Sumesh MK
@sumeshmk.bsky.social
Faculty @ Delhi University. Enjoys teaching philosophy, logic, and cognitive science. Currently working on mental representations, explanations, and the question of mind-world cognitive interrelations. Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, etc.
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Reposted by Sumesh MK
“Over the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces.
Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.”
Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris
Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.”
Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris
Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.
Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 29, 2025 at 4:57 PM
“Over the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces.
Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.”
Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris
Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.”
Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Visual adaptation is viewed as a test of whether a feature is represented by the visual system.
In a new paper, Sam Clarke and I push the limits of this test. We show spatially selective, putatively "visual" adaptation to a clearly non-visual dimension: Value!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In a new paper, Sam Clarke and I push the limits of this test. We show spatially selective, putatively "visual" adaptation to a clearly non-visual dimension: Value!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Can we “see” value? Spatiotopic “visual” adaptation to an imperceptible dimension
In much recent philosophy of mind and cognitive science, repulsive adaptation effects are considered a litmus test — a crucial marker, that distinguis…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Visual adaptation is viewed as a test of whether a feature is represented by the visual system.
In a new paper, Sam Clarke and I push the limits of this test. We show spatially selective, putatively "visual" adaptation to a clearly non-visual dimension: Value!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
In a new paper, Sam Clarke and I push the limits of this test. We show spatially selective, putatively "visual" adaptation to a clearly non-visual dimension: Value!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The Idealized Mind: From Model-based Science to Cognitive Science -by Prof. Michael D. Kirchhoff, published (Aug 2025) by the MIT Press. #OpenAccess
August 25, 2025 at 10:42 AM
The Idealized Mind: From Model-based Science to Cognitive Science -by Prof. Michael D. Kirchhoff, published (Aug 2025) by the MIT Press. #OpenAccess
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Our new paper, “A neural compass in the human brain during naturalistic human navigation” is out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! First-author @zhenganglu.bsky.social led the charge, with Josh Julian and collaborator @gkaguirre.com.
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
August 19, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Our new paper, “A neural compass in the human brain during naturalistic human navigation” is out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! First-author @zhenganglu.bsky.social led the charge, with Josh Julian and collaborator @gkaguirre.com.
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Children build math skills on a “cognitive bridge” between space & number. But where does it come from? Our new study finds monkeys transfer learning and abstractions across geometry & numerosity, revealing the evolutionary roots of basic math development. 🧪🧠
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Cognitive bridge between geometric and numerical learning in monkeys | PNAS
Educational research highlights strong developmental links between numerical and spatial
cognition in humans, often shaped by cultural tools like t...
www.pnas.org
August 20, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Children build math skills on a “cognitive bridge” between space & number. But where does it come from? Our new study finds monkeys transfer learning and abstractions across geometry & numerosity, revealing the evolutionary roots of basic math development. 🧪🧠
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Super excited to share that the first work from my PhD is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
We tackle two fundamental questions:
1) How does the brain create a cognitive map solely using auditory information?
2)How does the hippocampus represent a moving object?
www.cell.com/current-biol...
We tackle two fundamental questions:
1) How does the brain create a cognitive map solely using auditory information?
2)How does the hippocampus represent a moving object?
Auditory object representation in the bat hippocampus
Krishna et al. identify two populations of CA1 neurons that encode allocentric object
location or egocentric object distance but only when bats actively track a moving
target using echolocation. These...
www.cell.com
August 14, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Super excited to share that the first work from my PhD is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social
www.cell.com/current-biol...
We tackle two fundamental questions:
1) How does the brain create a cognitive map solely using auditory information?
2)How does the hippocampus represent a moving object?
www.cell.com/current-biol...
We tackle two fundamental questions:
1) How does the brain create a cognitive map solely using auditory information?
2)How does the hippocampus represent a moving object?
Reposted by Sumesh MK
New from Arnold @visnerd.bsky.social lab:
Mental rotation is often regarded as paradigmatic for #mentalimagery. But it turns out people often don't use imagery for mental rotation - & when they do it is often not useful (same viewpoint trials). #visionscience #psychscisky
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Mental rotation is often regarded as paradigmatic for #mentalimagery. But it turns out people often don't use imagery for mental rotation - & when they do it is often not useful (same viewpoint trials). #visionscience #psychscisky
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Redirecting
doi.org
July 21, 2025 at 12:20 AM
New from Arnold @visnerd.bsky.social lab:
Mental rotation is often regarded as paradigmatic for #mentalimagery. But it turns out people often don't use imagery for mental rotation - & when they do it is often not useful (same viewpoint trials). #visionscience #psychscisky
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Mental rotation is often regarded as paradigmatic for #mentalimagery. But it turns out people often don't use imagery for mental rotation - & when they do it is often not useful (same viewpoint trials). #visionscience #psychscisky
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Good video panel at MUSE Trento: evolution is complicated! www.muse.it
August 7, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Good video panel at MUSE Trento: evolution is complicated! www.muse.it
Reposted by Sumesh MK
While I was in Rotterdam for CogSci '24, I visited the Escher Museum and fell in love with his work all over again. Now, a year later, I'm delighted by this SIGGRAPH paper led by my friend Ana!
(Say what you will about the technical details, you must admit that we came up with the ~perfect~ title.)
(Say what you will about the technical details, you must admit that we came up with the ~perfect~ title.)
MIT News today features a fun SIGGRAPH paper by GDP student Ana (@geometry.gay) collaboarting w/ students @yukaryote.bsky.social @kartikchandra.bsky.social plus us old folks. This work explores what it means to do geometry processing on Escher-like "impossible" shapes! news.mit.edu/2025/mit-mes...
MIT tool visualizes and edits “physically impossible” objects
The “Meschers” tool from MIT CSAIL represents “physically impossible” objects commonly found in M.C. Escher’s illustrations by converting both images and 3D models in 2.5-dimensional objects. The tool...
news.mit.edu
August 5, 2025 at 5:41 PM
While I was in Rotterdam for CogSci '24, I visited the Escher Museum and fell in love with his work all over again. Now, a year later, I'm delighted by this SIGGRAPH paper led by my friend Ana!
(Say what you will about the technical details, you must admit that we came up with the ~perfect~ title.)
(Say what you will about the technical details, you must admit that we came up with the ~perfect~ title.)
Reposted by Sumesh MK
🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
July 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Ever wondered how animals know where they are? Or how they find where they need to be?
The answer is that they have maps and compasses built into their heads! Excited to see this new review of map-and-compass navigation led by Joe Morford out in Animal Behaviour @asab.org
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
The answer is that they have maps and compasses built into their heads! Excited to see this new review of map-and-compass navigation led by Joe Morford out in Animal Behaviour @asab.org
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
July 22, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Ever wondered how animals know where they are? Or how they find where they need to be?
The answer is that they have maps and compasses built into their heads! Excited to see this new review of map-and-compass navigation led by Joe Morford out in Animal Behaviour @asab.org
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
The answer is that they have maps and compasses built into their heads! Excited to see this new review of map-and-compass navigation led by Joe Morford out in Animal Behaviour @asab.org
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Are world models necessary to achieve human-level agents, or is there a model-free short-cut?
Our new #ICML2025 paper tackles this question from first principles, and finds a surprising answer, agents _are_ world models… 🧵
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01622
Our new #ICML2025 paper tackles this question from first principles, and finds a surprising answer, agents _are_ world models… 🧵
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01622
June 4, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Are world models necessary to achieve human-level agents, or is there a model-free short-cut?
Our new #ICML2025 paper tackles this question from first principles, and finds a surprising answer, agents _are_ world models… 🧵
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01622
Our new #ICML2025 paper tackles this question from first principles, and finds a surprising answer, agents _are_ world models… 🧵
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01622
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Who's that boy?
Read about Vincenzo Foppa's 'The Young Cicero Reading' 👉 buff.ly/ojqVJQj
📷 Wallace Museum
Read about Vincenzo Foppa's 'The Young Cicero Reading' 👉 buff.ly/ojqVJQj
📷 Wallace Museum
Who's that boy? Vincenzo Foppa's 'The Young Cicero Reading' | Art UK
Discover artworks, explore venues and meet artists. Art UK is the online home for every public collection in the UK, featuring over 600,000 artworks by over 60,000 artists.
artuk.org
July 4, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Who's that boy?
Read about Vincenzo Foppa's 'The Young Cicero Reading' 👉 buff.ly/ojqVJQj
📷 Wallace Museum
Read about Vincenzo Foppa's 'The Young Cicero Reading' 👉 buff.ly/ojqVJQj
📷 Wallace Museum
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Out now in TiCS, something i've been thinking about a lot:
"Physics vs. graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition"
(by Balaban & me)
relevant for many people, related to imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, aphantasia, and more
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lBaC4sIRv...
"Physics vs. graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition"
(by Balaban & me)
relevant for many people, related to imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, aphantasia, and more
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lBaC4sIRv...
June 2, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Out now in TiCS, something i've been thinking about a lot:
"Physics vs. graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition"
(by Balaban & me)
relevant for many people, related to imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, aphantasia, and more
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lBaC4sIRv...
"Physics vs. graphics as an organizing dichotomy in cognition"
(by Balaban & me)
relevant for many people, related to imagination, intuitive physics, mental simulation, aphantasia, and more
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lBaC4sIRv...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Impressive work, now out in @cp-cell.bsky.social, by Priya Moorjani @lauritsskov.bsky.social @ekerdoncuff.bsky.social
Aparajit Ballav Dey, Sharon Kardia, Jinkook Lee & colleagues, offering the most thorough analysis yet of India’s genetic diversity
🧪🧬
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Aparajit Ballav Dey, Sharon Kardia, Jinkook Lee & colleagues, offering the most thorough analysis yet of India’s genetic diversity
🧪🧬
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
50,000 years of evolutionary history of India: Impact on health and disease variation
A genomic study of 2,762 individuals from India offers important insights into the
genomic diversity and evolutionary history of the subcontinent and highlights the
extensive genetic variation, gene f...
www.cell.com
June 27, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Impressive work, now out in @cp-cell.bsky.social, by Priya Moorjani @lauritsskov.bsky.social @ekerdoncuff.bsky.social
Aparajit Ballav Dey, Sharon Kardia, Jinkook Lee & colleagues, offering the most thorough analysis yet of India’s genetic diversity
🧪🧬
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Aparajit Ballav Dey, Sharon Kardia, Jinkook Lee & colleagues, offering the most thorough analysis yet of India’s genetic diversity
🧪🧬
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
Pleased to announce my new open access paper out in Developmental Psychology:
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
June 17, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Pleased to announce my new open access paper out in Developmental Psychology:
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
The Development of the “First Thing That Comes to Mind”
with @xphilosopher.bsky.social and @ebonawitz.bsky.social
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2026-25569-001.html
#CogSci #PsychSciSki #DevSci
(1/10)
Reposted by Sumesh MK
my latest, in Trends in Cognitive Sciences
this review lays out what I think the fundamental specializations are for music perception in humans, namely, the hierarchical processing of pitch and rhythm
or, how our minds turn vibrating air into music
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lG9G_V1r-...
this review lays out what I think the fundamental specializations are for music perception in humans, namely, the hierarchical processing of pitch and rhythm
or, how our minds turn vibrating air into music
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lG9G_V1r-...
June 13, 2025 at 9:16 PM
my latest, in Trends in Cognitive Sciences
this review lays out what I think the fundamental specializations are for music perception in humans, namely, the hierarchical processing of pitch and rhythm
or, how our minds turn vibrating air into music
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lG9G_V1r-...
this review lays out what I think the fundamental specializations are for music perception in humans, namely, the hierarchical processing of pitch and rhythm
or, how our minds turn vibrating air into music
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lG9G_V1r-...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
okay now that's how you write a dang abstract and some keywords
June 11, 2025 at 1:07 PM
okay now that's how you write a dang abstract and some keywords
Reposted by Sumesh MK
What makes a concept complex? For decades complexity measures have been stuck in the classical era, suitable only for deterministic (definitional) concepts. But how does it work for probabilistic concepts?
Happy to share this new paper (just out in Psych Review)!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Happy to share this new paper (just out in Psych Review)!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
June 4, 2025 at 5:53 PM
What makes a concept complex? For decades complexity measures have been stuck in the classical era, suitable only for deterministic (definitional) concepts. But how does it work for probabilistic concepts?
Happy to share this new paper (just out in Psych Review)!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Happy to share this new paper (just out in Psych Review)!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
I've a new post on Substack: a few fun thoughts about the pleasing similarities in the writing of Nora Ephron and Jerry Fodor.
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/when-nora-...
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/when-nora-...
When Nora met Jerry...
Can fiction be written the same register as non-fiction?
thomscottphillips.substack.com
March 27, 2024 at 10:13 AM
I've a new post on Substack: a few fun thoughts about the pleasing similarities in the writing of Nora Ephron and Jerry Fodor.
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/when-nora-...
thomscottphillips.substack.com/p/when-nora-...
Reposted by Sumesh MK
In @elife.bsky.social: Stimulus dependencies—rather than next-word prediction—can explain pre-onset brain encoding during natural listening doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Stimulus dependencies—rather than next-word prediction—can explain pre-onset brain encoding during natural listening
doi.org
April 18, 2025 at 7:19 AM
In @elife.bsky.social: Stimulus dependencies—rather than next-word prediction—can explain pre-onset brain encoding during natural listening doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Just by looking at the slide, you can tell whose talk this is. Ongoing at IIC, Delhi, also on Zoom.
April 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Just by looking at the slide, you can tell whose talk this is. Ongoing at IIC, Delhi, also on Zoom.
The yield from my balcony this time. #CherryTomatoes
March 22, 2025 at 5:57 PM
The yield from my balcony this time. #CherryTomatoes
Reposted by Sumesh MK
I think that this paper is not cited enough.
If you use p-values in your research, and you can't do otherwise, it would be desirable to at least quantify what is the false discovery rate for your sample size and chosen thresholds. It'd be surprising. 🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
If you use p-values in your research, and you can't do otherwise, it would be desirable to at least quantify what is the false discovery rate for your sample size and chosen thresholds. It'd be surprising. 🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
The reproducibility of research and the misinterpretation of p-values | Royal Society Open Science
We wish to answer this question: If you observe a ‘significant’ p-value after doing a single unbiased experiment, what is the probability that your
result is a false positive? The weak evidence provid...
royalsocietypublishing.org
March 16, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I think that this paper is not cited enough.
If you use p-values in your research, and you can't do otherwise, it would be desirable to at least quantify what is the false discovery rate for your sample size and chosen thresholds. It'd be surprising. 🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
If you use p-values in your research, and you can't do otherwise, it would be desirable to at least quantify what is the false discovery rate for your sample size and chosen thresholds. It'd be surprising. 🧪
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...