Prof. Alex Woolgar
@alexwoolgar.bsky.social
Cognitive neuroscientist at Cambridge University: neuroimaging, attention, cognitive control and autism
Utterly delighted to have been awarded 5 years of research funding from the ERC to study low-activity brain states that could underpin flexible rule use. Let’s see what "pinging" can tell us about how task sets are assembled and changed!
📣 Four exceptional researchers in the School of Biological Sciences have been awarded prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants!
Congratulations to all ERC awardees!
@camzoology.bsky.social @pdncambridge.bsky.social @campsydept.bsky.social
Congratulations to all ERC awardees!
@camzoology.bsky.social @pdncambridge.bsky.social @campsydept.bsky.social
December 9, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Utterly delighted to have been awarded 5 years of research funding from the ERC to study low-activity brain states that could underpin flexible rule use. Let’s see what "pinging" can tell us about how task sets are assembled and changed!
Delighted to see this special issue completed, in honour of our extraordinary friend and mentor John Duncan :)
The special issue celebrating John Duncan's retirement is now out! Check out all the gem articles here:
sciencedirect.com/special-issue/10QN6R7VQSM
and the editorial (see next figure in the thread for an entertaining analysis)
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
sciencedirect.com/special-issue/10QN6R7VQSM
and the editorial (see next figure in the thread for an entertaining analysis)
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
November 27, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Delighted to see this special issue completed, in honour of our extraordinary friend and mentor John Duncan :)
Outstanding keynote this morning from the incredible Lucia Navarre de Laura at the www.tmsfmriworkshop.org. These developments are really going to transform the field.
September 16, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Outstanding keynote this morning from the incredible Lucia Navarre de Laura at the www.tmsfmriworkshop.org. These developments are really going to transform the field.
Jing Jiang kicking off our www.tmsfmriworkshop.org with her keynote on bridging TMS-fMRI with stimulation + invasive neural recordings to work out: can we truly reach deep brain regions through cortical TMS targets? #tms
September 15, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Jing Jiang kicking off our www.tmsfmriworkshop.org with her keynote on bridging TMS-fMRI with stimulation + invasive neural recordings to work out: can we truly reach deep brain regions through cortical TMS targets? #tms
Suitably exotic location for a TMS-fMRI WORKSHOP!! Can't wait to see everyone later. #tms #fmri #concurrenttmsfmri www.tmsfmriworkshop.org
September 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Suitably exotic location for a TMS-fMRI WORKSHOP!! Can't wait to see everyone later. #tms #fmri #concurrenttmsfmri www.tmsfmriworkshop.org
Setting off on a 3 hour journey without my laptop feels... weird. But you can hardly take a laptop to the WIMBLEDON LADIES FINAL :-D
July 12, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Setting off on a 3 hour journey without my laptop feels... weird. But you can hardly take a laptop to the WIMBLEDON LADIES FINAL :-D
Yet another new paper from the brilliant Runhao Lu @runhaolu.bsky.social together with outstanding undergraduate student Isabelle Woods Rogan. Arrhythmic TMS is (probably!) still the best control choice for alpha entrainment studies. But watch out, TMS affects aperiodic activity too.
New results! We tested different control conditions for rh-TMS entrainment and showed ar-TMS performs best (matching sensory without inducing oscillatory effects). Also explored how rh-TMS/ar-TMS/sham-TMS differentially impact Oscillatory and Aperiodic activity!
www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S193...
www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S193...
Optimizing control conditions for entraining neural oscillations using rhythmic TMS
Rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation (rh-TMS) is increasingly used to entrain
neural oscillations and probe their causal roles in cognition [1-3]. By delivering
pulse trains at specific frequenc...
www.brainstimjrnl.com
July 8, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Yet another new paper from the brilliant Runhao Lu @runhaolu.bsky.social together with outstanding undergraduate student Isabelle Woods Rogan. Arrhythmic TMS is (probably!) still the best control choice for alpha entrainment studies. But watch out, TMS affects aperiodic activity too.
Chaos on the trains up to Glasgow today (looking forward to giving the Psychology seminar tomorrow), but isn't it nice how rail disruption magically gives us Brits "permission" to talk to one another!
June 26, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Chaos on the trains up to Glasgow today (looking forward to giving the Psychology seminar tomorrow), but isn't it nice how rail disruption magically gives us Brits "permission" to talk to one another!
I'm getting to announce a lot of new papers this week! This one, led by the fabulous duo of @jadebjackson.bsky.social and @catrionascrivener.bsky.social shows that artefact free concurrent #TMS-fMRI is possible - with surprisingly short interslice gaps.
Setting up a concurrent TMS-fMRI experiment ⚡🧠? Check out our paper just out on when to deliver TMS pulses between MR slice gaps to avoid signal loss. doi.org/10.1016/j.jn.... Thanks to
@catrionascrivener.bsky.social
M. Correia M. Mada and
@alexwoolgar.bsky.social
@catrionascrivener.bsky.social
M. Correia M. Mada and
@alexwoolgar.bsky.social
Redirecting
doi.org
June 26, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I'm getting to announce a lot of new papers this week! This one, led by the fabulous duo of @jadebjackson.bsky.social and @catrionascrivener.bsky.social shows that artefact free concurrent #TMS-fMRI is possible - with surprisingly short interslice gaps.
When we started this project we thought we were dotting the is and crossing the ts - it seemed obvious that codes in frontoparietal control regions should generalise between modalities. By the time we finished, it seemed obvious that they should not! As always the answer is somewhere in between...
In what way is the frontoparietal network domain general? We show it uses the same neural resources to represent rules in auditory and visual tasks but does so with independent codes doi.org/10.1162/IMAG..., thanks to A Rich, D Moerel, @linateichmann.bsky.social, J Duncan @alexwoolgar.bsky.social
June 24, 2025 at 8:40 PM
When we started this project we thought we were dotting the is and crossing the ts - it seemed obvious that codes in frontoparietal control regions should generalise between modalities. By the time we finished, it seemed obvious that they should not! As always the answer is somewhere in between...
Delighted to see this - the culmination of discussions begun by the ocean in Greece (at our international workshop on TMS-fMRI) - now out in print! I learnt a lot, and made many friends, along the way to this one. Next TMS-fMRI workshop will be in Mexico in Sept, EOI at www.tmsfmriworkshop.org
New Article! Consensus guidelines for the use of concurrent TMS-fMRI in cognitive and clinical neuroscience
Consensus guidelines for the use of concurrent TMS-fMRI in cognitive and clinical neuroscience
Nature Protocols, Published online: 24 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41596-025-01182-4We present best practice guidelines for the use of concurrent TMS-fMRI, experimental design, technical requirements and data interpretation, illustrated via 12 use cases.
bit.ly
June 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Delighted to see this - the culmination of discussions begun by the ocean in Greece (at our international workshop on TMS-fMRI) - now out in print! I learnt a lot, and made many friends, along the way to this one. Next TMS-fMRI workshop will be in Mexico in Sept, EOI at www.tmsfmriworkshop.org
Thank you Becca! Always great fun to talk about combining neuroimaging approaches in cog neuro. Super interesting day at Cambridge Imaging Festival so far, with talks from across Depts and Schools, and fantastic to hear the vision of our PVC-R for more interdisciplinary research in this space.
Fantastic start to Cambridge Imaging festival as @alexwoolgar.bsky.social absolutely got our attention 🧐 discussing the power of combining neuroimaging and stimulation approaches 🧠⚡to research... well... attention...
#neuroskyence #cogsci
#neuroskyence #cogsci
June 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Thank you Becca! Always great fun to talk about combining neuroimaging approaches in cog neuro. Super interesting day at Cambridge Imaging Festival so far, with talks from across Depts and Schools, and fantastic to hear the vision of our PVC-R for more interdisciplinary research in this space.
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
Excellent statement from Nature’s editorial board.
The last section on “How to respond” is the most important.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The last section on “How to respond” is the most important.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere
US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.
www.nature.com
March 10, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Excellent statement from Nature’s editorial board.
The last section on “How to respond” is the most important.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The last section on “How to respond” is the most important.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
Here is an open letter signed from UChicago AAUP signed by over 200 faculty to our administration on what we believe this moment requires:
uchicagoaaup.wordpress.com
uchicagoaaup.wordpress.com
March 10, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Here is an open letter signed from UChicago AAUP signed by over 200 faculty to our administration on what we believe this moment requires:
uchicagoaaup.wordpress.com
uchicagoaaup.wordpress.com
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
Still one of the best "how to give a presentation" presentations out there
How to Speak
YouTube video by MIT OpenCourseWare
youtu.be
March 11, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Still one of the best "how to give a presentation" presentations out there
I had a brilliant time visiting @yorkpsychology.bsky.social today - so many interesting chats and exciting ideas for new analyses, experiments, and collaborations! Days like these are what makes our job so much fun :)
Brilliant @yorkpsychology.bsky.social seminar today from @alexwoolgar.bsky.social. Beautiful work on the causal role of the MD network on feature selection and attention
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition
March 11, 2025 at 6:23 PM
I had a brilliant time visiting @yorkpsychology.bsky.social today - so many interesting chats and exciting ideas for new analyses, experiments, and collaborations! Days like these are what makes our job so much fun :)
Horray, another paper from the brilliant Runhao Lu @runhaolu.bsky.social is out now in Brain Stimulation! Our first adventure with TMS-EEG and decoding, finding a specific role for parietal alpha in enhancing behaviour-driving codes for where to attend in space.
🚨New paper alert!⚡🧠Using concurrent TMS-EEG & MVPA in a selec attention task, we show parietal alpha rh-TMS (entrainment) specifically and causally enhances spatial attention ('where' info) coded by ERPs and alpha power, but not 'what' info or visual features.
www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S193...
www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S193...
Parietal alpha stimulation causally enhances attentional information coding in evoked and oscillatory activity
Selective attention is a fundamental cognitive mechanism that allows people to prioritise task-relevant information while ignoring irrelevant information. Previous research has suggested key roles of parietal event-related potentials (ERPs) and alpha oscillatory responses in attention tasks. However, the informational content of these signals is less clear, and their causal effects on the coding of multiple task elements are yet unresolved.
www.brainstimjrnl.com
January 14, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Horray, another paper from the brilliant Runhao Lu @runhaolu.bsky.social is out now in Brain Stimulation! Our first adventure with TMS-EEG and decoding, finding a specific role for parietal alpha in enhancing behaviour-driving codes for where to attend in space.
Please come and work with us and the amazing @lauragwilliams.bsky.social ! Really special project using E/MEG to look at receptive language in non speakers. Please repost!
postdoc opportunity in @alexwoolgar.bsky.social and my lab, based in Cambridge UK! seeking someone with excellent analytical skills to join our project using time-resolved human neuroimaging to study receptive language processing in non-speaking autistic individuals 🧠✨
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/48835/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/48835/
Postdoctoral Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Postdoctoral Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
January 14, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Please come and work with us and the amazing @lauragwilliams.bsky.social ! Really special project using E/MEG to look at receptive language in non speakers. Please repost!
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
We are hiring! We're looking for a great project manager to help with a large-scale Wellcome funded study. If you know of anyone that this might appeal to, please share.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49880/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49880/
Project Manager (Part Time, Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Project Manager (Part Time, Fixed Term) in the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
January 10, 2025 at 11:39 AM
We are hiring! We're looking for a great project manager to help with a large-scale Wellcome funded study. If you know of anyone that this might appeal to, please share.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49880/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49880/
We were very lucky that the brilliant Nadene Demody could organise the SCR at her college for our Christmas lunch this year! Season's greetings to you all from the Woolgar lab :-D
December 20, 2024 at 8:12 PM
We were very lucky that the brilliant Nadene Demody could organise the SCR at her college for our Christmas lunch this year! Season's greetings to you all from the Woolgar lab :-D
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
Concurrent TMS-fMRI is hot stuff if you want causal inference with your whole-brain recordings. Come and hear me spill the beans on why you might want in on this magnet-on-magnet action - webinar on Jan 22nd: marketing.magventure.com/referral_reg....
marketing.magventure.com
December 9, 2024 at 7:52 PM
Concurrent TMS-fMRI is hot stuff if you want causal inference with your whole-brain recordings. Come and hear me spill the beans on why you might want in on this magnet-on-magnet action - webinar on Jan 22nd: marketing.magventure.com/referral_reg....
First lab paper since moving to bluesky! In which I learnt not to ignore aperiodic #EEG #MEG signals.... Led by the fabulous Runhao Lu.
✨New paper @commsbio.bsky.social !! Using MEG/EEG, we investigated domain-general cognitive systems in human brains implemented by aperiodic and oscillatory responses. Great collaboration with @alexwoolgar.bsky.social , John Duncan, and Nadene Dermody. rdcu.be/d34pt
Aperiodic and oscillatory systems underpinning human domain-general cognition
Communications Biology - Using MEG/EEG, this study reports that aperiodic broadband power, rather than oscillations, reflects a core response to diverse cognitive demand that links to the...
rdcu.be
December 18, 2024 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
Thanks Earl for reposting our work! (Our following study intergrating MEG and fMRI data will be coming soon...)
Aperiodic and oscillatory systems underpinning human domain-general cognition
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroscience
Aperiodic and oscillatory systems underpinning human domain-general cognition
Domain-general cognitive systems are essential for adaptive human behaviour, supporting various cognitive tasks through flexible neural mechanisms. While fMRI studies link the frontoparietal network a...
www.biorxiv.org
December 11, 2024 at 1:37 PM
Thanks Earl for reposting our work! (Our following study intergrating MEG and fMRI data will be coming soon...)
Reposted by Prof. Alex Woolgar
Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪
There are already many articles for which there is more attention on Bluesky than on other comparable micro-blogging sites, meaning the academic community and the general public have clearly adopted Bluesky as one of its core places to disseminate and discuss new research.
A Place of Joy.
A Place of Joy.
December 3, 2024 at 2:10 PM
Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪