Sign in

Yang Xu (许扬)

@yangxu.bsky.social
553 followers 807 following 31 posts

PhD student @hein-lab.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de, Learning & Decision making, fMRI, modeling, delay discounting, effort, empathy, intrinsic reward

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Lilian Weber @lilweb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
✨New PhD Position!✨ Come and work with us on understanding cognition with a mix of cognitive modelling and ultrasound neuromodulation! More info on the lab & position: mic-lab.de/positions/ph... Official job ad: tinyurl.com/miclab-phd 🙏Please RT - deadline is Oct 14 ‼️
mic-lab.de
Research Associate (m/f/d): Models, Interventions, and Cognition — MIC-Lab
Models and interventions of cognition.
04138
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your #fmri results? Have you been worried about potential reproducibility issues? Well, this new @natmethods.nature.com article with 40+ coauthors shows how the simple change to transparent thresholding helps both. Go Figure! rdcu.be/B4tikBETdQZa
A comparison of old and new thresholding approaches for fMRI data. The newer, transparent thresholding allows for interpreting context, more complete modeling, a reduction of biases and an increase in meaningful content. This all leads to more accurate interpretations and improved reproducibility evaluations.
19151
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Björn Lindström @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
When is language needed for human culture to accumulate? When observing successful behavior is not enough to recover the mental model behind it! This is an incredibly ambitious project, involving large-scale experimentation, RL and ABM modeling, and computational language analyses.
14514
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Philipp Kanske @kanske.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Paper out - big congrats to Dahna Choi! How #empathy & #perspectivetaking relate to #depression, specifically disease severity @trr393.bsky.social @katfoerster.bsky.social @lisaleehr.bsky.social @straubeb.bsky.social @tudresden.bsky.social @kanskelab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/jclp...
doi.org
When Being Social Is Costly: Empathy's Role for Risk States, Acute Symptoms, and Cumulative Disease Severity of Depression
Objectives Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) frequently report burdensome interpersonal difficulties and altered empathy and perspective-taking. Previous findings on binary comparisons b.....
0119
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Eric Schulz @ericschulz.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher who wants to innovate at the intersection of cognitive science, neuroscience, and machine learning. 📍Munich 📅Flexible start: 10/2026–03/2027 ⏳Full consideration by 14/08/2026 💼Funded for 2 years, extension possible Discover, grow, collaborate, eat cake.
02524
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
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.
06226
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
aaron bornstein @aaronbornstein.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Looking to work with a postdoc. Prior experience with fMRI and computational modeling required, interest in psychiatry desired. Fellowship provides three years salary plus independent travel/equipment funds. Send CV and 2-3 manuscripts (preprints OK).
14351
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Liu, Shuze @liushuze.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Do people solve hard problems by first building a mental model, then searching for the best solution? With @gershbrain.bsky.social, our new manuscript suggests a different route: people often start by retrieving cached solutions, and scaffold representations around them. osf.io/preprints/ps...
14319
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Alon Baram @alonbaram.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
How does the human brain extract abstract structure from experience? We show that sensory-independent relational representations emerge in mPFC over several days. Work with @mgarvert.bsky.social and @behrenstimb.bsky.social now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.cell.com/current-biol...
211640
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Xinyuan Yan @xinyuanyan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I also wrote a blogpost about our paper, non-technical at all! psywalkeryanxy.github.io/posts/scienc...
psywalkeryanxy.github.io
The tower that never fell: how one brain holds two languages – Xinyuan Yan
In Genesis, humanity’s shared language is scattered at Babel. But inside the bilingual brain, we found something the story leaves out: a single, hidden map of meaning that English and Spanish both rea...
093
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
A great preprint is out! It was also super fun collaborating with science museums!! Huge thanks to Humboldt Forum and Miraikan too!!
042
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Flexible decisions arise from resource-rational memory sampling www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
053
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Sophie Bavard @sophiebavard.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
🚨 New preprint with @sgluth.bsky.social on social learning and EEG! 🧠 We've recently found out that, to learn about others' preferences, humans don't just look at WHAT they choose, but also HOW FAST they make a decision. How does the brain actually process this? 👇 osf.io/preprints/ps...
1166
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Nico Dosenbach @ndosenbach.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
We've known that socioeconomics (SES) matters for the 🧠. New & 🤯 is that SES drowns out all other brain associations, incl. IQ. If you train an algorithm to predict IQ from brain data, it's still way better at predicting SES. Science Mag: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @smarek0502.bsky.social 👀🧵👇
6230100
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Kimberly Chiew @kimberlychiew.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
✨ VERY excited to share our new paper led by Holly Bowen (SMU) & former ugrad Kyle Thurmann "Effects of reward anticipation on memory encoding and cognitive control outcomes: A meta-analysis" finally in press @ Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 💵🧠 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thread 1/n
sciencedirect.com
Effects of reward anticipation on memory encoding and cognitive control outcomes: A meta-analysis
Extensive evidence suggests that cognitive performance is typically enhanced under increased motivation, often in the form of reward anticipation. Whi…
23112
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Konstantinos Tsetsos @ktsetsos.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
⚽ Can humans beat AI at forecasting the World Cup? @rezlescu.bsky.social and I are launching Forecast 2026, a live research study comparing real-life, real-time human predictions about World Cup matches with those of AI models. Join our study at: forecast2026.com
forecast2026.com
Forecast 2026
184
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Björn Lindström @bjornlindstrom.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Semantic knowledge is key for human innovation and cultural evolution! Our paper (thread in repost), led by fantastic @anilyaman.bsky.social & rising star @ts-brain.bsky.social is out in @pnas.org! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... I will present this work at APS Barcelona (29/5), happy to chat!
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
35225
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Armin Lak @laklab.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Awesome results from @fluketc.bsky.social @dudman.bsky.social and team, both for dopamine field and for all that train animals in tasks www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency
Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...
0248
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Wanja Wolff @wanjawolff.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Physical activity & #exercise require #time & #effort These costs are relatively well characterized separately But they co-occur in real life, & we lack understanding on how people jointly integrate them: Why/When do people choose elevators over stairs? Our brilliant PhD, Sena, explores this! ⚽🧠
052
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Rong Bi @rongbi.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Very excited to share our first effort-learning paper in @plosbiology.org! Huge thanks to my wonderful co-authors @Jan Grohn, @thepsychologist.bsky.social and to my co-senior authors @mkflugge.bsky.social and @lilweb.bsky.social, for all their effort on this fun project. doi.org/10.1371/jour...
3189
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
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.
211298
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Shawn Rhoads @shawnrhoadsphd.com · 22/04/2026
📢 New preprint out now! In three samples (N=594), including a U.S.-representative cohort and a test-retest cohort, we formalize social motivation, learning, and homeostatic control within a single computational framework and identify a phenotype linked to chronic loneliness doi.org/10.31234/osf...
12010
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Stefano Palminteri @stepalminteri.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Cognitive Modelling Research in the Era of Agentic Large Language Models From equations to fitted models in minutes: how LLMs are changing computational cognitive science and how we should adapt My latest post on Medium medium.com/@stefano.pal...
medium.com
Cognitive Modelling Research in the Era of Agentic Large Language Models
From equations to fitted models in minutes: what LLMs are changing in computational cognitive science and how we should adapt.
23011
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Jean-Rémi King @jeanremiking.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
We're happy to release NeuralSet: a simple, fast, scalable package for Neuro-AI Supports: 🧠 fMRI, EEG, MEG, iEEG, spikes… preprocessing 💬 text 🔊 audio ▶️ video 🏞️ image… embeddings 📦 pip install neuralset 🔍 facebookresearch.github.io/neuroai/neur... 📄 kingjr.github.io/files/neural... 🧵 Details👇
17530
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Paul Sharp @paulbsharp.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Top of my reading list 💫
021
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Tobias Kalenscher @kalenscher.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
PhD Position available! We are seeking a motivated PhD candidate to join our team at the Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. The position is funded by the German Research Foundation and is available from 10/2026.
174
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Mark Thornton @markthornton.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
New paper from me at Perspectives on Psychological Science! "Reframing the Performance and Ethics of Empathic AI: Wisdom of the Crowd and Placebos" I use analogies to two classic psychological effects to recast recent findings about the performance of empathy by LLMs. doi.org/10.1177/1745...
doi.org
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
2237
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Karin Roelofs @epanlab.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
🧠 Congrats @felixklaassen.bsky.social with this unique DBS case study targeting the midbrain PAG. Direct PAG stimulation (and not a bordering control region) induces threat-specific bradycardia ❤️ @devoogdld.bsky.social @anneloeshulsman.bsky.social & co-authors www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Stimulation of the human periaqueductal gray induces threat bradycardia: a case report
The ability to recognize and anticipate potential danger is crucial for survival across species. The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) is implicated in regulating threat-anticipatory responses, in...
0196
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
To accompany my textbook (Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience) and the class I taught this semester, I'm open-sourcing my lectures slides: gershmanlab.com/lectures.html I'll continue to update these as I improve them.
419057
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
tor @torwager.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Hi! A group of people, especially @neurozorro.bsky.social and team, are developing new versions…check out compose.neurosynth.org. Neurostore, nimare And neuroquery @gaelvaroquaux.bsky.social Neurosynth.org is static since Tal stopped maintaining it. Still useful though imo
compose.neurosynth.org
Neurosynth Compose
Neurosynth Compose is a free and open platform for neuroimaging meta-analysis, enabling scientific article curation and reproducible pipelines.
152
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Erik Nook 🏳️‍🌈 @eriknook.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
New paper: Jamil Zaki and I integrate theories of empathy + emotion regulation to describe how therapists have to regulate a "therapeutic emotional circuit" in each session. Lots of applications and avenues for new research. Just published in CPS! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
14010
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Peters Lab @peterslab.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Postdocstelle in der Biopsychologie in Köln zu besetzen: jobportal.uni-koeln.de/ausschreibun... Spannende Forschung, nettes Team und 4 SWS Lehre im Bachelor/Master Psychologie. Bewerbungsfrist endet am 17.04. - gerne Teilen.
jobportal.uni-koeln.de
048
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Yang Teoh @yyangteoh.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Now out in PNAS with @jaeyoungson.bsky.social, Alice Xia, @apaxon.bsky.social & @orielf.bsky.social. Medial temporal lobe encodes predictive representations of people's real-world social networks which afford them key advantages in social navigation. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵
pnas.org
Medial temporal lobe encodes cognitive maps of real-world social networks | PNAS
Humans routinely solve social problems by navigating densely interconnected networks—gossiping strategically, brokering across cliques, and coordin...
17328
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Jessica Royer @jroyer.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Correlating brain maps across datasets is everywhere in neuroimaging. Here we ask: when you contextualize a brain map against genes, metabolism, or connectivity... What can you really conclude? How can we do better? We explore these questions here: tinyurl.com/2dudkevc
tinyurl.com
Opportunities and pitfalls of data contextualization in neuroimaging - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Despite rapid exploitation of the opportunities that contextualization of brain maps affords, potential limitations have received little attention. In this Roadmap, Royer et al. provide practical guid...
04521
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Solomon Kurz @solomonkurz.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
github.com/stan-dev/sta...
github.com
Prior Choice Recommendations
Stan development repository. The master branch contains the current release. The develop branch contains the latest stable development. See the Developer Process Wiki for details. - stan-dev/stan
0102
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Gerhard Jocham @gjocham.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Please repost! We have one postdoc and one PhD student position open in my lab (starting from Sept 2026), neuroscience of decision making and learning. Join us @hhu.de in gorgeous Düsseldorf! For details please look here: www.psychologie.hhu.de/en/research-... @biodgps-dgpa.bsky.social
Example images sketching research in the lab. Top left: MRS voxel locations in medial prefrontal cortex. Top right: EEG time-frequency representation during perceptual choice. Bottom left: screenshot from a foraging paradigm. Bottom right: Drug-induced changes in delay and effort discounting
11712
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com · 16/03/2026
Integrating behavioural experimental findings into dynamical models to inform social change interventions
dlvr.it
Integrating behavioural experimental findings into dynamical models to inform social change interventions
Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 16 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02417-4Tănase et al. show how integrating discrete-choice modelling into the complex contagion theory reveals individual differences in adoption of innovations and informs social network interventions.
085
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Niklas Buergi @niklasbuergi.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
How does the brain decide which mental strategy to use when inferring others' beliefs? Excited to (finally!) see my first first-author paper out @natneuro.nature.com Summary below 🧵 #CogSci #CogNeuro www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A neural signature of adaptive mentalization | Nature Neuroscience
18730
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Daniel Yon @danieljamesyon.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
How does uncertainty transmit from one head to another? Our new paper out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social reveals how public communication alters private confidence. w/ Einar Andreassen & @cdfrith.bsky.social @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social @leverhulme.ac.uk 🧠📈
cell.com
Public communication alters private confidence
Andreassen et al. demonstrate that confidence exhibited in public affects our private assessment of confidence.
05925
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Serge Ahmed @sergeahmed.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Why we value things more as we are about to lose them A novel theory that explains why subjective value and effort-based decisions change over time, shedding light on reference-dependent behavior in both every day and high-stakes decision-making contexts www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Why we value things more as we are about to lose them: A reference-based theory
A common belief is that we only truly appreciate things or people when we are about to lose them. This phenomenon is often observed in real-world scen…
1165
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
🚀 Postdoc Alert! Are you passionate about social learning & cultural evolution? @dominikdeffner.bsky.social & I have a 3-year position with freedom to develop your research and work on cutting-edge multiplayer and immersive experiments. Apply by March 30! hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni... Pls share 🙏
hmc-lab.com
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution posted on March 2, 2026 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual...
26365
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Akram Bakkour @akrambakkour.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
📢New paper out today in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social! Does the value of an unchosen option — inferred through counterfactual reasoning — spread to related items in memory, similar to how the value of a chosen option — acquired through direct experience — does? In short, yes!
sciencedirect.com
The inferred value of unchosen options spreads to related items in memory
Counterfactual thinking — considering what could have come of choosing the other path — can facilitate inference. Previous studies have demonstrated t…
16025
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Interested in using my textbook, Modeling Social Behavior, but wishing code was in a more general programming language than NetLogo? The incomparable Ben Fried has translated all modeling code into JULIA, utilizing the excellent Agents.jl package. github.com/BenjaFried/m...
github.com
GitHub - BenjaFried/modsoc_Julia: Modeling Social Behavior in Julia
Modeling Social Behavior in Julia. Contribute to BenjaFried/modsoc_Julia development by creating an account on GitHub.
04815
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Attentional Dynamics Reveal Cognitive Motivation and Effort Allocation: osf.io/3q4fx
001
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Come work with @tsawallis.bsky.social, Frank Jäkel and myself! 3 yr Postdoc on category learning w/ structured, program-like representations. Funded by the www.theadaptivemind.de Excellence Cluster! Deadline is Mar 15th, details 👇 Please share widely 🙏
theadaptivemind.de
Homepage
0159
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
yinan cao @ycaoneuro.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
🔎Updated preprint "Humans use a dual policy to improve inferences during epistemic information seeking" by Yinan Cao, Clémence Alméras, Junseok Lee, Inès Maye, and Valentin Wyart. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1155
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Gerhard Jocham @gjocham.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Early heads-up: There will be one postdoc and one PhD position in the field of learning/decision making open in my lab from Sept 2026. More information to follow soon, but feel free to already get in touch for informal inquiries! Please spread the word!
063
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
herrick fung @herrickfung.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
🚨 New preprint on individual differences in artificial neural networks and human behavior. We show that individual differences among ANN instances trained with different random initializations capture the individual differences in human behavior. 1/8
biorxiv.org
197
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
BAMB! @bamb-school.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Applications for BAMB! 2026 are officially open! Join us in Barcelona (July 12–23) to master the art of behavioral modeling with our incredible faculty: @meganakpeters.bsky.social @marcelomattar.bsky.social @khamascience.bsky.social @thecharleywu.bsky.social Apply now here: www.bambschool.org
bambschool.org
BAMB! 2026 | Barcelona Summer School for Advanced Modeling of Behavior
Intensive training for experienced researchers in cognitive science, computational neuroscience and neuro-AI. Five interconnected modules, expert faculty, hands-on projects. July 12-23, 2026.
12827
Reposted by Yang Xu (许扬)
Center for Adaptive Rationality (MPIB, Berlin) @arc-mpib.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
📣 Applications for the 23rd Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality are now open! ✨Join us in Berlin @arc-mpib.bsky.social June 08–16, 2026, to explore the topic of “Decision Making in the Age of AI”. ✏️ More details + application form (deadline: March 16): www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/research/res...
02724