Marco K Wittmann
@mkwittmann.bsky.social
Associate Professor @ UCL. Experimental Psychologist. Interested in neural computations underlying social cognition.
https://www.wittmann-lab.com
https://www.wittmann-lab.com
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
🚀 Excited to announce that I'm looking for people (PhD/Postdoc) to join my Cognitive Modelling group @uniosnabrueck.bsky.social.
If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here:
tinyurl.com/coxijobs
Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️
If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here:
tinyurl.com/coxijobs
Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️
December 18, 2025 at 2:52 PM
🚀 Excited to announce that I'm looking for people (PhD/Postdoc) to join my Cognitive Modelling group @uniosnabrueck.bsky.social.
If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here:
tinyurl.com/coxijobs
Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️
If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here:
tinyurl.com/coxijobs
Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
New job alert 💫 We’re hiring a 3-year postdoc for the NEPTUNE project to study the causal mechanisms of paranoia and social learning.
Work with us on experimental psychopharmacology (THC), social cognition, and psychosis 🧑🔬
Apply here: lnkd.in/gQqnNvjR](my.corehr.com/pls/kclrecru...)
Please RT :)
Work with us on experimental psychopharmacology (THC), social cognition, and psychosis 🧑🔬
Apply here: lnkd.in/gQqnNvjR](my.corehr.com/pls/kclrecru...)
Please RT :)
December 18, 2025 at 8:27 AM
New job alert 💫 We’re hiring a 3-year postdoc for the NEPTUNE project to study the causal mechanisms of paranoia and social learning.
Work with us on experimental psychopharmacology (THC), social cognition, and psychosis 🧑🔬
Apply here: lnkd.in/gQqnNvjR](my.corehr.com/pls/kclrecru...)
Please RT :)
Work with us on experimental psychopharmacology (THC), social cognition, and psychosis 🧑🔬
Apply here: lnkd.in/gQqnNvjR](my.corehr.com/pls/kclrecru...)
Please RT :)
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
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
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
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
More details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPV831/p...
#cogsci #neuroskyence
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
New preprint from the lab!
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions
Flexible behaviour requires transforming abstract cognitive representations, such as value preferences, into concrete motor actions. During economic decision-making, individuals evaluate options to gu...
www.biorxiv.org
December 14, 2025 at 10:59 AM
New preprint from the lab!
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.
A frontal motor circuit for economic decisions and actions:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We use a novel task in mice, cortex-wide imaging and optogenetics, NPX recording and modelling to reveal a circuit mechanism that transforms abstract decisions to spatial actions.
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Children love animals. How do they turn into meat-eating adults? We investigate how children trade off their moral values with the importance of food for human traditions. The great Alex Carter's first PhD paper now out in SPPS: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #socialpsyc #devpsy #philsky
December 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Children love animals. How do they turn into meat-eating adults? We investigate how children trade off their moral values with the importance of food for human traditions. The great Alex Carter's first PhD paper now out in SPPS: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #socialpsyc #devpsy #philsky
Very cool brain meeting coming up this Friday with Andrew MacAskill presenting exciting work on the rodent hippocampus' role in latent state inference in the service of decision making. Obligatory for people who study reversal learning.
#BrainMeeting 🧠 Alert! 🎺
This Friday, December 5th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Andrew MacAskill giving a talk entitled "A role for ventral hippocampus in hidden state inference"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
This Friday, December 5th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Andrew MacAskill giving a talk entitled "A role for ventral hippocampus in hidden state inference"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
December 1, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Very cool brain meeting coming up this Friday with Andrew MacAskill presenting exciting work on the rodent hippocampus' role in latent state inference in the service of decision making. Obligatory for people who study reversal learning.
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
👇 Few days left to apply to get to work with us ! Get in touch if you have any questions
🚀 We're hiring !
🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.
🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e
🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌
🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.
🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e
🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌
Postdoctoral Researcher (2288) - Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck
cis7.bbk.ac.uk
December 1, 2025 at 9:39 AM
👇 Few days left to apply to get to work with us ! Get in touch if you have any questions
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Really excited to see this preprint out! Fernanda did an amazing job at demonstrating how you can accurately predict retinotopy from T1w scans alone. This is important for several reasons: 1/4
Investigating individual-specific topographic organization has traditionally been a resource-intensive and time-consuming process. But what if we could map visual cortex organization in thousands of brains? Here we offer the community with a toolbox that can do just that! tinyurl.com/deepretinotopy
December 1, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Really excited to see this preprint out! Fernanda did an amazing job at demonstrating how you can accurately predict retinotopy from T1w scans alone. This is important for several reasons: 1/4
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
New study out today in Nature Comms: www.nature.com/articles/s41..., in which we set out to test whether ultrasound could influence the reward-related learning computations of the nucleus accumbens, building on decades of work on dopaminergic prediction error and reinforcement learning. And it did.
Non-invasive ultrasonic neuromodulation of the human nucleus accumbens impacts reward sensitivity - Nature Communications
This study shows that non-invasive ultrasound to the human nucleus accumbens can modulate deep brain activity and enhance reward-guided learning, offering a potential alternative to invasive neuromodu...
www.nature.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:26 PM
New study out today in Nature Comms: www.nature.com/articles/s41..., in which we set out to test whether ultrasound could influence the reward-related learning computations of the nucleus accumbens, building on decades of work on dopaminergic prediction error and reinforcement learning. And it did.
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Very proud to be part of this team! 🤓Our new preprint is out, where we examine how social basis functions develop during adolescence. 🥳🥳
🥳!!NEW PREPRINT!!🥳
We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
November 27, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Very proud to be part of this team! 🤓Our new preprint is out, where we examine how social basis functions develop during adolescence. 🥳🥳
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
This study shows that human pairs adopt stable cooperative, competitive, or mixed strategies. A computational model predicts dyadic choices and links these strategies to interaction dynamics, payoffs, and cost of cooperation.
@violapriesemann.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@violapriesemann.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Continuous dynamics of cooperation and competition in social decision-making - Communications Psychology
Using a continuous social foraging game, this study shows that human pairs adopt stable cooperative, competitive, or mixed strategies. A computational model predicts dyadic choices and links these str...
www.nature.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:48 AM
This study shows that human pairs adopt stable cooperative, competitive, or mixed strategies. A computational model predicts dyadic choices and links these strategies to interaction dynamics, payoffs, and cost of cooperation.
@violapriesemann.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
@violapriesemann.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Did cooperation evolve because of conflict? Or is conflict an (avoidable) ‘by-product’ of evolved capacities to cooperate. I think the latter—>
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Did cooperation evolve because of conflict? Or is conflict an (avoidable) ‘by-product’ of evolved capacities to cooperate. I think the latter—>
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Check out this preprint by @simyciri.bsky.social on the role of basis functions in social decision-making across development 🚀!
🥳!!NEW PREPRINT!!🥳
We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
November 26, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Check out this preprint by @simyciri.bsky.social on the role of basis functions in social decision-making across development 🚀!
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)
November 24, 2025 at 12:22 PM
** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)
New work with @simyciri.bsky.social. Adults make more accurate decisions than adolescents—yet show more intrusion from irrelevant players. We explain this paradox via efficient information compression: adults rely on combinatorial social basis functions that use group structure as a mental scaffold.
🥳!!NEW PREPRINT!!🥳
We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
November 21, 2025 at 4:57 PM
New work with @simyciri.bsky.social. Adults make more accurate decisions than adolescents—yet show more intrusion from irrelevant players. We explain this paradox via efficient information compression: adults rely on combinatorial social basis functions that use group structure as a mental scaffold.
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Come work with us!
There are 3 Oxford-based post doc positions for this Wellcome Trust project that will be advertised soon!
If you have experinece in neurostimulation (tms/tus) and/or modelling of cogneuro data in humans do contact one of us (me, @mkflugge.bsky.social @lilweb.bsky.social, Jacinta OShea) to discuss!
If you have experinece in neurostimulation (tms/tus) and/or modelling of cogneuro data in humans do contact one of us (me, @mkflugge.bsky.social @lilweb.bsky.social, Jacinta OShea) to discuss!
Repetitive negative thoughts will be investigated using a range of cutting-edge brain science techniques as part of a new study led by the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and funded by Wellcome @wellcometrust.bsky.social 👇
tinyurl.com/364es88k
tinyurl.com/364es88k
November 21, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Come work with us!
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
I'm recruiting PhD students for my lab at Northwestern! I'm reviewing applications for the Department of Psychology for the Cognitive Affective Neuroscience and Clinical areas, due 12/1. 🧠
Come join the CATS Lab: nucatslab.com
Learn about our latest research: iamh.northwestern.edu/research/res...
Come join the CATS Lab: nucatslab.com
Learn about our latest research: iamh.northwestern.edu/research/res...
CATS Lab
Child & Adolescent Translational Science Lab at Northwestern University
nucatslab.com
October 29, 2025 at 6:39 PM
I'm recruiting PhD students for my lab at Northwestern! I'm reviewing applications for the Department of Psychology for the Cognitive Affective Neuroscience and Clinical areas, due 12/1. 🧠
Come join the CATS Lab: nucatslab.com
Learn about our latest research: iamh.northwestern.edu/research/res...
Come join the CATS Lab: nucatslab.com
Learn about our latest research: iamh.northwestern.edu/research/res...
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
1/ Excited to share that our symposium review covering cognitive mapping in the PFC just came out in the Journal of Neuroscience: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Cognitive Maps in the Prefrontal Cortex
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is critical for our ability to rapidly and flexibly adapt our behavior in new environments based on our previous experience. Despite its importance, the neural substrates a...
www.jneurosci.org
November 15, 2025 at 6:03 PM
1/ Excited to share that our symposium review covering cognitive mapping in the PFC just came out in the Journal of Neuroscience: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Super pleased with this one, led by the amazing PhD student and foraging expert @emmavscholey.bsky.social!
🧪Preprint!
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
How foragers depart from optimal models can tell us a lot about how they compute their decisions.
A strong but underexplored departure is that foragers widely vary when they leave identical patches.
A 🧵
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
With
@emmavscholey.bsky.social @brainapps.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Super pleased with this one, led by the amazing PhD student and foraging expert @emmavscholey.bsky.social!
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
In our new paper (open access in PSPB), we asked where children’s greater moral concern for animals stems from. We find that children place less moral weight on species membership alone (i.e. are less speciesist) than adults. #socialpsyc #devpsy #philsky journals.sagepub.com/eprint/ZMRUM...
November 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM
In our new paper (open access in PSPB), we asked where children’s greater moral concern for animals stems from. We find that children place less moral weight on species membership alone (i.e. are less speciesist) than adults. #socialpsyc #devpsy #philsky journals.sagepub.com/eprint/ZMRUM...
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
🚀 We're hiring !
🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.
🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e
🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌
🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.
🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e
🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌
Postdoctoral Researcher (2288) - Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck
cis7.bbk.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 10:56 AM
🚀 We're hiring !
🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.
🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e
🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌
🕵️ Seeking a postdoc to study the development & individual-level organization of brain circuits supporting (in)flexible behavior in psychiatric populations.
🧠 Precision functional mapping, fMRI, normative modelling
Details 👉 tinyurl.com/3h8tcv2e
🗓️ Apply by Dec 10! Please RT 🙌
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Do you like RSA analysis, M/EEG and Bayes? Then you'll love Variational RSA for M/EEG, by recently completed PhD student @alexlepauvre.bsky.social from Lucia Melloni's group. It's a method and SPM toolbox for multivariate analysis of M/EEG data. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.01784 . 🧵 [1/4]
November 6, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Do you like RSA analysis, M/EEG and Bayes? Then you'll love Variational RSA for M/EEG, by recently completed PhD student @alexlepauvre.bsky.social from Lucia Melloni's group. It's a method and SPM toolbox for multivariate analysis of M/EEG data. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.01784 . 🧵 [1/4]
Reposted by Marco K Wittmann
Please repost! I am looking for a PhD candidate in the area of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience to start in early 2026.
The position is funded as part of the Excellence Cluster "The Adaptive Mind" at @jlugiessen.bsky.social.
Please apply here until Nov 25:
www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
The position is funded as part of the Excellence Cluster "The Adaptive Mind" at @jlugiessen.bsky.social.
Please apply here until Nov 25:
www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
November 4, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Please repost! I am looking for a PhD candidate in the area of Computational Cognitive Neuroscience to start in early 2026.
The position is funded as part of the Excellence Cluster "The Adaptive Mind" at @jlugiessen.bsky.social.
Please apply here until Nov 25:
www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
The position is funded as part of the Excellence Cluster "The Adaptive Mind" at @jlugiessen.bsky.social.
Please apply here until Nov 25:
www.uni-giessen.de/de/ueber-uns...
(1/3) Focused ultrasound stimulation is a versatile neuroscience tool. Depending on parameter settings it can safely and reversibly alter brain function, or it can lead to lasting tissue damage. That’s why we have safety guidelines (see ITRUSST: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... ).
November 4, 2025 at 2:17 PM
(1/3) Focused ultrasound stimulation is a versatile neuroscience tool. Depending on parameter settings it can safely and reversibly alter brain function, or it can lead to lasting tissue damage. That’s why we have safety guidelines (see ITRUSST: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... ).