Alina Studenova
@studenova.bsky.social
PhD candidate, MPI CBS, MPSCog,
brain oscillations, cortical microstructure
https://alinastudenova.com/
brain oscillations, cortical microstructure
https://alinastudenova.com/
Reposted by Alina Studenova
Woop woop 🎉 Excited to share that our paper has been accepted in Imaging Neuroscience!
Can ventral striatal reward signals — originating from deep within the brain — be reconstructed from scalp EEG?
We tried to answer this question using deep learning.
More soon 👀 Stay tuned.
Can ventral striatal reward signals — originating from deep within the brain — be reconstructed from scalp EEG?
We tried to answer this question using deep learning.
More soon 👀 Stay tuned.
February 13, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Woop woop 🎉 Excited to share that our paper has been accepted in Imaging Neuroscience!
Can ventral striatal reward signals — originating from deep within the brain — be reconstructed from scalp EEG?
We tried to answer this question using deep learning.
More soon 👀 Stay tuned.
Can ventral striatal reward signals — originating from deep within the brain — be reconstructed from scalp EEG?
We tried to answer this question using deep learning.
More soon 👀 Stay tuned.
The water proton spins align
With the external magnet field.
Magnetization ramping up
Such an alignment will yield.
The RF pulse then flips the spins
To certain number of degrees,
The frequency is set as such,
They're flipping more or less with ease.
With the external magnet field.
Magnetization ramping up
Such an alignment will yield.
The RF pulse then flips the spins
To certain number of degrees,
The frequency is set as such,
They're flipping more or less with ease.
February 13, 2026 at 2:44 PM
The water proton spins align
With the external magnet field.
Magnetization ramping up
Such an alignment will yield.
The RF pulse then flips the spins
To certain number of degrees,
The frequency is set as such,
They're flipping more or less with ease.
With the external magnet field.
Magnetization ramping up
Such an alignment will yield.
The RF pulse then flips the spins
To certain number of degrees,
The frequency is set as such,
They're flipping more or less with ease.
Reposted by Alina Studenova
XAI techniques have been proposed as tools to "debug" machine learning models by revealing what they have learned.
Challenging this narrative, we find that XAI attributions are strongly dominated by salient features independent of the role of these features for a model.
See: tinyurl.com/48m4axnv
Challenging this narrative, we find that XAI attributions are strongly dominated by salient features independent of the role of these features for a model.
See: tinyurl.com/48m4axnv
Explainable AI techniques have been proposed as tools to "debug" machine learning models.
In a popular example, authors discovered a photographer's watermark when applying XAI in an ima...
Explainable AI techniques have been proposed as tools to "debug" machine learning models.
In a popular example, authors discovered a photographer's watermark when applying XAI in an image classificat...
www.linkedin.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:10 AM
XAI techniques have been proposed as tools to "debug" machine learning models by revealing what they have learned.
Challenging this narrative, we find that XAI attributions are strongly dominated by salient features independent of the role of these features for a model.
See: tinyurl.com/48m4axnv
Challenging this narrative, we find that XAI attributions are strongly dominated by salient features independent of the role of these features for a model.
See: tinyurl.com/48m4axnv
V. interesting!⚡
Quote "RSA is not an accurate, direct measure of CNS-generated cardiac vagal activity."
RSA - Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, the rhythmic change in heart rate during breathing.
Quote "RSA is not an accurate, direct measure of CNS-generated cardiac vagal activity."
RSA - Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, the rhythmic change in heart rate during breathing.
'Why the polyvagal theory is untenable. An international expert evaluation of the polyvagal theory and commentary upon Porges, S.W. (2025). Polyvagal theory: current status, clinical applications, and future directions.'
WHY THE POLYVAGAL THEORY IS UNTENABLE. An international expert evaluation of the polyvagal theory and commentary upon Porges, S.W. (2025). Polyvagal theory: current status, clinical applications, and ...
by Paul Grossman, Gareth L. Ackland, Andrew M. Allen, Gary G. Berntson, Lindsea C. Booth, Gordon M. Burghardt, Julie Buron, Vladimir Dinets, J. Sean Doody, Mathias Dutschmann, David G.S. Farmer, James...
www.clinicalneuropsychiatry.org
February 12, 2026 at 8:27 PM
V. interesting!⚡
Quote "RSA is not an accurate, direct measure of CNS-generated cardiac vagal activity."
RSA - Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, the rhythmic change in heart rate during breathing.
Quote "RSA is not an accurate, direct measure of CNS-generated cardiac vagal activity."
RSA - Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia, the rhythmic change in heart rate during breathing.
LLMs have cognitive biases too, such as confirmation bias, anchoring bias and negativity bias. This survey provides a nice overview. The most interesting and informative part is section with examples.😄
A survey of LLM Reasoning Failures
A curated list of papers on discovery, analysis, and mitigation of LLM reasoning failures.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.06176
Repo: github.com/Peiyang-Song...
A curated list of papers on discovery, analysis, and mitigation of LLM reasoning failures.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2602.06176
Repo: github.com/Peiyang-Song...
February 11, 2026 at 3:54 PM
LLMs have cognitive biases too, such as confirmation bias, anchoring bias and negativity bias. This survey provides a nice overview. The most interesting and informative part is section with examples.😄
Cool! If this cloud look like a brain, than I'm in motor cortex😄
February 9, 2026 at 11:13 AM
Cool! If this cloud look like a brain, than I'm in motor cortex😄
Nice to see a study addressing mechanisms of evoked response generation! This study obtained that P300 and alpha desynchronization stem from different sources. In the past, I claimed that P300 is partially generated by alpha amplitude asymmetry or baseline-shift mechanism, i.e., they are related.
Disentangling Event-Related Potential and Oscillatory Sources using Time- and Frequency-Domain Source Imaging
Depuydt et al
Clinical Neurophysiology Practice, Volume 11, 2026, Pages 103-114
doi.org/10.1016/j.cn...
Depuydt et al
Clinical Neurophysiology Practice, Volume 11, 2026, Pages 103-114
doi.org/10.1016/j.cn...
February 8, 2026 at 7:21 PM
Nice to see a study addressing mechanisms of evoked response generation! This study obtained that P300 and alpha desynchronization stem from different sources. In the past, I claimed that P300 is partially generated by alpha amplitude asymmetry or baseline-shift mechanism, i.e., they are related.
If oscillations are modulated in amplitude from trial to trial, and those oscillations have a non-zero mean, they "create" an evoked response. It is a baseline-shift mechanism for ERP/ERF generation. Here is a simulated example of how alpha oscillations may generate readiness potential.
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
February 6, 2026 at 2:48 PM
If oscillations are modulated in amplitude from trial to trial, and those oscillations have a non-zero mean, they "create" an evoked response. It is a baseline-shift mechanism for ERP/ERF generation. Here is a simulated example of how alpha oscillations may generate readiness potential.
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
Activity-dependent and injury-induced myelination is carried out via different routes. In healthy zebrafish, activity-related plasticity was linked to recently proliferated oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). But during demyelination, OPCs without prior proliferation were also recruited. Cool!👍
Diverging routes of oligodendrocyte recruitment in adaptive and regenerative myelination https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.04.703508v1
February 5, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Activity-dependent and injury-induced myelination is carried out via different routes. In healthy zebrafish, activity-related plasticity was linked to recently proliferated oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). But during demyelination, OPCs without prior proliferation were also recruited. Cool!👍
Energy pathways from whole-brain transcriptomics have certain spatial distributions. 4 out of 5 maps look similar, while pentose phosphate pathway looks different. Interesting that energy maps only partially agree with PET data. Nice!👏 I wonder how those maps correlate with vascular architecture.
How are energy #metabolism pathways distributed across the #cortex? @alaindagher.bsky.social &co map five pathways in the human #brain, linking metabolic organization with brain structural & functional properties, as well as developmental dynamics @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4c1JVp8
February 3, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Energy pathways from whole-brain transcriptomics have certain spatial distributions. 4 out of 5 maps look similar, while pentose phosphate pathway looks different. Interesting that energy maps only partially agree with PET data. Nice!👏 I wonder how those maps correlate with vascular architecture.
I read a book. “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom. It's from 2014, but very much present-day. Read my opinion here
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
Alina Studenova - superintelligence
I use artificial intelligence (AI) daily, but mostly as a sophisticated googling tool. For example, my recent chats include (as names given by ChatGPT): matrix plot visualisation, image registration i...
www.alinastudenova.com
January 31, 2026 at 2:55 PM
I read a book. “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom. It's from 2014, but very much present-day. Read my opinion here
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
www.alinastudenova.com/home/blog/bo...
LC - a tiny structure
Located in midbrain;
Observed in MR image,
Quite clear on axial plane.
Produce it noradrenaline
Attention to sustain,
And after night of sleep
Arousal to regain,
To manage more proficiently
Emotional domain,
And somewhat plausibly
A memory to retain.
Located in midbrain;
Observed in MR image,
Quite clear on axial plane.
Produce it noradrenaline
Attention to sustain,
And after night of sleep
Arousal to regain,
To manage more proficiently
Emotional domain,
And somewhat plausibly
A memory to retain.
January 30, 2026 at 5:48 PM
LC - a tiny structure
Located in midbrain;
Observed in MR image,
Quite clear on axial plane.
Produce it noradrenaline
Attention to sustain,
And after night of sleep
Arousal to regain,
To manage more proficiently
Emotional domain,
And somewhat plausibly
A memory to retain.
Located in midbrain;
Observed in MR image,
Quite clear on axial plane.
Produce it noradrenaline
Attention to sustain,
And after night of sleep
Arousal to regain,
To manage more proficiently
Emotional domain,
And somewhat plausibly
A memory to retain.
Amazing workshop "Panpsychism, Non-Physicalism and the Causal Powers of Consciousness" with Prof. Hedda Hassel Mørch on her recent book organized by Tobias Schlicht (wait, what?) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and also online at www.pe.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophie/...
V. interesting!🤩
V. interesting!🤩
January 29, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Amazing workshop "Panpsychism, Non-Physicalism and the Causal Powers of Consciousness" with Prof. Hedda Hassel Mørch on her recent book organized by Tobias Schlicht (wait, what?) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and also online at www.pe.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/philosophie/...
V. interesting!🤩
V. interesting!🤩
Simulated travelling waves reproduce functional connectivity (FC) in fMRI better when cortical heterogeneity is taken into account. This paper shows that two variational characteristics provided the most improvements: T1w/T2w ratio (myelin) and E:I balance. Alright!👍 If so, then what is FC actually?
Regional heterogeneity shapes macroscopic wave dynamics of the human and non-human primate cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.22.701178v1
January 28, 2026 at 7:59 PM
Simulated travelling waves reproduce functional connectivity (FC) in fMRI better when cortical heterogeneity is taken into account. This paper shows that two variational characteristics provided the most improvements: T1w/T2w ratio (myelin) and E:I balance. Alright!👍 If so, then what is FC actually?
Toolbox with subcortical atlases. V. useful!
Please add brainstem🙏
Please add brainstem🙏
Subcortex visualization: A toolbox for custom data visualization in the subcortex and cerebellum https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.23.699785v1
January 26, 2026 at 2:36 PM
Toolbox with subcortical atlases. V. useful!
Please add brainstem🙏
Please add brainstem🙏
I have been trying to simulate event-related alpha amplitude decrease with the Jansen-Rit model. Turns out adding external inhibitory input abolishes alpha. Pretty obvious. But how does it agree with more alpha = more inhibition?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
January 23, 2026 at 12:41 PM
I have been trying to simulate event-related alpha amplitude decrease with the Jansen-Rit model. Turns out adding external inhibitory input abolishes alpha. Pretty obvious. But how does it agree with more alpha = more inhibition?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
Some ripples result from filtering 1/f noise (because when you filter noise you always get oscillations). Somewhat expected, but nice to have it spelled out and thoroughly investigated.👍
Ripple oscillations are central for memory and sleep.
But ripple detection in humans remains challenging. Here we introduce a simulation approach in @natcomms.nature.com as common ripple detectors mainly pick up 1/f noise and not genuine oscillations
👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroskyence
But ripple detection in humans remains challenging. Here we introduce a simulation approach in @natcomms.nature.com as common ripple detectors mainly pick up 1/f noise and not genuine oscillations
👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroskyence
Aperiodic 1/f noise drives ripple activity in humans - Nature Communications
How aperiodic 1/f noise drives ripple activity in human brain and impacts on ripple detections is not fully understood. Here authors show that ripple detections should be driven by the 1/f noise, whic...
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Some ripples result from filtering 1/f noise (because when you filter noise you always get oscillations). Somewhat expected, but nice to have it spelled out and thoroughly investigated.👍
Movement is a confounding factor in correlation between readiness potential and respiration. The authors provide careful analysis of original Park et al. 2020 dataset and their collected dataset, suggestions how to avoid the confound, and generally many other thoughts. V. cool and v. interesting!👏
No evidence for the modulation of the readiness potential by respiratory phase
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
January 21, 2026 at 2:15 PM
Movement is a confounding factor in correlation between readiness potential and respiration. The authors provide careful analysis of original Park et al. 2020 dataset and their collected dataset, suggestions how to avoid the confound, and generally many other thoughts. V. cool and v. interesting!👏
Brain-body communication is impaired in people with schizophrenia (SSD), contributing to symptoms such as depersonalization. Deniz and her colleagues did a vast amount of work to provide a better understanding of interoception in SSD. A nuanced and intricate picture has emerged. Well done, Deniz!👏👍🎉
How the brain listens to the body matters.
Our new preprint investigates interoceptive processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders across phenomenology, behavior, and heartbeat-evoked brain responses. 🧠🫀DOI: doi.org/10.64898/202...
Our new preprint investigates interoceptive processing in schizophrenia spectrum disorders across phenomenology, behavior, and heartbeat-evoked brain responses. 🧠🫀DOI: doi.org/10.64898/202...
From Body to Brain and Back: Multimodal Evidence for Interoceptive Alterations in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders
When the brain and body misalign, emotional experience and sense of reality can be disrupted. Although such atypical experiences are central to schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD), interoception, p...
doi.org
January 20, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Brain-body communication is impaired in people with schizophrenia (SSD), contributing to symptoms such as depersonalization. Deniz and her colleagues did a vast amount of work to provide a better understanding of interoception in SSD. A nuanced and intricate picture has emerged. Well done, Deniz!👏👍🎉
A physical theory of interest can be formally assessed to determine whether it is deterministic, in the metaphysical sense. It is tricky, though. In this paper, the authors survey earlier proposals and develop their own approach. So, it turns out that determinism is somewhat undetermined.🧐
New on the Archive:
Halvorson, Hans and Manchak, JB and Weatherall, James Owen (2025) Deterministic Theories. [Preprint]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27922/
Halvorson, Hans and Manchak, JB and Weatherall, James Owen (2025) Deterministic Theories. [Preprint]
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/27922/
January 18, 2026 at 10:33 AM
A physical theory of interest can be formally assessed to determine whether it is deterministic, in the metaphysical sense. It is tricky, though. In this paper, the authors survey earlier proposals and develop their own approach. So, it turns out that determinism is somewhat undetermined.🧐
The brain is critical, they say;
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
January 16, 2026 at 3:00 PM
The brain is critical, they say;
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
It could not be the other way.
External information rate
And inner things manipulate,
For system whose internal state
Is critical, it’s very straight.
Reposted by Alina Studenova
main goal for this year: find a new job! 🙂
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
January 16, 2026 at 10:14 AM
main goal for this year: find a new job! 🙂
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible.
science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv
This commentary paper concerns those who develop clinical models (to be used in hospitals). It has a checklist to go through to answer if the model may be useful in clinics. It seems to me, broadly, we all (who do simulations and modeling) may benefit from asking ourselves if our models are useful.
January 15, 2026 at 1:10 PM
This commentary paper concerns those who develop clinical models (to be used in hospitals). It has a checklist to go through to answer if the model may be useful in clinics. It seems to me, broadly, we all (who do simulations and modeling) may benefit from asking ourselves if our models are useful.
If the brain operates in a critical regime, it's said to be beneficial for information manipulation. In this paper, criticality of motor cortex of Parkinson’s disease patients was compared with controls. So patients' brain is closer to (not farther from) the critical point, regardless of the meds.🆒🆒
Emergent critical oscillations in motor cortex of Parkinson's patients https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.09.698590v1
January 11, 2026 at 3:27 PM
If the brain operates in a critical regime, it's said to be beneficial for information manipulation. In this paper, criticality of motor cortex of Parkinson’s disease patients was compared with controls. So patients' brain is closer to (not farther from) the critical point, regardless of the meds.🆒🆒
I have been trying to understand how the depth of a "source" influences its topography. Here are short and exaggerated simulations of EEG data (no real dipoles in white matter). Note that each frame of the topography was z-scored. So the deeper, the more spread out?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies
January 9, 2026 at 2:39 PM
I have been trying to understand how the depth of a "source" influences its topography. Here are short and exaggerated simulations of EEG data (no real dipoles in white matter). Note that each frame of the topography was z-scored. So the deeper, the more spread out?
#brainmovies
#brainmovies