How does the brain adapt when a child is born with an upper limb difference?
Research from @mrccbu.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk reveals widespread changes across the brain, highlighting its remarkable ability to reorganise and support adaptation to the world around them.
Find out more: bit.ly/3Ov88dT
"Babies can categorise objects better at two months than previously known." - Professor Rhodri Cusack from Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and co-author of the research speaks to NewsTalk. Listen to the interview:
ow.ly/MqA650Y8ZbB
@rhodricusack.bsky.social @trinityneuro.bsky.social
Results almost exactly as predicted by the two-process theory:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25454353/
I'm very fortunate to have been continuously funded by the MRC for most of my career despite some funding squeezes. However, things now look dire; first cutting all proper unit funding, then scrapping programme grants, and now circa 2% funding rate:
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
Thrilled to share our paper on the formation of brain shape in human newborns, just out @natneuro.nature.com: tinyurl.com/2ty4ef43
Using #fractal analysis of #MRI data from the developing Human Connectome Project (lnkd.in/dxeHbJX6), we show that brain shape closely captures infant age and genetics β¬οΈ
After her death I imagined what her last lecture would have been like:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Subtle changes in the body may reveal how the #brain develops before behaviours emerge.
In their new blog, Drs Chloe Wong & Laurel Fish explore how #DNA methylation is linked to the pupillary light reflex, offering insight into #autism development.
π www.kcl.ac.uk/what-the-eye...
Direct Fit to Nature: An Evolutionary Perspective on Biological and Artificial Neural Networks www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... - thought-provoking (2019) paper from @urihasson.bsky.social and colleagues
Mapping the Developmental Trajectory of Functional Brain Networks in Early Infancy: Insights into Typical Maturation | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Happy to share our review "Investigating hierarchical critical periods in human neurodevelopmentβ 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 π§΅
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.
Sound advice, but perhaps our objective should be to eliminate the dreaded word completely and replace it with new scientific terminology. In this respect, I disagreed with my co-authors of "Rethinking Innateness" - as noted in the Preface.
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...
The world through infant eyes: Evidence for the early emergence of the cardinal orientation bias www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
And a very helpful and informative commentary on the paper by @tuckerdrob.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...
I was one of those academics who benefited from an H1B visa, and I like to think the US benefited from this also. I can't imagine many US universities can afford to cough up 100k extra for recruitment, so sad to see this....
π
ππ‘ππ π°π ππ«π π«ππππ’π§π βSteven Rose obituary: Vituperative neuroscientist,β in πβπ πππππ
www.thetimes.com/uk/obituarie...
Join our #NewBONDS study at #Cambridge #Babylab β¨
Expectant and young parents are invited take part investigating what effect early interactions have on developing brainππ§ π£
π¨Get in touch to learn more!
#developmental #psychology #neuroscience #research #family #interaction
Join us for a 2-day international conference "Interventions & Recovery"π§ bit.ly/46QQ1WG
We'll cover cell & gene therapies, pharmaceutical innovations, and cutting-edge neurotechnology
Check out our Programme!πhttps://neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/camneuro-events/8th-cambridge-neuroscience-symposium/?tab=2
Finally got around to this interesting exchange. Much to like! However, in my view neonate cortex is building a foundation model while sub-cortical sensorimotor routes support newborn behaviours and, importantly, bias the inputs to the foundation model (e.g. orienting toward faces).
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/...
Excellent work from my colleague Daniel Wechsler showing that "Motherβchild 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/...
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).
DNA is often called a βblueprint for lifeβ. 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
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...
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...
Congratulations Karla! Great to see how much your research has grown from those PhD days...π
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...
