Simon Kern
@skjerns.de
Sleep & Memory researcher @ CIMH Mannheim with @gordonfeld.bsky.social . Interested in replay and applied machine learning in the context of episodic and declarative memory.
MEG and Python enthusiast.
MEG and Python enthusiast.
Reposted by Simon Kern
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 Simon Kern
🚨Preprint: Semantic Tuning of Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Semantic Tuning of Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
The Medial Temporal Lobe (MTL) is key to human cognition, supporting memory, emotional processing, navigation, and semantic coding. Rare direct human MTL recordings revealed concept cells, which were ...
doi.org
October 27, 2025 at 3:32 PM
🚨Preprint: Semantic Tuning of Single Neurons in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
1/8: How do human neurons encode meaning?
In this work, led by Katharina Karkowski, we recorded hundreds of human MTL neurons to study semantic coding in the human brain:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Last week I was being trained as a #MNE-Python TrainEErs at #PracticalMEEG2025 - it was a lot of fun to look behind the scenes and learn how to run a good workshop :) thanks to @cuttingeeg.bsky.social for hosting and Marijn van Vliet and @nschawor.bsky.social for organizing this amazing workshop!
November 2, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Last week I was being trained as a #MNE-Python TrainEErs at #PracticalMEEG2025 - it was a lot of fun to look behind the scenes and learn how to run a good workshop :) thanks to @cuttingeeg.bsky.social for hosting and Marijn van Vliet and @nschawor.bsky.social for organizing this amazing workshop!
Reposted by Simon Kern
this week at #PracticalMEEG2025 in Aix!
having run an MEG pipeline by trial and error, I was doubting myself between all parameters. lectures on the analysis steps + hands-on application together were very helpful!
& seeing women on stage sharing what they're excited about just hits different ⭐️
having run an MEG pipeline by trial and error, I was doubting myself between all parameters. lectures on the analysis steps + hands-on application together were very helpful!
& seeing women on stage sharing what they're excited about just hits different ⭐️
October 30, 2025 at 3:50 PM
this week at #PracticalMEEG2025 in Aix!
having run an MEG pipeline by trial and error, I was doubting myself between all parameters. lectures on the analysis steps + hands-on application together were very helpful!
& seeing women on stage sharing what they're excited about just hits different ⭐️
having run an MEG pipeline by trial and error, I was doubting myself between all parameters. lectures on the analysis steps + hands-on application together were very helpful!
& seeing women on stage sharing what they're excited about just hits different ⭐️
Remember: finding oscillatory PCA components might not necessarily mean that there is oscillatory activity in your data
To be clear, have not been able to read the original study because the link does not work. HEre is a fun paper on fourier. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Phantom oscillations in principal component analysis | PNAS
Principal component analysis (PCA) is a dimensionality reduction method that is known
for being simple and easy to interpret. Principal components ...
www.pnas.org
November 1, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Remember: finding oscillatory PCA components might not necessarily mean that there is oscillatory activity in your data
Reposted by Simon Kern
New paper finds that selective reporting remains the most replicable finding in science: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... I especially like their new exploratory metric 'p-values per participant'. Some papers had 11 p-values per participant! 🤯
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:39 AM
New paper finds that selective reporting remains the most replicable finding in science: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... I especially like their new exploratory metric 'p-values per participant'. Some papers had 11 p-values per participant! 🤯
How well do classifiers trained on visual activity actually transfer to non-visual reactivation?
#Decoding studies often rely on training in one (visual) condition and applying it to another (e.g. rest-reactivation). However: How well does this work? Show us what makes it work and win up to 1000$!
#Decoding studies often rely on training in one (visual) condition and applying it to another (e.g. rest-reactivation). However: How well does this work? Show us what makes it work and win up to 1000$!
IMAGINE-decoding-challenge
Predict which words participants were hearing, based upon brain activity recordings of visually seeing these items?
www.kaggle.com
October 24, 2025 at 6:55 AM
How well do classifiers trained on visual activity actually transfer to non-visual reactivation?
#Decoding studies often rely on training in one (visual) condition and applying it to another (e.g. rest-reactivation). However: How well does this work? Show us what makes it work and win up to 1000$!
#Decoding studies often rely on training in one (visual) condition and applying it to another (e.g. rest-reactivation). However: How well does this work? Show us what makes it work and win up to 1000$!
Running Windows apps seamlessly on Linux? Finally a worthy WSL equivalent for Linux (LSW so to say)! No emulator, but a real Windows running in the background. Even Office works! wow. github.com/TibixDev/win...
GitHub - TibixDev/winboat: Run Windows apps on 🐧 Linux with ✨ seamless integration
Run Windows apps on 🐧 Linux with ✨ seamless integration - TibixDev/winboat
github.com
October 10, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Running Windows apps seamlessly on Linux? Finally a worthy WSL equivalent for Linux (LSW so to say)! No emulator, but a real Windows running in the background. Even Office works! wow. github.com/TibixDev/win...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Proposal for how to fix family wise error rates.
For every uncorrected p value you must add an extra letter to the claim.
“Eating chocolate maaaaaaaaay be associated with lower rates of stroke”
For every uncorrected p value you must add an extra letter to the claim.
“Eating chocolate maaaaaaaaay be associated with lower rates of stroke”
September 16, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Proposal for how to fix family wise error rates.
For every uncorrected p value you must add an extra letter to the claim.
“Eating chocolate maaaaaaaaay be associated with lower rates of stroke”
For every uncorrected p value you must add an extra letter to the claim.
“Eating chocolate maaaaaaaaay be associated with lower rates of stroke”
Reposted by Simon Kern
17,058 proposals received, 1,650 to be funded.
Break-even, where more money is paid out than burned by the process, is ~2 months time investment per application (assuming only few admin/review/non-submitted efforts).
Uncomfortably close to predatory territory: doi.org/10.1111/imcb...
Break-even, where more money is paid out than burned by the process, is ~2 months time investment per application (assuming only few admin/review/non-submitted efforts).
Uncomfortably close to predatory territory: doi.org/10.1111/imcb...
September 14, 2025 at 11:54 AM
17,058 proposals received, 1,650 to be funded.
Break-even, where more money is paid out than burned by the process, is ~2 months time investment per application (assuming only few admin/review/non-submitted efforts).
Uncomfortably close to predatory territory: doi.org/10.1111/imcb...
Break-even, where more money is paid out than burned by the process, is ~2 months time investment per application (assuming only few admin/review/non-submitted efforts).
Uncomfortably close to predatory territory: doi.org/10.1111/imcb...
www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-revie...
Memory beyond synaptic plasticity - are there alternatives? Some thoughts and ideas from my favorite blog. Was an thought-provocing read, albeit I'm not convinced by all things said.
Memory beyond synaptic plasticity - are there alternatives? Some thoughts and ideas from my favorite blog. Was an thought-provocing read, albeit I'm not convinced by all things said.
Your Review: The Synaptic Plasticity and Memory Hypothesis
Finalist #11 in the Review Contest
www.astralcodexten.com
September 12, 2025 at 1:49 PM
www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-revie...
Memory beyond synaptic plasticity - are there alternatives? Some thoughts and ideas from my favorite blog. Was an thought-provocing read, albeit I'm not convinced by all things said.
Memory beyond synaptic plasticity - are there alternatives? Some thoughts and ideas from my favorite blog. Was an thought-provocing read, albeit I'm not convinced by all things said.
Reposted by Simon Kern
A transformation from vision to imagery in the human brain. Intriguing new preprint by Roy & Naselaris et al for anyone interested in mental imagery!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A transformation from vision to imagery in the human brain
Extensive work has shown that the visual cortex is reactivated during mental imagery, and that models trained on visual data can predict imagery activity and decode imagined stimuli. These findings ma...
www.biorxiv.org
September 4, 2025 at 9:28 AM
A transformation from vision to imagery in the human brain. Intriguing new preprint by Roy & Naselaris et al for anyone interested in mental imagery!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
cool evidence for systems consolidation in humans
Now here’s the really cool part: theory predicts medial temporal lobe (MTL) first stores memories, but cortex is the final storage site. Our models show this after one night of sleep! MTL models decode presleep, while frontal cortex (FC) decodes postsleep, but not vice versa. 5/6
September 3, 2025 at 7:25 AM
cool evidence for systems consolidation in humans
Reposted by Simon Kern
Excited to present our new work reading minds!
Ok, not *that* kind of mind reading, but we have created a deep learning method capable of using single neuron recordings from people watching episodes of TV that can predict when they recall specific memories from the episode. 1/6
Ok, not *that* kind of mind reading, but we have created a deep learning method capable of using single neuron recordings from people watching episodes of TV that can predict when they recall specific memories from the episode. 1/6
August 28, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Excited to present our new work reading minds!
Ok, not *that* kind of mind reading, but we have created a deep learning method capable of using single neuron recordings from people watching episodes of TV that can predict when they recall specific memories from the episode. 1/6
Ok, not *that* kind of mind reading, but we have created a deep learning method capable of using single neuron recordings from people watching episodes of TV that can predict when they recall specific memories from the episode. 1/6
Reposted by Simon Kern
Delighted to share our work on replay and successor representations! We find replay during very short task pauses in human visual cortex that is linked to learning SRs & happens when learning is implicit. Study led by @lnnrtwttkhn.bsky.social
#compneuro #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#compneuro #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Replay in the human visual cortex during brief task pauses is linked to implicit learning of successor representations | PNAS
Humans can implicitly learn about multistep sequential relationships between events
in the environment from their statistical co-occurrence. Theore...
www.pnas.org
August 22, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Delighted to share our work on replay and successor representations! We find replay during very short task pauses in human visual cortex that is linked to learning SRs & happens when learning is implicit. Study led by @lnnrtwttkhn.bsky.social
#compneuro #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#compneuro #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Excited to share our new paper on theta-phase locking of single neurons during human spatial memory:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @lukaskunz.bsky.social, Joshua Jacobs, and our colleagues from the University of Freiburg
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @lukaskunz.bsky.social, Joshua Jacobs, and our colleagues from the University of Freiburg
August 11, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Excited to share our new paper on theta-phase locking of single neurons during human spatial memory:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @lukaskunz.bsky.social, Joshua Jacobs, and our colleagues from the University of Freiburg
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @lukaskunz.bsky.social, Joshua Jacobs, and our colleagues from the University of Freiburg
Reposted by Simon Kern
Liebe Menschen in Mannheim und einem Umkreis von 100km, ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn ihr an dieser wunderbaren psychologischen Studie teilnehmt. Reposten ist natürlich auch sehr willkommen! Hier die Studieninfo von der Studienleitung: 🧵1/7
August 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Liebe Menschen in Mannheim und einem Umkreis von 100km, ich würde mich sehr freuen, wenn ihr an dieser wunderbaren psychologischen Studie teilnehmt. Reposten ist natürlich auch sehr willkommen! Hier die Studieninfo von der Studienleitung: 🧵1/7
Reposted by Simon Kern
Undoubtedly the most massive group effort I was ever lucky to be involved in. Led by the ever-unwavering
@annekeitel.bsky.social, this preprint synthesizes the status quo of what we (don't) know about neural oscillations. Grateful to be part of the @scone-neuro.bsky.social network. #neuroskyence
@annekeitel.bsky.social, this preprint synthesizes the status quo of what we (don't) know about neural oscillations. Grateful to be part of the @scone-neuro.bsky.social network. #neuroskyence
Our oscillations consensus paper is finally out as a preprint 🤩 thanks to everyone involved
arxiv.org/abs/2507.15639
arxiv.org/abs/2507.15639
July 24, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Undoubtedly the most massive group effort I was ever lucky to be involved in. Led by the ever-unwavering
@annekeitel.bsky.social, this preprint synthesizes the status quo of what we (don't) know about neural oscillations. Grateful to be part of the @scone-neuro.bsky.social network. #neuroskyence
@annekeitel.bsky.social, this preprint synthesizes the status quo of what we (don't) know about neural oscillations. Grateful to be part of the @scone-neuro.bsky.social network. #neuroskyence
Reposted by Simon Kern
Serious concerns about a new cortical biomarker for pain sensitivity
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
We (with @tspisak.bsky.social, @christianbuchel.bsky.social) published a commentary on Chowdhury, Bi et al. (2025, JAMA Neurology) raising serious concerns about their reported results.
👇 1/13
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
We (with @tspisak.bsky.social, @christianbuchel.bsky.social) published a commentary on Chowdhury, Bi et al. (2025, JAMA Neurology) raising serious concerns about their reported results.
👇 1/13
Concern About Predictive Performance of a Pain Sensitivity Biomarker
To the Editor Chowdhury et al1 evaluated a biomarker for pain sensitivity, combining peak alpha frequency and corticomotor excitability. The authors report outstanding performance (validation set area...
jamanetwork.com
July 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Serious concerns about a new cortical biomarker for pain sensitivity
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
We (with @tspisak.bsky.social, @christianbuchel.bsky.social) published a commentary on Chowdhury, Bi et al. (2025, JAMA Neurology) raising serious concerns about their reported results.
👇 1/13
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
We (with @tspisak.bsky.social, @christianbuchel.bsky.social) published a commentary on Chowdhury, Bi et al. (2025, JAMA Neurology) raising serious concerns about their reported results.
👇 1/13
Reposted by Simon Kern
Our study is out in Nature!
Using wireless Neuropixels we recorded hippocampal activity in freely flying bats and uncovered replay and theta(less) sweeps, revealing striking differences from classic rodent models.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Using wireless Neuropixels we recorded hippocampal activity in freely flying bats and uncovered replay and theta(less) sweeps, revealing striking differences from classic rodent models.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Replay and representation dynamics in the hippocampus of freely flying bats - Nature
Nature - Replay and representation dynamics in the hippocampus of freely flying bats
www.nature.com
July 9, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Our study is out in Nature!
Using wireless Neuropixels we recorded hippocampal activity in freely flying bats and uncovered replay and theta(less) sweeps, revealing striking differences from classic rodent models.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Using wireless Neuropixels we recorded hippocampal activity in freely flying bats and uncovered replay and theta(less) sweeps, revealing striking differences from classic rodent models.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Binz et al. (in press, Nature) developed an LLM called Centaur that better predicts human responses in 159 of 160 behavioural experiments compared to existing cognitive models. See: arxiv.org/abs/2410.20268
June 26, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Binz et al. (in press, Nature) developed an LLM called Centaur that better predicts human responses in 159 of 160 behavioural experiments compared to existing cognitive models. See: arxiv.org/abs/2410.20268
Reposted by Simon Kern
New preprint with amazing work from @nchalas.bsky.social:
How does respiration influence (un-)predictable near-threshold perception? MEG, arousal modulation, excitability states, respiration phase-resolved connectivity changes - it's all there :)
#neuroskyence
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How does respiration influence (un-)predictable near-threshold perception? MEG, arousal modulation, excitability states, respiration phase-resolved connectivity changes - it's all there :)
#neuroskyence
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Respiration as a dynamic modulator of sensory sampling
Respiration dynamically modulates sensory perception by orchestrating transient states of the brain and the body. Using simultaneous recordings of high-density magneto-encephalography (MEG), respirati...
www.biorxiv.org
June 30, 2025 at 12:20 PM
New preprint with amazing work from @nchalas.bsky.social:
How does respiration influence (un-)predictable near-threshold perception? MEG, arousal modulation, excitability states, respiration phase-resolved connectivity changes - it's all there :)
#neuroskyence
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How does respiration influence (un-)predictable near-threshold perception? MEG, arousal modulation, excitability states, respiration phase-resolved connectivity changes - it's all there :)
#neuroskyence
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Here is my checklist summarising a small set of some of the simplest tasks you can do that have high potential to improve the reproducibility of your analysis code.
This is based on my year of reproducibility reviews for the J. of Archaeological Science:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHjN_6yUM... 🧪🏺
This is based on my year of reproducibility reviews for the J. of Archaeological Science:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHjN_6yUM... 🧪🏺
July 6, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Here is my checklist summarising a small set of some of the simplest tasks you can do that have high potential to improve the reproducibility of your analysis code.
This is based on my year of reproducibility reviews for the J. of Archaeological Science:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHjN_6yUM... 🧪🏺
This is based on my year of reproducibility reviews for the J. of Archaeological Science:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lHjN_6yUM... 🧪🏺
Reposted by Simon Kern
In this study, led by BlueSky-less superstar undergrad Andrew Lazarus, we set out to ask whether longer reactivation events during sleep lead to more memory benefits. Results suggest this is not the case, but there are some disclaimers. Read all about it! #sleep
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Manipulating memory processing during sleep to explore the critical duration of reactivation events
Newly encoded memories are reactivated and consolidated during sleep. However, how the reactivation of a specific memory unfolds over time is poorly u…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
In this study, led by BlueSky-less superstar undergrad Andrew Lazarus, we set out to ask whether longer reactivation events during sleep lead to more memory benefits. Results suggest this is not the case, but there are some disclaimers. Read all about it! #sleep
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Simon Kern
746 proposals for a total of 3M (about 13 will be funded).
If orgs spent 4000 in personnel time preparing their proposals on average, then this mechanism actually reduced funding for open science.
Open science is extremely underfunded.
If orgs spent 4000 in personnel time preparing their proposals on average, then this mechanism actually reduced funding for open science.
Open science is extremely underfunded.
June 24, 2025 at 2:13 PM
746 proposals for a total of 3M (about 13 will be funded).
If orgs spent 4000 in personnel time preparing their proposals on average, then this mechanism actually reduced funding for open science.
Open science is extremely underfunded.
If orgs spent 4000 in personnel time preparing their proposals on average, then this mechanism actually reduced funding for open science.
Open science is extremely underfunded.