Yongzhen Xie
@doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social
PhD Candidate in the Mack Lab at the University of Toronto 🇨🇦 🧠 🐦 🐱
My research: category learning, computational modelling, fMRI
My hobbies: learning animal facts, coding, digital art, sculpting
My research: category learning, computational modelling, fMRI
My hobbies: learning animal facts, coding, digital art, sculpting
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
The Budding Minds Lab at the University of Toronto is hiring a Postdoc in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of memory 🧠 🫧 This is (one of) my graduate labs and I can't recommend the department's people, resources, location, or culture strongly enough! see buddingmindslab.utoronto.ca for more
Budding Minds
We are a developmental cognitive neuroscience lab located on the St. George campus of the University of Toronto. Our research aims to understand how we form and recall memories, and how we can use...
buddingmindslab.utoronto.ca
October 10, 2025 at 3:52 PM
The Budding Minds Lab at the University of Toronto is hiring a Postdoc in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of memory 🧠 🫧 This is (one of) my graduate labs and I can't recommend the department's people, resources, location, or culture strongly enough! see buddingmindslab.utoronto.ca for more
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
I'm pleased to share our new paper, "Attention to complex scene features", now published in Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics! We investigated how well traditional attention theories generalize to complex scene features, using AI-generated stimuli. Check out the paper here: rdcu.be/elLFK
Attention to complex scene features
rdcu.be
May 13, 2025 at 4:43 AM
I'm pleased to share our new paper, "Attention to complex scene features", now published in Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics! We investigated how well traditional attention theories generalize to complex scene features, using AI-generated stimuli. Check out the paper here: rdcu.be/elLFK
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
How might stories shed light on brain function? Check out this opinion piece by @alexbarnett.bsky.social and I about the DMN and "situation models" -- our understanding of the current "state of affairs" in a story (or even experience).
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 5, 2025 at 1:34 PM
How might stories shed light on brain function? Check out this opinion piece by @alexbarnett.bsky.social and I about the DMN and "situation models" -- our understanding of the current "state of affairs" in a story (or even experience).
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Happy to share our study showing a new role for ventromedial PFC in prospection. tinyurl.com/e7kudkby
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex and Intention Representation in Prospective Memory
Prospective memory (PM) consists of (i) a retrospective component, comprised of memory for intentions and for the cues that should trigger an action, …
tinyurl.com
July 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Happy to share our study showing a new role for ventromedial PFC in prospection. tinyurl.com/e7kudkby
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
#neuroskyence #psychscisky
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Proud to share the first preprint of my PhD w/ @barense.bsky.social & Mursal Jahed:
“Putting the testing effect to the test in the wild: Retrieval enhances real-world memories and promotes their semantic integration while preserving episodic integrity”
See thread! 🧵 osf.io/preprints/ps...
“Putting the testing effect to the test in the wild: Retrieval enhances real-world memories and promotes their semantic integration while preserving episodic integrity”
See thread! 🧵 osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
June 19, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Proud to share the first preprint of my PhD w/ @barense.bsky.social & Mursal Jahed:
“Putting the testing effect to the test in the wild: Retrieval enhances real-world memories and promotes their semantic integration while preserving episodic integrity”
See thread! 🧵 osf.io/preprints/ps...
“Putting the testing effect to the test in the wild: Retrieval enhances real-world memories and promotes their semantic integration while preserving episodic integrity”
See thread! 🧵 osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Super excited to share the preprint we've been working on, "On a roll: Recent familiarity primes the brain to retrieve other memories via dopaminergic nuclei responses"! Check it out, and come see us at CNS if you're around this afternoon! drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...
March 30, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Super excited to share the preprint we've been working on, "On a roll: Recent familiarity primes the brain to retrieve other memories via dopaminergic nuclei responses"! Check it out, and come see us at CNS if you're around this afternoon! drive.google.com/drive/u/0/fo...
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
New preprint from Yining Ding (@liliand.bsky.social)!
"Temporal order memory in naturalistic events is scaffolded by semantic knowledge and hierarchical event structure"
osf.io/preprints/ps...
"Temporal order memory in naturalistic events is scaffolded by semantic knowledge and hierarchical event structure"
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
March 26, 2025 at 10:45 PM
New preprint from Yining Ding (@liliand.bsky.social)!
"Temporal order memory in naturalistic events is scaffolded by semantic knowledge and hierarchical event structure"
osf.io/preprints/ps...
"Temporal order memory in naturalistic events is scaffolded by semantic knowledge and hierarchical event structure"
osf.io/preprints/ps...
#CNS2025 If you are curious about how hippocampal subfields distinctively support the learning of surprising exceptions to category knowledge, come check out my poster at Session C tomorrow between 5 and 7 pm!
March 29, 2025 at 5:56 PM
#CNS2025 If you are curious about how hippocampal subfields distinctively support the learning of surprising exceptions to category knowledge, come check out my poster at Session C tomorrow between 5 and 7 pm!
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Curious about how individual differences in episodic memory traits relate to changes in memory performance over time? Come check out my poster on Sunday, 5-7pm, poster session C, board 66. #CNS2025
March 29, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Curious about how individual differences in episodic memory traits relate to changes in memory performance over time? Come check out my poster on Sunday, 5-7pm, poster session C, board 66. #CNS2025
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Energy efficiency drives evolution, and humans may have evolved pleasure-based signals to optimize actions. Does this extend to aesthetic pleasure?
Yes!
We find strong evidence in silico and human observers!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
With Yikai Tang and Wil Cunningham.
@uoftpsychology.bsky.social
Yes!
We find strong evidence in silico and human observers!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
With Yikai Tang and Wil Cunningham.
@uoftpsychology.bsky.social
January 29, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Energy efficiency drives evolution, and humans may have evolved pleasure-based signals to optimize actions. Does this extend to aesthetic pleasure?
Yes!
We find strong evidence in silico and human observers!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
With Yikai Tang and Wil Cunningham.
@uoftpsychology.bsky.social
Yes!
We find strong evidence in silico and human observers!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
With Yikai Tang and Wil Cunningham.
@uoftpsychology.bsky.social
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
New starter pack: people doing science with narratives, naturalistic memory, natural conversations, and using language models for psych/cog sci 📖💻📚
(Reply with 🙋 if you'd like to be added!)
go.bsky.app/LGRYMvQ
(Reply with 🙋 if you'd like to be added!)
go.bsky.app/LGRYMvQ
November 15, 2024 at 6:53 PM
New starter pack: people doing science with narratives, naturalistic memory, natural conversations, and using language models for psych/cog sci 📖💻📚
(Reply with 🙋 if you'd like to be added!)
go.bsky.app/LGRYMvQ
(Reply with 🙋 if you'd like to be added!)
go.bsky.app/LGRYMvQ
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
People like round contours better than angular contours.
Where and how is curvature represented in the brain?
With indoor architecture we found a neural dissociation between subjective curvature and computational curvature.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Where and how is curvature represented in the brain?
With indoor architecture we found a neural dissociation between subjective curvature and computational curvature.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 4, 2024 at 5:48 PM
People like round contours better than angular contours.
Where and how is curvature represented in the brain?
With indoor architecture we found a neural dissociation between subjective curvature and computational curvature.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Where and how is curvature represented in the brain?
With indoor architecture we found a neural dissociation between subjective curvature and computational curvature.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Excited to share a new preprint with Elizabeth McDevitt, Ghootae Kim, and Nick Turk-Browne investigating the role of REM sleep in neural differentiation of memories in the hippocampus! URL: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.01.621588v1 (1/9)
November 4, 2024 at 1:53 PM
Excited to share a new preprint with Elizabeth McDevitt, Ghootae Kim, and Nick Turk-Browne investigating the role of REM sleep in neural differentiation of memories in the hippocampus! URL: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.01.621588v1 (1/9)
Looking forward to presenting my work on exception learning at #VSS2024! Come see my poster in the morning of May 18 to discuss how prefrontal, hippocampal, and visual areas can distinctively support the learning of complex visual categories with exceptional items!
May 16, 2024 at 10:27 PM
Looking forward to presenting my work on exception learning at #VSS2024! Come see my poster in the morning of May 18 to discuss how prefrontal, hippocampal, and visual areas can distinctively support the learning of complex visual categories with exceptional items!
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
#TAMeG2024 is coming!
May 7 2024 @YorkUniversity
🎯 27 talks
🎯 @tyrellturing.bsky.social keynote
🎯panel on epi mem and AI @aronowitz.bsky.social @WilCunningham @tyrellturing.bsky.social & @morganbarense
🍻 reception (cash bar!), awards, powerpoint karaoke!
tameg.ca
May 7 2024 @YorkUniversity
🎯 27 talks
🎯 @tyrellturing.bsky.social keynote
🎯panel on epi mem and AI @aronowitz.bsky.social @WilCunningham @tyrellturing.bsky.social & @morganbarense
🍻 reception (cash bar!), awards, powerpoint karaoke!
tameg.ca
May 2, 2024 at 7:23 PM
#TAMeG2024 is coming!
May 7 2024 @YorkUniversity
🎯 27 talks
🎯 @tyrellturing.bsky.social keynote
🎯panel on epi mem and AI @aronowitz.bsky.social @WilCunningham @tyrellturing.bsky.social & @morganbarense
🍻 reception (cash bar!), awards, powerpoint karaoke!
tameg.ca
May 7 2024 @YorkUniversity
🎯 27 talks
🎯 @tyrellturing.bsky.social keynote
🎯panel on epi mem and AI @aronowitz.bsky.social @WilCunningham @tyrellturing.bsky.social & @morganbarense
🍻 reception (cash bar!), awards, powerpoint karaoke!
tameg.ca
🎉 My first first-author paper is now published in PBR! @drmack.bsky.social and l used novel computational modeling & behavioral approaches to show how selective pattern differentiation and integration support learning and generalization of category exceptions! link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Reconciling category exceptions through representational shifts - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
Real-world categories often contain exceptions that disobey the perceptual regularities followed by other members. Prominent psychological and neurobiological theories indicate that exception learning...
link.springer.com
April 19, 2024 at 7:38 PM
🎉 My first first-author paper is now published in PBR! @drmack.bsky.social and l used novel computational modeling & behavioral approaches to show how selective pattern differentiation and integration support learning and generalization of category exceptions! link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
We are looking for candidates for a unique postdoc opportunity to work on the role of perceptual grouping in human and computer vision with Sven Dickinson, Kaleem Siddiqi, Zygmunt Pizlo and me.
www.bwlab.org/postdoc-posi...
Please repost.
www.bwlab.org/postdoc-posi...
Please repost.
April 18, 2024 at 3:09 AM
We are looking for candidates for a unique postdoc opportunity to work on the role of perceptual grouping in human and computer vision with Sven Dickinson, Kaleem Siddiqi, Zygmunt Pizlo and me.
www.bwlab.org/postdoc-posi...
Please repost.
www.bwlab.org/postdoc-posi...
Please repost.
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Come check out our lab's posters at #CNS2024
Featuring work from @doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social , June-Kyo Kim, and Marcus Meng
Featuring work from @doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social , June-Kyo Kim, and Marcus Meng
April 13, 2024 at 12:24 PM
Come check out our lab's posters at #CNS2024
Featuring work from @doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social , June-Kyo Kim, and Marcus Meng
Featuring work from @doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social , June-Kyo Kim, and Marcus Meng
I will be presenting my poster on Sunday at 5-7pm. Come to chat about edge functional connectivity and how it can be applied to study the neural dynamics in narrative event processing! #CNS2024
Come check out our lab's posters at #CNS2024
Featuring work from @doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social , June-Kyo Kim, and Marcus Meng
Featuring work from @doryyongzhenxie.bsky.social , June-Kyo Kim, and Marcus Meng
April 13, 2024 at 3:49 PM
I will be presenting my poster on Sunday at 5-7pm. Come to chat about edge functional connectivity and how it can be applied to study the neural dynamics in narrative event processing! #CNS2024
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Check us out at #cns2024:
Sat.: Erik Wing shows how experts’ schemas (🦆) accelerate training-induced functional & structural (!) cortical plasticity. Keela Thomson on how kids (👶) see the world differently (literally!). Hannah Marlatte on youths’ PTSD symptoms & its impact on scene construction (🎑)
Sat.: Erik Wing shows how experts’ schemas (🦆) accelerate training-induced functional & structural (!) cortical plasticity. Keela Thomson on how kids (👶) see the world differently (literally!). Hannah Marlatte on youths’ PTSD symptoms & its impact on scene construction (🎑)
April 11, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Check us out at #cns2024:
Sat.: Erik Wing shows how experts’ schemas (🦆) accelerate training-induced functional & structural (!) cortical plasticity. Keela Thomson on how kids (👶) see the world differently (literally!). Hannah Marlatte on youths’ PTSD symptoms & its impact on scene construction (🎑)
Sat.: Erik Wing shows how experts’ schemas (🦆) accelerate training-induced functional & structural (!) cortical plasticity. Keela Thomson on how kids (👶) see the world differently (literally!). Hannah Marlatte on youths’ PTSD symptoms & its impact on scene construction (🎑)
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Reposted by Yongzhen Xie
Brief category learning distorts the perceptual space of complex scenes! Our new paper is now in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review: link.springer.com/article/10.3....
@drmack.bsky.social @dirkbwalther.bsky.social
@drmack.bsky.social @dirkbwalther.bsky.social
March 7, 2024 at 3:07 AM
Brief category learning distorts the perceptual space of complex scenes! Our new paper is now in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review: link.springer.com/article/10.3....
@drmack.bsky.social @dirkbwalther.bsky.social
@drmack.bsky.social @dirkbwalther.bsky.social