Catrina Hacker
@catrinahacker.bsky.social
Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and sci-comm enthusiast interested in brains 🧠 and models of them 💻.
Website: catrinahacker.com
Website: catrinahacker.com
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
I'm so grateful to be recognized as one of The Transmitter's Rising Stars of Neuroscience. Thank you, @thetransmitter.bsky.social!
Learn about the amazing scientific, mentoring, and community-building contributions made by friends selected around the world 🧠🌍 www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...
Learn about the amazing scientific, mentoring, and community-building contributions made by friends selected around the world 🧠🌍 www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...
November 17, 2025 at 2:41 PM
I'm so grateful to be recognized as one of The Transmitter's Rising Stars of Neuroscience. Thank you, @thetransmitter.bsky.social!
Learn about the amazing scientific, mentoring, and community-building contributions made by friends selected around the world 🧠🌍 www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...
Learn about the amazing scientific, mentoring, and community-building contributions made by friends selected around the world 🧠🌍 www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
Friends at #SFN25: Want to know more about how seeing is transformed into familiarity? Check out Simon Bohn's poster this afternoon (Board P9; PSTR224.03).
There, he'll tell you about a pardox and its resolution - along with a previously undescribed computation in the medial temporal lobe.
There, he'll tell you about a pardox and its resolution - along with a previously undescribed computation in the medial temporal lobe.
November 17, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Friends at #SFN25: Want to know more about how seeing is transformed into familiarity? Check out Simon Bohn's poster this afternoon (Board P9; PSTR224.03).
There, he'll tell you about a pardox and its resolution - along with a previously undescribed computation in the medial temporal lobe.
There, he'll tell you about a pardox and its resolution - along with a previously undescribed computation in the medial temporal lobe.
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
Additional plug for my talk, at 8:45am, examining the relationship between arousal state and hippocampal ripples in both sleep and wake states! In close collaboration with @yvonnechen.bsky.social 👁️😴🧠 #SfN
November 16, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Additional plug for my talk, at 8:45am, examining the relationship between arousal state and hippocampal ripples in both sleep and wake states! In close collaboration with @yvonnechen.bsky.social 👁️😴🧠 #SfN
Please join me and @lizsiefert.bsky.social at 8a tomorrow for a great lineup of speakers focused on bridging the gap between animal and human memory neuroscience!
#neuroskyence #SFN2025
#neuroskyence #SFN2025
"Basic translational neuroscience" is how @catrinahacker.bsky.social describes work focused on filling in the missing foundational info required for translational impact.
Don't miss this terrific #SFN2025 nanosymposium that she & @lizsiefert.bsky.social have organized around that idea! (Sun, 8a).
Don't miss this terrific #SFN2025 nanosymposium that she & @lizsiefert.bsky.social have organized around that idea! (Sun, 8a).
November 15, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Please join me and @lizsiefert.bsky.social at 8a tomorrow for a great lineup of speakers focused on bridging the gap between animal and human memory neuroscience!
#neuroskyence #SFN2025
#neuroskyence #SFN2025
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
There’s a lot of talk about vaccines and autism, but what does the science say?
This week @pennngg.bsky.social student Nita Rome unpacks the history behind these concerns and how modern studies have debunked this misconception.
pennneuroknow.com/2025/11/11/v...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦🧪
This week @pennngg.bsky.social student Nita Rome unpacks the history behind these concerns and how modern studies have debunked this misconception.
pennneuroknow.com/2025/11/11/v...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦🧪
Vaccines and autism: Let’s talk about it
The conversation around autism and vaccines has become an increasingly hot topic of late (to put it mildly), but did you know that this debate began over 25 years ago? Here is a brief overview of t…
pennneuroknow.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:00 PM
There’s a lot of talk about vaccines and autism, but what does the science say?
This week @pennngg.bsky.social student Nita Rome unpacks the history behind these concerns and how modern studies have debunked this misconception.
pennneuroknow.com/2025/11/11/v...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦🧪
This week @pennngg.bsky.social student Nita Rome unpacks the history behind these concerns and how modern studies have debunked this misconception.
pennneuroknow.com/2025/11/11/v...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦🧪
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of brain-computer interfaces and artificial neural networks. New funding and policy changes put future such advances at risk, write Cory Miller, @movshon.bsky.social and Doris Tsao.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/47MXYLH
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/47MXYLH
Without monkeys, neuroscience has no future
Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of BCIs, ANNs. New funding and policy changes put future such advances at risk.
bit.ly
November 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Research in primate brains has been essential for the development of brain-computer interfaces and artificial neural networks. New funding and policy changes put future such advances at risk, write Cory Miller, @movshon.bsky.social and Doris Tsao.
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/47MXYLH
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/47MXYLH
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake
go.nature.com/47zrzYZ
go.nature.com/47zrzYZ
From MRI to Ozempic: breakthroughs that show why fundamental research must be protected
In these financially straitened times, funders must recognize that great discoveries often arise from work that was looking for something completely different.
go.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Funders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake
go.nature.com/47zrzYZ
go.nature.com/47zrzYZ
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
With all the fuss over tylenol, we're missing a bigger issue: we don't know enough about medication safety in pregnancy because so few drug studies include pregnant people. And that harms both women and their fetuses. My latest @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...
There's a Dangerous Gap in Drug Research in Pregnancy
Less than 1 percent of clinical trials include pregnant or breastfeeding people. Experts say that needs to change
www.scientificamerican.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:34 PM
With all the fuss over tylenol, we're missing a bigger issue: we don't know enough about medication safety in pregnancy because so few drug studies include pregnant people. And that harms both women and their fetuses. My latest @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/what...
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
New preprint! How can you remember an image you saw once, even after seeing thousands of them? We find a role for humble mid-level visual cortex in high-capacity, one-shot learning. doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.22.677855 🧵🧪1/
Neuronal signatures of successful one-shot memory in mid-level visual cortex
High-capacity, one-shot visual recognition memory challenges theories of learning and neural coding because it requires rapid, robust, and durable representations. Most studies have focused on the hip...
doi.org
September 23, 2025 at 3:09 PM
New preprint! How can you remember an image you saw once, even after seeing thousands of them? We find a role for humble mid-level visual cortex in high-capacity, one-shot learning. doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.22.677855 🧵🧪1/
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.
On 9/16/25, celebrate a date of mathematical beauty
Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.
n.pr
September 16, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Pythagorean Triple Square Day, as one man affectionately calls 9/16/25, is a day like no other this century.
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
The @intlbrainlab.bsky.social published 2 papers today on their work to create a map of neural activity across the entire mouse brain. Learn more about the lab: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/02/20/how-do-our-brains-make-decisions-the-international-brain-laboratory-is-closing-in-on-answers/
How Do Our Brains Make Decisions? The International Brain Laboratory Is Closing In on Answers
How Do Our Brains Make Decisions? The International Brain Laboratory Is Closing In on Answers on Simons Foundation
www.simonsfoundation.org
September 3, 2025 at 6:10 PM
The @intlbrainlab.bsky.social published 2 papers today on their work to create a map of neural activity across the entire mouse brain. Learn more about the lab: https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/02/20/how-do-our-brains-make-decisions-the-international-brain-laboratory-is-closing-in-on-answers/
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
15 years of radio observations yielded this amazing view down the throat of a black hole.
We're looking into a jet of plasma shooting out from a supermassive black hole, called PKS 1424+240. The lines depict intense magnetic fields threaded through the jet. 🧪🔭
www.mpg.de/25171297/eye...
We're looking into a jet of plasma shooting out from a supermassive black hole, called PKS 1424+240. The lines depict intense magnetic fields threaded through the jet. 🧪🔭
www.mpg.de/25171297/eye...
August 17, 2025 at 11:23 PM
15 years of radio observations yielded this amazing view down the throat of a black hole.
We're looking into a jet of plasma shooting out from a supermassive black hole, called PKS 1424+240. The lines depict intense magnetic fields threaded through the jet. 🧪🔭
www.mpg.de/25171297/eye...
We're looking into a jet of plasma shooting out from a supermassive black hole, called PKS 1424+240. The lines depict intense magnetic fields threaded through the jet. 🧪🔭
www.mpg.de/25171297/eye...
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
One of the joys of being a scientist is the ability to think about a problem for a long time. Our new preprint solves a mystery that has been bugging me since I was a graduate student (which was, ahem, a while ago). 🧪🧠🧵1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Guided by Noise: Correlated Variability Channels Task-Relevant Information in Sensory Neurons
Shared trial-to-trial variability across sensory neurons is reliably reduced when perceptual performance improves, yet this variability is low-dimensional, so it could be ignored by an optimal readout...
www.biorxiv.org
August 15, 2025 at 3:38 PM
One of the joys of being a scientist is the ability to think about a problem for a long time. Our new preprint solves a mystery that has been bugging me since I was a graduate student (which was, ahem, a while ago). 🧪🧠🧵1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
At #ccn2025 and interested in bridging animal and human neuroscience?
Stop by B121 this afternoon to see our investigation of the neural representations in spikes and field potentials and our surprising result that sometimes field potentials are better!
2025.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=t...
🧠📈
Stop by B121 this afternoon to see our investigation of the neural representations in spikes and field potentials and our surprising result that sometimes field potentials are better!
2025.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=t...
🧠📈
Poster Presentation
2025.ccneuro.org
August 13, 2025 at 5:21 AM
At #ccn2025 and interested in bridging animal and human neuroscience?
Stop by B121 this afternoon to see our investigation of the neural representations in spikes and field potentials and our surprising result that sometimes field potentials are better!
2025.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=t...
🧠📈
Stop by B121 this afternoon to see our investigation of the neural representations in spikes and field potentials and our surprising result that sometimes field potentials are better!
2025.ccneuro.org/poster/?id=t...
🧠📈
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
Whether it’s on paper, screen or audio, there are more ways than ever to enjoy a good book. But do different formats engage the brain in the same way?
Co-editor @catrinahacker.bsky.social explores in this week's post: pennneuroknow.com/2025/08/05/t...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦 🧪 📖
Co-editor @catrinahacker.bsky.social explores in this week's post: pennneuroknow.com/2025/08/05/t...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦 🧪 📖
Turning pages, swiping screens, and hitting play: Is reading always the same to our brain?
Whether it’s on paper, screen or audio, there are more ways than ever to enjoy a good book. But do different formats engage the brain in the same way?
pennneuroknow.com
August 5, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Whether it’s on paper, screen or audio, there are more ways than ever to enjoy a good book. But do different formats engage the brain in the same way?
Co-editor @catrinahacker.bsky.social explores in this week's post: pennneuroknow.com/2025/08/05/t...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦 🧪 📖
Co-editor @catrinahacker.bsky.social explores in this week's post: pennneuroknow.com/2025/08/05/t...
#PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧠🟦 🧪 📖
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
As has been clear since April*, Vought intends a pocket rescission. This blanket hold is another tactic to maximize the size of that rescission. Rescission is THEFT from the public.
We have until Aug 15 to spend out the budget. CAL CONGRESS AND DEMAND THE HOLD BE LIFTED. Lives are on the line 🧪
*
We have until Aug 15 to spend out the budget. CAL CONGRESS AND DEMAND THE HOLD BE LIFTED. Lives are on the line 🧪
*
July 30, 2025 at 2:47 AM
As has been clear since April*, Vought intends a pocket rescission. This blanket hold is another tactic to maximize the size of that rescission. Rescission is THEFT from the public.
We have until Aug 15 to spend out the budget. CAL CONGRESS AND DEMAND THE HOLD BE LIFTED. Lives are on the line 🧪
*
We have until Aug 15 to spend out the budget. CAL CONGRESS AND DEMAND THE HOLD BE LIFTED. Lives are on the line 🧪
*
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
⚡ New preprint ⚡ Long ago, I heard a talk about our remarkable ability to remember 1000s of images, after seeing each only once. How do brains manage it? 🤔
After years, this reflects the answer I was looking for. Congrats to Simon Bohn et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More: /1
After years, this reflects the answer I was looking for. Congrats to Simon Bohn et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More: /1
June 17, 2025 at 9:19 AM
⚡ New preprint ⚡ Long ago, I heard a talk about our remarkable ability to remember 1000s of images, after seeing each only once. How do brains manage it? 🤔
After years, this reflects the answer I was looking for. Congrats to Simon Bohn et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More: /1
After years, this reflects the answer I was looking for. Congrats to Simon Bohn et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More: /1
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
June 11, 2025 at 10:24 PM
My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️
The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar
bit.ly/3HvWSum
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
I am excited to announce (belatedly) that my dissertation’s final chapter has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience! doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
Hemifield Specificity of Attention Response Functions during Multiple-Object Tracking
The difficulty of tracking multiple moving objects among identical distractors increases with the number of tracked targets. Previous research has shown that the number of targets tracked (i.e., load)...
doi.org
May 30, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I am excited to announce (belatedly) that my dissertation’s final chapter has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience! doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
The octopus brain has teased researchers since the 1960s, but recording from it seemed impossible. Cris Niell and his team’s calcium imaging experiments finally “showed that this brain could be studied,” says Sam Reiter.
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/vision/cepha...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/vision/cepha...
Cephalopods, vision’s next frontier
For decades, scientists have been teased by the strange but inaccessible cephalopod visual system. Now, thanks to a technological breakthrough from a lab in Oregon, data are finally coming straight…
www.thetransmitter.org
May 27, 2025 at 2:07 PM
The octopus brain has teased researchers since the 1960s, but recording from it seemed impossible. Cris Niell and his team’s calcium imaging experiments finally “showed that this brain could be studied,” says Sam Reiter.
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/vision/cepha...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/vision/cepha...
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
New preprint! Statistical structure skews object memory toward predictable successors. Model simulations show how this bias can arise from the backward expansion of hippocampal representations.
w/co-first @codydong.bsky.social , @marlietandoc.bsky.social & @annaschapiro.bsky.social osf.io/yuxb6_v1
w/co-first @codydong.bsky.social , @marlietandoc.bsky.social & @annaschapiro.bsky.social osf.io/yuxb6_v1
OSF
osf.io
May 27, 2025 at 12:32 PM
New preprint! Statistical structure skews object memory toward predictable successors. Model simulations show how this bias can arise from the backward expansion of hippocampal representations.
w/co-first @codydong.bsky.social , @marlietandoc.bsky.social & @annaschapiro.bsky.social osf.io/yuxb6_v1
w/co-first @codydong.bsky.social , @marlietandoc.bsky.social & @annaschapiro.bsky.social osf.io/yuxb6_v1
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
They would've found something to weaponize regardless. One of the most admirable things about science is its commitment to self-criticism. The fact that bad actors may capitalize on our legitimate concerns should never stop us from being honest and reflective about what we do.
May 25, 2025 at 4:57 PM
They would've found something to weaponize regardless. One of the most admirable things about science is its commitment to self-criticism. The fact that bad actors may capitalize on our legitimate concerns should never stop us from being honest and reflective about what we do.
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
New preprint, w/ @predictivebrain.bsky.social !
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Higher-level spatial prediction in natural vision across mouse visual cortex
Theories of predictive processing propose that sensory systems constantly predict incoming signals, based on spatial and temporal context. However, evidence for prediction in sensory cortex largely co...
www.biorxiv.org
May 23, 2025 at 11:39 AM
New preprint, w/ @predictivebrain.bsky.social !
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thank you @joulesriley.bsky.social for covering such an important topic!
Curiosity-driven research is essential, even when we're not certain exactly what application it might have down the line. The two examples Jules highlights show how investing in basic research now has huge payout later.
Curiosity-driven research is essential, even when we're not certain exactly what application it might have down the line. The two examples Jules highlights show how investing in basic research now has huge payout later.
There's no doubt about it, curiosity-driven research is important.
This week, @joulesriley.bsky.social shares how years of curiosity-driven research led to two of the biggest clinical breakthroughs of the modern era: pennneuroknow.com/2025/05/20/b...
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧪
This week, @joulesriley.bsky.social shares how years of curiosity-driven research led to two of the biggest clinical breakthroughs of the modern era: pennneuroknow.com/2025/05/20/b...
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #SciComm 🧪
Basic science, exceptional outcomes: A look at how non-clinical research is an important investment into human health
Basic research, intended to better our understanding of the world rather than directly investigate diseases, has laid the groundwork for some of the most important developments in modern medicine. …
pennneuroknow.com
May 21, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Thank you @joulesriley.bsky.social for covering such an important topic!
Curiosity-driven research is essential, even when we're not certain exactly what application it might have down the line. The two examples Jules highlights show how investing in basic research now has huge payout later.
Curiosity-driven research is essential, even when we're not certain exactly what application it might have down the line. The two examples Jules highlights show how investing in basic research now has huge payout later.
Reposted by Catrina Hacker
This highlights the point that comparisons between humans and machines are continually muddied by a lack of distinction between evolution and development, both of which contribute to learning in the broad sense.
May 19, 2025 at 3:24 PM
This highlights the point that comparisons between humans and machines are continually muddied by a lack of distinction between evolution and development, both of which contribute to learning in the broad sense.