Laura Gwilliams @lauragwilliams.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Soon hiring a lab manager! Looking for someone who is really interested in language neuroscience, who is organised, motivated, a great communicator, and who works well in a research team. Express interest by submitting this form: tinyurl.com/glysn-labman... Reposts appreciated!
tinyurl.com
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Jamie Reilly 🦜 @reilly-coglab.com · 01/02/2026
2026 big update to the psycholinguistic database page! If you know of corpora, lexical databases, or other resources that I've missed, please LMK. Trying to keep this thing relatively current and could use the help www.reilly-coglab.com/data
reilly-coglab.com
Psycholinguistic Databases, Stimuli, Utilities — Concepts & Cognition Laboratory
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Karen Hao @karenhao.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Quilicura, Chile, one of the communities I wrote about in EMPIRE OF AI, has launched a brilliant initiative to inspire more responsible AI prompting. Today, don't use AI; ask the townspeople instead: quili.ai. So heartened to see this creative act of resistance.
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