Our lab was at #CCN2025 in Amsterdam last week! 🧠
@juditcaba.bsky.social and @jiamiaoyang.bsky.social presented posters and had some great convos with fellow researchers.
🎉Big cheers to them and everyone who stopped by!
#BrainsAndCode

✨ Wanna earn 17€ and help science? We're running a fun eye-tracking 👀study on how people make decisions — about money, pain, and who’s affected (you, someone else, or a group). Based in Amsterdam. Curious? Sign up here: uva.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

🌟 We want to introduce our newest Postdoc Tousif! He integrates diverse data sources into mathematical models of neuronal dynamics to explore how neuronal activities in the brain unfolds into meaningful social interactions. We look forward to his findings! 🔬

At the end of June two SBL members presented their posters at the Organization for human brain mapping conference (#OHBM2025) in Brisbane Australia!
🔎 Judit and Jiamiao presented their brain signature and computational modeling results about social decision making. We are so proud of our PhDs! 💪

🫂 Last week our lab went on a 3-day retreat to Friesland. As the Social Brain Lab we know the importance of being social and team building with the lab members. The days were filled with fun, work, competition, knowledge sharing, and good food 🤝 📝

🎉 As the SBL is based in Amsterdam, we of course could not miss the celebration of the city’s 750th birthday! On the longest day of the year the lab members joined the festivities on the closed-off freeway we usually drive on to get to work, and had the best day in the sun! ☀️

🧠🔬 Our lab has a new study you can participate in! In 2 hours we test how physically and emotionally connected you and your roommate are, and you can both earn up to €30. Check the requirements below and email m.cariola@nin.knaw.nl to sign up or ask for more information. We we hope to see you soon!

Earlier this month some of our lab members attended the European Social Club conference in Coimbra. We are very proud of Lina and Chaoyi for their great presentations on fear learning and shared ACC circuits underlying empathy! ✨

👏 Thank you Frédéric Michon for presenting at the NIN symposium! He discussed how the hippocampal network is involved in learning contextual threat memories through social observation. 🔎 Learning from others’ experiences can increase our survival chances. Excited to learn about his future research!

We really enjoyed the NIN’s Green Office 🌿 talk! They work hard to promote sustainable lab-practices by organising/attending events & spreading awareness through creative projects to inspire sustainable attitudes. We are excited for more labs to join the LEAF 🌱 initiative with SBL & the Salta group!

PhD student @floranelissen.bsky.social recently presented her literature review about her collaboration with Postdoc Eugenia Poh from the Willuhn group 🤝 Their project investigates how past experiences affect social behavior and the underlying dopamine signals 🔎🐭🧠 Thank you for the wonderful talk!

Welcome to our new postdoc Lena Kaufmann! Lena will be investigating emotional contagion during free interaction and movement with others. We are excited to learn more about the effects of seeing negative experiences on neural population dynamics in the hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex.

We toured the NIN Mechatronics facilities! From laser cutting to 3D printing, we saw how the skilled craftsmen of Microscopy 🔬, Electronics, and the Workshop 🔨 come together to create the experimental setups that make @nin-knaw.bsky.social research work 🤝 Thank you for sharing your work with us!

The SBL welcomes Monia Cariola, our new research assistant! She will be investigating the physiological effects of empathy in an exciting comparative study. This in-vivo research design will give much insight into how the body reacts when seeing others in pain.

Thank you Monique Smith (@moeneuro.bsky.social) for your interesting symposium talk on the social transfer model of empathy! 👏 This visit sparked many new ideas and we are excited to dive into our new collaborative research! 🔎🧠🚀

The SBL holiday party 🎉 was a great success! We relaxed with Tai Chi workshop from the School of T'ai Chi Chuan, exchanged gifts, and ate some delicious food during a pub quiz. Here's to another social year in the lab! ✨🐭🧠

✨ Welcome to all the new interns joining the SBL! Many new people have joined us this year so follow along to stay updated on the exciting work of these newcomers 🍀

Happy New Year of the Snake! Just as the snake moves forward with agility & precision, may your research progress smoothly, discoveries be groundbreaking, & efforts rewarded with abundant achievements. Wishing you a year filled with inspiration, fruitful collaborations, & exciting breakthroughs.

Happy National Hug Day! 🤗 Did you know that consensual hugs can boost your mental and physical health? Share a meaningful or daring hug today and spread the love! 💖 #NationalHugDay #SpreadLove #HealthyHugs