Alex Barnett

My recent work has focused on event boundaries. In this work (led by @adibuoy23.bsky.social and June Kim) we asked what makes some moments during events more special than others

Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz Nature Human Behaviour - Biba et al. show that episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz.

I am excited to share my first paper, showing that episodic memory formation is theta rhythmic, is now published in Nature Human Behavior! Check it out here: rdcu.be/e6pzS. Thanks to my PI, Katherine Duncan, and to my collaborators for their support on this journey! Stay tuned for iEEG follow up 🧠

Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 02 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02416-5Biba et al. show that episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz.

Episodic memory encoding fluctuates at a theta rhythm of 3–10 Hz

How do we balance external attention to the outside world and internal attention to our thoughts & memories?

We review evidence that external and internal attention can compete, unfold concurrently, or cooperate!

Loved working on this with @samversc.bsky.social & @tobiasegner.bsky.social!

Congrats!!🙌

Excited to share a new paper spearheaded by the wonderful @baror-shira.bsky.social:
tinyurl.com/bd8xdcum
@erc.europa.eu @nathumbehav.nature.com

We test the link between serial dependence (as an index of continuity) and event boundaries (indexing segmentation). A few key findings in the thread:

Histology-based SWM microstructure intensity profile. Top: SWM sampling framework from 3D postmortem histology. The Laplacian field within the white matter domain was solved for each histological classified volume to sample 50 SWM surfaces, spanning from the GM/WM interface to 3 mm into the white matter. These surfaces were then mapped to each histological staining method, allowing the extraction of intensity profiles for each vertex across SWM depths. Bottom: Alterations in the intensity distributions of histological features across SWM depths. The GM/WM interface (0 mm) and 25 representative SWM surfaces (up to 3 mm into the white matter) are shown. The surfaces showing the greatest variation in SWM, from 0 to 1.8 mm into the white matter, were mapped onto the brain alongside the intensity profiles on the left.

How does superficial white matter contribute to large-scale #brain function? @borismontreal.bsky.social &co use an approach based on 3D histology & 7-Tesla MRI to reveal associations between superficial #WhiteMatter microstructure & diverse cortical properties @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/460WNIz

Nine subcortical/cerebellar atlases included in the subcortex_visualization Python package (and subcortexVisualizationR package in R). The atlases are depicted in two-dimensional vector graphic format.

The extended version of my thesis procrastination project/subcortex visualization package is out now in both Python and R, now that I’ve graduated 🤠 This figure shows the 9 atlases included (and counting)!

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Website: anniegbryant.github.io/subcortex_vi...

Graphic announcing that nominations for the David E. Rumelhart Prize are open. The text reads “Nominations for the David E. Rumelhart Prize are open until February 23” in large green and white lettering on a dark teal background, with a subtle abstract pattern in the corner.

Who has shaped how we understand the human mind?

Nominations for the David E. Rumelhart Prize are open through Feb 23, 2026 🗓️

Visit cognitivesciencesociety.org/rumelhart-pr... to learn about past recipients and submit a nomination!

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Nichole R. Bouffard, Mary Pat McAndrews, et al:

Single voxel autocorrelation reflects hippocampal function in temporal lobe epilepsy

doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Over the years, I have written a few Jupyter/Rmd/Matlab notebooks that attempt to teach some statistical concepts, particularly in neuroimaging. You can find them here: www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/rik.h..., though I will say a bit more about each one in a number of posts over next few days.

Opportunity to move to Canada. 🍁 The Lifespan Institute @brocku.ca is looking to hire a Canada Excellence Research Chair In Healthy Development Across the Lifespan. More info in the job ad (salary negotiable).

brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/brocku_caree....

New Preprint 🚨

This research with @alexbarnett.bsky.social, Yulia Lamekina, @barense.bsky.social, and @bjherrmann.bsky.social examines how background noise shapes event segmentation during continuous speech listening and its consequences for memory.

osf.io/e67qr_v1
@auditoryaging.bsky.social

same! it's a problem I just can't help 😫...

My lab is recruiting a postdoc and a full-time research technician to work on an NIH-funded project studying age-related changes in memory for naturalistic events. Behavior, fMRI, and blood-based biomarkers. 3+ years funding guaranteed.

Postdoc: tinyurl.com/ykjfbnj8

Tech: tinyurl.com/2f2hw3f5

🧠 Hiring a Research Assistant/Lab Manager! Share widely! 📍 St. Louis | ⏰ Full-time

We're launching the How We Learn Lab @WashU, studying attention, learning & memory interactions. Perfect for anyone interested in dev cog neuro who wants hands-on experience before grad school.

deckerlab.com

Neural signatures of engagement and event segmentation during story listening in background noise Speech in everyday life is often masked by background noise, making comprehension effortful. Characterizing brain activity patterns when individuals listen to masked speech can help clarify the mechan...

Finally out: www.eneuro.org/content/earl...

fMRI during naturalistic story listening in noise, looking at event-segmentation and ISC signatures. Listeners stay engaged and comprehend the gist even in moderate noise.

with @ayshamota.bsky.social @ryanaperry.bsky.social @ingridjohnsrude.bsky.social

Our new paper in @sfnjournals.bsky.social shows different neural systems for integrating views into places--PPA integrates views *of* a location (e.g., views of a landmark), while RSC integrates views *from* a location (e.g., views of a panorama). Work by the bluesky-less Linfeng Tony Han.

With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.

My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.

Excited to be teaching a new undergraduate course on Models of Language and Conversation this term!

Check it out here: context-lab.com/llm-course/

I've added lots of fun interactive demos of chatbots and NLP techniques that let students dig into the approaches.

New preprint on how working memory (WM) supports event segmentation. Using load-sensitive EEG markers, we test whether WM accumulates information within events or instead reactivates prior event information at boundaries. osf.io/preprints/ps...

What if we could tell you how well you’ll remember your next visit to your local coffee shop? ☕️

In our new Nature Human Behaviour paper, we show that the 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 can be measured with neuroimaging – and 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗸.

Very happy to see this last thesis paper in press @natcomms.nature.com! We combine intracranial EEG with multimodal MRI to study how interregional similarity in neurophysiology relates to different network scales ⚡ 🧠

Full story 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Validation check ✅ love it.

As for the data. Don’t yuck my yum. 😋

Excited to share the publication of our work which explores the application of LLMs in event segmentation and memory research.

For researchers interested in applying these validated methods, an open-source module is available on GitHub (github.com/ryanapanela/EventRecall).

Event segmentation applications in large language model enabled automated recall assessments - Communications Psychology Large language models automate event segmentation and recall scoring with human-level accuracy. LLMs identify event boundaries more consistently than humans themselves, while semantic embeddings enabl...

Large language models automate event segmentation & recall scoring with human-level accuracy. LLMs identify event boundaries more consistently than humans, while semantic embeddings enable scalable memory assessments.
@ryanapanela.bsky.social
@bjherrmann.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network The brain's language network is often implicated in the representation and manipulation of abstract semantic knowledge. However, this view is inconsistent with a large body of evidence suggesting that...

The last chapter of my PhD (expanded) is finally out as a preprint!

“Semantic reasoning takes place largely outside the language network” 🧠🧐

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

What is semantic reasoning? Read on! 🧵👇

We are hiring an assistant professor in cognitive neural systems in the department of psychology at the university of arizona. please use this link to check out the requirements and apply!

arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

I'm happy to share my debut as first-author with the recent publication of our article in #JNeurosci:

www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

Big thanks again to @tschreiner.bsky.social and the whole team who made this possible! 🧠🌬️