Micah G. Allen
@micahgallen.com
Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Aarhus University. PI @ the Embodied Computation Group. We study perception, interoception, & metacogniton.
https://www.the-ecg.org
https://www.the-ecg.org
Pinned
Micah G. Allen
@micahgallen.com
· Jul 30
Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health - Nature Mental Health
Using a relatively large and diverse sample of mostly young adults, this study by Banellis, Rebollo and colleagues examines associations between regional stomach–brain coupling and mental health and i...
www.nature.com
I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!
Paper submitted! A very special piece led by @fiorelladpc.bsky.social in which we finally write down what we really think is going on with interoception and emotion. Stay tuned!
February 9, 2026 at 9:55 PM
Paper submitted! A very special piece led by @fiorelladpc.bsky.social in which we finally write down what we really think is going on with interoception and emotion. Stay tuned!
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
🧠🫀 Glad to see my proposal on adolescents’ #interoception recognised with a #SealofExcellence
This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without my supervisory team @micahgallen.com Gioia Bottesi @skhalsa.bsky.social Let’s try again next year! 💪 link.europa.eu/tPVTWM
This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without my supervisory team @micahgallen.com Gioia Bottesi @skhalsa.bsky.social Let’s try again next year! 💪 link.europa.eu/tPVTWM
MSCA awards €404.3 million to postdoctoral researchers
1610 outstanding postdoctoral researchers were selected for funding among 17,066 applicants.
link.europa.eu
February 9, 2026 at 5:37 PM
🧠🫀 Glad to see my proposal on adolescents’ #interoception recognised with a #SealofExcellence
This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without my supervisory team @micahgallen.com Gioia Bottesi @skhalsa.bsky.social Let’s try again next year! 💪 link.europa.eu/tPVTWM
This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without my supervisory team @micahgallen.com Gioia Bottesi @skhalsa.bsky.social Let’s try again next year! 💪 link.europa.eu/tPVTWM
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
The ggseg ecosystem finally has a proper home! 🧠
For those who don't know, ggseg is an R package ecosystem for visualizing brain atlas data. Think ggplot2, but for brains.
#rstats #neuroimaging #openscience
For those who don't know, ggseg is an R package ecosystem for visualizing brain atlas data. Think ggplot2, but for brains.
#rstats #neuroimaging #openscience
February 9, 2026 at 11:01 AM
The ggseg ecosystem finally has a proper home! 🧠
For those who don't know, ggseg is an R package ecosystem for visualizing brain atlas data. Think ggplot2, but for brains.
#rstats #neuroimaging #openscience
For those who don't know, ggseg is an R package ecosystem for visualizing brain atlas data. Think ggplot2, but for brains.
#rstats #neuroimaging #openscience
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
Our latest paper, “Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests”, is now out in Nature Machine Intelligence: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests - Nature Machine Intelligence
Tangtartharakul and Storrs use standardized neuropsychological tests to compare human visual abilities with those of visual language models (VLMs). They report that while VLMs excel in high-level obje...
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:40 AM
Our latest paper, “Visual language models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological tests”, is now out in Nature Machine Intelligence: www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Non-paywalled version:
arxiv.org/abs/2504.10786
Tweet thread below from first author @genetang.bsky.social...
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
PaperBanana
AI researchers often spend way too much time crafting diagrams and plots instead of focusing on the ideas. To rescue them from this burden, they built an Agentic Framework to auto-generate NeurIPS-quality paper illustrations!
AI researchers often spend way too much time crafting diagrams and plots instead of focusing on the ideas. To rescue them from this burden, they built an Agentic Framework to auto-generate NeurIPS-quality paper illustrations!
February 4, 2026 at 1:25 PM
PaperBanana
AI researchers often spend way too much time crafting diagrams and plots instead of focusing on the ideas. To rescue them from this burden, they built an Agentic Framework to auto-generate NeurIPS-quality paper illustrations!
AI researchers often spend way too much time crafting diagrams and plots instead of focusing on the ideas. To rescue them from this burden, they built an Agentic Framework to auto-generate NeurIPS-quality paper illustrations!
Can the guy from the Outdoor Boys please adopt me?
February 4, 2026 at 2:25 PM
Can the guy from the Outdoor Boys please adopt me?
No feeling quite in the world like when a trainee/mentee suprises you by surpassing all expectations. Makes it all feel worth it to help someone grow like that.
February 4, 2026 at 2:24 PM
No feeling quite in the world like when a trainee/mentee suprises you by surpassing all expectations. Makes it all feel worth it to help someone grow like that.
What is going on lately with Frontiers special issues, have turned down like 5 requests in the past two months. I do not publish or otherwise work with Frontiers, a policy I have had for over a decade and will not be soon changing!
February 3, 2026 at 7:48 AM
What is going on lately with Frontiers special issues, have turned down like 5 requests in the past two months. I do not publish or otherwise work with Frontiers, a policy I have had for over a decade and will not be soon changing!
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
The Health Psychology Group @univie.ac.at is hiring! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our team from 1 May 2026. Full-time position for 3 years and 8 months. Applications close 10 February 2026.
More information: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
#HealthPsych #BehSci #SciComm
More information: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
#HealthPsych #BehSci #SciComm
January 27, 2026 at 7:29 AM
The Health Psychology Group @univie.ac.at is hiring! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our team from 1 May 2026. Full-time position for 3 years and 8 months. Applications close 10 February 2026.
More information: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
#HealthPsych #BehSci #SciComm
More information: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
#HealthPsych #BehSci #SciComm
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
Kinda feels like Nature has learned about engagement baiting...
A pretty bold comment in Nature written by linguists, computer scientists and philosophers declaring that AGI has been achieved.
"By reasonable standards, including Turing’s own, we have artificial systems that are generally intelligent. The long-standing problem of creating AGI has been solved."
"By reasonable standards, including Turing’s own, we have artificial systems that are generally intelligent. The long-standing problem of creating AGI has been solved."
February 3, 2026 at 6:14 AM
Kinda feels like Nature has learned about engagement baiting...
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
Our latest preprint. More evidence that diabetic neuropathy is a neuro degenerative disease. Very proud of @ish1789.bsky.social and our whole PRECISION group who made this work possible. #HEALinitiative funded
Progressive neurodegeneration in human dorsal root ganglion from diabetes to painful neuropathy https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.16.700028v1
January 21, 2026 at 2:34 AM
Our latest preprint. More evidence that diabetic neuropathy is a neuro degenerative disease. Very proud of @ish1789.bsky.social and our whole PRECISION group who made this work possible. #HEALinitiative funded
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
A useful thing about MoltBook is that it provides a visceral sense of how weird a "take-off" scenario might look if one happened for real
MoltBook itself is more of an artifact of AI shared roleplaying (not new), but it gives people a vision of the world where things get very strange, very fast.
MoltBook itself is more of an artifact of AI shared roleplaying (not new), but it gives people a vision of the world where things get very strange, very fast.
January 31, 2026 at 6:34 AM
A useful thing about MoltBook is that it provides a visceral sense of how weird a "take-off" scenario might look if one happened for real
MoltBook itself is more of an artifact of AI shared roleplaying (not new), but it gives people a vision of the world where things get very strange, very fast.
MoltBook itself is more of an artifact of AI shared roleplaying (not new), but it gives people a vision of the world where things get very strange, very fast.
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
However, I do agree that press titles stating that “40% of fMRI-cases were false” are wrong; yet, this is not our “headline result”. BOLD-fMRI remains the best method we have for studying the human brain. But we do question the uniform assumption of a generic response function across the cortex.
January 7, 2026 at 2:05 PM
However, I do agree that press titles stating that “40% of fMRI-cases were false” are wrong; yet, this is not our “headline result”. BOLD-fMRI remains the best method we have for studying the human brain. But we do question the uniform assumption of a generic response function across the cortex.
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
Hey Alex, here’s a short response as co-author of the original paper. Your simulation is statistically interesting, but ignores several physiological prerequisites that render it biologically implausible and therefore not related to our measured data.
January 7, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Hey Alex, here’s a short response as co-author of the original paper. Your simulation is statistically interesting, but ignores several physiological prerequisites that render it biologically implausible and therefore not related to our measured data.
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
Important to add that the claims made by the authors are not the same as those made by those sharing the paper (BOLD is dead!) which is important. And further, there are many important measures of brain and body activity for which assumed "noise" is instead consequential activity.
January 5, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Important to add that the claims made by the authors are not the same as those made by those sharing the paper (BOLD is dead!) which is important. And further, there are many important measures of brain and body activity for which assumed "noise" is instead consequential activity.
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
But (shocker) with realistic amounts of noise you recover something that looks exactly like their plot. It even has roughly the same level of discordance, about 40% in total!
January 5, 2026 at 5:22 PM
But (shocker) with realistic amounts of noise you recover something that looks exactly like their plot. It even has roughly the same level of discordance, about 40% in total!
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
Would love to hear expert views on this paper. It appears to show that the operationalization of brain activity the field has relied on for 3 decades—the BOLD response—is not actually a sensible measure of brain activity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
BOLD signal changes can oppose oxygen metabolism across the human cortex - Nature Neuroscience
Using quantitative brain imaging, the authors show opposite fMRI BOLD signal to metabolic activity due to variable oxygen extraction across the human cortex. This questions the canonical interpretatio...
www.nature.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:22 PM
This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
it's crazy how all the guys emailing epstein were also publishing psych papers with fake data
Here’s Duke behavioral economist Dan Ariely asking Jeffrey Epstein for “the name and email of the redhead that was here with you.” This is four years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.
Doo do doo
January 31, 2026 at 3:02 AM
it's crazy how all the guys emailing epstein were also publishing psych papers with fake data
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
Here’s Duke behavioral economist Dan Ariely asking Jeffrey Epstein for “the name and email of the redhead that was here with you.” This is four years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.
January 31, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Here’s Duke behavioral economist Dan Ariely asking Jeffrey Epstein for “the name and email of the redhead that was here with you.” This is four years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution.
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
"moot is in the epstein files" is the completely true sentence that has finally convinced me this is all an extremely stupid simulation and that we're all being used to power a robot overlord's game gear or something
January 31, 2026 at 3:22 AM
"moot is in the epstein files" is the completely true sentence that has finally convinced me this is all an extremely stupid simulation and that we're all being used to power a robot overlord's game gear or something
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
I hate that this is all just easy to piece together from this guy's poorly-spelled emails
January 31, 2026 at 4:55 AM
I hate that this is all just easy to piece together from this guy's poorly-spelled emails
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
omg bill gates slipped his wife antibiotics after he got an std from a russian hooker also is his foundation offering a fellowship
January 31, 2026 at 5:35 AM
omg bill gates slipped his wife antibiotics after he got an std from a russian hooker also is his foundation offering a fellowship
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
Reposted by Micah G. Allen
New paper just out: performing a motor action enhances associative learning, even in the absence of choice:
doi.org/10.1016/j.nl...
doi.org/10.1016/j.nl...
Redirecting
doi.org
January 30, 2026 at 10:54 AM
New paper just out: performing a motor action enhances associative learning, even in the absence of choice:
doi.org/10.1016/j.nl...
doi.org/10.1016/j.nl...