Jan R. Wessel
@janw.bsky.social
Clement T. & Sylvia H. Hanson Chair, Professor #FirstGen
1996 Under-12 Ping Pong City Champion.
wessellab.org
1996 Under-12 Ping Pong City Champion.
wessellab.org
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
Our experience of time is powerfully shaped by boundaries between events (i.e., going from one meeting to the next). But what about time *within an event*? In new work, we find reliable distortions of time based on internal event structure (e.g., beginnings, middles, and ends)! tinyurl.com/n8mn2sn7
Unfolding event structure distorts subjective time
Our experience of time is often distorted in striking ways. Although prior work has shown that boundaries between events can shape temporal perception…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Our experience of time is powerfully shaped by boundaries between events (i.e., going from one meeting to the next). But what about time *within an event*? In new work, we find reliable distortions of time based on internal event structure (e.g., beginnings, middles, and ends)! tinyurl.com/n8mn2sn7
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
One of my two last (ever) papers on tDCS:
Does anodal tDCS over M1 really enhance motor sequence learning? A non-replication of earlier findings in a double-blind, pre-registered large-sample study in humans
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Does anodal tDCS over M1 really enhance motor sequence learning? A non-replication of earlier findings in a double-blind, pre-registered large-sample study in humans
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Does anodal tDCS over M1 really enhance motor sequence learning? A non-replication of earlier findings in a double-blind, pre-registered large-sample study in humans
Background Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is one of the most widely used noninvasive neuromodulation methods. Despite its popularity, some recent studies highlighted issues about the r...
www.medrxiv.org
October 11, 2025 at 9:35 AM
One of my two last (ever) papers on tDCS:
Does anodal tDCS over M1 really enhance motor sequence learning? A non-replication of earlier findings in a double-blind, pre-registered large-sample study in humans
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Does anodal tDCS over M1 really enhance motor sequence learning? A non-replication of earlier findings in a double-blind, pre-registered large-sample study in humans
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Sometimes I learn a new concept online - like "AI-generated participants in Psych experiments" - and I wonder whether the purpose of the whole internet is just is finding ever more bespoke pieces of information that make me specifically as angry as humanly possible.
AI-generated ‘participants’ can lead social science experiments astray, study finds
Data produced by “silicon samples” depends on researchers’ exact choice of models, prompts, and settings
www.science.org
October 1, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Sometimes I learn a new concept online - like "AI-generated participants in Psych experiments" - and I wonder whether the purpose of the whole internet is just is finding ever more bespoke pieces of information that make me specifically as angry as humanly possible.
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
If you’re a @cogneuronews.bsky.social member, check out and vote on the great lineup of symposia for 2026, and plz consider our symposium “Non-invasive meso-scale dynamics of perception and cognition”, organized by @adykstra.bsky.social including James Bonauito and @lonikefaes.bsky.social!
September 29, 2025 at 3:32 PM
If you’re a @cogneuronews.bsky.social member, check out and vote on the great lineup of symposia for 2026, and plz consider our symposium “Non-invasive meso-scale dynamics of perception and cognition”, organized by @adykstra.bsky.social including James Bonauito and @lonikefaes.bsky.social!
Big day in the household as my wife Kristi Hendrickson won the Dean's Scholar Award for outstanding tenure package, and I was named Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Many thanks to the University of Iowa for continuing to support both of us!
September 25, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Big day in the household as my wife Kristi Hendrickson won the Dean's Scholar Award for outstanding tenure package, and I was named Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Many thanks to the University of Iowa for continuing to support both of us!
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
🚨Postdoc job offer🚨
Are you interested in beta bursts? Want to help drive methods for laminar inference with MEG? Now hiring a postdoc: run head-cast MEG experiments, help build our laMEG toolbox, and collaborate across Lyon–Marseille–Strasbourg. emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Please repost! 🧠📈
Are you interested in beta bursts? Want to help drive methods for laminar inference with MEG? Now hiring a postdoc: run head-cast MEG experiments, help build our laMEG toolbox, and collaborate across Lyon–Marseille–Strasbourg. emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Please repost! 🧠📈
Portail Emploi CNRS - Offre d'emploi - Post-doctorate - Beta bursts & laminar MEG (M/F)
emploi.cnrs.fr
September 18, 2025 at 6:58 AM
🚨Postdoc job offer🚨
Are you interested in beta bursts? Want to help drive methods for laminar inference with MEG? Now hiring a postdoc: run head-cast MEG experiments, help build our laMEG toolbox, and collaborate across Lyon–Marseille–Strasbourg. emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Please repost! 🧠📈
Are you interested in beta bursts? Want to help drive methods for laminar inference with MEG? Now hiring a postdoc: run head-cast MEG experiments, help build our laMEG toolbox, and collaborate across Lyon–Marseille–Strasbourg. emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Please repost! 🧠📈
The NoA of one of our R01s finally came through.
You know what they say: Better six months too late and cut by 25% than never.
You know what they say: Better six months too late and cut by 25% than never.
September 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
The NoA of one of our R01s finally came through.
You know what they say: Better six months too late and cut by 25% than never.
You know what they say: Better six months too late and cut by 25% than never.
Back from vacay. Reading recommendations:
Harvey - Orbital (Deserves all accolades)
Akbar - Martyr! (Strong debut by an IC local)
Murakami - The City & Its Uncertain Walls (The boy is back on form)
Harp - The Fort Bragg Cartel (Amazing in-depth research)
Don't bother:
Stegner - Crossing to safety.
Harvey - Orbital (Deserves all accolades)
Akbar - Martyr! (Strong debut by an IC local)
Murakami - The City & Its Uncertain Walls (The boy is back on form)
Harp - The Fort Bragg Cartel (Amazing in-depth research)
Don't bother:
Stegner - Crossing to safety.
August 18, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Back from vacay. Reading recommendations:
Harvey - Orbital (Deserves all accolades)
Akbar - Martyr! (Strong debut by an IC local)
Murakami - The City & Its Uncertain Walls (The boy is back on form)
Harp - The Fort Bragg Cartel (Amazing in-depth research)
Don't bother:
Stegner - Crossing to safety.
Harvey - Orbital (Deserves all accolades)
Akbar - Martyr! (Strong debut by an IC local)
Murakami - The City & Its Uncertain Walls (The boy is back on form)
Harp - The Fort Bragg Cartel (Amazing in-depth research)
Don't bother:
Stegner - Crossing to safety.
Love to field “Why would you live in Iowa?!” questions while paying 30 bucks for 3 coffees in America’s Shittiest City™, the 100 square mile strip mall parking lot that is Reno, Nevada.
August 11, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Love to field “Why would you live in Iowa?!” questions while paying 30 bucks for 3 coffees in America’s Shittiest City™, the 100 square mile strip mall parking lot that is Reno, Nevada.
Currently trying to get a hold of literally anyone in a German lab and received out of office messages from
- the PI directing me to the postdoc
- the postdoc directing me to the grad student
- the grad student saying that they will not be reachable in any way under any circumstances at all.
- the PI directing me to the postdoc
- the postdoc directing me to the grad student
- the grad student saying that they will not be reachable in any way under any circumstances at all.
July 25, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Currently trying to get a hold of literally anyone in a German lab and received out of office messages from
- the PI directing me to the postdoc
- the postdoc directing me to the grad student
- the grad student saying that they will not be reachable in any way under any circumstances at all.
- the PI directing me to the postdoc
- the postdoc directing me to the grad student
- the grad student saying that they will not be reachable in any way under any circumstances at all.
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
EEG Correlates of Active Removal from Working Memory
Jiangang Shan and Bradley R. Postle
Journal of Neuroscience 9 July 2025, 45 (28) e2414242025; doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
Jiangang Shan and Bradley R. Postle
Journal of Neuroscience 9 July 2025, 45 (28) e2414242025; doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
EEG Correlates of Active Removal from Working Memory
The removal of no-longer-relevant information from visual working memory (WM) is important for the functioning of WM, given its severe capacity limitation. Previously, with an “ABC-retrocuing” WM task...
doi.org
July 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM
EEG Correlates of Active Removal from Working Memory
Jiangang Shan and Bradley R. Postle
Journal of Neuroscience 9 July 2025, 45 (28) e2414242025; doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
Jiangang Shan and Bradley R. Postle
Journal of Neuroscience 9 July 2025, 45 (28) e2414242025; doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
You should come and be our colleague!
The senior level search is open area FYI
The senior level search is open area FYI
Heads up! We are doing two searches this year—for an assistant prof in Clinical Science, and an associate/full prof in any domain of psychology. Want to learn more? Contact the dept chair, Mark Blumberg, at mark-blumberg@uiowa.edu.
Ads will be posted soon on our homepage: psychology.uiowa.edu
Ads will be posted soon on our homepage: psychology.uiowa.edu
Psychological and Brain Sciences | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences | The University of Iowa
Study the science behind behavior and cognition, learning and memory, and personality and emotion while developing research skills and preparing for success.
psychology.uiowa.edu
July 16, 2025 at 5:45 PM
You should come and be our colleague!
The senior level search is open area FYI
The senior level search is open area FYI
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
New post! "A Tale of Two Science Reform Movements," in which I compare the recent #Metascience2025 and #SIPS2025 conferences, and find that I am much more at home at one than the other. getsyeducated.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...
A Tale of Two Science Reform Movements
Reflections from meetings of Metascience 2025 and the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science
getsyeducated.substack.com
July 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
New post! "A Tale of Two Science Reform Movements," in which I compare the recent #Metascience2025 and #SIPS2025 conferences, and find that I am much more at home at one than the other. getsyeducated.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-...
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
Happy to share our latest study led by Tanner Dixon and our team @ucsfhealth.bsky.social and @neurosurgucsf.bsky.social out today in Nature BME! Movement Responsive, AI programmed, BCI-aDBS improves naturalistic movements and reduces excessive movements at rest in PD.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Movement-responsive deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease using a remotely optimized neural decoder - Nature Biomedical Engineering
An adaptive deep brain stimulation algorithm delivers targeted stimulation increases during movement using brain motor signals.
www.nature.com
June 27, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Happy to share our latest study led by Tanner Dixon and our team @ucsfhealth.bsky.social and @neurosurgucsf.bsky.social out today in Nature BME! Movement Responsive, AI programmed, BCI-aDBS improves naturalistic movements and reduces excessive movements at rest in PD.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
Earlier, I posted a 🧵 about the articles that students liked in my graduate course on executive function (EF)👇.
In this new 🧵 (the last one based on this class, I promise!), I thought I'd share some of the thoughts I had while teaching this course. If you’re interested in EF, read on. (1/12)
In this new 🧵 (the last one based on this class, I promise!), I thought I'd share some of the thoughts I had while teaching this course. If you’re interested in EF, read on. (1/12)
I taught a graduate course on executive function (EF) in the spring. Before I forget, I thought I'd tell you about the readings students liked the best (at the end of the semester, I asked students to vote for their favorite papers, excl. any of mine). Here are the top vote getters. 🧵 (1/6)
June 18, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Earlier, I posted a 🧵 about the articles that students liked in my graduate course on executive function (EF)👇.
In this new 🧵 (the last one based on this class, I promise!), I thought I'd share some of the thoughts I had while teaching this course. If you’re interested in EF, read on. (1/12)
In this new 🧵 (the last one based on this class, I promise!), I thought I'd share some of the thoughts I had while teaching this course. If you’re interested in EF, read on. (1/12)
Official job ad is now live: jobs.uiowa.edu/postdoc/view...
June 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Official job ad is now live: jobs.uiowa.edu/postdoc/view...
I will be looking to hire 2-3 post-docs over the course of the next few months to work on questions related to cognitive control in humans, using EEG, TMS, DBS, sEEG, fMRI, or related methods.
If you know anybody, please tell them to email me.
Formal ad to follow. Lab website: wessellab.org
If you know anybody, please tell them to email me.
Formal ad to follow. Lab website: wessellab.org
Wessel Cognitive Neurology Lab | The University of Iowa
Thanks for visiting the Cognitive Neurology Lab at the University of Iowa. The lab is directed by Dr. Jan R. Wessel. We are affiliated with the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, the Depa...
wessel.lab.uiowa.edu
June 9, 2025 at 7:59 PM
I will be looking to hire 2-3 post-docs over the course of the next few months to work on questions related to cognitive control in humans, using EEG, TMS, DBS, sEEG, fMRI, or related methods.
If you know anybody, please tell them to email me.
Formal ad to follow. Lab website: wessellab.org
If you know anybody, please tell them to email me.
Formal ad to follow. Lab website: wessellab.org
The new NIH grant review template *.doc is even more bugged than the old one. A true achievement. Congratulations to everyone involved.
May 22, 2025 at 8:50 PM
The new NIH grant review template *.doc is even more bugged than the old one. A true achievement. Congratulations to everyone involved.
Had a great time at @cogneuronews.bsky.social
It's become my favorite meeting over the last few years.
Kudos to the organizers for another outstanding program!
Boston is quite lovely, too.
#CNS2025 #CCC #LotsOfMoneyAtIowa
It's become my favorite meeting over the last few years.
Kudos to the organizers for another outstanding program!
Boston is quite lovely, too.
#CNS2025 #CCC #LotsOfMoneyAtIowa
April 2, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Had a great time at @cogneuronews.bsky.social
It's become my favorite meeting over the last few years.
Kudos to the organizers for another outstanding program!
Boston is quite lovely, too.
#CNS2025 #CCC #LotsOfMoneyAtIowa
It's become my favorite meeting over the last few years.
Kudos to the organizers for another outstanding program!
Boston is quite lovely, too.
#CNS2025 #CCC #LotsOfMoneyAtIowa
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
Happy to share our most recent paper about the neural underpinnings of essential tremor. We mapped tremor-related changes of thalamocortical coupling and provide evidence for thalamo-cerebellar synchronization. Congrats to 1st author Alex Steina and thank u Düsseldorf team! doi.org/10.1002/mds....
Oscillatory Coupling Between Thalamus, Cerebellum, and Motor Cortex in Essential Tremor
Background
Essential tremor is hypothesized to emerge from synchronized oscillatory activity within the cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuit. However, this hypothesis has not yet been tested using loc.....
doi.org
March 17, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Happy to share our most recent paper about the neural underpinnings of essential tremor. We mapped tremor-related changes of thalamocortical coupling and provide evidence for thalamo-cerebellar synchronization. Congrats to 1st author Alex Steina and thank u Düsseldorf team! doi.org/10.1002/mds....
This was always going to be the outcome. Private universities with large endowments can cushion the blow, state universities without a large donor base will be left to wither. The rich get richer, everyone else is left to die. It is, at its core, simply age-old Republican politics at work.
Interesting that Yale Medical School is providing bridge funds but not really possible at state universities. Research will be substantially reduced.
February 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM
This was always going to be the outcome. Private universities with large endowments can cushion the blow, state universities without a large donor base will be left to wither. The rich get richer, everyone else is left to die. It is, at its core, simply age-old Republican politics at work.
In 2020, we started an NIH R01 to study Parkinson's.
Thanks to years of tireless work by my staff, the project is a huge success. The renewal scored top 4%.
Yet in May, that staff may lose their jobs b/c of this. Hard-working people with kids & mortgages.
I have no words that won't get me in trouble
Thanks to years of tireless work by my staff, the project is a huge success. The renewal scored top 4%.
Yet in May, that staff may lose their jobs b/c of this. Hard-working people with kids & mortgages.
I have no words that won't get me in trouble
A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter.
By @avaskham.bsky.social
bit.ly/3X8ngz8
By @avaskham.bsky.social
bit.ly/3X8ngz8
Federal Register hold makes ‘end run’ around court pause on NIH funding freeze
NIH-related updates to the Federal Register, which are required for the scheduling of study sections and advisory councils, are on hold indefinitely, according to an email reviewed by <i>The Transmitt...
www.thetransmitter.org
February 19, 2025 at 3:09 PM
In 2020, we started an NIH R01 to study Parkinson's.
Thanks to years of tireless work by my staff, the project is a huge success. The renewal scored top 4%.
Yet in May, that staff may lose their jobs b/c of this. Hard-working people with kids & mortgages.
I have no words that won't get me in trouble
Thanks to years of tireless work by my staff, the project is a huge success. The renewal scored top 4%.
Yet in May, that staff may lose their jobs b/c of this. Hard-working people with kids & mortgages.
I have no words that won't get me in trouble
Reposted by Jan R. Wessel
one of the most intriguing projects i've been involved in: automated scientific discovery in an area (human/animal RL) I've been working on forever. can an LLM do the job of my grad students? if it is backed up by super smart scientists incl @pcastr.bsky.social @neurokim.bsky.social & kevin miller
Can LLMs be used to discover interpretable models of human and animal behavior?🤔
Turns out: yes!
Thrilled to share our latest preprint where we used FunSearch to automatically discover symbolic cognitive models of behavior.
1/12
Turns out: yes!
Thrilled to share our latest preprint where we used FunSearch to automatically discover symbolic cognitive models of behavior.
1/12
February 10, 2025 at 1:50 PM
one of the most intriguing projects i've been involved in: automated scientific discovery in an area (human/animal RL) I've been working on forever. can an LLM do the job of my grad students? if it is backed up by super smart scientists incl @pcastr.bsky.social @neurokim.bsky.social & kevin miller
Hard to believe that after decades of venerating STEM at the expense of the humanities we arrived at a point where the country is run entirely by stunted, hollow half-people who are really good at computers but lack-at-best-and-despise-at-worst anything we understand as, well, humanity.
February 10, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Hard to believe that after decades of venerating STEM at the expense of the humanities we arrived at a point where the country is run entirely by stunted, hollow half-people who are really good at computers but lack-at-best-and-despise-at-worst anything we understand as, well, humanity.
New paper!
Read what R1 described as "one of the best-written, clearest, and most well-argued pieces of work I have reviewed" and R2 tore apart in a 20 point, 3100 word rebuttal letter.
Didn't necessarily think I was gonna discuss ERPs in 2025. But first-author Mario Hervault came dressed for war.
Read what R1 described as "one of the best-written, clearest, and most well-argued pieces of work I have reviewed" and R2 tore apart in a 20 point, 3100 word rebuttal letter.
Didn't necessarily think I was gonna discuss ERPs in 2025. But first-author Mario Hervault came dressed for war.
Does the stop-signal P3 reflect inhibitory control?
The ability to stop already-initiated actions is paramount to adaptive behavior. In psychology and neuroscience alike, action-stopping is a popular mo…
sciencedirect.com
January 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
New paper!
Read what R1 described as "one of the best-written, clearest, and most well-argued pieces of work I have reviewed" and R2 tore apart in a 20 point, 3100 word rebuttal letter.
Didn't necessarily think I was gonna discuss ERPs in 2025. But first-author Mario Hervault came dressed for war.
Read what R1 described as "one of the best-written, clearest, and most well-argued pieces of work I have reviewed" and R2 tore apart in a 20 point, 3100 word rebuttal letter.
Didn't necessarily think I was gonna discuss ERPs in 2025. But first-author Mario Hervault came dressed for war.