Nearly five years ago, when my partner and I started our relationship, we were soon separated by an ocean. He went to Oxford while I was at NYU, pursuing a Ph.D. degree in psychology. The miles between us felt like a timer set to run out. We knew that we had to be realistic. We were cautious and worried about the long-distance challenge. Yet, here we are today, not just surviving, but thriving. I am both proud and humbled to say that we’ve built an emotionally and mentally connected relationship despite the difficulties of extremely limited time together. My situation might sound unique, but it has grown so common in academia that it has its own name—the “two-body problem”. If you’re about to dive into a long-distance commitment with another academic and seek some practical advice, here are the principles that have kept our relationship solid.
Continue readingThe last time you studied a painting in an art gallery or museum, you probably observed its textures, shapes, size, colors and/or vibrancy — basically a diverse array of its details and elements. By the time you get home and describe the painting to your family or roommate, you probably won’t be able to recall all its details. But that’s OK. You remember enough for your goal here, to share your excitement with someone else. What remains in your memory will be the most important piece of information that you want to convey. My research tries to peek behind the curtains to see what’s going on in the brain when we form these selective memories.
Continue readingGoal-directed behavior depends on the ability to flexibly change mental representations in working memory (WM). WM has not only storage but also control component. While largely neglected, these control components are essential for goal-directed behaviors as they transform visual representations into codes that can facilitate or ‘work’ to support behavior. Here, we asked whether and how do task demands change WM representations in the brain?
Continue readingThe ability to execute precise movements depends on transforming visuospatial information about the goal of the movement into a movement plan. In the nonhuman primate, discrete parts of premotor frontal and parietal cortex appear to code for movements of different effectors. However, the evidence regarding homologous effector selectivity within the human brain remains inconclusive. Here, we aimed to ask how human brains code spatial information during the motor planning process for eye and hand movements and test whether spatial-specific planning is effector-dependent.
Continue readingDecoding working memory (WM) contents from visual cortex has been widely found in human neuroimaging studies, demonstrating the idea that visual WM storage uses similar encoding mechanism as visual perception in the visual cortex. However, researchers have found evidence both support and against this hypothesis. Most of these studies, no matter for or against the hypothesis, relied on decoding the orientation of gratings with fMRI voxel responses.
Continue readingJournal clubs of working memory. Papers are arranged alphabetically by author’s last name.
Continue readingThis is a resource pool containing information about scientifc writing, mostly academic writing.
Continue readingThis is a resource pool containing information about applying Ph.D for psychology/cognitive neuroscience programs!
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