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Soroush Mirjalili

@soroushmirjalili.bsky.social

230 followers 220 following 28 posts

Postdoc in the Kuhl Lab at the University of Oregon, PhD from UT Austin. Episodic Memory | Computational Neuroscience | Cognitive Neuroscience | Machine Learning. 🌿 -> 🐝 -> 🐂 -> 🦆, he/him soroushmirjalili.com

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · Mar 24

Why do we remember some events but forget others? In our recent work published at @naturecomms.bsky.social, @audreyduarte.bsky.social and I used machine learning to simultaneously quantify multiple cognitive components of
episodic memory.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Using machine learning to simultaneously quantify multiple cognitive components of episodic memory - Nature Communications

Mirjalili and Duarte use EEG and machine learning to simultaneously investigate how perception and attention contribute to episodic memory encoding. The study provides insights into episodic memory’s ...

www.nature.com

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 13h

This work was a true team effort, and I’d like to thank Wanjia Guo, Dominik Grätz, Eric Wang, Dr. Ulrich Mayr, and Dr. Brice Kuhl for their invaluable help throughout the process. I’m especially grateful to Brice for his guidance and support that extended far beyond this paper.

Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 13h

These findings provide insight into how the hippocampus resolves memory interference 'one dimension at a time', demonstrating highly dynamic and adaptive processes that dramatically increase the representational distance between memories that are most at risk for interference.

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 13h

Finally, dimension-specific input-output functions in CA3/DG strikingly mirrored the sequential pattern observed in behavior: CA3/DG inverted each similarity dimension when it contributed to memory interference but preserved the dimension when it didn't contribute to interference.

Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 13h

Among the 10 dimensions, the first 2 dimensions of similarity strongly predicted memory interference errors. However, their influence on behavior sharply changed with experience. Whereas one dimension drove interference earlier in learning, the other drove interference later.

Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 13h

First, we generated a set of natural scene images from two visual categories and rigorously characterized similarity using a wide array of methods. We then applied PCA to these similarity matrices to identify orthogonal components (dimensions) of similarity across the 10 metrics.

Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 13h

🧠🚨 How does the hippocampus transform the visual similarity space to resolve memory interference?

In this new preprint, we found that the hippocampus sequentially inverts the behaviorally relevant dimensions of similarity 🧵

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hippocampal transformations occur along dimensions of memory interference

The role of the hippocampus in resolving memory interference has been greatly elucidated by considering the relationship between the similarity of visual stimuli (input) and corresponding similarity o...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 22h

Hippocampal transformations occur along dimensions of memory interference https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.13.682242v1

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Lexi Decker @lexidecker.bsky.social · 13d

Excited to share that I'm joining WashU in January as an Assistant Prof in Psych & Brain Sciences! 🧠✨!

I'm also recruiting grad students to start next September - come hang out with us! Details about our lab here: www.deckerlab.com

Reposts are very welcome! 🙌 Please help spread the word!

DeckerLab

www.deckerlab.com

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Chris Baldassano @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social · 22d

Years ago my lab tried to brainstorm ways to separately manipulate low-level (texture/pattern) and high-level (scene/object) image properties, for studying visual representations in the brain. Thanks to imaginative work by PhD student Zall Hirschstein, we now have a stimulus set that does just that!

Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 22d

Excited to release the SPOT grid: a new image set that factorially crosses scene-object & texture-pattern pairings.

We hope these stimuli will be useful to researchers aiming to (partially) disentangle the contributions of lower- and higher-level visual features to behavior & brain activity.

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8x8 grid depicting the approach to stimulus creation. Feature pairs are on the axes and images are in the cells. The x-axis represents the high-level feature pairs: setting (green) and object (teal). For example, the first column of images all depict “truck” (object) in “field” (setting) rendered in various textures and patterns. The y-axis represents low-level feature pairs: texture (blue) and pattern (purple). For example, the first row of images all depict different objects and settings rendered as if drawn with crayon (texture) and containing large horizontal edges (pattern).

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · 22d

This is really cool!

Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Sebastian Michelmann @s-michelmann.bsky.social · Sep 5

🚀Excited to share our project: Canonical Representational Mapping for Cognitive Neuroscience. @schottdorflab.bsky.social and I propose a novel multivariate method to isolate neural representations aligned with specific cognitive hypotheses 🧵https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.673485v1

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · Aug 25

Excited to share our new paper w/ @cibaker.bsky.social in @natcomms.nature.com linking active vision & memory!

We provide evidence that gaze reinstatement & neural reactivation are deeply related phenomena that jointly reflect the experiences constructed during recall. doi.org/10.1038/s414...
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Neural and behavioral reinstatement jointly reflect retrieval of narrative events - Nature Communications

When people recall a movie, their eye movements and brain activity resemble those observed during the viewing. These behavioral and neural reactivations are linked through a common process, likely ref...

doi.org

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · Aug 12

Congrats Ziyao!!

Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · Aug 3

Congrats!!!

Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Lexi Decker @lexidecker.bsky.social · Jul 31

Thrilled to share our new @NatureComms
paper: "Exploration is associated with socioeconomic disparities in learning and academic achievement in adolescence." www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵1/7

Exploration is associated with socioeconomic disparities in learning and academic achievement in adolescence - Nature Communications

Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often show lower academic achievement, commonly linked to limited resources. Here, the authors show that reduced exploration–a behavior tuned for learning...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Jason Climer @jrclimer.bsky.social · Jul 23

I’m excited to share my final co-first author paper from my postdoc in Dan Dombeck's lab!

We explored how behavior, senses, and neurons influence how much information in the brain changes over time.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#science #research #neuroscience #hippocampus #placecells

Hippocampal representations drift in stable multisensory environments - Nature

Tracking of individual place cells in mouse CA1 shows that representational drift is not influenced by changes in environment or behaviour, and is lower for more excitable place cells.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Megan deBettencourt @mdebettencourt.bsky.social · Jul 21

I'm excited to share a new preprint! We built a digital, scalable intervention to reduce intrusive memories, combining an AI chatbot with LLM scoring of human-AI conversations and pupillometry predictors of effort and intervention success. I hope you enjoy! arxiv.org/abs/2507.01081

AI-guided digital intervention with physiological monitoring reduces intrusive memories after experimental trauma

Trauma prevalence is vast globally. Evidence-based digital treatments can help, but most require human guidance. Human guides provide tailored instructions and responsiveness to internal cognitive sta...

arxiv.org

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Audrey Duarte @audreyduarte.bsky.social · Jul 18

New paper from our lab in which we show that altered arousal in Autism Spectrum Disorders reduces episodic memory for emotional events. Stronger effects with age support an accelerated aging hypothesis of ASD. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Emotional Arousal‐Induced Episodic Memory Benefits Are Attenuated in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Especially in Older Age

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder associated with episodic memory impairment. Although emotional factors such as arousal, as well as age and depression symptoms, ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Marcelo Mattar @marcelomattar.bsky.social · Jul 2

Thrilled to see our TinyRNN paper in @nature! We show how tiny RNNs predict choices of individual subjects accurately while staying fully interpretable. This approach can transform how we model cognitive processes in both healthy and disordered decisions. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Discovering cognitive strategies with tiny recurrent neural networks - Nature

Modelling biological decision-making with tiny recurrent neural networks enables more accurate predictions of animal choices than classical cognitive models and offers insights into the underlying cog...

doi.org

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Marta Silva @martamasilva.bsky.social · Jul 1

🧠 Paper out!

We investigated how hippocampal and cortical ripples support memory during movie watching. We found that:

🎬 Hippocampal ripples mark event boundaries
🧩 Cortical ripples predict later recall

Ripples may help transform real-life experiences into lasting memories!

rdcu.be/eui9l

Movie-watching evokes ripple-like activity within events and at event boundaries

Nature Communications - The neural processes involved in memory formation for realistic experiences remain poorly understood. Here, the authors found that ripple-like activity in the human...

rdcu.be

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · Jun 13

This is really really cool!

Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland @meharpist.bsky.social · Jun 13

Do girls and boys really differ in their mathematical skills? A recent @nature.com paper by @standehaene.bsky.social et al shows that French boys and girls enter school with similar abilities, but after just four months, boys pull ahead 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rapid emergence of a maths gender gap in first grade - Nature

Boys and girls exhibit very similar maths scores upon school entry, but a gender gap in favour of boys becomes highly significant after 4 months of schooling, which increases with years of schooling,&...

www.nature.com

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · Jun 12

Congrats!!

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Soroush Mirjalili @soroushmirjalili.bsky.social · Jun 5

Thanks for sharing this, I already linked my submission to this group!

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Reposted by Soroush Mirjalili

Paul Masset @paulmasset.bsky.social · Jun 4

Our work with Pablo Tano, @hyunggoo-kim.bsky.social Athar Malik, Alexandre Pouget and @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social exploring how dopamine neurons could enable multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain is out in @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Multi-timescale reinforcement learning in the brain - Nature

Individual dopaminergic neurons encode future rewards over distinct temporal horizons.

www.nature.com

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