Oscar Woolnough
@owoolnough.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @ UTHealth Neurosurgery || Human intracranial studies of literacy, learning, and language 🏳️🌈🇬🇧
owoolnough.github.io
owoolnough.github.io
Pinned
Oscar Woolnough
@owoolnough.bsky.social
· Feb 24
Memorability of novel words correlates with anterior fusiform activity during reading - Nature Communications
To learn new written words, we need to be able to remember their associated letters. Here, the authors show the factors that predict how memorable or forgettable new words are and show a region of hum...
doi.org
Out now in Nature Comms. To learn a new word, we need to remember it. We track factors driving memory of novel words, showing which words we remember or forget is predictable across people, and isolate a distinct region of fusiform cortex sensitive to this memorability.
🧠📈 #VisionScience 🧠💬
🧵👇
🧠📈 #VisionScience 🧠💬
🧵👇
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
Brain-wide single-neuron bases of working memory for sounds in humans
In order to understand the constantly changing acoustic world our brains must maintain elements of auditory scenes in memory. The neural mechanisms for this fundamental process remain unclear. Here, w...
doi.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language.
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
November 3, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language.
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Big news coming out of Rice University. The Rice Brain Institute has launched to foster new collaborative research on our campus! A new era of research in brain health that links Biosciences, Engineering, Social Science, with Government Policy.
bit.ly/4oAE6C0
bit.ly/4oAE6C0
bit.ly
October 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Big news coming out of Rice University. The Rice Brain Institute has launched to foster new collaborative research on our campus! A new era of research in brain health that links Biosciences, Engineering, Social Science, with Government Policy.
bit.ly/4oAE6C0
bit.ly/4oAE6C0
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is publishing a special issue on “The Vision-Language Interface.” Send in your research about reading, perceptual learning, sign language, dyslexia, etc! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
October 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is publishing a special issue on “The Vision-Language Interface.” Send in your research about reading, perceptual learning, sign language, dyslexia, etc! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
A new paper from the lab, using 7T fMRI and MEG to shed light on how we read, specifically how the visual system encodes strings of letters and moves from retinotopic to ordinal neural codes.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
October 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
A new paper from the lab, using 7T fMRI and MEG to shed light on how we read, specifically how the visual system encodes strings of letters and moves from retinotopic to ordinal neural codes.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
CogNeuroLanguage: new by @lauragwilliams.bsky.social & @jeanremiking.bsky.social (w Alec Marantz & me) shows how the brain maintains-updates continuously unfolding lang hierarchy during comprehension, anchoring ling theories to biological implementation
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #neuroskyence
Hierarchical dynamic coding coordinates speech comprehension in the human brain | PNAS
Speech comprehension involves transforming an acoustic waveform into meaning. To do
so, the human brain generates a hierarchy of features that conv...
www.pnas.org
October 18, 2025 at 1:36 PM
CogNeuroLanguage: new by @lauragwilliams.bsky.social & @jeanremiking.bsky.social (w Alec Marantz & me) shows how the brain maintains-updates continuously unfolding lang hierarchy during comprehension, anchoring ling theories to biological implementation
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #neuroskyence
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
When I first heard about this I was sure I had miss heard...
Insane field research in neuroscience:
Insane field research in neuroscience:
The work with bats on barren, 7-acre Latham Island was Nachum Ulanovsky’s most complex undertaking yet.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
October 16, 2025 at 9:04 PM
When I first heard about this I was sure I had miss heard...
Insane field research in neuroscience:
Insane field research in neuroscience:
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Want to make publication-ready figures come straight from Python without having to do any manual editing? Are you fed up with axes labels being unreadable during your presentations? Follow this short tutorial including code examples! 👇🧵
October 16, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Want to make publication-ready figures come straight from Python without having to do any manual editing? Are you fed up with axes labels being unreadable during your presentations? Follow this short tutorial including code examples! 👇🧵
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Memory might depend on when you look, not just what you see
Happy to share a new preprint from my postdoctoral work with Jed Meltzer, @drjenryan.bsky.social, and @rosannaolsen.bsky.social
Paper: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Happy to share a new preprint from my postdoctoral work with Jed Meltzer, @drjenryan.bsky.social, and @rosannaolsen.bsky.social
Paper: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Phase-locking saccades to posterior alpha oscillations improves the neural representation of visual objects during memory formation
Visual memory formation begins with the intake and neural processing of discrete samples provided by gaze fixations and saccades. Past research has highlighted a functional relationship between the ti...
doi.org
October 14, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Memory might depend on when you look, not just what you see
Happy to share a new preprint from my postdoctoral work with Jed Meltzer, @drjenryan.bsky.social, and @rosannaolsen.bsky.social
Paper: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Happy to share a new preprint from my postdoctoral work with Jed Meltzer, @drjenryan.bsky.social, and @rosannaolsen.bsky.social
Paper: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
New paper on BioRXiv:
Astrocytes and neurons encode natural stimuli with partially shared but distinct composite receptive fields
Sihao Lu, Simon Schultz, Andriy Kozlov
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Astrocytes and neurons encode natural stimuli with partially shared but distinct composite receptive fields
Sihao Lu, Simon Schultz, Andriy Kozlov
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Astrocytes and neurons encode natural stimuli with partially shared but distinct composite receptive fields
Astrocytes are increasingly recognized as active participants in sensory processing, but whether they show selective responses to stimulus features, analogous to neuronal receptive fields, is not yet ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 1:39 PM
New paper on BioRXiv:
Astrocytes and neurons encode natural stimuli with partially shared but distinct composite receptive fields
Sihao Lu, Simon Schultz, Andriy Kozlov
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Astrocytes and neurons encode natural stimuli with partially shared but distinct composite receptive fields
Sihao Lu, Simon Schultz, Andriy Kozlov
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
🧩Learning to talk & read isn’t just about effort or teaching—it’s shaped by biology, experience & context
🧠Our new review links genetics, neuroscience, psychology & education to show why some children find language or reading easier.
📖 doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🖼️genes→brain→cognition→behaviour 🧵👇
🧠Our new review links genetics, neuroscience, psychology & education to show why some children find language or reading easier.
📖 doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🖼️genes→brain→cognition→behaviour 🧵👇
October 6, 2025 at 10:03 AM
🧩Learning to talk & read isn’t just about effort or teaching—it’s shaped by biology, experience & context
🧠Our new review links genetics, neuroscience, psychology & education to show why some children find language or reading easier.
📖 doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🖼️genes→brain→cognition→behaviour 🧵👇
🧠Our new review links genetics, neuroscience, psychology & education to show why some children find language or reading easier.
📖 doi.org/10.31234/osf...
🖼️genes→brain→cognition→behaviour 🧵👇
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
New Paper in Nature Communications!
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Transfer learning via distributed brain recordings enables reliable speech decoding - Nature Communications
Speech brain-computer interfaces face challenges scaling across individuals with different brain organization. Using minimally invasive recordings from 25 patients, the authors developed transfer learning methods that enable robust speech decoding even with incomplete brain coverage.
www.nature.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:02 PM
New Paper in Nature Communications!
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present exciting work on applying transfer learning on minimally invasive recordings to build scalable speech BCI for a more heterogeneous population. #iEEG #neuroskyence
Check it out : www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
🚨 New paper in Nature Methods:
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus
Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)
Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social
docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus
Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)
Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social
docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
October 2, 2025 at 11:50 AM
🚨 New paper in Nature Methods:
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus
Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)
Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social
docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus
Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)
Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social
docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
New paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering by @timonmerk.bsky.social !
We built a platform that unites AI-based brain signal decoding with connectomics across 123 hours of recordings from 73 patients. A step toward adaptive, network-level neurotechnology.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We built a platform that unites AI-based brain signal decoding with connectomics across 123 hours of recordings from 73 patients. A step toward adaptive, network-level neurotechnology.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Invasive neurophysiology and whole brain connectomics for neural decoding in patients with brain implants - Nature Biomedical Engineering
A modularized open-source pipeline for invasive brain signal decoding bridges the gap between closed-loop neuromodulation and clinical brain–computer interface approaches in a large patient cohort.
www.nature.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:01 PM
New paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering by @timonmerk.bsky.social !
We built a platform that unites AI-based brain signal decoding with connectomics across 123 hours of recordings from 73 patients. A step toward adaptive, network-level neurotechnology.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We built a platform that unites AI-based brain signal decoding with connectomics across 123 hours of recordings from 73 patients. A step toward adaptive, network-level neurotechnology.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
New preprint out together with @mheilbron.bsky.social
We find that a stimulus' representational magnitude—the L2 norm of its DNN representation—predicts intrinsic memorability not just for images, but for words too.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We find that a stimulus' representational magnitude—the L2 norm of its DNN representation—predicts intrinsic memorability not just for images, but for words too.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Representational magnitude as a geometric signature of image and word memorability
What makes some stimuli more memorable than others? While memory varies across individuals, research shows that some items are intrinsically more memorable, a property quantifiable as “memorability”. ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 18, 2025 at 9:53 AM
New preprint out together with @mheilbron.bsky.social
We find that a stimulus' representational magnitude—the L2 norm of its DNN representation—predicts intrinsic memorability not just for images, but for words too.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We find that a stimulus' representational magnitude—the L2 norm of its DNN representation—predicts intrinsic memorability not just for images, but for words too.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Conversation Mapping in Action!
scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org/new-method-s...
#HGM #Epilepsy #Neurosurgery #iEEG #Neurophysiology
scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org/new-method-s...
#HGM #Epilepsy #Neurosurgery #iEEG #Neurophysiology
New Method Simplifies Brain Evaluations for Planning Epilepsy Surgery - Research Horizons
scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org
September 4, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Conversation Mapping in Action!
scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org/new-method-s...
#HGM #Epilepsy #Neurosurgery #iEEG #Neurophysiology
scienceblog.cincinnatichildrens.org/new-method-s...
#HGM #Epilepsy #Neurosurgery #iEEG #Neurophysiology
As it's hiring season again I'm resharing the NeuroJobs feed. Add #NeuroJobs to your post if you're recruiting or looking for an RA, PhD, Postdoc, or faculty position in Neuro or an adjacent field.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
bsky.app/profile/did:...
September 3, 2025 at 3:25 PM
As it's hiring season again I'm resharing the NeuroJobs feed. Add #NeuroJobs to your post if you're recruiting or looking for an RA, PhD, Postdoc, or faculty position in Neuro or an adjacent field.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
bsky.app/profile/did:...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Our target discussion article out in Cognitive Neuroscience! It will be followed by peer commentary and our responses. If you would like to write a commentary, please reach out to the journal! 1/18 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @cibaker.bsky.social @susanwardle.bsky.social
August 29, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Our target discussion article out in Cognitive Neuroscience! It will be followed by peer commentary and our responses. If you would like to write a commentary, please reach out to the journal! 1/18 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @cibaker.bsky.social @susanwardle.bsky.social
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
The SNL 2025 Access Award will waive registration fees for up to 20 students, trainees, and faculty who face barriers to attending the Society for Neurobiology of Language conference.
Apply by Aug 27; winners named Aug 28.
Pls share!
🔗 tinyurl.com/SNLAcessAward
#SNL2025 #NeurobiologyofLanguage
Apply by Aug 27; winners named Aug 28.
Pls share!
🔗 tinyurl.com/SNLAcessAward
#SNL2025 #NeurobiologyofLanguage
tinyurl.com
August 18, 2025 at 4:17 PM
The SNL 2025 Access Award will waive registration fees for up to 20 students, trainees, and faculty who face barriers to attending the Society for Neurobiology of Language conference.
Apply by Aug 27; winners named Aug 28.
Pls share!
🔗 tinyurl.com/SNLAcessAward
#SNL2025 #NeurobiologyofLanguage
Apply by Aug 27; winners named Aug 28.
Pls share!
🔗 tinyurl.com/SNLAcessAward
#SNL2025 #NeurobiologyofLanguage
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
next preprint is out - ever wonder why findings about VWFA differ so much? @jyeatman.bsky.social @mayayablonski.bsky.social , Mia Fuentes-Jimenez, Hannah Stone, and I might have the answer...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Visual Word Form Area demonstrates individual and task-agnostic consistency but inter-individual variability
Ventral Occipital Temporal Cortex (VOTC) is home to a mosaic of categorically-selective functional regions that respond to visual stimuli. Within left VOTC lies the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) - a te...
www.biorxiv.org
July 30, 2025 at 5:05 AM
next preprint is out - ever wonder why findings about VWFA differ so much? @jyeatman.bsky.social @mayayablonski.bsky.social , Mia Fuentes-Jimenez, Hannah Stone, and I might have the answer...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Read all about the neural network for sign language comprehension! New review paper with Brennan Terhune-Cotter! Please email me (or Brennan) for a copy if you can't access the paper compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 31, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Read all about the neural network for sign language comprehension! New review paper with Brennan Terhune-Cotter! Please email me (or Brennan) for a copy if you can't access the paper compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
For everyone out there working at the intersection of vision and language. We are currently accepting submissions for a Journal of Vision Special Issue on the vision-language interface
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...
#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...
#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
July 8, 2025 at 5:50 PM
For everyone out there working at the intersection of vision and language. We are currently accepting submissions for a Journal of Vision Special Issue on the vision-language interface
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...
#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...
#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Reposted by Oscar Woolnough
Check out Zaid's open "Podcast" ECoG dataset for natural language comprehension (w/ Hasson Lab). The paper is now out at Scientific Data (nature.com/articles/s41...) and the data are available on OpenNeuro (openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...).
July 7, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Check out Zaid's open "Podcast" ECoG dataset for natural language comprehension (w/ Hasson Lab). The paper is now out at Scientific Data (nature.com/articles/s41...) and the data are available on OpenNeuro (openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...).