James Belanger
@jamesbelanger.bsky.social
Neuroscience and Language Research Technician @ Hayden Lab Baylor College of Medicine | Rice University Alumnus
Reposted by James Belanger
In our new paper, we explore how we can build encoding models that are both powerful and understandable. Our model uses an LLM to answer 35 questions about a sentence's content. The answers linearly contribute to our prediction of how the brain will respond to that sentence. 1/6
August 18, 2025 at 9:42 AM
In our new paper, we explore how we can build encoding models that are both powerful and understandable. Our model uses an LLM to answer 35 questions about a sentence's content. The answers linearly contribute to our prediction of how the brain will respond to that sentence. 1/6
Reposted by James Belanger
Excited to announce that my lab has moved to UC Berkeley Dept of Neuroscience and Dept of Statistics! I will be continuing to collaborate with colleagues and students in TX at UT Austin and Baylor College of Medicine, and will start new collabs in the Bay. Will be taking new grad students this fall!
August 4, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Excited to announce that my lab has moved to UC Berkeley Dept of Neuroscience and Dept of Statistics! I will be continuing to collaborate with colleagues and students in TX at UT Austin and Baylor College of Medicine, and will start new collabs in the Bay. Will be taking new grad students this fall!
Reposted by James Belanger
New paper from the Neurosurgery Research Team at BCM! "Learning and language in the unconscious human hippocampus"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Learning and language in the unconscious human hippocampus
Consciousness is a fundamental component of cognition, but the degree to which higher-order perception relies on it remains disputed. Here we demonstrate the persistence of learning, semantic processi...
www.biorxiv.org
April 11, 2025 at 11:50 AM
New paper from the Neurosurgery Research Team at BCM! "Learning and language in the unconscious human hippocampus"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by James Belanger
This was an interesting commentary to write on work by Binder et al. regarding impaired acoustic phonetic perception after unilateral left hemisphere stroke. academic.oup.com/brain/advanc...
Converging and conflicting evidence for left temporal lobe regions in acoustic-phonetic perception
This scientific commentary refers to ‘Lesion correlates of impaired acoustic-phonetic perception after unilateral left hemisphere stroke’ by Binder et al.
academic.oup.com
March 19, 2025 at 6:23 PM
This was an interesting commentary to write on work by Binder et al. regarding impaired acoustic phonetic perception after unilateral left hemisphere stroke. academic.oup.com/brain/advanc...
Reposted by James Belanger
Two new studies from our team we're particularly happy about:
Study 1: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Study 2: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Blog 3: ai.meta.com/blog/brain-a...
Study 1: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Study 2: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Blog 3: ai.meta.com/blog/brain-a...
February 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Two new studies from our team we're particularly happy about:
Study 1: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Study 2: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Blog 3: ai.meta.com/blog/brain-a...
Study 1: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Study 2: ai.meta.com/research/pub...
Blog 3: ai.meta.com/blog/brain-a...
Reposted by James Belanger
Do you want to learn about what happens when languages meet in the mind of a multilingual? We are excited to announce our podcast miniseries: When Languages Meet, a podcast for people interested in languages and multilingualism - coming to you soon on Spotify! 🎙️💬🧠👄 #linguistics #lingsky #langsky
February 27, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Do you want to learn about what happens when languages meet in the mind of a multilingual? We are excited to announce our podcast miniseries: When Languages Meet, a podcast for people interested in languages and multilingualism - coming to you soon on Spotify! 🎙️💬🧠👄 #linguistics #lingsky #langsky
Reposted by James Belanger
I am incredibly proud to share my first, first-author paper as a postdoc with @benhayden.bsky.social . How does the human hippocampus, known for encoding concepts, represent the meanings of words while listening to narrative speech?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 27, 2025 at 8:17 PM
I am incredibly proud to share my first, first-author paper as a postdoc with @benhayden.bsky.social . How does the human hippocampus, known for encoding concepts, represent the meanings of words while listening to narrative speech?
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by James Belanger
What papers do you like that demonstrate the use of 'orthogonal subspaces' for encoding information in neural populations? #neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI
December 23, 2024 at 5:37 PM
What papers do you like that demonstrate the use of 'orthogonal subspaces' for encoding information in neural populations? #neuroskyence #compneuro #neuroAI
Reposted by James Belanger
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗼?
If only we could record single neurons in humans? Wait, we can. It does semantic coding of words (among lots of other things that we know).
Amazing work by Melissa Franch, Ben Hayden et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
If only we could record single neurons in humans? Wait, we can. It does semantic coding of words (among lots of other things that we know).
Amazing work by Melissa Franch, Ben Hayden et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
March 1, 2025 at 5:34 PM
𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗼?
If only we could record single neurons in humans? Wait, we can. It does semantic coding of words (among lots of other things that we know).
Amazing work by Melissa Franch, Ben Hayden et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
If only we could record single neurons in humans? Wait, we can. It does semantic coding of words (among lots of other things that we know).
Amazing work by Melissa Franch, Ben Hayden et al.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...