We are deeply saddened to share that Dr. Denise C. Park, founder of CVL, passed away on Sunday, Feb 1. A pioneering cognitive neuroscientist, mentor, & leader, Dr. Park shaped the study of memory, aging, & the brain. Read the full remembrance here: cvl.utdallas.edu/in-memory-of-dr-denise-c-park/
Impressive MEGA-analysis:
Vulnerability to memory decline in aging revealed by a mega-analysis of structural brain change
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Headed to SfN? My group will be presenting new work on aging, memory, and immersive VR, including early Alzheimer’s markers, aphantasia, and a new VR tool for spatial behavior. Come check us out.
Update: our latest paper is now available with open access: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
Hou and colleagues reveal the unique role of both the hippocampus and angular gyrus in supporting high fidelity episodic memories!
Understanding behavior requires datasets that capture humans while carrying out complex tasks. The kitchen is an excellent environment for assessing human motor and cognitive function, as many complex actions are naturally exhibited in kitchens from chopping to 🧽!
arxiv.org/abs/2506.01608
New paper alert! 🚨 We show that age-related neural dedifferentiation in scene-selective cortex is tied to changes in eye movements. Using simultaneous fMRI + eye-tracking, we found that younger adults’ fixations covary with scene specificity, but this link weakens with age.
Link in post below 👇
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🚨 New preprint! 🚨
Excited and proud (& a little nervous 😅) to share our latest work on the importance of #theta-timescale spiking during #locomotion in #learning. If you care about how organisms learn, buckle up. 🧵👇
📄 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
💻 code + data 🔗 below 🤩
#neuroskyence
Out of 800+ studies on blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's, not a single one measured actual changes in patient outcomes.
doi.org/10.1136/bmj-...
Delighted to share our latest review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience!
We examine the growing evidence that vascular dysfunction plays a key role in cognitive decline in ageing and dementia, and argue that preserving/restoring CBF should be central to future therapies.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚨 New paper in Journal of Vision!
We show that scene affordances—what you can do in a space—shape how we perceive and categorize scenes. This shapes your similarity preferences, predicts your categorization false alarms, and even alters neural representations. 🧵👇
🔗 doi.org/10.1167/jov....
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JNeurosci’s Early career researcher (ECR) Advisory Board just opened a call for applications (due July 18 at 5pm ET). Join our team for a unique opportunity to serve the ECR community and advocate for ECR needs in scientific publishing: www.jneurosci.org/content/ecr-...
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
New Paper Alert! de Chastelaine et al found that young adults are able to employ 'retrieval gating' to allow mnemonic content to be aligned with a retrieval goal, but older adults failed to do this even when their memory was boosted to match young adults! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Representation of locomotive action affordances in human behavior, brains, and deep neural networks
www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....
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Cortex Special Issue honoring Dr. Francesca Frassinetti: From Bodies to Spaces: a neurocognitive/neuropsychological perspective on body-space interactions
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By integrating physical mobility and sensorimotor function into models of spatial navigation, we hope to broaden the scope of how navigation is studied, assessed, and ultimately used to detect preclinical changes in Alzheimer’s disease.
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We propose that spatial navigation offers a useful lens into early cognitive-motor changes in aging, shaped by neuromodulatory and multisensory processes that may decline before overt brain pathology.
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Rather than focusing solely on hippocampal or entorhinal dysfunction, we highlight how degraded sensorimotor inputs - like balance, gait, and vestibular function - play a crucial but often overlooked role.
In a recent review, @adekstreme.bsky.social and I revisit how spatial navigation breaks down in aging and early Alzheimer’s disease - and why it’s not just about the brain.
doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
#SpatialNavigation #AgingBrain #EmbodiedCognition #AlzheimerResearch
Please share; My lab at @psychologyuea.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social is recruiting a post-doc for a cognitive neuroscience memory project. It is a 3-year post, with a proposed start date of 8th September. Application deadline is 15th of June.
vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/15...
It is important now more than ever for scientists to share their work with the general public. I am pleased to have contributed to investNScience’s campaign which they are currently running across numerous social media platforms. It is a great initiative that makes science more relevant to everyone.
Are you attending #CNS2025 ? If so, then you should stop by my poster on Tuesday morning for a fun chat about fmri and spatial memory!!
First post and first paper of the year! We show that semantic memory space becomes denser with age. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... .
The relationship between neural differentiation and exploratory eye movements in healthy young and older adults https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.30.635806v1
Instead of listing my publications, as the year draws to an end, I want to shine the spotlight on the commonplace assumption that productivity must always increase. Good research is disruptive and thinking time is central to high quality scholarship and necessary for disruptive research.
Would like to be added if there is still room, thanks
Would love to be added. I use VR and wearable sensors to study memory and navigation in aging and Alzheimer's disease
In a new preprint, we show that age differences in navigation strategies are complex & not well explained by the traditional allocentric-egocentric dichotomy. One unexpected finding - young adults shifted towards more 'egocentric' strategies when navigating in immersive and ambulatory VR environment
Look forward to reading this. This is something I have been thinking about in terms of age differences in navigation. Are older adults (on average) impaired at using a cognitive map to navigate, or do they simply prefer to exploit familiar and more certain routes?
🚨New paper alert!🚨 -- Registered report style!
A "blue-print"!
Some people seem born to explore: breaking new ground, traveling to new places.
Others seem perfectly content to enjoy familiar comforts.
This explore/exploit tradeoff is well-known, and varies across people and situations
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