Gustav Markkula
@markkula.bsky.social
Prof at Leeds trying to model human behaviour, the weirder the better
Into road safety, neuroscience, machine learning, and connections between fundamental and applied science
https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/transport/staff/957/professor-gustav-markkula
Into road safety, neuroscience, machine learning, and connections between fundamental and applied science
https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/transport/staff/957/professor-gustav-markkula
Pinned
Gustav Markkula
@markkula.bsky.social
· Feb 2
A recipe for pain-free(?) academic writing
gmarkkula.github.io/writing-reci...
I’m a big fan of “top-down iterative writing”, for all kinds of academic texts. This is my take on why it works and one way to do it, in a series of (individually pain-minimised) steps from blank screen to submission
🧪
gmarkkula.github.io/writing-reci...
I’m a big fan of “top-down iterative writing”, for all kinds of academic texts. This is my take on why it works and one way to do it, in a series of (individually pain-minimised) steps from blank screen to submission
🧪
🚨Preprint! Yueyang Wang is bringing his human behaviour modelling out of the VR lab, showing that by constraining deep multi-agent RL with human-like perceptual and motor limitations, a very small real-world dataset is sufficient to outperform a behaviour cloning baseline arxiv.org/abs/2510.27383
Realistic pedestrian-driver interaction modelling using multi-agent RL with human perceptual-motor constraints
Modelling pedestrian-driver interactions is critical for understanding human road user behaviour and developing safe autonomous vehicle systems. Existing approaches often rely on rule-based logic, gam...
arxiv.org
November 5, 2025 at 4:03 PM
🚨Preprint! Yueyang Wang is bringing his human behaviour modelling out of the VR lab, showing that by constraining deep multi-agent RL with human-like perceptual and motor limitations, a very small real-world dataset is sufficient to outperform a behaviour cloning baseline arxiv.org/abs/2510.27383
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
It is my pleasure to share that in 2028, we will be hosting the 9th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP9). Exciting times ahead, we can’t wait to welcome you!
@markkula.bsky.social, @hfs-its-leeds.bsky.social, @envleeds.bsky.social, @universityofleeds.bsky.social
@markkula.bsky.social, @hfs-its-leeds.bsky.social, @envleeds.bsky.social, @universityofleeds.bsky.social
November 3, 2025 at 10:52 AM
It is my pleasure to share that in 2028, we will be hosting the 9th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP9). Exciting times ahead, we can’t wait to welcome you!
@markkula.bsky.social, @hfs-its-leeds.bsky.social, @envleeds.bsky.social, @universityofleeds.bsky.social
@markkula.bsky.social, @hfs-its-leeds.bsky.social, @envleeds.bsky.social, @universityofleeds.bsky.social
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Sad day for peope who still believe brain areas are the primary organizational units of function in the brain.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour - Nature
The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task i...
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Sad day for peope who still believe brain areas are the primary organizational units of function in the brain.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
New publication 📢 "Testing the Validity of Multiparticipant Distributed Simulation for Understanding and Modeling Road User Interaction" led by Amir Hossein Kalantari together with Yi-Shin Lin, Ali Mohammadi, Natasha Merat OBE, and @markkula.bsky.social.
Access: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/111...
Access: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/111...
August 10, 2025 at 7:11 PM
New publication 📢 "Testing the Validity of Multiparticipant Distributed Simulation for Understanding and Modeling Road User Interaction" led by Amir Hossein Kalantari together with Yi-Shin Lin, Ali Mohammadi, Natasha Merat OBE, and @markkula.bsky.social.
Access: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/111...
Access: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/111...
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
I love this experience-sampling study on the absolute pitch of earworms! It's a really nicely done study conducted in everyday settings. The link to this paper (open access) is provided below. It is also featured in a podcast (tinyurl.com/4ydrw5zp) by the Psychonomic Society. Congrats!
August 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I love this experience-sampling study on the absolute pitch of earworms! It's a really nicely done study conducted in everyday settings. The link to this paper (open access) is provided below. It is also featured in a podcast (tinyurl.com/4ydrw5zp) by the Psychonomic Society. Congrats!
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Oh so it does have phd level intelligence
Google Gemini doesn’t appear to be doing too well:
‘"I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes . . . I am a disgrace to all possible and impossible universes and all that is not a universe," the bot continued.’
‘"I am a disgrace to this planet. I am a disgrace to this universe. I am a disgrace to all universes . . . I am a disgrace to all possible and impossible universes and all that is not a universe," the bot continued.’
Google says it's working on a fix for Gemini's self-loathing 'I am a failure' comments
Google Gemini users said the bot is sharing self-loathing messages while attempting to solve tasks, including "I am a disgrace to this universe."
www.businessinsider.com
August 8, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Oh so it does have phd level intelligence
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
When your city has an open data portal with the location of every tree, you can do this:
Between two trees: Vancouver man maps more than 2,600 places to hang a hammock
He had the idea while hanging in a hammock.
www.vancouverisawesome.com
July 19, 2025 at 3:59 AM
When your city has an open data portal with the location of every tree, you can do this:
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
i wrote about what it feels like to live in the collapse of the american empire
"a flake of shale in a great upheaval of the earth"
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
"a flake of shale in a great upheaval of the earth"
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Writing into the Wreck
I, for one, never asked to live in a collapsing empire. The feeling of what you thought to be solid ground turning to a shower of scree under your feet, the...
buttondown.com
July 2, 2025 at 5:24 PM
i wrote about what it feels like to live in the collapse of the american empire
"a flake of shale in a great upheaval of the earth"
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
"a flake of shale in a great upheaval of the earth"
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook: A Scholars' Guide to Navigating Democratic Backsliding
The Anti-Autocracy Handbook is a call to action, resilience, and collective defence of democracy, truth, and academic freedom in the face of mounting authoritarianism. It tries to provide guidance to ...
sks.to
June 19, 2025 at 9:44 AM
I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12
I’ve never been fully into neither chess nor boxing, but I’ve just learned of the existence of what seems like the perfect sport so now maybe I have to! Invented by Enki Bilal no less
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_b...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_b...
Chess boxing - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
June 6, 2025 at 8:06 AM
I’ve never been fully into neither chess nor boxing, but I’ve just learned of the existence of what seems like the perfect sport so now maybe I have to! Invented by Enki Bilal no less
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_b...
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_b...
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away
“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”
June 5, 2025 at 8:15 PM
must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Willie Brown Middle School is a San Francisco 6-8 in the Bayview District. For the entire ‘24-‘25 school year, I have been driving the 44 O’Shaughnessy bus that stops there right after school gets out. That trip has been the busiest and most challenging part of my working day.
June 3, 2025 at 4:55 AM
Willie Brown Middle School is a San Francisco 6-8 in the Bayview District. For the entire ‘24-‘25 school year, I have been driving the 44 O’Shaughnessy bus that stops there right after school gets out. That trip has been the busiest and most challenging part of my working day.
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Excited to present our study in @natneuro.nature.com: a deep brain pathway that triggers safety-driven movement—overriding needs like finding food or social contacts. A look into how the brain weighs deep instincts. Congrats to all and first author @nkrauth.bsky.social. shorturl.at/toYFN
A hypothalamus–brainstem circuit governs the prioritization of safety over essential needs - Nature Neuroscience
Animals need to adapt behavior to balance survival with fulfillment of essential needs. Krauth et al. identify neurons in the lateral hypothalamus that, when activated, prioritize survival over other ...
shorturl.at
May 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Excited to present our study in @natneuro.nature.com: a deep brain pathway that triggers safety-driven movement—overriding needs like finding food or social contacts. A look into how the brain weighs deep instincts. Congrats to all and first author @nkrauth.bsky.social. shorturl.at/toYFN
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
New Substack post
It's very personal: my story of a 20-year academic career, and the many challenges of theoretical and cross-disciplinary work
As I put it in the subtitle: There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/happy-in-t...
It's very personal: my story of a 20-year academic career, and the many challenges of theoretical and cross-disciplinary work
As I put it in the subtitle: There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/happy-in-t...
Happy In Theory
This is the short story of my long, 20 year search for a stable academic home. There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending.
thomscottphillips.substack.com
May 23, 2025 at 9:28 AM
New Substack post
It's very personal: my story of a 20-year academic career, and the many challenges of theoretical and cross-disciplinary work
As I put it in the subtitle: There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/happy-in-t...
It's very personal: my story of a 20-year academic career, and the many challenges of theoretical and cross-disciplinary work
As I put it in the subtitle: There is a lot of success and a lot of pain here, and no happy ending
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/happy-in-t...
Haha the reverse mullet theory of academic publishing
Business in the front party in the back? More like party in the abstract business in supplementary section 5; please read all 200 pages instead of forming your opinion just based on the abstract we wrote.
May 21, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Haha the reverse mullet theory of academic publishing
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Great post, and can definitely be read as film noir voiceover in places
May 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Great post, and can definitely be read as film noir voiceover in places
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
If you’re not reading Talia Lavin’s wonderful series about sandwiches, you should totally start.
i wrote about a beautiful memoir, cambodian history, the num pang sandwich, rice and bread: buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Notable Sandwiches #126: Num Pang
Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where I, your host, along with my editor David, lay out the multifarious and strange feast that is...
buttondown.com
May 16, 2025 at 9:33 PM
If you’re not reading Talia Lavin’s wonderful series about sandwiches, you should totally start.
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Folks, always share your code. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be helpful. And if you feel that it’s still too messy or not sufficiently clean to be shared, you shouldn’t submit yet. After all, there could be mistakes in your mess.
May 9, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Folks, always share your code. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be helpful. And if you feel that it’s still too messy or not sufficiently clean to be shared, you shouldn’t submit yet. After all, there could be mistakes in your mess.
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
Our @nature.com paper is out! Bringing together 2 major theories of consciousness - Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) - in an unprecedented collaboration. Here’s the story of how we advanced theory testing in neuroscience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
April 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Our @nature.com paper is out! Bringing together 2 major theories of consciousness - Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) - in an unprecedented collaboration. Here’s the story of how we advanced theory testing in neuroscience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📣 PhD opportunity with our lovely group in Leeds!
Models of human behaviour are essential for developing/testing automated vehicles, but how do we know that these human models are *good enough*?
Fully funded, open to all nationalities, apply by May 31!
🚶🚴🚗🤖🧠📈🧪
phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2244...
Models of human behaviour are essential for developing/testing automated vehicles, but how do we know that these human models are *good enough*?
Fully funded, open to all nationalities, apply by May 31!
🚶🚴🚗🤖🧠📈🧪
phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2244...
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
April 30, 2025 at 5:17 PM
📣 PhD opportunity with our lovely group in Leeds!
Models of human behaviour are essential for developing/testing automated vehicles, but how do we know that these human models are *good enough*?
Fully funded, open to all nationalities, apply by May 31!
🚶🚴🚗🤖🧠📈🧪
phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2244...
Models of human behaviour are essential for developing/testing automated vehicles, but how do we know that these human models are *good enough*?
Fully funded, open to all nationalities, apply by May 31!
🚶🚴🚗🤖🧠📈🧪
phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/2244...
Amazing days at Champalimaud Neuroscience @champalimaudr.bsky.social in Lisbon, discussing how animals, humans, and human road users do sensorimotor control. Super smart super friendly people, and my reading list has exploded. 😅Thanks so much for the invite Alfonso Renart and colleagues!
April 30, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Amazing days at Champalimaud Neuroscience @champalimaudr.bsky.social in Lisbon, discussing how animals, humans, and human road users do sensorimotor control. Super smart super friendly people, and my reading list has exploded. 😅Thanks so much for the invite Alfonso Renart and colleagues!
This resonates, good thread overall
But it’s maybe not only about not wanting to think, but also a worry of not being able to think well enough, and mitigating that worry by outsourcing the thinking to something which sounds smarter and more confident than you feel
But it’s maybe not only about not wanting to think, but also a worry of not being able to think well enough, and mitigating that worry by outsourcing the thinking to something which sounds smarter and more confident than you feel
And so here we are. I see so much speculation about possible uses for gen AI in education that are willfully divorced from the reality that the education space is the primary use case for these tools. Right now. No hypothesizing necessary. Many students like not having to think.
April 27, 2025 at 2:19 PM
This resonates, good thread overall
But it’s maybe not only about not wanting to think, but also a worry of not being able to think well enough, and mitigating that worry by outsourcing the thinking to something which sounds smarter and more confident than you feel
But it’s maybe not only about not wanting to think, but also a worry of not being able to think well enough, and mitigating that worry by outsourcing the thinking to something which sounds smarter and more confident than you feel
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
A putative neural correlate of mood!
One big (scandalous?) idea, simple analyses, and the STRONGEST brain/behavior correlation I've EVER seen (which is shocking, given that it's mood).
Work with: You-Ping Yang, @catrinahacker.bsky.social and Veit Stuphorn.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
One big (scandalous?) idea, simple analyses, and the STRONGEST brain/behavior correlation I've EVER seen (which is shocking, given that it's mood).
Work with: You-Ping Yang, @catrinahacker.bsky.social and Veit Stuphorn.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The representation of mood in primate anterior insular cortex
Understanding how the brain reflects and shapes mood requires resolving the disconnect between behavioral measures of mood that can only be made in humans (typically based on subjective reports of hap...
www.biorxiv.org
April 25, 2025 at 1:49 PM
A putative neural correlate of mood!
One big (scandalous?) idea, simple analyses, and the STRONGEST brain/behavior correlation I've EVER seen (which is shocking, given that it's mood).
Work with: You-Ping Yang, @catrinahacker.bsky.social and Veit Stuphorn.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
One big (scandalous?) idea, simple analyses, and the STRONGEST brain/behavior correlation I've EVER seen (which is shocking, given that it's mood).
Work with: You-Ping Yang, @catrinahacker.bsky.social and Veit Stuphorn.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Gustav Markkula
The three stages of responding to referee comments:
Draft 1: letting it rip.
Draft 2: removing all the rip.
Draft 3: adding a dash of courteous language that would not be out of place in the gentile drawing rooms of Bridgerton.
Draft 1: letting it rip.
Draft 2: removing all the rip.
Draft 3: adding a dash of courteous language that would not be out of place in the gentile drawing rooms of Bridgerton.
April 9, 2025 at 1:39 PM
The three stages of responding to referee comments:
Draft 1: letting it rip.
Draft 2: removing all the rip.
Draft 3: adding a dash of courteous language that would not be out of place in the gentile drawing rooms of Bridgerton.
Draft 1: letting it rip.
Draft 2: removing all the rip.
Draft 3: adding a dash of courteous language that would not be out of place in the gentile drawing rooms of Bridgerton.