hakwan lau
@hakwan.bsky.social
neuroscientist in Korea (co-director of IBS-CNIR) interested in how neuroimaging (e.g. fMRI or widefield optical imaging) can facilitate closed-loop causal interventions (e.g. neurofeedback, patterned stimulations). https://tinyurl.com/hakwan
Pinned
hakwan lau
@hakwan.bsky.social
· Apr 30
OSF
osf.io
i have uploaded this preprint a while back, but hadn't promoted it directly here. in this piece i explain why i can no longer recommend trainees to participate in my former home field.
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
The End of Conscioussness - osf.io/preprints/ps...
but i've learned a lot. thank you for everything.
🧠📈
Reposted by hakwan lau
Same for neuroscience. The lack of ability to measure many neurons’ activity, perturb them, and measure intracellular processes and connections is what limits understanding the brain.
The key barriers are not algorithms or AI.
🧪#neuroscience 🧠🤖 #MLSky
The key barriers are not algorithms or AI.
🧪#neuroscience 🧠🤖 #MLSky
November 15, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Same for neuroscience. The lack of ability to measure many neurons’ activity, perturb them, and measure intracellular processes and connections is what limits understanding the brain.
The key barriers are not algorithms or AI.
🧪#neuroscience 🧠🤖 #MLSky
The key barriers are not algorithms or AI.
🧪#neuroscience 🧠🤖 #MLSky
Reposted by hakwan lau
1/3
New preprint by Ballard et al. on using resting-state hemodynamic latency as an indirect marker of dopamine physiology:
“Temporal fMRI Dynamics Map Dopamine Physiology” (bioRxiv, 2025)
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neurosky #neuroskyence
New preprint by Ballard et al. on using resting-state hemodynamic latency as an indirect marker of dopamine physiology:
“Temporal fMRI Dynamics Map Dopamine Physiology” (bioRxiv, 2025)
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neurosky #neuroskyence
Temporal fMRI Dynamics Map Dopamine Physiology
Spatial variations in dopamine function are linked to cognition and substance use disorders but are challenging to characterize with current methods. Because dopamine influences blood vessel dilation,...
doi.org
November 16, 2025 at 10:21 PM
1/3
New preprint by Ballard et al. on using resting-state hemodynamic latency as an indirect marker of dopamine physiology:
“Temporal fMRI Dynamics Map Dopamine Physiology” (bioRxiv, 2025)
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neurosky #neuroskyence
New preprint by Ballard et al. on using resting-state hemodynamic latency as an indirect marker of dopamine physiology:
“Temporal fMRI Dynamics Map Dopamine Physiology” (bioRxiv, 2025)
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#RewardSignals #neurosky #neuroskyence
Reposted by hakwan lau
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Exploiting heterogeneous delays for efficient computation in low-bit neural networks
Neural networks rely on learning synaptic weights. However, this overlooks other neural parameters that can also be learned and may be utilized by the brain. One such parameter is the delay: the brain...
arxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Psst - neuromorphic folks. Did you know that you can solve the SHD dataset with 90% accuracy using only 22 kb of parameter memory by quantising weights and delays? Check out our preprint with @pengfei-sun.bsky.social and @danakarca.bsky.social, or read the TLDR below. 👇🤖🧠🧪 arxiv.org/abs/2510.27434
Reposted by hakwan lau
We did a thing. 😬
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA
@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 5:59 PM
We did a thing. 😬
Reposted by hakwan lau
I had a fun time teaching this paper this year: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
November 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I had a fun time teaching this paper this year: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Reposted by hakwan lau
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
November 6, 2025 at 2:55 PM
It’s grad school application season, and I wanted to give some public advice.
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Caveats:
-*-*-*-*
> These are my opinions, based on my experiences, they are not secret tricks or guarantees
> They are general guidelines, not meant to cover a host of idiosyncrasies and special cases
Reposted by hakwan lau
Congratulations to Sheena Josselyn @sjo09.bsky.social, contributing editor at @thetransmitter.bsky.social, on winning the 2025 Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize in recognition of her profound impact on memory research.
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
November 4, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Congratulations to Sheena Josselyn @sjo09.bsky.social, contributing editor at @thetransmitter.bsky.social, on winning the 2025 Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize in recognition of her profound impact on memory research.
#neuroskyence
#neuroskyence
Reposted by hakwan lau
"The cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky was reported to have said: ‘Theories are not refuted. They are embarrassed.’ Today the Modern Synthesis does seem to be somewhat embarrassed, but history tells us that scientists can live with embarrassment for a remarkably long time."
Jablonka & Lamb (2020)
Jablonka & Lamb (2020)
October 29, 2025 at 6:51 PM
"The cognitive psychologist Amos Tversky was reported to have said: ‘Theories are not refuted. They are embarrassed.’ Today the Modern Synthesis does seem to be somewhat embarrassed, but history tells us that scientists can live with embarrassment for a remarkably long time."
Jablonka & Lamb (2020)
Jablonka & Lamb (2020)
Reposted by hakwan lau
"This, however, overlooks two important false assumptions: that hypotheses themselves are value neutral, and that we have unlimited resources to debunk misconceived ideas."
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2024/03/03/t...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2024/03/03/t...
The myth of value-free science*
Perhaps one of the most persistent myths in science—one that also pervades public perception of science—is that it provides a value-free method to arrive at objective Truth, with a big ‘T’. This my…
irisvanrooijcogsci.com
November 2, 2025 at 12:22 AM
"This, however, overlooks two important false assumptions: that hypotheses themselves are value neutral, and that we have unlimited resources to debunk misconceived ideas."
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2024/03/03/t...
irisvanrooijcogsci.com/2024/03/03/t...
Reposted by hakwan lau
What is the representation underlying cognition? Formal models rely on multidimensional scaling of similarity judgments to derive the representation. In this preprint with @mdlbayes.bsky.social, we take an alternative approach; we build Bayesian generative models for three cognitive tasks. /1
Similarity judgments and visual working memory do not share the same cognitive representation: https://osf.io/fm9vz
November 3, 2025 at 7:34 AM
What is the representation underlying cognition? Formal models rely on multidimensional scaling of similarity judgments to derive the representation. In this preprint with @mdlbayes.bsky.social, we take an alternative approach; we build Bayesian generative models for three cognitive tasks. /1
Reposted by hakwan lau
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language.
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
November 3, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Introducing CorText: a framework that fuses brain data directly into a large language model, allowing for interactive neural readout using natural language.
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
tl;dr: you can now chat with a brain scan 🧠💬
1/n
Reposted by hakwan lau
Really delighted to share our new article in Current Biology showing that the cingulate-to-dorsolateral prefrontal pathway is not involved in trial-to-trial short-term adaptation but rather in sustained motivational control.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Redirecting
doi.org
November 2, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Really delighted to share our new article in Current Biology showing that the cingulate-to-dorsolateral prefrontal pathway is not involved in trial-to-trial short-term adaptation but rather in sustained motivational control.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Reposted by hakwan lau
Come be my colleague! The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale has two faculty searches ongoing:
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
📣 WTI is hiring faculty positions! Are you interested in advancing our understanding of the brain + how it gives rise to cognition?
Two calls are open:
Open-rank search, Neurocomputation, deadline: 12.1.25
Senior search, Neurodevelopment, rolling review
🔗 wti.yale.edu/opportunities
#KnowTogether
Two calls are open:
Open-rank search, Neurocomputation, deadline: 12.1.25
Senior search, Neurodevelopment, rolling review
🔗 wti.yale.edu/opportunities
#KnowTogether
November 2, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Come be my colleague! The Wu Tsai Institute at Yale has two faculty searches ongoing:
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
- One in computational cognitive science (due Dec 1)
- One in neurodevelopment (rolling)
🧠🤖
Reposted by hakwan lau
I am recruiting a postdoc at UC Santa Barbara for an NIH-funded project on the organization of lateral PFC function--across emotion and cognition--using representational fMRI & TMS. I’d love to find someone w/ a background in cognitive control & computational modeling to complement our team! 🏝️ 🧠 🧲
October 29, 2025 at 6:20 PM
I am recruiting a postdoc at UC Santa Barbara for an NIH-funded project on the organization of lateral PFC function--across emotion and cognition--using representational fMRI & TMS. I’d love to find someone w/ a background in cognitive control & computational modeling to complement our team! 🏝️ 🧠 🧲
Reposted by hakwan lau
Open access link to new study in Nature Neuroscience:
Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics.
🧪🧠 #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics.
🧪🧠 #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics - Nature Neuroscience
Yang et al. show that moments of failed attention we experience after sleep deprivation reflect brief ‘sleep-like’ episodes in the brain, corresponding to a brain- and body-wide event with altered bra...
www.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Open access link to new study in Nature Neuroscience:
Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics.
🧪🧠 #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics.
🧪🧠 #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by hakwan lau
#TobRegSky #PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky #neuroskyence #neurosci 🧪🛟🫁
Excellent reporting by @bruceylee.bsky.social in @forbes.com about the new NIH multi year funding policy decimating US biomedical research.
www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...
Excellent reporting by @bruceylee.bsky.social in @forbes.com about the new NIH multi year funding policy decimating US biomedical research.
www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...
How New Trump Multiyear Policy Makes NIH Grants Even Harder To Get
The new Trump administration multiyear funding policy for NIH grants has dropped National Cancer Institute grant funding rates from one in 10 applicants to one in 25.
www.forbes.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:39 PM
#TobRegSky #PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky #neuroskyence #neurosci 🧪🛟🫁
Excellent reporting by @bruceylee.bsky.social in @forbes.com about the new NIH multi year funding policy decimating US biomedical research.
www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...
Excellent reporting by @bruceylee.bsky.social in @forbes.com about the new NIH multi year funding policy decimating US biomedical research.
www.forbes.com/sites/brucel...
Reposted by hakwan lau
This is a great Postdoc opportunity at UPenn, for recent Ph.D.s who want to collaborate with CogSci (psych, neuro, ling, philo, cs, etc.) faculty and have their own research direction.
Seeking applications from recent PhDs in neuro, psych, ling, philo, comp sci, or other cog sci discipline, for our MindCORE Fellowship.
MindCORE is an interdisciplinary effort at Penn to understand human intelligence and behavior.
Apply by Dec 1: mindcore.sas.upenn.edu/post-doctora...
MindCORE is an interdisciplinary effort at Penn to understand human intelligence and behavior.
Apply by Dec 1: mindcore.sas.upenn.edu/post-doctora...
October 28, 2025 at 4:10 PM
This is a great Postdoc opportunity at UPenn, for recent Ph.D.s who want to collaborate with CogSci (psych, neuro, ling, philo, cs, etc.) faculty and have their own research direction.
Reposted by hakwan lau
The psychology of virality shows why we share angry, negative content we dislike and how superspreaders and algorithms fuel this trend. #psychology #cogsci #socialmedia
dailyneuron.com/psychology-o...
dailyneuron.com/psychology-o...
The Psychology of Virality Makes Us Share Content We Hate - Daily Neuron
The psychology of virality shows why we share angry, negative content we dislike and how superspreaders and algorithms fuel this trend.
dailyneuron.com
October 28, 2025 at 4:24 PM
The psychology of virality shows why we share angry, negative content we dislike and how superspreaders and algorithms fuel this trend. #psychology #cogsci #socialmedia
dailyneuron.com/psychology-o...
dailyneuron.com/psychology-o...
Reposted by hakwan lau
Psychedelics alter neurovascular coupling, which means we need to critically re-evaluate fMRI findings of acute psychedelic effects
#neuroskyence
#PsychSciSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroskyence
#PsychSciSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Psychedelic 5-HT2A receptor agonism alters neurovascular coupling and differentially affects neuronal and hemodynamic measures of brain function - Nature Neuroscience
Padawer-Curry et al. show that the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A receptor agonist DOI alters neurovascular coupling in mice, with implications for the interpretation of human fMRI studies of psychedelics.
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Psychedelics alter neurovascular coupling, which means we need to critically re-evaluate fMRI findings of acute psychedelic effects
#neuroskyence
#PsychSciSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroskyence
#PsychSciSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by hakwan lau
Cortical and subcortical mapping (n=90) of the human allostatic–interoceptive system using 7 Tesla fMRI, building up the same group’s earlier study on n=700 with 3 Tesla. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cortical and subcortical mapping of the human allostatic–interoceptive system using 7 Tesla fMRI - Nature Neuroscience
The brain is constantly monitoring the systems in the body. Here the authors use 7 Tesla functional magnetic resonance imaging to map a large-scale brain system for body regulation in humans, includin...
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Cortical and subcortical mapping (n=90) of the human allostatic–interoceptive system using 7 Tesla fMRI, building up the same group’s earlier study on n=700 with 3 Tesla. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by hakwan lau
Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is publishing a special issue on “The Vision-Language Interface.” Send in your research about reading, perceptual learning, sign language, dyslexia, etc! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
October 23, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Hello vision scientists & linguists! The Journal of Vision is publishing a special issue on “The Vision-Language Interface.” Send in your research about reading, perceptual learning, sign language, dyslexia, etc! jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan... #neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Reposted by hakwan lau
Stress drives the hippocampus to prioritize statistical prediction over episodic encoding https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.683838v1
October 26, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Stress drives the hippocampus to prioritize statistical prediction over episodic encoding https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.683838v1
Reposted by hakwan lau
Can Tiny Language Models Reason?
This study tests the intuition that explicit reasoning plus preference alignment can make tiny models reason in a readable and steerable way.
shekswess.github.io/tiny-reasoni...
This study tests the intuition that explicit reasoning plus preference alignment can make tiny models reason in a readable and steerable way.
shekswess.github.io/tiny-reasoni...
Can Tiny Language Models Reason?
Exploring the capabilities of Tiny Language Models to reason and understand complex tasks.
shekswess.github.io
October 26, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Can Tiny Language Models Reason?
This study tests the intuition that explicit reasoning plus preference alignment can make tiny models reason in a readable and steerable way.
shekswess.github.io/tiny-reasoni...
This study tests the intuition that explicit reasoning plus preference alignment can make tiny models reason in a readable and steerable way.
shekswess.github.io/tiny-reasoni...
Reposted by hakwan lau
How does our brain excel at complex object recognition, yet get fooled by simple illusory contours? What unifying principle governs all Gestalt laws of perceptual organization?
We may have an answer: integration of learned priors through feedback. New paper with @kenmiller.bsky.social! 🧵
We may have an answer: integration of learned priors through feedback. New paper with @kenmiller.bsky.social! 🧵
October 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM
How does our brain excel at complex object recognition, yet get fooled by simple illusory contours? What unifying principle governs all Gestalt laws of perceptual organization?
We may have an answer: integration of learned priors through feedback. New paper with @kenmiller.bsky.social! 🧵
We may have an answer: integration of learned priors through feedback. New paper with @kenmiller.bsky.social! 🧵
Reposted by hakwan lau
Understanding the flexibility of working memory: Compositionality, generative processing, anchors and holistic representations
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
Understanding the flexibility of working memory: Compositionality, generative processing, anchors and holistic representations
The typical conception of working memory is a mechanism to temporarily hold multiple discrete objects in service of other cognitive tasks in an item-b…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Understanding the flexibility of working memory: Compositionality, generative processing, anchors and holistic representations
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroscience