Cogan Lab
@coganlab.bsky.social
The Cogan Lab at Duke University: Investigating speech, language, and cognition using invasive neural human electrophysiology
http://coganlab.org
http://coganlab.org
Coming to San Diego for SfN and/or APAN? Come check out the intracranial work from the lab (7 posters)! There's a bit of everything this year, so come say hello!
#Sfn2025 #Neuroscience #neuroskyence
@dukebrain.bsky.social @dukeneurosurgery.bsky.social @dukeengineering.bsky.social
#Sfn2025 #Neuroscience #neuroskyence
@dukebrain.bsky.social @dukeneurosurgery.bsky.social @dukeengineering.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Coming to San Diego for SfN and/or APAN? Come check out the intracranial work from the lab (7 posters)! There's a bit of everything this year, so come say hello!
#Sfn2025 #Neuroscience #neuroskyence
@dukebrain.bsky.social @dukeneurosurgery.bsky.social @dukeengineering.bsky.social
#Sfn2025 #Neuroscience #neuroskyence
@dukebrain.bsky.social @dukeneurosurgery.bsky.social @dukeengineering.bsky.social
Come by tomorrow morning to hear about verbal working memory!
Saturday Sept. 13 11am-12:30pm, Poster Session C
C54: Baishen Liang (Postdoctoral Associate) will be presenting his work on sensory-motor mechanisms for verbal working memory.
Hope to see you all there!
C54: Baishen Liang (Postdoctoral Associate) will be presenting his work on sensory-motor mechanisms for verbal working memory.
Hope to see you all there!
September 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Come by tomorrow morning to hear about verbal working memory!
Stop by this afternoon to see some intracranial speech decoding in the hippocampus and to say hello!
Friday Sept 12 4:30pm-6:00pm, Poster Session B
B70: Yuchao Wang (Rotation CNAP PhD Student) will be presenting his work on auditory pseudoword decoding in the hippocampus.
B70: Yuchao Wang (Rotation CNAP PhD Student) will be presenting his work on auditory pseudoword decoding in the hippocampus.
September 12, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Stop by this afternoon to see some intracranial speech decoding in the hippocampus and to say hello!
Coming to DC for SNL later this week?
Come check out our posters on speech decoding and verbal working memory using intracranial recordings!
@snlmtg.bsky.social
#SNL2025
Come check out our posters on speech decoding and verbal working memory using intracranial recordings!
@snlmtg.bsky.social
#SNL2025
September 10, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Coming to DC for SNL later this week?
Come check out our posters on speech decoding and verbal working memory using intracranial recordings!
@snlmtg.bsky.social
#SNL2025
Come check out our posters on speech decoding and verbal working memory using intracranial recordings!
@snlmtg.bsky.social
#SNL2025
Last week, Zac Spalding (@zspald.bsky.social, 4th year PhD student, @dukeubme.bsky.social) presented Adam Gosztolai, Robert Peach, and colleagues’ 2025 paper on MARBLE, a method for finding interpretable latent representations of neural dynamics.
MARBLE: interpretable representations of neural population dynamics using geometric deep learning - Nature Methods
MARBLE uses geometric deep learning to map dynamics such as neural activity into a latent representation, which can then be used to decode the neural activity or compare it across systems.
www.nature.com
September 9, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Last week, Zac Spalding (@zspald.bsky.social, 4th year PhD student, @dukeubme.bsky.social) presented Adam Gosztolai, Robert Peach, and colleagues’ 2025 paper on MARBLE, a method for finding interpretable latent representations of neural dynamics.
Reposted by Cogan Lab
Exciting work by PhD student Zac Spalding @zspald.bsky.social and multiple labs across departments at Duke! A combination of human electrophysiology, modeling/decoding, and cognitive concepts to improve BCI for speech in patients. 👏 🧠📈
We’re happy to present @zspald.bsky.social 's work on shared neural representations of speech production across individuals! We find that patient-specific data can be aligned to a shared space that preserves speech information, enabling cross-patient speech BCIs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 27, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Exciting work by PhD student Zac Spalding @zspald.bsky.social and multiple labs across departments at Duke! A combination of human electrophysiology, modeling/decoding, and cognitive concepts to improve BCI for speech in patients. 👏 🧠📈
From Cogan Lab Journal Club with @zspald.bsky.social
these decomposition acronyms are getting out of hand!
these decomposition acronyms are getting out of hand!
August 26, 2025 at 8:55 PM
From Cogan Lab Journal Club with @zspald.bsky.social
these decomposition acronyms are getting out of hand!
these decomposition acronyms are getting out of hand!
We’re happy to present @zspald.bsky.social 's work on shared neural representations of speech production across individuals! We find that patient-specific data can be aligned to a shared space that preserves speech information, enabling cross-patient speech BCIs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 25, 2025 at 1:24 PM
We’re happy to present @zspald.bsky.social 's work on shared neural representations of speech production across individuals! We find that patient-specific data can be aligned to a shared space that preserves speech information, enabling cross-patient speech BCIs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Last week, Nanlin Shi (Postdoctoral Associate) presented Jessie Liu and colleague’s latest work on speech encoding in the middle Precentral Gyrus (mPrCG). This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Speech sequencing in the human precentral gyrus - Nature Human Behaviour
Liu et al. examine the role of sustained neural activity in the planning and production of speech sequences, revealing a key role for the middle precentral gyrus.
www.nature.com
August 19, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Last week, Nanlin Shi (Postdoctoral Associate) presented Jessie Liu and colleague’s latest work on speech encoding in the middle Precentral Gyrus (mPrCG). This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This week, Jim Zhang (3rd year PhD student, @dukebrain.bsky.social) presented Brooke Staveland’s paper on circuit dynamics of approach-avoidance conflict in humans. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Circuit dynamics of approach-avoidance conflict in humans
Debilitating anxiety is pervasive in the modern world. Choices to approach or avoid are common in everyday life and excessive avoidance is a cardinal feature of all anxiety disorders. Here, we used in...
www.biorxiv.org
July 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
This week, Jim Zhang (3rd year PhD student, @dukebrain.bsky.social) presented Brooke Staveland’s paper on circuit dynamics of approach-avoidance conflict in humans. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Last week, Areti Majumdar (1st year PhD student) presented Leyao Yu and colleagues’ new paper on two overlapping but distinct frontal networks for word retrieval. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
July 16, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Last week, Areti Majumdar (1st year PhD student) presented Leyao Yu and colleagues’ new paper on two overlapping but distinct frontal networks for word retrieval. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
Last week,
@danielsexton16.bsky.social
(7th year Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University) presented Linnea Evanson and colleagues' new paper on comparing the development of language from childhood to adulthood and how it relates to LLMs. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
@danielsexton16.bsky.social
(7th year Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University) presented Linnea Evanson and colleagues' new paper on comparing the development of language from childhood to adulthood and how it relates to LLMs. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
June 13, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Last week,
@danielsexton16.bsky.social
(7th year Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University) presented Linnea Evanson and colleagues' new paper on comparing the development of language from childhood to adulthood and how it relates to LLMs. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
@danielsexton16.bsky.social
(7th year Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University) presented Linnea Evanson and colleagues' new paper on comparing the development of language from childhood to adulthood and how it relates to LLMs. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
Last week, Nicole Liddle (CRS, Sr. @nicoleliddle.bsky.social) presented Çatal and colleagues’ 2024 paper on the flexibility of intrinsic neural timescales during distinct behavioral states. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔):
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Flexibility of intrinsic neural timescales during distinct behavioral states - Communications Biology
Calcium imaging of spontaneously behaving mice show increased intrinsic neural timescales during behavior. The behavioral state of mice can be predicted from the topography of timescales of the cortex...
www.nature.com
May 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Last week, Nicole Liddle (CRS, Sr. @nicoleliddle.bsky.social) presented Çatal and colleagues’ 2024 paper on the flexibility of intrinsic neural timescales during distinct behavioral states. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔):
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Cogan Lab
The Cogan Lab is looking for a new clinical research specialist/research assistant! If you are interested in speech, language, and BCI and want to work with patients implanted with intracranial electrodes, reach out!
www.coganlab.org/news
www.coganlab.org/news
NEWS | Cogan Lab
www.coganlab.org
April 28, 2025 at 1:52 PM
The Cogan Lab is looking for a new clinical research specialist/research assistant! If you are interested in speech, language, and BCI and want to work with patients implanted with intracranial electrodes, reach out!
www.coganlab.org/news
www.coganlab.org/news
The Cogan Lab is looking for a new clinical research specialist/research assistant! If you are interested in speech, language, and BCI and want to work with patients implanted with intracranial electrodes, reach out!
www.coganlab.org/news
www.coganlab.org/news
NEWS | Cogan Lab
www.coganlab.org
April 28, 2025 at 1:52 PM
The Cogan Lab is looking for a new clinical research specialist/research assistant! If you are interested in speech, language, and BCI and want to work with patients implanted with intracranial electrodes, reach out!
www.coganlab.org/news
www.coganlab.org/news
Last week, Baishen Liang (postdoctoral associate) presented recent verbal working work using two-dimensional neural geometry by Fan and colleagues:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔) :
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔) :
Two-dimensional neural geometry underpins hierarchical organization of sequence in human working memory - Nature Human Behaviour
Working memory is constructive in nature. In three electroencephalography/magnetoencephalography studies, Fan et al. provide converging behavioural and neural evidence that a one-dimensional syllable ...
www.nature.com
April 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Last week, Baishen Liang (postdoctoral associate) presented recent verbal working work using two-dimensional neural geometry by Fan and colleagues:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔) :
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔) :
Last week, @danielsexton16.bsky.social (7th year Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University) presented Jonathan Daume and colleagues' new paper on single cell phase-amplitude coupling in a working memory task. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Control of working memory by phase–amplitude coupling of human hippocampal neurons - Nature
Hippocampal theta–gamma phase–amplitude coupling integrates cognitive control and working memory storage across brain areas in humans.
www.nature.com
January 15, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Last week, @danielsexton16.bsky.social (7th year Neurosurgery Resident at Duke University) presented Jonathan Daume and colleagues' new paper on single cell phase-amplitude coupling in a working memory task. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This week, Areti Majumdar (1st year PhD student) presented @vibhaviswanathan.bsky.social and colleagues’ new paper on auditory response latencies and task-related effects in diverse cortical and subcortical regions. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Intracranial Mapping of Response Latencies and Task Effects for Spoken Syllable Processing in the Human Brain
Prior lesion, noninvasive-imaging, and intracranial-electroencephalography (iEEG) studies have documented hierarchical, parallel, and distributed characteristics of human speech processing. Yet, there...
www.biorxiv.org
December 17, 2024 at 2:47 PM
This week, Areti Majumdar (1st year PhD student) presented @vibhaviswanathan.bsky.social and colleagues’ new paper on auditory response latencies and task-related effects in diverse cortical and subcortical regions. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Last week, Zac Spalding (3rd year PhD student, Duke BME) presented Erin Kunz, Benyamin Meschede-Krasa, and colleagues' 2024 preprint on how covert speech is represented in the motor cortex.
[cont.]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
[cont.]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Representation of verbal thought in motor cortex and implications for speech neuroprostheses
Speech brain-computer interfaces show great promise in restoring communication for people who can no longer speak[1][1]–[3][2], but have also raised privacy concerns regarding their potential to decod...
www.biorxiv.org
November 18, 2024 at 9:03 PM
Last week, Zac Spalding (3rd year PhD student, Duke BME) presented Erin Kunz, Benyamin Meschede-Krasa, and colleagues' 2024 preprint on how covert speech is represented in the motor cortex.
[cont.]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
[cont.]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Last week, undergraduate Raymond Xiong presented
Jason Hsieh and colleagues’ new paper on network analysis & machine learning techniques to explore how focal cortical stimulation interacts with complex brain networks for language function. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍& ❔)
Jason Hsieh and colleagues’ new paper on network analysis & machine learning techniques to explore how focal cortical stimulation interacts with complex brain networks for language function. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍& ❔)
Cortical sites critical to language function act as connectors between language subnetworks - Nature Communications
It is unknown how cortical stimulation identifies brain regions critical to speech and language when they depend upon broader brain networks. Here the authors show that these critical areas function a...
www.nature.com
November 4, 2024 at 7:34 PM
Last week, undergraduate Raymond Xiong presented
Jason Hsieh and colleagues’ new paper on network analysis & machine learning techniques to explore how focal cortical stimulation interacts with complex brain networks for language function. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍& ❔)
Jason Hsieh and colleagues’ new paper on network analysis & machine learning techniques to explore how focal cortical stimulation interacts with complex brain networks for language function. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍& ❔)
Reposted by Cogan Lab
Had a great time presenting in the intracranial language symposium at #SNL2024!!
Thanks to all the amazing speakers: Matt Leonard, Stéphanie Riès, Anna Mai,and especially to Jill Kries for organizing!!
Thanks to all the amazing speakers: Matt Leonard, Stéphanie Riès, Anna Mai,and especially to Jill Kries for organizing!!
October 25, 2024 at 10:54 PM
Had a great time presenting in the intracranial language symposium at #SNL2024!!
Thanks to all the amazing speakers: Matt Leonard, Stéphanie Riès, Anna Mai,and especially to Jill Kries for organizing!!
Thanks to all the amazing speakers: Matt Leonard, Stéphanie Riès, Anna Mai,and especially to Jill Kries for organizing!!
Our preprint on the transition from planning to execution for speech production using intracranial recordings is online at biorxiv_neurosci!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
October 8, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Our preprint on the transition from planning to execution for speech production using intracranial recordings is online at biorxiv_neurosci!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
Coming to Chicago for SfN? Interested in intracranial EEG and speech and cognition?
Come see the lab’s posters!
Come see the lab’s posters!
October 4, 2024 at 12:29 AM
Coming to Chicago for SfN? Interested in intracranial EEG and speech and cognition?
Come see the lab’s posters!
Come see the lab’s posters!
Last week, Jim Zhang (3rd year PhD student,
@dukebrain.bsky.social) presented Marije ter Wal and colleague’s paper on how human stereoEEG recordings reveal network dynamics of decision-making in a rule-switching task. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
@dukebrain.bsky.social) presented Marije ter Wal and colleague’s paper on how human stereoEEG recordings reveal network dynamics of decision-making in a rule-switching task. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Human stereoEEG recordings reveal network dynamics of decision-making in a rule-switching task - Nature Communications
How sensory evidence is transformed into motor output is not fully understood. Here, the authors use stereoEEG recordings during a rule-switching task to reveal network dynamics of decision-making.
doi.org
September 23, 2024 at 6:12 PM
Last week, Jim Zhang (3rd year PhD student,
@dukebrain.bsky.social) presented Marije ter Wal and colleague’s paper on how human stereoEEG recordings reveal network dynamics of decision-making in a rule-switching task. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
@dukebrain.bsky.social) presented Marije ter Wal and colleague’s paper on how human stereoEEG recordings reveal network dynamics of decision-making in a rule-switching task. This 🧵 explores our thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Last week, Nicole Liddle (Sr. Clinical Research Specialist) presented Zilio, Gomez-Pilar and colleagues’ 2021 paper on how intrinsic neural timescales (INTs) relate to sensory vs. motor processing in abnormal states. This 🧵 explores her thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Are intrinsic neural timescales related to sensory processing? Evidence from abnormal behavioral states
The brain exhibits a complex temporal structure which translates into a hierarchy of distinct neural timescales. An open question is how these intrins…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 21, 2024 at 6:26 PM
Last week, Nicole Liddle (Sr. Clinical Research Specialist) presented Zilio, Gomez-Pilar and colleagues’ 2021 paper on how intrinsic neural timescales (INTs) relate to sensory vs. motor processing in abnormal states. This 🧵 explores her thoughts (🤍 & ❔)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...