Hugo Spiers
@hugospiers.bsky.social
Prof of Cognitive Neuroscience & Vice Dean at UCL, Fellow of the Royal Inst. of Navigation. I study how we remember, navigate & imagine space
Photo: Our upcoming field research in the Marshall Islands
https://spierslab.wixsite.com/wavesandwayfinding
Photo: Our upcoming field research in the Marshall Islands
https://spierslab.wixsite.com/wavesandwayfinding
Pinned
Hugo Spiers
@hugospiers.bsky.social
· Oct 13
The NeuroDesign/NeuroArchitecture Index (NDIX): Development of a method to evaluate the impact of the built environment on health, cognitive performance, and wellbeing: https://osf.io/8369k
🚨 Our latest preprint:
A new tool to provide assessments of experience of the built environment: the NDIX.
This has been now deployed in 4 studies, being written up.
Here is the methods preprint with a starcast of co-authors:
A new tool to provide assessments of experience of the built environment: the NDIX.
This has been now deployed in 4 studies, being written up.
Here is the methods preprint with a starcast of co-authors:
A huge thankyou to @alexaroblesgil.bsky.social for covering our research in the Marshall Islands for the @nytimes.com !
In the photo Ken Daniels (an expert indigenous sailor) is looking towards the horizon whilst wearing an fNIRS system.
Analysis underway!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...
In the photo Ken Daniels (an expert indigenous sailor) is looking towards the horizon whilst wearing an fNIRS system.
Analysis underway!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...
A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at Sea
www.nytimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM
A huge thankyou to @alexaroblesgil.bsky.social for covering our research in the Marshall Islands for the @nytimes.com !
In the photo Ken Daniels (an expert indigenous sailor) is looking towards the horizon whilst wearing an fNIRS system.
Analysis underway!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...
In the photo Ken Daniels (an expert indigenous sailor) is looking towards the horizon whilst wearing an fNIRS system.
Analysis underway!
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/s...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Towards an informational account of interpersonal coordination — a Perspective by Edoardo Chidichimo, Andrea I. Luppi, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Victoria Leong, Guillaume Dumas, Andrés Canales-Johnson & Richard A. I. Bethlehem
#neuroscience #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Towards an informational account of interpersonal coordination - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Methodological shortcomings have constrained studies describing the complex dynamics of interpersonal coordination, which is essential to human sociality. In this Perspective, Chidichimo et al. advanc...
www.nature.com
November 18, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Towards an informational account of interpersonal coordination — a Perspective by Edoardo Chidichimo, Andrea I. Luppi, Pedro A. M. Mediano, Victoria Leong, Guillaume Dumas, Andrés Canales-Johnson & Richard A. I. Bethlehem
#neuroscience #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience #neuroskyence
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
This perfectly encapsulates why we need the BBC
November 13, 2025 at 2:12 PM
This perfectly encapsulates why we need the BBC
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience
From the amazing @lauragrima.bsky.social and colleagues - definitely looking forward to reading this!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition
From the amazing @lauragrima.bsky.social and colleagues - definitely looking forward to reading this!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition
Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience
The study of foraging is central to a renewed interest in naturalistic behavior in neuroscience. Applying a foraging framework grounded in behavioral …
www.sciencedirect.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Foraging as an ethological framework for neuroscience
From the amazing @lauragrima.bsky.social and colleagues - definitely looking forward to reading this!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition
From the amazing @lauragrima.bsky.social and colleagues - definitely looking forward to reading this!
#neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Congrats to Ella for her new paper! She asked a really interesting question about how the brain represents uncertainty during hidden state inference, and in a lovely crossover with theoretical work, she shows that in mice, acetylcholine dynamics play a crucial role. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Acetylcholine reflects uncertainty during hidden state inference
To act adaptively, animals must infer features of the environment that cannot be observed directly, such as which option is currently rewarding, or which context they are in. These internal estimates,...
www.biorxiv.org
November 14, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Congrats to Ella for her new paper! She asked a really interesting question about how the brain represents uncertainty during hidden state inference, and in a lovely crossover with theoretical work, she shows that in mice, acetylcholine dynamics play a crucial role. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social was a beloved friend and mentor. He was taken from us too soon. His was a beautiful mind who understood the beauty of minds. As ever before, his kind voice guides me and his work will continue. We miss you Jonny. www.cbs.mpg.de/news/obituar...
Obituary – Jonathan Smallwood
www.cbs.mpg.de
November 13, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social was a beloved friend and mentor. He was taken from us too soon. His was a beautiful mind who understood the beauty of minds. As ever before, his kind voice guides me and his work will continue. We miss you Jonny. www.cbs.mpg.de/news/obituar...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
A print of a neuron forest I made during my artist residency at Sitka.
Cerebral Wilderness
6” x 8”
Intaglio and spit-bite aquatint
#printmaking #neurons #sciart
Cerebral Wilderness
6” x 8”
Intaglio and spit-bite aquatint
#printmaking #neurons #sciart
November 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
A print of a neuron forest I made during my artist residency at Sitka.
Cerebral Wilderness
6” x 8”
Intaglio and spit-bite aquatint
#printmaking #neurons #sciart
Cerebral Wilderness
6” x 8”
Intaglio and spit-bite aquatint
#printmaking #neurons #sciart
I think this is an exciting development:
SIMA 2
Worth a read about what the clever people at Deepmind have been up to:
deepmind.google/blog/sima-2-...
SIMA 2
Worth a read about what the clever people at Deepmind have been up to:
deepmind.google/blog/sima-2-...
SIMA 2: A Gemini-Powered AI Agent for 3D Virtual Worlds
Introducing SIMA 2, the next milestone in our research creating general and helpful AI agents. By integrating the advanced capabilities of our Gemini models, SIMA is evolving from an instruction-foll…
deepmind.google
November 13, 2025 at 10:24 PM
I think this is an exciting development:
SIMA 2
Worth a read about what the clever people at Deepmind have been up to:
deepmind.google/blog/sima-2-...
SIMA 2
Worth a read about what the clever people at Deepmind have been up to:
deepmind.google/blog/sima-2-...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
November 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
November 9, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
November 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Moyamoya is a rare cerebrovascular disorder where arteries at the base of the brain narrow, blocking blood flow.
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
It can be devastating in children.
Lauren Harris, Charlotte Malcolm et al find metrics from neuroimaging help identify the neurocogntiive outcomes for these children:
tinyurl.com/mrx3vhy9
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
SfN 2025 Art of Neuroscience
Full list of Exhibitors
artologica.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
New episode!! 🎙️🎉
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
November 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM
New episode!! 🎙️🎉
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
A conversation w/ @erinhecht.bsky.social about the diversity and evolution of canine brains.
We've lived and worked with dogs for 15,000+ years, sculpting their brains and bodies along the way. What can we learn from their singular story?
Listen: disi.org/of-breeds-an...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Hidden Markov Models
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
November 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Hidden Markov Models
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
Speaking of HMMs, really enjoyed this paper on dynamics underlying resting state and other conditions. The idea of a baseline state from which excursions lead to more integrated states is really interesting.
doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
#neuroskyence
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
what happens when you spend two weeks learning new navigation or memory skills? as shown in our recent paper below, brain network connectivity changes but not hippocampal or other brain volumes! special thanks to collaborators Li Zheng and Steve Weisberg
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
Learning new navigation or memory skills engages flexible brain network dynamics without altering gray matter, white matter, or hippocampal structure.
elifesciences.org
November 5, 2025 at 11:26 PM
what happens when you spend two weeks learning new navigation or memory skills? as shown in our recent paper below, brain network connectivity changes but not hippocampal or other brain volumes! special thanks to collaborators Li Zheng and Steve Weisberg
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Now that we have Hidden Markov Models do we still need correlation matrices?? 😀
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
November 8, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Now that we have Hidden Markov Models do we still need correlation matrices?? 😀
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
For example, this looks cool.
(I'm aware that HMMs are not new, I played with them in grad school...)
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#neuroskyence
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
A study in Nature Neuroscience shows that the moments of failed attention we experience after sleep deprivation reflect brief ‘sleep-like’ episodes in the brain, corresponding to a brain- and body-wide event with altered brain activity, pupil size and brain fluid movement. #neuroskyence 🧪
Attentional failures after sleep deprivation are locked to joint neurovascular, pupil and cerebrospinal fluid flow dynamics - Nature Neuroscience
Yang et al. show that moments of failed attention we experience after sleep deprivation reflect brief ‘sleep-like’ episodes in the brain, corresponding to a brain- and body-wide event with altered brain activity, pupil size and brain fluid movement.
go.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:11 AM
A study in Nature Neuroscience shows that the moments of failed attention we experience after sleep deprivation reflect brief ‘sleep-like’ episodes in the brain, corresponding to a brain- and body-wide event with altered brain activity, pupil size and brain fluid movement. #neuroskyence 🧪
A bit of doom and gloom reading for the UK Science sector. There are all sorts of things happening outside big pharma, but for that area things look bleak.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
U.K. science sector is ‘bleeding to death,’ lawmakers say in report
House of Lords committee urges government to stem exodus of science and technology companies
www.science.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:27 AM
A bit of doom and gloom reading for the UK Science sector. There are all sorts of things happening outside big pharma, but for that area things look bleak.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
November 6, 2025 at 6:26 AM
UK publication day for this wrist-spraining beauty! Appropriately, I’m travelling to Cambridge, where I’m doing a book launch talk at the LMB tomorrow afternoon.
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
"a magisterial new biography" - congrats @matthewcobb.bsky.social! #histSTM
Book review 📚 Sex, drugs and the conscious brain: Francis Crick beyond the double helix
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
Reposted by Hugo Spiers
love the title:
Experimentally assessing the role of foraging encounters on social partner choice in a kin-biased bird society https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.03.686260v1
November 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
love the title:
This is a magnificent piece of research from @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social and @adekstreme.bsky.social labs:
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
Learning new navigation or memory skills engages flexible brain network dynamics without altering gray matter, white matter, or hippocampal structure.
elifesciences.org
November 4, 2025 at 2:52 PM
This is a magnificent piece of research from @stevenmweisberg.bsky.social and @adekstreme.bsky.social labs:
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Newly trained navigation and verbal memory skills in humans elicit changes in task-related networks but not brain structure
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n
"a magisterial new biography" - congrats @matthewcobb.bsky.social! #histSTM
Book review 📚 Sex, drugs and the conscious brain: Francis Crick beyond the double helix
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
go.nature.com/4oJQAra
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Francis Crick's book The astonishing Hypothesis drw me into the field of neuroscience. He made huge contributions. but worth remembering...
1/n
1/n