Xinyue Joy Zhang
@xyzhang.bsky.social
PhD student at University of Sussex. Studying human episodic memory.
Feeling incredibly grateful! Thank you to my examiners, Ed and Chris, for an engaging and insightful discussion about my work, and to my supervisor, Alexa, for her incredible support and guidance over the past four years. Excited for the next chapter as Dr. Zhang.
Congratulations to the brilliant Xinyue (Joy) Zhang on passing her PhD viva with flying colours and no corrections! Many thanks to her wise examiners Ed Wilding and @chrismbird.bsky.social. It's been a pleasure to have you in our lab, @xyzhang.bsky.social!
November 26, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Feeling incredibly grateful! Thank you to my examiners, Ed and Chris, for an engaging and insightful discussion about my work, and to my supervisor, Alexa, for her incredible support and guidance over the past four years. Excited for the next chapter as Dr. Zhang.
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Important new resource for all Hippocampus lovers!👌👇
🚨 New paper in Nature Methods:
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus
Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)
Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social
docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus
Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)
Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social
docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
October 2, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Important new resource for all Hippocampus lovers!👌👇
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Ahem. Mental imagery (& imagery-critical) researchers should read this:
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Self-reports are better measurement instruments than implicit measures - Nature Reviews Psychology
Implicit measures are widely used because they are assumed to be superior to self-reports. In this Perspective, Corneille and Gawronski challenge this view and argue that claims about disadvantages of...
www.nature.com
September 23, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Ahem. Mental imagery (& imagery-critical) researchers should read this:
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
‘Storytelling is your best weapon for convincing people’ - @willstorr.bsky.social
www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...
Repost for your chance to win a copy of his book, 'The Science of Storytelling'.
www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...
Repost for your chance to win a copy of his book, 'The Science of Storytelling'.
‘Storytelling is your best weapon for convincing people’ | BPS
Our editor Jon Sutton meets Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling and more.
www.bps.org.uk
September 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM
‘Storytelling is your best weapon for convincing people’ - @willstorr.bsky.social
www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...
Repost for your chance to win a copy of his book, 'The Science of Storytelling'.
www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...
Repost for your chance to win a copy of his book, 'The Science of Storytelling'.
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
So happy to share our paper on the role of the hippocampus as a mismatch detector:
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
We show that the hippocampus detects mismatches between ongoing experiences and episodic memories but not generalised schematic knowledge.
See 🧵for how we got here:
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
We show that the hippocampus detects mismatches between ongoing experiences and episodic memories but not generalised schematic knowledge.
See 🧵for how we got here:
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
September 4, 2025 at 5:06 PM
So happy to share our paper on the role of the hippocampus as a mismatch detector:
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
We show that the hippocampus detects mismatches between ongoing experiences and episodic memories but not generalised schematic knowledge.
See 🧵for how we got here:
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
We show that the hippocampus detects mismatches between ongoing experiences and episodic memories but not generalised schematic knowledge.
See 🧵for how we got here:
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Does watching a movie over and over make events slower or faster in the brain? With Narjes Al-Zahli and @mariamaly.bsky.social we find that different regions actually change in different directions, e.g. visual regions show finer-scale event structure and STS shows coarser-scale structure!
How do the brain’s event representations change as we gain familiarity with an experience?
Brain regions’ representations can become coarser or finer as event familiarity increases. Fine-tuning predicts memory recall.
Excited to share this work with Narjes Al-Zahli & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social!
Brain regions’ representations can become coarser or finer as event familiarity increases. Fine-tuning predicts memory recall.
Excited to share this work with Narjes Al-Zahli & @chrisbaldassano.bsky.social!
Repeated Viewing of a Narrative Movie Changes Event Timescales in The Brain
Many experiences occur repeatedly throughout our lives: we might watch the same movie more than once and listen to the same song on repeat. How does the brain modify its representations of events when...
www.biorxiv.org
September 2, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Does watching a movie over and over make events slower or faster in the brain? With Narjes Al-Zahli and @mariamaly.bsky.social we find that different regions actually change in different directions, e.g. visual regions show finer-scale event structure and STS shows coarser-scale structure!
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
New preprint from Yining Ding @liliand.bsky.social! People use semantic event knowledge and grouping to remember the temporal order of events.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
August 25, 2025 at 2:27 PM
New preprint from Yining Ding @liliand.bsky.social! People use semantic event knowledge and grouping to remember the temporal order of events.
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
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...
🧵1/9
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...
🧵1/9
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
August 25, 2025 at 9:41 AM
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...
🧵1/9
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...
🧵1/9
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Cortico-hippocampal interactions underlie schema-supported memory encoding in older adults
New paper led by @shenyanghuang.bsky.social!
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
Older adults' memory benefits from richer semantic contexts. We found connectivity patterns supporting this semantic scaffolding.
New paper led by @shenyanghuang.bsky.social!
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
Older adults' memory benefits from richer semantic contexts. We found connectivity patterns supporting this semantic scaffolding.
August 19, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Cortico-hippocampal interactions underlie schema-supported memory encoding in older adults
New paper led by @shenyanghuang.bsky.social!
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
Older adults' memory benefits from richer semantic contexts. We found connectivity patterns supporting this semantic scaffolding.
New paper led by @shenyanghuang.bsky.social!
academic.oup.com/cercor/artic...
Older adults' memory benefits from richer semantic contexts. We found connectivity patterns supporting this semantic scaffolding.
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
I wrote an R package that creates standardized R project structures that are compliant with @mekline.bsky.social's psych-DS...ish.
It also creates additional features for reproducibility and teaching like a readme, license, .gitignore and Quarto templates
+ can validate existing projects
It also creates additional features for reproducibility and teaching like a readme, license, .gitignore and Quarto templates
+ can validate existing projects
Creating and validating standardized R project structures that are psych-DS compliant-ish
Making psychological code and data FAIR is hard, in part because different projects organize their code and data very differently.
Sometimes this is for good reasons, such as due to the demands of a g...
mmmdata.io
August 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM
I wrote an R package that creates standardized R project structures that are compliant with @mekline.bsky.social's psych-DS...ish.
It also creates additional features for reproducibility and teaching like a readme, license, .gitignore and Quarto templates
+ can validate existing projects
It also creates additional features for reproducibility and teaching like a readme, license, .gitignore and Quarto templates
+ can validate existing projects
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
I'm not a big poster, but had to share how proud I am of my postdoc, Lauri Gurguryan, for submitting the FIRST paper from my lab 🎉
Here, we ask a classic ? Do short- and long-term memory rely on separate or shared underlying stores
Checkout the preprint: bit.ly/3Hyyl83
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
Here, we ask a classic ? Do short- and long-term memory rely on separate or shared underlying stores
Checkout the preprint: bit.ly/3Hyyl83
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
Aging and false memories: Comparing effects of item-relatedness and list position
Semantic false memories are traditionally more frequent from early list positions and thought to arise from presumed long-term memory stores whereas phonological false memories traditionally are more ...
bit.ly
August 14, 2025 at 4:28 PM
I'm not a big poster, but had to share how proud I am of my postdoc, Lauri Gurguryan, for submitting the FIRST paper from my lab 🎉
Here, we ask a classic ? Do short- and long-term memory rely on separate or shared underlying stores
Checkout the preprint: bit.ly/3Hyyl83
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
Here, we ask a classic ? Do short- and long-term memory rely on separate or shared underlying stores
Checkout the preprint: bit.ly/3Hyyl83
#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Seems as good a time as any to re-share the "OpenLists" collection - an openly accessible set of lists of available resources in / for Cognitive Neuroscience!
Includes open M/EEG & iEEG datasets & open software / analysis tools, and resources for DSP, Python, git, etc:
openlists.github.io
Includes open M/EEG & iEEG datasets & open software / analysis tools, and resources for DSP, Python, git, etc:
openlists.github.io
OpenLists
Curated lists of Open Resources.
openlists.github.io
August 14, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Seems as good a time as any to re-share the "OpenLists" collection - an openly accessible set of lists of available resources in / for Cognitive Neuroscience!
Includes open M/EEG & iEEG datasets & open software / analysis tools, and resources for DSP, Python, git, etc:
openlists.github.io
Includes open M/EEG & iEEG datasets & open software / analysis tools, and resources for DSP, Python, git, etc:
openlists.github.io
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Dream start for database that aims to improve our understanding of conscious experience in sleep
Free link to the paper in Nature Communication is rdcu.be/eAwni !
Free link to the paper in Nature Communication is rdcu.be/eAwni !
A dream EEG and mentation database
Nature Communications - The authors present a multicenter database to investigate the neural correlates of dreaming, including physiological, behavioral and experiential data. This database could...
rdcu.be
August 14, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Dream start for database that aims to improve our understanding of conscious experience in sleep
Free link to the paper in Nature Communication is rdcu.be/eAwni !
Free link to the paper in Nature Communication is rdcu.be/eAwni !
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Excited to share my first fMRI paper in @pnas.org We found that suppressing the encoding of one event can strengthen the neural representation of the next in CA1, and bias retrieval-related neural restatement away from suppressed information. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Maintenance suppression enhances subsequent associative learning | PNAS
Removing irrelevant information from working memory (WM) can free cognitive resources
and reduce interference with current task goals. Beyond these...
www.pnas.org
August 12, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Excited to share my first fMRI paper in @pnas.org We found that suppressing the encoding of one event can strengthen the neural representation of the next in CA1, and bias retrieval-related neural restatement away from suppressed information. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Successful prediction of the future enhances encoding of the present.
I am so delighted that this work found a wonderful home at Open Mind. The peer review journey was a rollercoaster but it *greatly* improved the paper.
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I am so delighted that this work found a wonderful home at Open Mind. The peer review journey was a rollercoaster but it *greatly* improved the paper.
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
August 9, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Successful prediction of the future enhances encoding of the present.
I am so delighted that this work found a wonderful home at Open Mind. The peer review journey was a rollercoaster but it *greatly* improved the paper.
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
I am so delighted that this work found a wonderful home at Open Mind. The peer review journey was a rollercoaster but it *greatly* improved the paper.
direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
This is genuinely one of the best explanations I've ever read about permutation testing! 🦙 www.jwilber.me/permutationt...
Thank you @jwilber.bsky.social for breaking this down so clearly
Thank you @jwilber.bsky.social for breaking this down so clearly
Permutation Test: Visual Explanation
Permutation Test: Visual Explanation
www.jwilber.me
August 7, 2025 at 7:04 PM
This is genuinely one of the best explanations I've ever read about permutation testing! 🦙 www.jwilber.me/permutationt...
Thank you @jwilber.bsky.social for breaking this down so clearly
Thank you @jwilber.bsky.social for breaking this down so clearly
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
This was a fun paper to write, and one that fits nicely with some recent work I've been doing on the role of counterfactual simulation in memory encoding. link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Episodic details are better remembered in plausible relative to implausible counterfactual simulations - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
People often engage in episodic counterfactual thinking, or mentally simulating how the experienced past might have been different from how it was. A commonly held view is that mentally simulating alt...
link.springer.com
August 6, 2025 at 2:27 AM
This was a fun paper to write, and one that fits nicely with some recent work I've been doing on the role of counterfactual simulation in memory encoding. link.springer.com/article/10.3...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Looking at Van Gogh’s Starry Night, we see not only its content (a French village beneath a night sky) but also its *style*. How does that work? How do we see style?
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I take an experimental approach to style perception! osf.io/preprints/ps...
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I take an experimental approach to style perception! osf.io/preprints/ps...
May 14, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Looking at Van Gogh’s Starry Night, we see not only its content (a French village beneath a night sky) but also its *style*. How does that work? How do we see style?
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I take an experimental approach to style perception! osf.io/preprints/ps...
In @nathumbehav.nature.com, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I take an experimental approach to style perception! osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
After you fall asleep in the sleep lab, we can decide what you dream about — as Karen Konkoly showed in her PhD work and just published in this new paper:
“Investigating dreams by strategically presenting sounds during REM sleep to reactivate waking experiences”
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lWFU6TBG5...
“Investigating dreams by strategically presenting sounds during REM sleep to reactivate waking experiences”
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lWFU6TBG5...
August 6, 2025 at 3:49 AM
After you fall asleep in the sleep lab, we can decide what you dream about — as Karen Konkoly showed in her PhD work and just published in this new paper:
“Investigating dreams by strategically presenting sounds during REM sleep to reactivate waking experiences”
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lWFU6TBG5...
“Investigating dreams by strategically presenting sounds during REM sleep to reactivate waking experiences”
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lWFU6TBG5...
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Excited to share our new publication on the influence of odor perception on memory. Congratulations to @joantarridav.bsky.social for initiating this fascinating line of research in our lab.
🧠👃 Can a _brief smell_ change how we remember something seconds later?
We used EEG + memory testing to show that odors trigger sustained brain activity—and shape memory for events happening after the smell disappears.
#Neuroscience #Olfaction
🧵Thread (1/6)
We used EEG + memory testing to show that odors trigger sustained brain activity—and shape memory for events happening after the smell disappears.
#Neuroscience #Olfaction
🧵Thread (1/6)
August 7, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Excited to share our new publication on the influence of odor perception on memory. Congratulations to @joantarridav.bsky.social for initiating this fascinating line of research in our lab.
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Very excited about this work and very proud of @xiongbowu.bsky.social who did it all:
Based on 4 independent data sets (incl. EEG/iEEG, eye tracking, gaze manipulation & memory), we advocate for a new perspective on the function of the brain's dominant rhythm 🧠
Check Xiongbo's thread for more 👇
Based on 4 independent data sets (incl. EEG/iEEG, eye tracking, gaze manipulation & memory), we advocate for a new perspective on the function of the brain's dominant rhythm 🧠
Check Xiongbo's thread for more 👇
🚨 New preprint alert!
Excited to share our latest work on alpha/beta activity, eye movements, and memory.
Across 4 experiments combining scalp EEG/iEEG with eye tracking, we show that alpha/beta activity directly reflects eye movements, and only indirectly relates to memory.
👇 Highlights (1/7):
Excited to share our latest work on alpha/beta activity, eye movements, and memory.
Across 4 experiments combining scalp EEG/iEEG with eye tracking, we show that alpha/beta activity directly reflects eye movements, and only indirectly relates to memory.
👇 Highlights (1/7):
Low-frequency brain oscillations reflect the dynamics of the oculomotor system: a new perspective on subsequent memory effects https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667451v1
July 31, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Very excited about this work and very proud of @xiongbowu.bsky.social who did it all:
Based on 4 independent data sets (incl. EEG/iEEG, eye tracking, gaze manipulation & memory), we advocate for a new perspective on the function of the brain's dominant rhythm 🧠
Check Xiongbo's thread for more 👇
Based on 4 independent data sets (incl. EEG/iEEG, eye tracking, gaze manipulation & memory), we advocate for a new perspective on the function of the brain's dominant rhythm 🧠
Check Xiongbo's thread for more 👇
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
Evidence for dlPFC contribution to #memory suppression using #TMS! Now accepted @jocn.bsky.social. Great team effort and collaboration with Gesa Hartwigsen’s lab @mpicbs.bsky.social. We also had an exemplary experience at the journal with editors @barense.bsky.social & @bradpostle.bsky.social.
1/3 Excited to share my first paper w/ co-first-author Davide Stramaccia in @rolandbenoit.bsky.social's lab! Causal evidence for right dlPFC involvement in #memory control: #TMS made it harder to stop intrusive memories & suppression didn't cause forgetting @jocn.bsky.social
-> tinyurl.com/prfra87k
-> tinyurl.com/prfra87k
July 30, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Evidence for dlPFC contribution to #memory suppression using #TMS! Now accepted @jocn.bsky.social. Great team effort and collaboration with Gesa Hartwigsen’s lab @mpicbs.bsky.social. We also had an exemplary experience at the journal with editors @barense.bsky.social & @bradpostle.bsky.social.
Reposted by Xinyue Joy Zhang
🚨Paper now published! 🚨
The Effects of External Cue Overlap and Internal Goals on Selective Memory Retrieval.
Grateful for thorough reviews that made it stronger. Out now in #EJN: doi.org/10.1111/ejn..... w @alexamorcom.bsky.social @MattPlummer @ivorsimpson.bsky.social. Updated summary🧵👇
The Effects of External Cue Overlap and Internal Goals on Selective Memory Retrieval.
Grateful for thorough reviews that made it stronger. Out now in #EJN: doi.org/10.1111/ejn..... w @alexamorcom.bsky.social @MattPlummer @ivorsimpson.bsky.social. Updated summary🧵👇
The Effects of External Cue Overlap and Internal Goals on Selective Memory Retrieval as Revealed by Electroencephalographic (EEG) Neural Pattern Reinstatement
This EEG study used multivariate decoding in humans to investigate how memories are selected when retrieval goals vary. The results showed that EEG neural patterns reinstating studied information tra...
doi.org
July 16, 2025 at 11:16 AM
🚨Paper now published! 🚨
The Effects of External Cue Overlap and Internal Goals on Selective Memory Retrieval.
Grateful for thorough reviews that made it stronger. Out now in #EJN: doi.org/10.1111/ejn..... w @alexamorcom.bsky.social @MattPlummer @ivorsimpson.bsky.social. Updated summary🧵👇
The Effects of External Cue Overlap and Internal Goals on Selective Memory Retrieval.
Grateful for thorough reviews that made it stronger. Out now in #EJN: doi.org/10.1111/ejn..... w @alexamorcom.bsky.social @MattPlummer @ivorsimpson.bsky.social. Updated summary🧵👇