We're expanding!
A warm welcome to William Narhi-Martinez, who joins the Brain & Cognition Lab as the first stateside Postdoctoral Fellow. William joins us from Ohio State University, where he just completed his doctoral training with Dr Julie Golomb, investigating how probabilistic and experience-driven attentional guidance impacts our processing of space and features. When he’s not in the lab, William is frequently looking for tasty restaurants or kicking a soccer ball around.
Check out William’s excellent perspective paper casting attention as a dynamic multi-level system of weights and balances across the sensory and memory domains: Narhi‐Martinez W, Dube B, Golomb (2023) Cognitive Science 4(1):e1633
BrainWorks in the works!
Across the Atlantic, exciting things are happening over here at Yale! BrainWorks, one of the core facilities within the Wu Tsai Institute, is getting its first test-runs with the EEG and portable EEG systems. Shoutout to our lovely volunteers: our very own, Diana Wei, and Dr. Greg McCarthy! We’re so excited to see how things have progressed and can’t wait to begin running subjects in our new facility!
03/10/2023
Brognition at ECVP!
Gwen and Dani, representing our lab, recently attended ECVP 2023 in Paphos (Cyprus). In addition to attending enlightening symposia and talks, they presented their posters and engaged in fruitful discussions. What made their experience truly special was the chance to establish new connections within the scientific community. Gwen and Dani’s participation at ECVP 2023 promises to bring fresh perspectives, which will contribute to our ongoing research endeavors.
01/09/2023
Even more goodbyes!
We have some heartfelt news to share as we bid farewell to three valued members of our lab. Nir, Katharina, and Sarah are each embarking on exciting new chapters in their lives. Nir has taken on the role of Assistant Professor at the University of Haifa, joining the Department of Gerontology and the Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making (IIPDM). Katharina is ready to kickstart her journey as an Assistant Professor at Royal Holloway, where she’ll lead her own research group. Another notable absence in our lab will be our esteemed lab manager, Sarah, who will embark on a six-month adventure in South America. Sarah’s exceptional management skills and unwavering support have been vital to the lab’s accomplishments. To bid them farewell, we organised one of our traditional OHBA-Qs. We will miss you a lot – please stay in touch!
01/09/2023
Kia's farewell celebrations
Time has come to say farewell and best wishes to Kia for her scientific, professional and personal contributions to the University of Oxford before heading to Yale. Past and present colleagues and lab members came together to celebrate Kia’s scientific achievements with presentations and shared personal memories. To add a touch of fun to the farewell celebration, the B&C lab organised a quiz with questions about Kia. Laughter and friendly competition filled the room as we reminisced about the moments we’ve shared with Kia in Oxford.
17/07/2023
Welcome to our youngest lab member!
The B&C lab has recently celebrated the arrival of a new member, Tev, into the world. Tev’s parents, Sage and Dejan, have not only been invaluable assets to our team but have also now introduced the youngest addition to the lab.
While it may be some time before we see Tev taking part in MEG experiments, we can’t help but look forward to watch Tev grow, learn, and bring even more happiness into the lives of Sage and Dejan.
Welcome, Tev! The B&C lab can’t wait to see what amazing adventures await you in the world of science and beyond.
08/07/2023
Until soon, Bo!
After spending the past year visiting the B&C lab, it is time to say goodbye to Bo! Bo has returned to Taiwan, where he is working as an Associate Professor at the National Taiwan University. Since Bo has already visited the lab several times, we are optimistic about seeing him again in the not-so-distant future
26/06/2023
Brognition at VSS!
What an incredible experience at VSS! Kia, Nir, Sage, Dejan, Gwen, Irene, Levi, Dongyu, and Dani had a blast immersing themselves in cutting-edge vision research. Sharing our own research from the past year was a joy, with Dani delivering an engaging talk and the remaining PhDs and PostDocs sparking inspiring discussions during the 4-hour poster session. Already looking forward to next year’s conference! Check out our contributions and dive into the cutting-edge research here.
28/05/2023
Join us!
We in the process of transitioning the Brain & Cognition Lab to the Wu Tsai Institute (Yale University) and we are actively seeking applications from postdoctoral and postgraduate research associates. To learn more about our lab and how to apply, please click here.
30/04/2023
Thank you Nahid!
Today, Nahid shared her reflections on her nearly 10-year journey at the B&C lab. During her time at the lab, she worked on various research topics such as attention, working memory, long-term memory, and temporal expectations in different populations, including individuals with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease as well as healthy young healthy old participants. Nahid is taking on a new role as Clinical Director at Brain+, where she will lead the clinical team to develop effective and scalable treatments for people with MCI and Dementia. We are grateful for Nahid’s time at the lab and all the insight she has brought to us. Nahid has been such a big part of the lab for so long, there will be a big hole without her. We will miss you Nahid!
28/04/2023
Two must-reads!
The lab has made exciting contributions to the field with the publication of two recent papers: Freek and Kia’s review “Attention in Flux” explores the importance of timing in understanding attention, while Jasper and Co’s paper “Multiple and Dissociable Effects of Sensory History on Working-Memory Performance” sheds light on how sensory history can bias our behavioural reports of sensory information.
27/04/2023
Congrats to Dr. Bueno & Dr. Sefranek
We’re thrilled to announce that Fernanda and Marcus have successfully passed their viva’s this April! Fernanda, a collaborating researcher at ABC University in Sao Paulo, focused her work on temporal expectations. Meanwhile, Marcus’ PhD explored the intriguing relationship between memory and attentional orienting. We’re proud of their accomplishments and can’t wait to see where their research takes them next. Congratulations, Fernanda and Marcus!
26/04/2023
Celebrations 🥳
The members of the B&C lab have been achieving great things lately, and we couldn’t be prouder!
- Rhianna secured funding and will start her DPhil at Oxford this October with Kate Nation and Dejan Draschkow. As a current research assistant in the lab, we’re proud to see her continue her academic pursuits. Best of luck on this exciting journey, Rhianna!
- Freek received the Young Investigator Award at CNS. This prestigious award recognises exceptional contributions by scientists early in their careers. Well done, Freek! Your hard work and dedication are an inspiration to us all.
- Dejan will be joining Brasenose College as an Associate Professor and Tutorial Fellow. Dejan’s groundbreaking research on attention, perception, and working memory using innovative approaches has us eagerly anticipating his future contributions.
- Katharina will be appointed Assistant Professor at Royal Holloway starting this fall. Katharina’s research will focus on auditory cognition, multi-sensory perception. We’re proud of you, and wish you all the best in this exciting new chapter of your career!
- Nahid joined Brain+ as Clinical Director, where she is leading the clinical team and driving the development of effective, scalable treatments for people with MCI and Dementia. Congrats Nahid on this amazing opportunity to make a difference!
- Noam joined the Action Research on Research Culture project at Cambridge University as a Research Associate, starting next month. We’re excited to see the impact of his work on understanding and improving research culture. Best of luck, Noam!
- Nir has been appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Gerontology and the Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making (IIPDM) at the University of Haifa. Congrats on this exciting new position and wishing you all the best in your academic endeavors.
05/04/2023
Celebrating Baba Marta!
Today the B&C lab celebrated Baba Marta. Baba Marta is a traditional Bulgarian holiday that celebrates the arrival of spring (which we are really looking forward in the UK). The holiday is usually celebrated on March 1st and is named after Baba Marta, which means “Grandmother March” in Bulgarian. Baba Marta is depicted as an old woman with wild hair, wearing a red and white woolen apron. According to Bulgarian folklore, Baba Marta is responsible for bringing the change of seasons, and her arrival is marked by the changing weather patterns in early March. To celebrate Baba Marta, Bulgarians often exchange martenitsi, which are red and white woolen threads or ornaments that symbolize health and good luck.
17/03/2023
Brognition Day 2023!
Brognition day is a special day for the B&C lab, where members come together to reflect on their past accomplishments, discuss current research and lab culture, and explore new ideas for personal and career development. This year’s Brognition day was no exception, with members gathering at New College to start the day’s discussions.
The day began with a discussion on the lab’s most valuable contributions over the years. We also focussed on methods and analyses in cognitive neuroscience, and the importance of promoting a happy environment and personal development in the lab. The day concluded with discussions on personal and career development, including the challenges and stressors faced by scientists today, and new opportunities for forging a fulfilling career.
It was a day filled with laughter, learning, and inspiration, reminding us all of the incredible work and dedication of our lab members.
25/02/2023
Welcome to Mats!
Mats is embarking on an exciting journey today as he begins his Postdoc at the B&C lab! He will continue his work in Mark Woolrich’s group, and will focus on M/EEG analysis and methods. But not only that, he will also be joining the B&C lab, where he will be getting even more involved in various clinical projects, such as NTAD.
01/02/2023
Time to celebrate our excellent teachers!
Today, Sage and Dejan formally received a Project Award from the Medical Science Division. Dejan and Sage used this financial support provided by this award to organise a Hackathon for undergraduate EP and PPL students. This hackathon aimed to establish foundational programming skills for creating experiments and analysing data. On top of this, Dejan also received an Early Career Excellent Teaching award his exceptional contributions to teaching.
23/09/2022
Kia is being honoured for her outstanding achievements
Today, Kia formally received the C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science. The B&C members were happy to share this big moment with Kia while watching the live stream of the award ceremony at OHBA.
29/09/2022
Congratulations!
Jasper had his graduation ceremony today – the final step of the DPhil. Jasper is currently working as a data scientist in London, but we are hoping he will still visit us here in Oxford from time to time!
23/09/2022
“Being a scientist is being able to always keep curiosity alive”
Check out this inspirational interview with Kia who has recently been awarded the Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science.
22/09/202
Hello times 4!
We would like to introduce two new lab members: Rhianna Watt and Oscar Haines started their job as research assistants in the B&C lab. A warm welcome also to PhD student Fernanda Bueno from the Timing and Cognition Lab in São Paulo and Prof Bo-Cheng Kuo from the National Taiwan University in Taipei who are currently visiting the lab.
19/08/2022
Goodbye Andrew J. Quinn!
We sadly have to say goodbye to Andrew. After eight years in the Brain and Cognition Lab, Andrew will be starting as an Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham. There was no better way to celebrate Andrew’s big academic transition with an OHBA-Q in our new tie-dye shirts. Andrew will be dearly missed and we wish all the best for his new adventures!
08/07/2022
The future of virtual reality
Check out Dejan’s comment in Nature Reviews Psychology in which he discusses the potential of remote behavioural studies in virtual reality.
18/06/2022
Congrats to Kia!
We are so proud of Kia for being awarded the Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science 2022. The award honours her innovative approach to imaging and understanding the human brain as well as the impact of this work on numerous subfields of cognitive neuroscience, including attention, working memory, long-term memory, and language.
08/06/2022
Tye-die Tuesday 🎨
Lab meetings are always important, but sometimes afterwards you just need to sit back, relax, and make some tie-die shirts! That’s exactly what we did this Tuesday. Updates to follow in our new lab uniform.
01/06/2022
Science, Beach, and Tiki Bar!
Nir, Sage, Dejan, Gwen, Irene, and Dani had an amazing time at VSS! It was a pleasure hearing about cutting-edge vision research as well as being able to share what we have learned from our own experiments in the last year. Gwen and Irene gave brilliant talks and the remaining B&C attendees engaged in inspiring discussions in the 4-hour poster session. We can’t wait for next year!
25/05/2022
Boom Boom Beta Bursts 💥
Check out Irene’s new paper published in Progress in Neurobiology. Irene et al. found that beta frequency (13 – 30 Hz) activity in motor brain areas and beta connectivity with the downstream muscle were short-lived, even when participants were engaged in sustained motor behaviour. In addition, they report that sustained task demands do not prolong beta event duration in comparison to rest. A must-read!
22/05/2022
Understanding the process of ageing
Check out this magazine article about Méadhbh’s Ageing Plasticity project! Méadhbh uses M/EEG in to understand the neurophysiological processes that underpin individual differences in cognitive function, and neuroimaging (MRI) and brain stimulation techniques to investigate networks supporting resilience to cognitive decline.
12/05/2022
Brognition Day
Yesterday, we had our first Brognition Day since the start of the pandemic two years ago. The theme was Upgrading. We (all 21 members of the B&C day) spent the day at the beautiful grounds of St. John’s College to reflect upon how we could upgrade the lab. Besides conversations about how to improve the lab’s culture, procedures, and activities, we also discussed personal aspirations and preoccupations across different career stages. It was a productive day with a lot of brainstorming and great ideas, but also a day filled with laughter and fun. We can’t wait for Brognition day 2023!
07/05/2022
Welcome to the B&C Lab!!
We would like to introduce two new members of our lab: Joey Zhou (postdoctoral researcher) and Lara Bolte (research assistant).
Joey did her PhD at the Donders Institute with Floris de Lange and Saskia Haegens. Her PhD work tries to understand how prediction and learning modulate sensory processing, using MEG and computational modelling of behaviour. For her Postdoc in the Brain and Cognition lab, she will work on attention and prediction related topics using MEG.
Prior to joining the lab, Lara completed a MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London. Lara’s work as a research assistant is primarily focussed on two studies – the study ‘New Therapeutics in Alzheimer’s Disease’ (NTAD) and the ‘Brain and Brainstem Basis of COVID-19’ (BBB COVID) prospective observational study. Lara will help out with MRI and MEG scans, as well as neuropsychological tests.
01/04/2022
Working memory in 3D
Do representations in working memory following self-movement remain fixed in their spatial positioning, or are they updated ‘in mind’ to reflect locations in the external environment? Dejan, Kia, and Freek studied this question using immersive environments in Virtual Reality and present the answer in their very exciting Nature Human Behaviour paper. Check it out!
20/01/2022
Jasper = Dr. = 🥳
What an amazing way to end the year: Jasper successfully passed his viva today! From January on, Jasper will join dunnhumby – a data science company in London. We will miss you (and your remarkable cooking session at OHBA’s office kitchen)!
15/12/2021
May we introduce… Dr. Oana Gurau
We are so proud of Oana for successfully passing her DPhil viva last week! Sadly, Oana is leaving the Brain & Cognition Lab, but we are looking forward to hearing all about her new adventures at What Works for Children’s Social Care.
10/12/2021
Hip hip Hooray!!
Massive congrats to Kia for being awarded the APS Mentor Award. The APS Mentor Award recognises psychology researchers and educators who have shaped the future directions of science by fostering the careers of students and colleagues. We are so happy to see you recognised not just as a scientist but also for the uncompromising support you give to all your mentees!
05/12/2021
Great job!!
Congratulations to Méadhbh Brosnan and Sage Boettcher on receiving an ARUK Thames Valley Small Equipment Award to develop sensitive methods for measuring continuous responses during extended cognitive tasks in studies of ageing and dementia risk.
03/11/2021
Dejan for Open Science!
Additional to his part in the Open Neuroimaging Steering Group, Dejan now also is an Open Ambassador for the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging! Congrats Dejan!
29/10/2021
First in-person (scary) lab meeting 👻 🎃
This week, we came together for our first in-person lab meeting since the start of the pandemic. Besides some inspiring discussion about the big open research questions in our field, every lab member presented a scary slide about their ongoing projects. Why was this a scary lab meeting? Because we only had 30 seconds to present our slide. Very spooky!
27/10/2021
Congrats to our award-winning teaching cowboy 🤠
Congrats to Dejan for winning the Medical Sciences Devision “Early Career Excellent Teaching Award”. This award formally recognises the excellent contributions to teaching made by individual members who are within the first five years of their career as a Oxford University teacher. Dejan has made exceptional and highly innovative contributions to teaching and we are extremely proud to have this award-winning chap in our lab!
01/10/2021
B&C get-together at
New College
Just before the beginning of the new academic term, we enjoyed a fancy and delicious dinner at New College. It was great to see some old faces again, but also a pleasure to meet the two new members of the B&C lab. We are more than happy to welcome Gwen Williams and Dongyu Gong who are about to start their DPhil in the lab.
30/09/2021
Experimental Psychology’s 50th Birthday Party!
At our department’s 50th birthday party taking place at the beautiful St Hugh’s College, we honoured and celebrated our department, its history and our members, but also finally had the chance to reconnect with each other as life begins to return to normal. Thanks everyone for making this such a fun and memorable occasion!
29/09/2021
Well done Lauren!
Lauren was selected to attend a 3-day residential NIHR training camp, themed “Applying for further funding”. Besides attending various workshops and lectures, Lauren will be assigned to work with other candidates from a range of disciplines to develop a funding application which will be presented to a round of experts on the final day. Have fun Lauren!!
UPDATE: Lauren’s team won the award for best public health research project conceived in just 24 hours!
14/09/2021
Jasper is mastering the final stages of his DPhil 💪
We are pleased to celebrate that Jasper submitted his lovely thesis last week, titled “Prioritising feature representations in visual working memory”. Well done Jasper!
11/09/2021
Kudos to Jemma!
So proud of Jemma for winning the MEG UK poster prize for her poster on how alpha power differences recorded by MEG relate to hippocampal volume and cognitive scores in Alzheimer’s patients. During her DPhil, Jemma is working on a research study entitled ‘New Therapeutics in Alzheimer’s Disease’ (NTAD), which aims to identify a biomarker set from data using E/MEG modalities that tracks disease change.
08/09/2021
Hip Hip Hooray!
Big congrats to Levi Kumle – a visiting MSc student supervised by Dejan – who was awarded with the Jürgen-Rost price for her achievements in innovating methods in the field of Psychology. Click here to check out Levi’s latest publication on simulation-based computations of power.
02/09/2021
About ⏰
Check out Nir’s and Freek’s spotlight article on a recent paper in Nature Human Behaviour by Rachel Denison. They discuss her new computational model, that integrates attentional trade-offs over time into a canonical model of spatial attention (a normalisation model). Nir and Freek also provide some ideas for future developments and challenges that can emerge. A must-read!
09/08/2021
The Sensational Sage!
While she was away enjoying a lab visit in Sabine Kastner’s Lab in Princeton (and enjoying a visit with her dog), Sage received big news for her return to Oxford. This fall Sage will be joining Kellogg College as Junior Research Fellow and St. Anne’s College as a Stipendiary Lecturer. Congrats to Sage we know you will enjoy your time in the Colleges!
04/08/2021
🏆-time at the B&C lab!
What a successful day for our post docs Méadhbh and Nahid! Both have secured extra funding for their research exploring memory and attention across the lifespan.
14/07/2021
Congratulations to Dr. Čepukaitytė!
Today Giedrė successfully defended her thesis without corrections! We couldn’t be any prouder! Giedrė will stay in the Brain & Cognition Lab as a post-doc and will be working on the NTAD (New Therapeutics in Alzheime’s Disease) project.
01/07/2021
OHBA-Q is back!
After almost a year apart, we could finally come together for our traditional summer OHBA-Q. So nice to see everyone in 3D again!
16/06/2021
OHBArt Competition 2021
To try and lift everybody’s mood during lockdown, Giedrė Čepukaitytė, Ryan Timms, and Evan Roberts hosted an OHBA-art evening. This was a friendly competition where we could show off our creative sides to colleagues. The theme for the evening was “the brain”. Can you guess who was the winner?
02/03/2021
Hooray for Dr. Roüast!
Huge congratulations to the fabulous Nora for passing her viva yesterday! We are one very proud lab. We will miss Nora’s infectious smiles as she moves to the lucky Universität Freiburg (Germany).
27/04/2021
Merry Xmas!
Boring Zoom-Christmas parties? Not with us! Thanks all for a jolt of laughs and fun!!
09/12/2020
Cerebrations for Sage!
We are so proud of Dr Boettcher for passing her viva with no corrections! Lucky for us, Sage will stay with the B&C Lab to continue her work as a post-doc. Here’s a (now) traditional Zoom snap of the big day with examiners Chris Olivers and Gaia Scerif.
09/10/2020
A book for our littlest lab member
We are thrilled to welcome our newest member, baby Leyla, to the B&C club!
Some of our super creative lab members wrote and illustrated a beautiful children’s book for Leyla inspired by her mum, Nahid Zokaei’s, recent paper on pupil response to visual working memory.
You can read a copy of Nahid’s paper here: https://www.pnas.org/content/116/45/22802
Or a bitesize, child-friendly version in Leyla’s book “Patty Pupil’s Great Experiment” here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yiohuvyqavehj6w/PattyPupil.pdf?dl=0
28/07/2020
Dr. Atkinson in the house!
We are proud to announce that Lauren Atkinson has passed her DPhil viva with no corrections! Lauren produced an exceptional thesis on the cognitive and neural correlates of mood instability, supervised by Kia Nobre and Paul Harrison. Thanks to Matthew Broome and Phil Cowen for generously taking the time to examine this body of work and providing valuable viva discussions.
Given the current situation, this all had to take place online, but here’s a snapshot of the lab celebrating Lauren’s success as best as we could (in-person celebrations to follow!).
02/07/2020
Hot off the press: Short term memory advantage in ApoE e4 carriers
In a large cohort of participants, Nahid Zokaei and colleagues show a surprising advantage in short term memory for carriers of the ApoE e4 allele – the highest known genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease. Impressive work!
Take a look here
19/07/2020
Oana draws a (virtual) crowd at Romanian Science Festival
Oana shares a short story of her international festival appearance:
“A few weeks ago I was invited to become a mentor for the Romanian Science Festival and give an online talk on Neuroscience. Unsurprisingly, I decided to speak about memory, forgetting and ageing, aiming for a both informative and educational talk. Translating my work to Romanian for the first time was both challenging and rewarding and the talk was a great success: 2300 viewers of all ages and levels of knowledge with many curiosities and questions.
After watching the webinar, a few teachers from across the country also invited me to virtual meetings with their students or other teachers to have more in depth discussions about neuroscience, memory and career planning.”
Well done, Oana!
17/07/2020
Kia elected to the National Academy of Sciences
We are delighted to announce that Kia is one of 120 new members and 26 new international members elected to the National Academy of Sciences! Members are elected to the National Academy of Sciences by their peers in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
Congratulations Kia! We are a super proud bunch.
02/06/2020
Sun, fun and poster prizes!
The B&C lab got together with Luciano Floridi’s Digital Ethics lab for a “Brain & Minds” summer BBQ extravaganza on Friday. The sun was shining and we had a fabulous time with friends, family and lots of delicious food.
Meanwhile, those who were still hard at work were busy winning prizes! Icy Yeung won a poster prize at the Experimental Psychology MSc in Psychological Research poster showcase, and Anna-Katharina Bauer won big with her poster at Salzburg Mind/Brain Annual Meeting.
15/07/2019
Jasper’s Triathlon Success
Jasper Hajonides van der Meulen competed in the varsity triathlon match against Cambridge and managed to swim-bike-run his way to an overall 3rd place, 2nd out of all Oxford triathletes. A phenomenal achievement, especially considering he was not fully fit. We will see what he has in store when he is injury free and wish him all the best with his other Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons in the upcoming weeks.
28/05/2019
