The MARCS Institute

📢 We're hiring: Charter Hall Senior Research Fellow - #Neuroscience of #Ageing & #Dementia | Help shape healthier futures for older adults.

📆 Closes 24 Mar 2026
💰 $147,138–$169,011 + 17% Super
🌎 Visa sponsorship available

👉 Apply now: lnkd.in/gKX_XR8r

@westernsydneyu.bsky.social

Congratulations to Martina Ventura on winning the Denis Burnham Award for Doctoral Student Career Transition! 🎉 Her research on object categorisation in the infant brain is helping us understand how young minds make sense of the world. | Award info: tinyurl.com/DenisBurnham...

#CogNeuro #MARCSHDR

In a world facing conflict and uncertainty, we stand with those affected. 🌏 Today, our researchers reflected on science: it advances when we question and stay open to new evidence. We’re reminded that humility and the commitment to reflect and grow together matter now more than ever.

👏Congrats to this quarter's MARCS Writing Fellowship awardees, @oliviamaurice.bsky.social & @aramirezharo3.bsky.social!

Proud to support our #PhD candidates in publishing their #research. Can't wait to see their work in print!

#AcademicWriting #MARCSHDR #CogNeuro @westernsydneyu.bsky.social

Back to school = back to “I forgot…” 🙃
Forgetfulness is a part of development. Researchers explain what’s happening with #prospectivememory & #executivefunction in children's developing brain. Tips included in article for #parents & #educators:

🔗 tinyurl.com/mryku2ez | @celiaharris.bsky.social

Mapping object space dimensions: New insights from temporal dynamics Abstract. How is object information organized in high-level visual cortex? A recent comprehensive model of object space in macaques defines object space via orthogonal axes of animacy and aspect ratio...

MARCS Visiting Scholarship recipients, Alexis Kidder and Ling Guang, have published new research papers contributing valuable insights to #cognitive and #neuralscience. Read the papers here:

👉 direct.mit.edu/imag/article...

👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our Brains Really Do 'Sync Up' When We Collaborate, Study Reveals Ever experienced a moment of flow when working with another human to achieve a common goal, almost as if you and your collaborator are tuned in to each other's brains? You may have literally been 'in ...

Thrilled to see Denise Moerel and colleagues featured on ScienceAlert: www.sciencealert.com/our-brains-r...

Their study in PLOS Biology revealed that when people collaborate, their brains sync within milliseconds, processing information in strikingly similar ways: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Pleased to share that our PhD Candidate, Florian Burger, has received the Best Poster Award at the Graduate Student Level at the 2025 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) Conference. A well-deserved recognition and a proud moment for their supervisor @tgro.bsky.social.

#ACNS2025

Collaborating minds think alike, processing information in similar ways in a shared task Whether great minds think alike is up for debate, but the collaborating minds of two people working on a shared task process information alike, according to a study published November 25th in the open...

Collaborating minds think alike, processing information in similar ways in a shared task | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

New publication in PLOS Biology: plos.io/4hBhuPy

Denise Moerel, with @tgro.bsky.social, @drquekles.bsky.social, Sophie Smit at @marcsinstitute.bsky.social

We’re thrilled to announce that Associate Professor Joyce Siette has been appointed Editor in Chief of the Journals of Gerontology: Series A - Medical Sciences (view journal here: academic.oup.com/biomedgeront...).

Please join us in congratulating A/Prof Siette on this outstanding achievement!

Exercising in mid and later life can reduce dementia risk – new study People who did a lot of physical activity between 45 and 64 had much lower odds of developing dementia – even when they carried a genetic risk factor.

A/Prof Joyce Siette's article in The Conversation highlights how staying active protects our brain health - even for people with a genetic predisposition to dementia.

Find it here: theconversation.com/exercising-i...

The journal article this piece was based on: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Here’s what Black Friday sales shopping does to your brain Black Friday is a psychological event, carefully designed to take advantage of how your brain makes decisions. But you can stay one step ahead this sales season.

🧠 Ever wondered what’s happening inside your mind during a Black Friday sale? @tgro.bsky.social explains how limited-time sales change the way our brain processes information.

Read The Conversation article here: theconversation.com/heres-what-b...

Are you a super-recogniser? 🧠🧐

MARCS researcher @drquekles.bsky.social is leading fascinating work on exceptional face recognition abilities. A small proportion of people have this extraordinary skill - find out if you’re one of them!

Take the test yourself here: facetest.psy.unsw.edu.au

When we see someone being touched, our brains automatically simulate how it feels Within a fraction of a second of seeing another person being touched, our brains figure out who is involved and how it might feel.

Can sight shape our feelings? 👁️‍🗨️🖐🧠

@theconversation.com article co-authored by Dr Sophie Smit & Dr @tgro.bsky.social, uncovers how fast our brain transforms what we see into what we feel.

Read it here: theconversation.com/when-we-see-...
The Imaging Neuroscience publication: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Yesterday, our MARCS team proudly delivered a meaningful and insightful symposium on Day 1 of #AAGCONF25, titled: “Inclusion at the centre: Promoting socially connected communities for meaningful ageing" - presenting a diverse range of work dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of older adults.

Even in a simple game, our brains keep score – and those scores shape every choice we make Humans are surprisingly bad at being unpredictable.

Dr Denise Moerel and colleagues' article on how our brains make decisions in competitive settings is out now!

Read the full Conversation article here: theconversation.com/even-in-a-si...

The article published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience: academic.oup.com/scan/advance...

Applications are now open for the MARCS International Visiting Scholar Program 2026! 🌏

We are pleased to offer scholarships for PhD students and postdocs for visits of 1–3 months before the end of 2026.

📅 Applications close 4 December 2025.

If you are interested, email marcs@westernsydney.edu.au

🌏 In a dream world, we’d all learn a new language and speak it fluently. Congrats to A/P Mark Antoniou's and team on their new project that aims to uncover the factors behind effective #languagelearning and develop personalised training approaches to help every learner reach their full potential.

🧠🗣️ Curious about how your baby learns to talk? Explore the fascinating journey of early language development with A/P Karen Mattock in a free webinar hosted by Playgroup NSW.

📅 Tuesday 4 November
⏲️ 11:30am -12:30pm
📌 Online via Zoom (Free)

Register here: events.humanitix.com/free-online-...

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Developmental Science Company Description: Western Sydney University is a modern, forward-thinking, research-led institution at the heart of Australia’s fastest-growing and most economically significant region. With 11 cam...

We’re Hiring! Postdoctoral Research Fellow in #DevelopmentalScience

Are you passionate about understanding the origins and development of human analogical reasoning?

View the full position description & apply via: jobs.smartrecruiters.com/WesternSydne...

Applications close: Tue 4 Nov 2025

Do core memories really exist? We asked the experts Some memories fade away, while others stay with us for life. But why can we remember some things and not others? And can you "make" a memory? This is what the experts say.

“Why can’t we remember life before age 4? 🧠 A/P Celia Harris explains the mystery of early memories, identity, and why some childhood moments stick while others fade.

Read the full article: www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

We’re proud to share a new scoping review published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia - co-authored by MARCS’ own Joyce Siette - mapping the evidence on how social determinants contribute to #dementia risk and progression.

Read the full publication: alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

MARCS is seeking 2 x Postdoctoral Research Fellows in Computational Linguistics to join our multilingualism research team led by Prof Paola Escudero.

📅 Apply by: Wednesday 20 August 2025

📍 Open to candidates across Australia & internationally

👉 Learn more & apply here: lnkd.in/dzHtcJJ3

Tempering Temperament: Exploring the Influence of Maternal Mind‐Mindedness on Infant Temperament in Shaping Socioemotional Wellbeing Although several studies independently explore temperament and parenting, research on connections between temperament and mind-mindedness are largely absent. This study examined relationships between....

Proud to share a new student-led publication in ICIS Infancy based on research conducted at MARCS BabyLab. This project explores how infant temperament and maternal language during play may influence socio-emotional development in early life.

Find it here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Join us in congratulating Dr @drquekles.bsky.social on her promotion to Level C, Senior Lecturer/Senior Research Fellow!

Her promotion is a well-deserved recognition of her research excellence and growing impact in the field of #cognitive_neuroscience.

Learn more about her work: lnkd.in/gNkU6czM

We're proud to share that A/Prof Celia Harris, Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience, will be speaking at the upcoming Dementia Innovation Conference 2025!

Book your place now: www.innovatedementia.com

#CognitiveNeuroscience #MARCSInstitute #WesternSydneyUniverity

MARCS' Dr Ruth Brookman, alongside A/P Janet Conti, has led a new paper published in BMC Psychology. The study investigates the impact of a video feedback intervention on how women with elevated perinatal depression symptoms navigate their maternal identity.

Read the full paper: lnkd.in/dZj5nvtf

Congratulations to our HDR candidate Florian Burger on receiving the Best Poster Presentation Award at the recent APCV/EPC Conference! His poster titled "From Visual features to Semantic Structure: Tracing Object Dimensions Through Hierarchical Model Layers."
Read the preprint here: lnkd.in/dKqbvpYw

Hey ECRs at @expsyanz.bsky.social this week - if you're interested in object perception and/or neural decoding, come find me for a chat about an upcoming postdoc spot at the @marcsinstitute.bsky.social 👀

a collage of men 's faces and the words that 's a lot of coopers ALT: a collage of men 's faces and the words that 's a lot of coopers

Headed to @expsyanz.bsky.social tonight? Be sure to check out Poster 31 and have a chat with @tvcottier.bsky.social who is asking the quetsion "Are those images of the same person? Dissecting the super-recogniser advantage" #Superrecogniser #faceperception #EPC2025