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hakwan.bsky.social
hakwan lau
@hakwan.bsky.social
8K followers 4K following 960 posts
neuroscientist in Korea (co-director of IBS-CNIR) interested in how neuroimaging (e.g. fMRI or widefield optical imaging) can facilitate closed-loop causal interventions (e.g. neurofeedback, patterned stimulations). https://tinyurl.com/hakwan
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hakwan.bsky.social
hakwan lau @hakwan.bsky.social · 21d
are better-performing face recognition models more human-like? turns out: NO

in terms of how we see/treat different faces as similar/different to each other, there seems to be tradeoff: better models are LESS human-like

so they already work in some 'alien' ways...

osf.io/preprints/ps...

🧠📈🧠🤖🧠💻
OSF
osf.io
Reposted by hakwan lau
alexlw.bsky.social
Attention early career neuroscientists – Consider applying for a two-year Faculty Fellow position at Barnard College in NYC! This is a rare opportunity to get both teaching and research experience + mentorship to prepare for a tenure-track job.
barnard.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Facult...
Barnard Early-Career Faculty Fellow, Neuroscience & Behavior
If you are a current Barnard College employee, please use the internal career site to apply for this position. Job: Barnard Early-Career Faculty Fellow, Neuroscience & Behavior Barnard College see...
barnard.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
December 29, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
alexlw.bsky.social
Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is accepting submissions for a special issue on “The Vision-Language Interface.” The deadline has been extended until June 30! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
December 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM
hakwan.bsky.social
books.google.co.kr/books/about/...

suddenly thought of this book, which i read a long time ago (30 years?). it was good.
Defying Hitler
A unique and compelling eyewitness account of Germany between the wars. A huge bestseller in Germany, "Defying Hitler" is a memoir about the rise of Nazism in Germany and the lives of ordinary German ...
books.google.co.kr
December 26, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
benhayden.bsky.social
New Perspective from myself, Sarah Heilbronner and @myoo.bsky.social . “Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization” in Nature Neuroscience. 🧵

rdcu.be/eVZ1A
Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization
Nature Neuroscience - Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas...
rdcu.be
December 23, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
danieljamesyon.bsky.social
ECR looking for a change in the New Year?

We are recruiting a new Lecturer in Psychology at @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social !

If you’d like to talk about life in the Department, please do feel free to get in touch.

Deadline 8th Feb - More details below 👇

cis7.bbk.ac.uk/vacancy/lect...
Lecturer in Psychology (2303) - Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck
cis7.bbk.ac.uk
December 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
joshuaholland.bsky.social
This is some Mengele shit
maddow.bsky.social Rachel Maddow @maddow.bsky.social · 9d
"Babies in the randomized, controlled trial will or will not receive the vaccine at birth...

"It is a breach of scientific ethics to withhold an intervention that has been proven safe and effective."

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies
www.theguardian.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:52 AM
hakwan.bsky.social
this paper on why biological computation is special (& necessary for consciousness) by @jaanaru.bsky.social, is as usual, very good & maybe the best one yet on the topic

but why doesn't the argument apply to e.g. motor control too?

1/

linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0149763425005251
Redirecting
linkinghub.elsevier.com
December 21, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
karengregory.bsky.social
I'm sure someone will want to throw eggs at me, but yes: "we turn the spotlight on what we as academics can still do within our current external constraints rather than seeing our environment as fully deterministic of our ability to act."
December 19, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by hakwan lau
jeremymberg.bsky.social
New story in STAT with data about Early Stage Investigators

www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/n...

1/4
NIH funding rates for early-career researchers plunged in 2025, new data show
A Trump administration change to how NIH awards grants has sharply reduced early-stage investigators’ odds of securing funding.
www.statnews.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by hakwan lau
andpru.bsky.social
If you're (1) into nhp neurophysiology and/or biological motor control, (2) a foreign big shot and (3) interested in moving here, please reach out -- this new program looks extremely attractive (min. $8M over 8y)! www.uwo.ca/research/can...
Canada-Impact-Plus - Research - Western University
www.uwo.ca
December 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
gavinyamey.bsky.social
It makes sense now

Now I see why RFK Jr—the world’s most extreme dangerous anti-vaxx activist & conspiracy theorist who has a body count in Samoa—is giving Benn a non-competitive grant to conduct an RCT in a low-income country, in which a proven vaccine will be *deliberately* withheld from babies
sorenlarsen.bsky.social Soren Larsen (SEGL) @sorenlarsen.bsky.social · 13d
"Basically, I agree with many of the things Kennedy says about vaccines"

Christine Stabell Benn

⬇️
December 19, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by hakwan lau
bellecguill.bsky.social
Our paper on data constrained RNN that generalize to optogenetic perturbations now citable on eLife:
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
December 18, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
jenna-m-norton.bsky.social
This year has been brutal for science, especially early career researchers and those working with communities further marginalized by this administration. Please read the experiences of these scientists.

And when you’re done reading, find a way to fight back.
theconversation.com/this-year-ne...
‘This year nearly broke me as a scientist’ – US researchers reflect on how 2025’s science cuts have changed their lives
US science lost a great deal in 2025, including tens of billions of dollars of federal funding, entire research agencies and programs, and a generation of researchers.
theconversation.com
December 19, 2025 at 12:55 AM
hakwan.bsky.social
'For fifty years we have kept this pseudo-science exactly as Wundt laid it down. All that Wundt and his students really accomplished was to substitute for the word "soul" the word "consciousness."' - Watson (1929)

www.yorku.ca/pclassic/Wat...
Classics in the History of Psychology -- Watson (1929)
www.yorku.ca
December 19, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Reposted by hakwan lau
thetransmitter.bsky.social
Generative AI systems are being built primarily for entertainment, design and communication, but their potential for neuroscience is vast. @shahabbakht.bsky.social explores how this technology could help capture an animal’s ecological experience.
#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/artificial-i...
Seeing the world as animals do: How to leverage generative AI for ecological neuroscience
Generative artificial intelligence will offer a new way to see, simulate and hypothesize about how animals experience their worlds. In doing so, it could help bridge the long-standing gap between…
www.thetransmitter.org
December 18, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
sfn.org
Happening tomorrow!

Reserve your spot now.

🔗 vist.ly/4iw9j

#neurosky #neuroskyence
eNeuro and JNeurosci logos. SfN Journals in Conversation. Title: Computational Properties of the Prefrontal Cortex. Date: Thursday, December 18, noon-1 p.m. EST. Speakers: Nandakumar Narayanan, Guest Editor, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Erin Rich, Reviewing Editor, New York University.
December 17, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
taylorwwebb.bsky.social
Very much looking forward to this series of workshops on the computational ingredients of reasoning. We have an amazing lineup of speakers from diverse backgrounds, and there will be lots of opportunities for discussion. Please consider attending!
ivado.bsky.social IVADO @ivado.bsky.social · 15d
🧠 Computational Ingredients of Reasoning: participate in the next #IVADO Thematic Semester, which will be held in Montreal from January to March 2026.

➡️ Register now: event.fourwaves.com/fr/thematics...

@glajoie.bsky.social @taylorwwebb.bsky.social @lampinen.bsky.social
December 17, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
rmcelreath.bsky.social
The Max Planck Society has begun an exploratory round table for open science. We are drafting some recommendations to leadership. Still a long way to go! But here are my notes on the most recent draft, just so you all know how I am trying to steer things.
Richard McElreath: It must not be overlooked that junior researchers DO NOT TRUST US. We, the directors, are a big part of the problem. We made this system, we remake it every year, and we benefit from it. What can we do to credibly signal our commitment to reform a corrupt research culture? My conversations with junior scientists in the society has taught me that directors are too often either indifferent or hostile to science reform. We cannot hope to convince our prize winning colleagues. Their egos are immune. But we can replace retirements with researchers who care more about integrity than their own prestige. This is important both for earning the trust of the junior researchers who really do the research in the MPG and for attracting excellent future directors and starting to earn the trust of the public. So I suggest two strong signals to our junior researchers (and the public): (1) we will reform recruitment and promotion at all levels to eliminate proxies like citation counts and journal brands in favor of reliability and sustainability; (2) we will make open science skills a core part of scientific training, through the graduate schools at a minimum, as conditions for the central funding. The most ambitious thing we could do, as hinted at in item 5 above, is to meaningfully invest in metascientific research. As the largest basic research organization in the world, the MPG is uniquely suited to studying research and its products from a broad perspective that includes the humanities, the sciences, and policy. Governments are already involved in science reform. Someone should study it in an organized and sustained way.
December 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by hakwan lau
jpillowtime.bsky.social
Bichan Wu (@bichanw.bsky.social) & I wrote a tutorial paper on Reduced Rank Regression (RRR) — the statistical method underlying "communication subspaces" from Semedo et al 2019 — aimed at neuroscientists.

arxiv.org/abs/2512.12467
Reduced rank regression for neural communication: a tutorial for neuroscientists
Reduced rank regression (RRR) is a statistical method for finding a low-dimensional linear mapping between a set of high-dimensional inputs and outputs. In recent years, RRR has found numerous applica...
arxiv.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:06 AM
Reposted by hakwan lau
danieljamesyon.bsky.social
I've got a fully-funded PhD studentship open at @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social, investigating social learning about metacognition & awareness, w/ behavioural studies & neuroimaging (fMRI) - thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk

More details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPV831/p...

#cogsci #neuroskyence
PhD Studentship: Social Learning of Metacognition and Awareness at Birkbeck, University of London
jobs.ac.uk now advertising a PhD Studentship: Social Learning of Metacognition and Awareness Visit jobs.ac.uk to apply and to browse more PhD opportunities.
www.jobs.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
thetransmitter.bsky.social
A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research, writes @alexkwan.bsky.social.

www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...

#neuroskyence
How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs
A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 15, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
vavatin.bsky.social
fMRI signals “up,” but neural metabolism might be going “down.”

In our @natneuro.nature.com paper, we demonstrate that about 40% of voxels with robust BOLD responses exhibit opposite oxygen metabolism, revealing two distinct hemodynamic modes.

rdcu.be/eUPO8
funds @erc.europa.eu
#neuroskyence 🧵:
BOLD signal changes can oppose oxygen metabolism across the human cortex, Nature Neuroscience
December 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
practicalfmri.bsky.social
It seems a bunch of groups are leaping into tFUS for neuromodulation without assessing effects of tFUS on CBF with ASL, or on vascular territory effects using cerebrovascular reactivity. Seems like a giant oversight to me!!!! (My five bucks says tFUS is primarily vascular...)
December 13, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
karihoffman.bsky.social
Human multipatch L2/3 functional cell types. LFG. 🧠📈🧪
yangfanpeng.bsky.social Yangfan Peng @yangfanpeng.bsky.social · 18d
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
December 13, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by hakwan lau
hugospiers.bsky.social
Thanks to @cnn.com for covering our research on London taxi drivers in their new, rather chatty, format 'Creators'

Taxi driver Tom Scullion is the star of this piece. He trains others to learn the knowledge an has so many insights into that process.
#neuroskyence

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7df...
December 13, 2025 at 4:25 PM