Akram Bakkour

Sad to miss #CNS26, especially when @monicarosenb.bsky.social receives the young investigator award 🎉

But for all attending, do go see postdoc extraordinaire @atabk.bsky.social's poster B121 "Tracking sampling strategies during value construction to guide novel choice" on Sunday morning.

A new paper shows that the inferred value of an unchosen option spreads to related items in memory.

In other words: even outcomes you never experienced can generalize to guide future decisions.

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 🧠

The inferred value of unchosen options spreads to related items in memory Counterfactual thinking — considering what could have come of choosing the other path — can facilitate inference. Previous studies have demonstrated t…

📢New paper out today in @cognitionjournal.bsky.social!

Does the value of an unchosen option — inferred through counterfactual reasoning — spread to related items in memory, similar to how the value of a chosen option — acquired through direct experience — does?

In short, yes!

Congrats @ycleong.bsky.social!!

#CNS2026 Young Investigator Award Lecture 1 - Neural Signatures of Sustained Attention Across Time Scales and Individuals, Monica Rosenberg, Ph.D.

Monday, March 9, 2026, 1:30 - 2:00 pm

Find out more: www.cogneurosociety.org/young-invest...

@cogneuronews.bsky.social

#JNeurosci: Results from Hall-McMaster, @nicoschuck.bsky.social, @gershbrain.bsky.social et al suggest the entorhinal cortex might highlight aspects of past experiences that can be generalized, allowing us to make effective decisions in new environments https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1492-25.2025

Misspecified models create the appearance of adaptive control during value-based choice - Communications Psychology In a new computational analysis of previous work, this study shows that a control-free mechanism better accounts for value-based decisions than an account that assumes top-down control invigorating th...

In a new computational analysis of previous work, this study shows that a control-free mechanism better accounts for value-based decisions than an account that assumes top-down control invigorating the best choice.
@hritz.bsky.social @ashenhav.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Episodic memory facilitates flexible decision-making via access to detailed events - Nature Human Behaviour Nicholas and Mattar found that people use episodic memory to make decisions when it is unclear what will be needed in the future. These findings reveal how the rich representational capacity of episod...

Our experiences have countless details, and it can be hard to know which matter.

How can we behave effectively in the future when, right now, we don't know what we'll need?

Out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com , @marcelomattar.bsky.social and I find that people solve this by using episodic memory.

A brief history of precision self-scanning When a researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious.

When a brain researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious.

By @lyrebard.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/brain-imagin...

We do caution however that exclusive use of negatively valenced memory palaces can have negative impacts on mood and well-being, so use this trick sparingly!

Agency (participants chose where to place items to memorize) may also be important in overcoming the usually worse associative (i.e., word-location) memory in negatively valenced environments.

Takeaway:
Memory palaces aren’t neutral containers.
How they feel shapes how well they serve memorization.

The effect was not driven by arousal or mood induction.

Why might this work?
Negative valence may drive sharper, more detail-rich representations, improving the precision of “where” items are stored during encoding—and later retrieved.

Using the method of loci, participants memorized words or steps in a procedure by placing items at different locations while navigating virtual houses designed in Minecraft to feel either positive or negative.

Across two studies memory was better when using a negatively valanced memory palace.

🚨New Paper Alert!🚨 Now out in Emotion!

The Memory Palace Architect: Effect of Valence on Loci-Dependent Recall Performance.

We ask a simple question: does the emotional tone of a memory palace matter for recall?

Turns out: yes—and negative palaces work best.

I'm looking to hire a postgraduate research associate in Computational Psychiatry for my new lab at Yale. Please see link below for details & help RT 🙏

postdocs.yale.edu/posts/2026-0...

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

Fresh off the press from all-star post-doc Blake Elliott: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We show that the HPC supports coincidence detection across VTA and lPFC in service of novelty-evoked invigoration. Stay-tuned for how these circuits are altered in psychosis risk.

Collaboratory to Advance Mathematics Education and Learning for K-12

Couldn't believe my eyes-- a new opportunity at NSF, in these times?!
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Dynamic brain mechanisms supporting salient memories under cortisol The stress-related hormone cortisol alters dynamic brain networks predicting memory and arousal to promote emotional memories.

How does cortisol tune brain networks to form strong emotional memories? Excited to share new work led by amazing former RA Flory Huang w collabs Rajita Sinha and @toddc.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We are excited to announce that the Cognitive Computational Neuroscience meeting (CCN 2026) will be held at New York University from August 3–6, 2026.
2026.ccneuro.org

V-68 The effect of curiosity on choice preference (I’m presenting, Abby Hedden couldn’t be here)

At #psynom25? Come to our posters today 6pm!
V-074 Reward restructures existing cognitive maps (Seoyoung Lee)
V-075 Neural representation of multi-attribute food choices in individuals with anorexia nervosa (Hannah Kim)
V-124 Reward-induced memory precision bias in semantic categories (Xinyue Li)

Thrilled to see this reviewed preprint by grad student extraordinaire (but bsky-less) Euan Prentis posted on @elife.bsky.social! doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Thank you to the reviewers and editors for encouraging, insightful and helpful comments. We will be revising the paper, stay tuned!

The Computational and Cognitive Neural Sciences lab (ballardlab.org) at UC Riverside is recruiting psychology PhD students to join our team! Check out the flyer to learn about the lab and our stellar research community at UCR. Apply by 12/1!
drive.google.com/file/d/19m8i...

🏆 #CNS2026 Young Investigator Award Winners 🏆

Congratulations to Monica Rosenberg and Samuel D. McDougle, recipients of the 2026 Young Investigator Award! 🎉

We look forward to their award lectures at the CNS 2026 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada! 🇨🇦✨

@cogneuronews.bsky.social

I'm recruiting PhD students for my lab at Northwestern! I'm reviewing applications for the Department of Psychology for the Cognitive Affective Neuroscience and Clinical areas, due 12/1. 🧠

Come join the CATS Lab: nucatslab.com

Learn about our latest research: iamh.northwestern.edu/research/res...

New Research Explores What Makes Emotional Memories Stick - DSI By Sarah Steimer We can think of emotional experiences as sticky, explains the study’s senior author Yuan Chang (YC) Leong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and DSI Affiliate Resear...

A new study in 'Nature Human Behavior' led by UChicago researchers combines fMRI data and natural language processing to understand how emotions lead to enhanced memory encoding, or "stickiness."

Learn more: bit.ly/3Lec2Gf

@jadynpark.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social

I will be recruiting 🌟PhD students🌟 for my newish lab! If you're interested in learning & memory mechanisms applied to individual, interactive & collective behavior using computational modeling, real-world experiments and fMRI, email me! RTs much appreciated 🙏 rouhanilab.com