Erica Busch
@elbusch.bsky.social
Computational cog neuro | PhD candidate @ Yale | NSFGRFP | Dartmouth ‘20
ericabusch.github.io
ericabusch.github.io
Endlessly lucky to have friends who not only wait around for me to finish out the final poster session of SfN but also help engineer and fly a poster airplane … apologies to anyone inconvenienced by our chaos 🙃 @hhillman.bsky.social @zhoui.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Endlessly lucky to have friends who not only wait around for me to finish out the final poster session of SfN but also help engineer and fly a poster airplane … apologies to anyone inconvenienced by our chaos 🙃 @hhillman.bsky.social @zhoui.bsky.social
Happening soon! come chat with me about noninvasive BCI, neural manifolds, and human learning at W15 (or message me if you’re interested but have already left 🙃)
Excited to be at #SfN25! Come catch my poster “Neural dimensionality expands over the course of brain-computer interface learning” wed PM (W15) if you’re interested in non-invasive BCIs, neural manifolds, human learning, etc. Building upon our recent work (doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.29.646109)
Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore and enhance a wide range of human capabilities. However, a barrier to the adoption of BCIs is how long it can take users to learn to control them. W...
www.biorxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Happening soon! come chat with me about noninvasive BCI, neural manifolds, and human learning at W15 (or message me if you’re interested but have already left 🙃)
Excited to be at #SfN25! Come catch my poster “Neural dimensionality expands over the course of brain-computer interface learning” wed PM (W15) if you’re interested in non-invasive BCIs, neural manifolds, human learning, etc. Building upon our recent work (doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.29.646109)
Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore and enhance a wide range of human capabilities. However, a barrier to the adoption of BCIs is how long it can take users to learn to control them. W...
www.biorxiv.org
November 16, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Excited to be at #SfN25! Come catch my poster “Neural dimensionality expands over the course of brain-computer interface learning” wed PM (W15) if you’re interested in non-invasive BCIs, neural manifolds, human learning, etc. Building upon our recent work (doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.29.646109)
Reposted by Erica Busch
Presenting on contingency representations in PFC during WM on Saturday at SfN! Featuring fMRI and multi-area RNN modeling from my time with John Murray 🤓
And, recruiting a PhD student for Fall ‘26 in my new lab at U-Miami! Check us out here, and feel free to reach out: jam-lab.org (apps due 12/1)
And, recruiting a PhD student for Fall ‘26 in my new lab at U-Miami! Check us out here, and feel free to reach out: jam-lab.org (apps due 12/1)
November 14, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Presenting on contingency representations in PFC during WM on Saturday at SfN! Featuring fMRI and multi-area RNN modeling from my time with John Murray 🤓
And, recruiting a PhD student for Fall ‘26 in my new lab at U-Miami! Check us out here, and feel free to reach out: jam-lab.org (apps due 12/1)
And, recruiting a PhD student for Fall ‘26 in my new lab at U-Miami! Check us out here, and feel free to reach out: jam-lab.org (apps due 12/1)
Reposted by Erica Busch
My lab at USC is recruiting!
1) research coordinator: perfect for a recent graduate looking for research experience before applying to PhD programs: usccareers.usc.edu REQ20167829
2) PhD students: see FAQs on lab website dornsife.usc.edu/hklab/faq/
1) research coordinator: perfect for a recent graduate looking for research experience before applying to PhD programs: usccareers.usc.edu REQ20167829
2) PhD students: see FAQs on lab website dornsife.usc.edu/hklab/faq/
September 28, 2025 at 9:46 PM
My lab at USC is recruiting!
1) research coordinator: perfect for a recent graduate looking for research experience before applying to PhD programs: usccareers.usc.edu REQ20167829
2) PhD students: see FAQs on lab website dornsife.usc.edu/hklab/faq/
1) research coordinator: perfect for a recent graduate looking for research experience before applying to PhD programs: usccareers.usc.edu REQ20167829
2) PhD students: see FAQs on lab website dornsife.usc.edu/hklab/faq/
Reposted by Erica Busch
I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.
October 1, 2025 at 10:39 PM
I'm recruiting PhD students to join my new lab in Fall 2026! The Shared Minds Lab at @usc.edu will combine deep learning and ecological human neuroscience to better understand how we communicate our thoughts from one brain to another.
Reposted by Erica Busch
New manuscript from the lab!
"Mirror manifolds: partially overlapping neural subspaces for speaking and listening"
Led by superstar grad student Anilu Chavez (not on Bluesky)!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
"Mirror manifolds: partially overlapping neural subspaces for speaking and listening"
Led by superstar grad student Anilu Chavez (not on Bluesky)!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Mirror manifolds: partially overlapping neural subspaces for speaking and listening
Participants in conversations need to associate words their speakers but also retain those words general meanings. For example, someone talking about their hand is not referring to the other speakers ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 22, 2025 at 2:15 PM
New manuscript from the lab!
"Mirror manifolds: partially overlapping neural subspaces for speaking and listening"
Led by superstar grad student Anilu Chavez (not on Bluesky)!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
"Mirror manifolds: partially overlapping neural subspaces for speaking and listening"
Led by superstar grad student Anilu Chavez (not on Bluesky)!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Erica Busch
How does spontaneous memory reinstatement at rest relate to episodic memory during development? And how do early experiences influence neural mechanisms of episodic memory encoding and reinstatement? New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Spontaneous reinstatement of episodic memories in the developing human brain
The hippocampus supports episodic memories in development, and yet how the brain stabilizes these memories determines their long-term accessibility. This study examined how episodic memories formed in...
www.biorxiv.org
September 16, 2025 at 12:19 PM
How does spontaneous memory reinstatement at rest relate to episodic memory during development? And how do early experiences influence neural mechanisms of episodic memory encoding and reinstatement? New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Erica Busch
I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026 through both the cognitive and developmental areas at Ohio State. If you are interested in spatial cognition, visual perception, and/or mental representation -- please reach out! I'd love to hear from you.
www.cogdevlab.org
www.cogdevlab.org
PCDL @ OSU
www.cogdevlab.org
September 15, 2025 at 5:56 PM
I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026 through both the cognitive and developmental areas at Ohio State. If you are interested in spatial cognition, visual perception, and/or mental representation -- please reach out! I'd love to hear from you.
www.cogdevlab.org
www.cogdevlab.org
Reposted by Erica Busch
I made the world’s first bioprinted placenta organoids (mini placentas) and they’ve just been published in @natureportfolio.nature.com
We found that the matrix environment chosen for these organoids was critical to how they grew and developed 🤰
idp.nature.com/authorize?re...
We found that the matrix environment chosen for these organoids was critical to how they grew and developed 🤰
idp.nature.com/authorize?re...
Matrix directs trophoblast differentiation in a bioprinted organoid model of early placental development - Nature Communications
The placenta plays vital roles in supporting fetal development. Here, Richards et al. develop a high-throughput bioprinted trophoblast organoid model to recapitulate the microenvironment of the e...
idp.nature.com
September 15, 2025 at 12:29 AM
I made the world’s first bioprinted placenta organoids (mini placentas) and they’ve just been published in @natureportfolio.nature.com
We found that the matrix environment chosen for these organoids was critical to how they grew and developed 🤰
idp.nature.com/authorize?re...
We found that the matrix environment chosen for these organoids was critical to how they grew and developed 🤰
idp.nature.com/authorize?re...
Reposted by Erica Busch
How does the brain🧠 make causal inferences and use memories to understand narratives🎬?
We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do!
Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇
We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do!
Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇
A neural network with episodic memory learns causal relationships between narrative events
Humans reflect on past memories to make sense of an ongoing event. Past work has shown that people retrieve causally related past events during comprehension, but the exact process by which this causa...
www.biorxiv.org
September 5, 2025 at 12:26 PM
How does the brain🧠 make causal inferences and use memories to understand narratives🎬?
We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do!
Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇
We built an RNN🤖 with key-value episodic memory that learns causal relationships between events and retrieves memories like humans do!
Preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
w/ @qlu.bsky.social, Tan Nguyen &👇
Reposted by Erica Busch
Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1
September 5, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1
Reposted by Erica Busch
does someone good at coding & analysis want to work remotely w/ us in the coming few months (before end of 2025), as a paid consultant? project will be on neurofeedback (fMRI, ECoG, calcium imaging). we'll work towards developing the experiments & analysis pipelines together. if so pls DM me ur CV🧠📈
September 1, 2025 at 1:06 PM
does someone good at coding & analysis want to work remotely w/ us in the coming few months (before end of 2025), as a paid consultant? project will be on neurofeedback (fMRI, ECoG, calcium imaging). we'll work towards developing the experiments & analysis pipelines together. if so pls DM me ur CV🧠📈
Reposted by Erica Busch
Preprint⭐
Our attention changes over time and differs across contexts—which is reflected in the brain🧠 Fitting a dynamical systems model to fMRI data, we find that the geometry of neural dynamics along the attractor landscape reflects such changes in attention!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our attention changes over time and differs across contexts—which is reflected in the brain🧠 Fitting a dynamical systems model to fMRI data, we find that the geometry of neural dynamics along the attractor landscape reflects such changes in attention!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Geometry of neural dynamics along the cortical attractor landscape reflects changes in attention
The brain is a complex dynamical system whose activity reflects changes in internal states, such as attention. While prior work has shown that large-scale brain activity reflects attention, the mechan...
www.biorxiv.org
August 12, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Preprint⭐
Our attention changes over time and differs across contexts—which is reflected in the brain🧠 Fitting a dynamical systems model to fMRI data, we find that the geometry of neural dynamics along the attractor landscape reflects such changes in attention!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Our attention changes over time and differs across contexts—which is reflected in the brain🧠 Fitting a dynamical systems model to fMRI data, we find that the geometry of neural dynamics along the attractor landscape reflects such changes in attention!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to be in Amsterdam for #CCN2025! Come learn about a project combining many of my favorite interests - naturalistic neuroimaging, development, & manifold learning (of course). Catch me at poster C181 on Fri - “Intrinsic dimensionality of brain activity manifolds across tasks and development”
August 12, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Excited to be in Amsterdam for #CCN2025! Come learn about a project combining many of my favorite interests - naturalistic neuroimaging, development, & manifold learning (of course). Catch me at poster C181 on Fri - “Intrinsic dimensionality of brain activity manifolds across tasks and development”
Reposted by Erica Busch
How do brain networks tracking past trauma react to stress in the future? Thrilled to share new work from the lab led by rockstar postdoc @felhardi.bsky.social with wonderful collab @dylanggee.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#psychscisky #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#psychscisky #neuroskyence
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
August 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
How do brain networks tracking past trauma react to stress in the future? Thrilled to share new work from the lab led by rockstar postdoc @felhardi.bsky.social with wonderful collab @dylanggee.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#psychscisky #neuroskyence
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#psychscisky #neuroskyence
Reposted by Erica Busch
CIFAR invites applications for senior PhD and postdocs to participate in the Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, held in Montebello, Canada Dec 10-12, 2025. The Winter School is hosted by members of CIFAR’s Brain, Mind, and Consciousness program. Please repost.
cifar.ca/next-generat... 🧠🧪
cifar.ca/next-generat... 🧠🧪
June 3, 2025 at 9:13 PM
CIFAR invites applications for senior PhD and postdocs to participate in the Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, held in Montebello, Canada Dec 10-12, 2025. The Winter School is hosted by members of CIFAR’s Brain, Mind, and Consciousness program. Please repost.
cifar.ca/next-generat... 🧠🧪
cifar.ca/next-generat... 🧠🧪
Reposted by Erica Busch
Online Now: The ubiquity of episodic-like memory during infancy
The ubiquity of episodic-like memory during infancy
Considerable progress has been made in understanding early memory development. However, much of this research pre-dates contemporary theories of memory systems in the mature brain. This review provides a refresher on these conceptual frameworks and proposes a common theoretical foundation for reconciling adult and infant studies. This foundation enables a critical analysis of infant studies that have directly tested memory and suggests that they may not capture the full nature and extent of episodic memory abilities in infancy. The analysis is extended to infant studies that are ostensibly focused on cognitive domains other than memory and finds that many such tasks require episodic-like memory. Thus, there may be substantially more evidence for episodic-like memory in infants than previously recognized.
dlvr.it
May 22, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Online Now: The ubiquity of episodic-like memory during infancy
Reposted by Erica Busch
So excited to share my *first* first-author paper, out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social!! In this review, we argue that even if you don’t remember being a baby, evidence that infants form episodic-like memories is actually all around us: authors.elsevier.com/c/1l82g4sIRv...
authors.elsevier.com
May 21, 2025 at 10:33 PM
So excited to share my *first* first-author paper, out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social!! In this review, we argue that even if you don’t remember being a baby, evidence that infants form episodic-like memories is actually all around us: authors.elsevier.com/c/1l82g4sIRv...
Such timely, relevant, and creative work by @tommybotch.bsky.social and @esfinn.bsky.social — and features very cute robots throughout :) congratulations!
New preprint! Thrilled to share my latest work with @esfinn.bsky.social -- "Sensory context as a universal principle of language in humans and LLMs"
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
May 5, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Such timely, relevant, and creative work by @tommybotch.bsky.social and @esfinn.bsky.social — and features very cute robots throughout :) congratulations!
Reposted by Erica Busch
Absolutely blown away by the groundbreaking research on direct brain stimulation and social cognition! @shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social's work really stood out—capturing incredibly detailed brain activity using implanted electrodes during a theory of mind and reward processing task. #sans2025
April 24, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Absolutely blown away by the groundbreaking research on direct brain stimulation and social cognition! @shawnrhoadsphd.bsky.social's work really stood out—capturing incredibly detailed brain activity using implanted electrodes during a theory of mind and reward processing task. #sans2025
Reposted by Erica Busch
@qilin7.bsky.social has gotten her own funding (IBS-YSF) to start as a junior PI at our center (cnir.ibs.re.kr)
she'll use AI models & our 7T to study individual differences in perception, learning & memory, among other things
she's hiring - contact her if u'd like to join her group
🧠📈🧠💻
she'll use AI models & our 7T to study individual differences in perception, learning & memory, among other things
she's hiring - contact her if u'd like to join her group
🧠📈🧠💻
ibs.re.kr
cnir.ibs.re.kr
April 23, 2025 at 8:09 AM
@qilin7.bsky.social has gotten her own funding (IBS-YSF) to start as a junior PI at our center (cnir.ibs.re.kr)
she'll use AI models & our 7T to study individual differences in perception, learning & memory, among other things
she's hiring - contact her if u'd like to join her group
🧠📈🧠💻
she'll use AI models & our 7T to study individual differences in perception, learning & memory, among other things
she's hiring - contact her if u'd like to join her group
🧠📈🧠💻
Reposted by Erica Busch
Now out in Plos Computational Biology! We identified a generalizable neural signature of emotional arousal across contexts and individuals during movie watching.
work with the best team: @hayoungsong.bsky.social @Zihan Bai @monicarosenb.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
work with the best team: @hayoungsong.bsky.social @Zihan Bai @monicarosenb.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Dynamic brain connectivity predicts emotional arousal during naturalistic movie-watching
Author summary This study explores how the brain represents two key dimensions of emotional experience: valence (how positive or negative an experience feels) and arousal (the level of emotional activ...
dx.plos.org
April 17, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Now out in Plos Computational Biology! We identified a generalizable neural signature of emotional arousal across contexts and individuals during movie watching.
work with the best team: @hayoungsong.bsky.social @Zihan Bai @monicarosenb.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
work with the best team: @hayoungsong.bsky.social @Zihan Bai @monicarosenb.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...
Reposted by Erica Busch
Breaking News: Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s demands, including that it submit to monitoring and reduce the power of faculty and students.
Harvard Will Not Comply With a List of Trump Administration Demands
Federal officials said Harvard must enact “merit-based reform” in hiring and admissions, among other things. Harvard called the demands unlawful.
www.nytimes.com
April 14, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Breaking News: Harvard rejected the Trump administration’s demands, including that it submit to monitoring and reduce the power of faculty and students.
New preprint! Excited to share our latest work “Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry” ft. outstanding former undergraduate Chandra Fincke, @glajoie.bsky.social, @krishnaswamylab.bsky.social, and @wutsaiyale.bsky.social's Nick Turk-Browne 1/8
Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore and enhance a wide range of human capabilities. However, a barrier to the adoption of BCIs is how long it can take users to learn to control them. W...
doi.org
April 3, 2025 at 11:04 PM
New preprint! Excited to share our latest work “Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry” ft. outstanding former undergraduate Chandra Fincke, @glajoie.bsky.social, @krishnaswamylab.bsky.social, and @wutsaiyale.bsky.social's Nick Turk-Browne 1/8