Mark H Johnson
@markhjoh.bsky.social
Professor of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge; Developmental cognitive neuroscience; Interactive Specialization & brain development; Neurodiversity and brain plasticity; University leadership
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment” in @npp-journal.bsky.social! We examine neurobiological, environmental & behavioral evidence for human critical periods in sensory and association cortex +discuss new research directions rdcu.be/eMkVU 🧵
November 11, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopment” in @npp-journal.bsky.social! We examine neurobiological, environmental & behavioral evidence for human critical periods in sensory and association cortex +discuss new research directions rdcu.be/eMkVU 🧵
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Annette Karmiloff-Smith.
She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too.
I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.
She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too.
I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.
Right, enough of James Watson - who's a senior academic you've met who's been an utter delight?
I'll go first: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
I'll go first: Jocelyn Bell Burnell
November 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Annette Karmiloff-Smith.
She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too.
I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.
She ended every seminar/keynote I ever saw with a picture of her kids and grandkids as a note on what's important and that succesful women in academia can have a family too.
I told her the second time how inspirational I'd found that and she was absolutely lovely.
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
First human newborn paper from my NSF CAREER Award! Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - with our amazing @umiamipsych.bsky.social team: Guangyu Zung, Yeojin Amy Ahn, @tiffany6390.bsky.social, @semaylott.bsky.social, Arushi Malik, @dmessinger.bsky.social doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - Behavior Research Methods
Automated behavioral measurement using machine learning is gaining ground in psychological research. Automated approaches have the potential to reduce the labor and time associated with manual behavio...
doi.org
October 31, 2025 at 1:16 PM
First human newborn paper from my NSF CAREER Award! Automated detection of mouth opening in newborn infants - with our amazing @umiamipsych.bsky.social team: Guangyu Zung, Yeojin Amy Ahn, @tiffany6390.bsky.social, @semaylott.bsky.social, Arushi Malik, @dmessinger.bsky.social doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias | PNAS
The structure of the environment includes more horizontal and vertical (i.e. cardinal)
orientations than oblique orientations, meaning that edges t...
www.pnas.org
October 12, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
And a very helpful and informative commentary on the paper by @tuckerdrob.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Early- and late-diagnosed autism are genetically distinct
Analyses of symptoms and genomic data indicate that autism that manifests in early childhood is distinct from autism that is diagnosed later in development.
www.nature.com
October 1, 2025 at 4:05 PM
And a very helpful and informative commentary on the paper by @tuckerdrob.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
👀
A short, relatable message about a migrant worker boosted positivity toward EU #immigration by 20 points among UK voters.
The latest @campsydept.bsky.social #research suggests that pro-immigration arguments can be effective for the UK electorate 👇
https://bit.ly/3HYkEQi
The latest @campsydept.bsky.social #research suggests that pro-immigration arguments can be effective for the UK electorate 👇
https://bit.ly/3HYkEQi
British attitudes to immigrants from Europe can be shifted by relatable messaging, study finds
A short profile of a migrant NHS worker that taps into values of duty and hard work produces a 20-point swing in positivity towards EU immigration among British voters, according to a Cambridge psycho...
bit.ly
September 16, 2025 at 10:18 AM
👀
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 “Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist,” in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist
Academic who showed little tolerance for IQ testing, but made steps towards a treatment for Alzheimer’s, dies aged 87
www.thetimes.com
August 19, 2025 at 4:49 PM
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 “Steven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist,” in 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Join our #NewBONDS study at #Cambridge #Babylab ✨
Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brain🔎🧠🐣
📨Get in touch to learn more!
#developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction
Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brain🔎🧠🐣
📨Get in touch to learn more!
#developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction
August 12, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Join our #NewBONDS study at #Cambridge #Babylab ✨
Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brain🔎🧠🐣
📨Get in touch to learn more!
#developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction
Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brain🔎🧠🐣
📨Get in touch to learn more!
#developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
Join us for a 2-day international conference "Interventions & Recovery"🧠 bit.ly/46QQ1WG
We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology
Check out our Programme!👇https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2
We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology
Check out our Programme!👇https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2
August 7, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Join us for a 2-day international conference "Interventions & Recovery"🧠 bit.ly/46QQ1WG
We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology
Check out our Programme!👇https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2
We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology
Check out our Programme!👇https://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
thrilled to share this project over a decade in the making out now in @pnas.org! We show that precocious GABA boosting in neonates by early sevoflurane/propofol anesthetic exposure accelerates visual cortical maturation in human infants
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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
July 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
thrilled to share this project over a decade in the making out now in @pnas.org! We show that precocious GABA boosting in neonates by early sevoflurane/propofol anesthetic exposure accelerates visual cortical maturation in human infants
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Excellent work from my colleague Daniel Wechsler showing that "Mother–child autism trait similarity positively predicted both social functioning and psychological well-being in children..". Trait similarity may act as a protective or promotive factor.
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
<em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em> | ACAMH Pediatric Journal | Wiley Online Library
Background
There is a pressing need for research on neurodevelopmental conditions to focus on predictors of resilient or positive outcomes, rather than core symptoms and impairment. One promising av.....
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
July 13, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Excellent work from my colleague Daniel Wechsler showing that "Mother–child autism trait similarity positively predicted both social functioning and psychological well-being in children..". Trait similarity may act as a protective or promotive factor.
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
1/ New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com, led by @marinv.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1038/s420...! Across several past studies, we showed how newborns' degraded vision may benefit human development and inspire more robust deep networks. We have referred to this as Adaptive Initial Degradations (AID).
Potential role of developmental experience in the emergence of the parvo-magno distinction - Communications Biology
Developmentally-driven computational modeling study suggests that early sensory experience shapes distinct neuronal response properties in the visual system, providing a potential account of the emerg...
doi.org
July 10, 2025 at 4:31 AM
1/ New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com, led by @marinv.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1038/s420...! Across several past studies, we showed how newborns' degraded vision may benefit human development and inspire more robust deep networks. We have referred to this as Adaptive Initial Degradations (AID).
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
DNA is often called a “blueprint for life”. In common parlance a blueprint refers to (e.g.) an architect plan, technical drawing or engineering design. DNA does indeed contain information to guide construction, in this case of a living organism. But beyond that, similarities rapidly break down. 2/n
June 14, 2025 at 3:50 PM
DNA is often called a “blueprint for life”. In common parlance a blueprint refers to (e.g.) an architect plan, technical drawing or engineering design. DNA does indeed contain information to guide construction, in this case of a living organism. But beyond that, similarities rapidly break down. 2/n
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
The latest essay in our #NeuroAI series explores how inspiration from how babies learn language might improve language models.
Alona Fyshe @alonaf.bsky.social on the BabyLM Challenge, a competition that trains language models (LMs) on smaller datasets, more akin to how a baby learns, in search of solutions to some of the major challenges of today’s LLMs.
#NeuroAI #neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/the-...
#NeuroAI #neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroai/the-...
Can babies inspire more efficient learning algorithms?
A competition that trains language models on smaller datasets, more akin to how a baby learns, seeks solutions to some of LLM’s major challenges.
www.thetransmitter.org
May 19, 2025 at 5:04 PM
The latest essay in our #NeuroAI series explores how inspiration from how babies learn language might improve language models.
Delighted to be part of the team on this breakthrough infant behaviour genetics study led by @angelicaronald.bsky.social and Anna Gui:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genome-wide association meta-analysis of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants of European ancestry - Nature Human Behaviour
A genome-wide association study of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants found 11 significant loci. Age at onset of walking showed SNP heritability of 24%, a reliable polygenic score and gene...
www.nature.com
May 7, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Delighted to be part of the team on this breakthrough infant behaviour genetics study led by @angelicaronald.bsky.social and Anna Gui:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
From our 'infant sibs' cohorts we are finding increasing evidence for Chronogeneity as a way to view heterogeneity in autism. In other words, different ages of onset may reflect different types of neurodiversity.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.medrxiv.org
April 25, 2025 at 9:47 AM
From our 'infant sibs' cohorts we are finding increasing evidence for Chronogeneity as a way to view heterogeneity in autism. In other words, different ages of onset may reflect different types of neurodiversity.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Along with the new statue, proud that my College (Kings) has now acquired some of Turing's notebooks (thanks to a generous donation). Kings was also an early career haven for David Marr and Geoff Hinton, so there must be something in the water?
www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/al...
www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/al...
Alan Turing's 'Delilah' papers saved for the nation
Following his ground-breaking work on the Enigma machines at Bletchley Park, in 1943 Turing (KC 1931) turned to building a portable voice encoder for short-distance transmission to be used in military...
www.kings.cam.ac.uk
April 10, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Along with the new statue, proud that my College (Kings) has now acquired some of Turing's notebooks (thanks to a generous donation). Kings was also an early career haven for David Marr and Geoff Hinton, so there must be something in the water?
www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/al...
www.kings.cam.ac.uk/news/2025/al...
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
The media circus on the slightly modified wolf mixed with the nonsensical hype of de-extinction only highlights the need to greatly shift how we talk about genes and genetic "information" in popular discourse. Oyama's groundbreaking book and Lewontin's prescient forward should be a starting point.
April 8, 2025 at 11:18 AM
The media circus on the slightly modified wolf mixed with the nonsensical hype of de-extinction only highlights the need to greatly shift how we talk about genes and genetic "information" in popular discourse. Oyama's groundbreaking book and Lewontin's prescient forward should be a starting point.
Great paper adding to the recent evidence for pulvinar as an organiser of human cortical development, and potentially "training" cortical specialisation.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
An intrinsic hierarchical, retinotopic organization of visual pulvinar connectivity in the human neonate
Despite the immaturity of the visual cortex, infants exhibit remarkable perceptual
abilities. The pulvinar is hypothesized to support perceptual abilities in infancy
and even scaffold the initial deve...
www.cell.com
March 31, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Great paper adding to the recent evidence for pulvinar as an organiser of human cortical development, and potentially "training" cortical specialisation.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Shocked at the cuts to University staff and research funding across UK, Netherlands and, of course, the situation in US. I'm old enough to remember the massive cuts to science in the early Thatcher years, but at least we young scientists could join the 'brain drain' to the US at the time.
March 13, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Shocked at the cuts to University staff and research funding across UK, Netherlands and, of course, the situation in US. I'm old enough to remember the massive cuts to science in the early Thatcher years, but at least we young scientists could join the 'brain drain' to the US at the time.
There is still a week left to apply! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49974/
The Dawson Professorship of Young People's Mental Health - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
The Dawson Professorship of Young People's Mental Health in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
February 24, 2025 at 12:01 PM
There is still a week left to apply! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49974/
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
So excited to share our Perspective out this week in Translational Psychiatry! We provide a conceptual framework for studying brain function in infancy. A true labor of love and hopefully useful for many related questions! @drbcallaghan.bsky.social
Open access link:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Open access link:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Understanding the development of a functional brain circuit: reward processing as an illustration - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Understanding the development of a functional brain circuit: reward processing as an illustration
www.nature.com
February 23, 2025 at 11:34 PM
So excited to share our Perspective out this week in Translational Psychiatry! We provide a conceptual framework for studying brain function in infancy. A true labor of love and hopefully useful for many related questions! @drbcallaghan.bsky.social
Open access link:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Open access link:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Mark H Johnson
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Understanding continuities and discontinuities between pre and postnatal behaviour in humans..
Understanding continuities and discontinuities between pre and postnatal behaviour in humans..
Trajectories of brain and behaviour development in the womb, at birth and through infancy - Nature Human Behaviour
Recent advances in imaging reveal that birth is a punctuate event in the development of brain and behaviour, which begins in the womb and continues in infancy. Meredith Weiss et al. review our underst...
www.nature.com
February 21, 2025 at 3:33 PM
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Understanding continuities and discontinuities between pre and postnatal behaviour in humans..
Understanding continuities and discontinuities between pre and postnatal behaviour in humans..
After 8 years as Head of Department (Cambridge, Psychology), I am standing down in September... which will give me time for things like Bluesky!
February 21, 2025 at 10:01 AM
After 8 years as Head of Department (Cambridge, Psychology), I am standing down in September... which will give me time for things like Bluesky!