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Ben Deen

@bmhdeen

Asst Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at Tulane, interested in how we understand other people. Rockefeller / MIT / Yale alum. New Yorker πŸ—½ in NOLA ⚜️

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16.10.2023
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Latest posts by Ben Deen @bmhdeen

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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Infants: Insights From More Than 750 Scanning Sessions Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses signifi...

Congratulations to @lillianbehm.bsky.social, Nick Turk-Browne, and a huge team for putting together this paper (out today) on lessons from a decade of attempts to study awake infants with fMRI:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

31.01.2026 18:44 πŸ‘ 60 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks! This does look relevant, I’ll check it out.

29.11.2025 01:10 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Excited to share some new work from the lab at SfN this year! #sfn25

13.11.2025 15:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This paper faced the most challenging peer review process I’ve experienced in my career - a years-long journey with numerous submissions - but I’m glad to say that the end product is substantially improved! 11/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

We speculate that DN-B and A may both support the core function of constructing internal relational models, but in separate content domains: ToM-like models of familiar people, and cognitive maps of familiar places 10/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Person-preferring areas corresponded closely to DN-B. Place-preferring areas were predominantly observed in DN-A, with responses additionally observed in VIS-P and dATN-A/B (if you’ve already seen our preprint, skip to Fig 4 for these new results) 9/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Areas preferring people or places were functionally connected across frontal, parietal, and temporal cortex, with each system reaching the apex of a unimodal-to-transmodal gradient 8/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

These responses were reliably observed across each task context, suggesting for a dissociation based on content domain rather than cognitive process 7/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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We found that separate areas of association cortex responded to task conditions involving people or places, respectively 6/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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We tested this view with a precision fMRI approach, scanning individuals while performing visual, semantic, and episodic tasks involving familiar people or places, or generic objects 5/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

One possibility is that each network supports a distinct cognitive process, such as social cognition and episodic memory. Here we argue for an alternative: the two systems support a common process acting on distinct content domains (people and places) 4/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Recent work has advanced this debate by demonstrating the DMN in fact comprises two separate, interdigitated networks, termed DN-A and B. How should we understand the functional dissociation between these two systems? 3/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

We address the longstanding question of how to understanding the function of the "default mode network," which has been argued to support a staggering range of processes - social cognition, long-term memory, internally generated thought, spatial navigation, etc 2/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Thrilled that this work is (finally) out! We argue that the human brain contains parallel systems for understanding people and places.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 1/

11.11.2025 22:20 πŸ‘ 21 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

We are searching for a Professor and Chair of Psychology at Tulane University. I am chairing the search committee and am happy to answer any questions about the position. All inquiries will be treated confidentially. Please share with your networks: apply.interfolio.com/173828

01.10.2025 01:02 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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My lab at USC is recruiting!
1) research coordinator: perfect for a recent graduate looking for research experience before applying to PhD programs: usccareers.usc.edu REQ20167829
2) PhD students: see FAQs on lab website dornsife.usc.edu/hklab/faq/

28.09.2025 21:46 πŸ‘ 41 πŸ” 27 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Excited to announce that I started as an Assistant Professor at Tulane’s Psychology Department! Made it to the beautiful New Orleans & enjoying the oak trees! Recruiting PhD students through the Brain, Cognition & Dev Science area (deadline Dec 1). Please share widely & contact me with questions!

09.09.2025 15:36 πŸ‘ 25 πŸ” 9 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0

Great work by @lillianbehm.bsky.social and colleagues on factors that influence successful data collection for infant fMRI! Happy to play a small part in the massive effort that went into collecting these data.

28.02.2025 16:37 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Join the Lab β€” Social Memory Lab Are you interested in joining the Deen Lab? Available positions and contact information are described here.

Hello #HiSciSky! I’m a cognitive neuroscientist and Asst Professor of Psychology at Tulane. My lab is recruiting a postdoc and graduate students to study social cognition: www.socialmemorylab.com/join-the-lab #CogSci #cogpsyc #PsychSciSky #neuroskyence #neuroimaging

16.10.2023 15:48 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0