Hugo Spiers
@hugospiers.bsky.social
Prof of Cognitive Neuroscience & Vice Dean at UCL, Fellow of the Royal Inst. of Navigation. I study how we remember, navigate & imagine space
Photo: Our upcoming field research in the Marshall Islands
https://spierslab.wixsite.com/wavesandwayfinding
Photo: Our upcoming field research in the Marshall Islands
https://spierslab.wixsite.com/wavesandwayfinding
Pinned
The NeuroDesign/NeuroArchitecture Index (NDIX): Development of a method to evaluate the impact of the built environment on health, cognitive performance, and wellbeing: https://osf.io/8369k
🚨 Our latest preprint:
A new tool to provide assessments of experience of the built environment: the NDIX.
This has been now deployed in 4 studies, being written up.
Here is the methods preprint with a starcast of co-authors:
A new tool to provide assessments of experience of the built environment: the NDIX.
This has been now deployed in 4 studies, being written up.
Here is the methods preprint with a starcast of co-authors:
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
November 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
November 9, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
November 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
SfN 2025 Art of Neuroscience
Full list of Exhibitors
artologica.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
New episode!! 🎙️🎉
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
November 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New episode!! 🎙️🎉
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Hidden Markov Models
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
November 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Hidden Markov Models
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
what happens when you spend two weeks learning new navigation or memory skills? as shown in our recent paper below, brain network connectivity changes but not hippocampal or other brain volumes! special thanks to collaborators Li Zheng and Steve Weisberg
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
Learning new navigation or memory skills engages flexible brain network dynamics without altering gray matter, white matter, or hippocampal structure.
elifesciences.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:26 PM
what happens when you spend two weeks learning new navigation or memory skills? as shown in our recent paper below, brain network connectivity changes but not hippocampal or other brain volumes! special thanks to collaborators Li Zheng and Steve Weisberg
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Now that we have Hidden Markov Models do we still need correlation matrices?? 😀
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
November 8, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Now that we have Hidden Markov Models do we still need correlation matrices?? 😀
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
A study in Nature Neuroscience shows that the 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 brain activity, pupil size and brain fluid movement. #neuroskyence 🧪
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 brain activity, pupil size and brain fluid movement.
go.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:11 AM
A study in Nature Neuroscience shows that the 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 brain activity, pupil size and brain fluid movement. #neuroskyence 🧪
A bit of doom and gloom reading for the UK Science sector. There are all sorts of things happening outside big pharma, but for that area things look bleak.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
U.K. science sector is ‘bleeding to death,’ lawmakers say in report
House of Lords committee urges government to stem exodus of science and technology companies
www.science.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:27 AM
A bit of doom and gloom reading for the UK Science sector. There are all sorts of things happening outside big pharma, but for that area things look bleak.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 AM
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
"a magisterial new biography" - congrats @matthewcobb.bsky.social! #histSTM
Book review 📚 Sex, drugs and the conscious brain: Francis Crick beyond the double helix
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
love the title:
Experimentally assessing the role of foraging encounters on social partner choice in a kin-biased bird society https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686260v1
November 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
love the title:
This is a magnificent piece of research from @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social and @adekstreme.bsky.social labs:
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
Learning new navigation or memory skills engages flexible brain network dynamics without altering gray matter, white matter, or hippocampal structure.
elifesciences.org
November 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM
This is a magnificent piece of research from @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social and @adekstreme.bsky.social labs:
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
"a magisterial new biography" - congrats @matthewcobb.bsky.social! #histSTM
Book review 📚 Sex, drugs and the conscious brain: Francis Crick beyond the double helix
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
We’re hiring a permanent Lecturer (R&T) in cog neuro and development / lifespan psychology at @rhulpsychology.bsky.social. Join a supportive, research-intensive dept - with a new MRI scanner on the way 🙂
Info below - and get in touch to learn more!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #neuroimaging
Info below - and get in touch to learn more!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #neuroimaging
🚨We are looking for a scholar to join us as a lecturer (teaching & research contract, full-time, permanent), starting 1 April 2026! The application deadline is 1 December 2025.
jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Job Opportunity at Royal Holloway University of London: Lecturer in Psychology (Research & Teaching)
Full-time, PermanentApplications are invited for a post of Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, starting 1 April 2026. The post is open to ambitious, researc...
jobs.royalholloway.ac.uk
November 4, 2025 at 10:38 AM
We’re hiring a permanent Lecturer (R&T) in cog neuro and development / lifespan psychology at @rhulpsychology.bsky.social. Join a supportive, research-intensive dept - with a new MRI scanner on the way 🙂
Info below - and get in touch to learn more!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #neuroimaging
Info below - and get in touch to learn more!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #neuroimaging
If you're interested in memory, engrams, hippocampal systems, this is a must read:
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
Episodic memories are highly dynamic and change in nonlinear ways over time. This dynamism is not captured by existing systems consolidation theories …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:43 PM
If you're interested in memory, engrams, hippocampal systems, this is a must read:
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
Episodic memories are highly dynamic and change in nonlinear ways over time. This dynamism is not captured by existing systems consolidation theories …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I wrote a thing on episodic memory and systems consolidation. I hope you all enjoy it and/or find it interesting.
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
A neural state space for episodic memories
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
Sometimes it can be a pain choosing the route, and toughest when two paths seem equivalent.
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
Cognitive maps, traditionally considered metrically accurate mental representations of space, have been central to navigation research. However, recen…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Sometimes it can be a pain choosing the route, and toughest when two paths seem equivalent.
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Nice new article from Liz Crastil's lab explores what factors drive choices of route:
Graph Properties Drive Navigational Selection between Equidistant Routes
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
How have monsters changed over history? Do they morph with shifting cultural anxieties? Or do they mostly stay the same, sprung from primal, timeless fears?
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social & Natalie Lawrence!
Listen: disi.org/monsters-and...
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social & Natalie Lawrence!
Listen: disi.org/monsters-and...
October 30, 2025 at 5:41 PM
How have monsters changed over history? Do they morph with shifting cultural anxieties? Or do they mostly stay the same, sprung from primal, timeless fears?
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social & Natalie Lawrence!
Listen: disi.org/monsters-and...
Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social & Natalie Lawrence!
Listen: disi.org/monsters-and...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
A wonderful article on the new rare dementia support Centre at UCL. This will make such a huge difference to those with young onset and atypical forms of dementia.
‘I see people with dementia in their 20s’: first centre for young patients
www.thetimes.com/article/7bc1...
‘I see people with dementia in their 20s’: first centre for young patients
www.thetimes.com/article/7bc1...
‘I see people with dementia in their 20s’: first centre for young patients
A pioneering service at University College London will support thousands of people diagnosed decades before old age, combining science with emotional support
www.thetimes.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:35 PM
A wonderful article on the new rare dementia support Centre at UCL. This will make such a huge difference to those with young onset and atypical forms of dementia.
‘I see people with dementia in their 20s’: first centre for young patients
www.thetimes.com/article/7bc1...
‘I see people with dementia in their 20s’: first centre for young patients
www.thetimes.com/article/7bc1...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
ATTN: Two faculty positions are available in my department (neuroscience) at the University of Minnesota. This is a general search with no topic focus. November 20th application deadline.
Apply here: hr.umn.edu/jobs/Find-Job
Assistant Prof job code: 364920
Associate/Full Prof job code: 364921
Apply here: hr.umn.edu/jobs/Find-Job
Assistant Prof job code: 364920
Associate/Full Prof job code: 364921
October 30, 2025 at 3:59 PM
ATTN: Two faculty positions are available in my department (neuroscience) at the University of Minnesota. This is a general search with no topic focus. November 20th application deadline.
Apply here: hr.umn.edu/jobs/Find-Job
Assistant Prof job code: 364920
Associate/Full Prof job code: 364921
Apply here: hr.umn.edu/jobs/Find-Job
Assistant Prof job code: 364920
Associate/Full Prof job code: 364921
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Interesting article.
“The key take-home points are that if you take action for biodiversity in cities (through tree planting, or enhancing habitat in parks, or creating greenways) these actions will also likely yield benefits to human health.”
#biodiversity
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“The key take-home points are that if you take action for biodiversity in cities (through tree planting, or enhancing habitat in parks, or creating greenways) these actions will also likely yield benefits to human health.”
#biodiversity
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The nature extinction crisis is mirrored by one in our own bodies. Both have huge implications for health
Modern life is waging a war against ecosystems around us and inside us. Keeping our own microbes healthy is another reason to demand action to preserve the natural world
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Interesting article.
“The key take-home points are that if you take action for biodiversity in cities (through tree planting, or enhancing habitat in parks, or creating greenways) these actions will also likely yield benefits to human health.”
#biodiversity
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
“The key take-home points are that if you take action for biodiversity in cities (through tree planting, or enhancing habitat in parks, or creating greenways) these actions will also likely yield benefits to human health.”
#biodiversity
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
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