Event Segmentation in Language and Cognition A hallmark of human cognition is the ability to segment streams of dynamic stimuli into discrete event units. Currently, most of the evidence about event segmentation comes from English speakers. Could cross-linguistic differences in how events are encoded affect how speakers of different languages form cognitive event units? Here, we address this question by comparing how English and Turkish speakers segment and represent motion events. We find robust differences in the way speakers of these two languages form linguistic event units when describing these events (Experiment 1). Nevertheless, these differences do not affect non-linguistic event unit formation as measured by a classic event segmentation task (Experiment 2) and an event enumeration task (Experiment 3). We conclude that conceptual and linguistic event units are related but distinct levels of event structure. These results have implications for theories of event cognition, as well as the broad relation between language and thought.
Divergent philosophical commitments in neuroscience: Evidence from a global survey The mind–brain relationship is a foundational yet underexplored dimension of contemporary neuroscience, shaping research framing, data interpretation, and public communication. We conducted a large-scale international survey of 2,657 neuroscientists to assess their views on the mind–brain problem, free will, and the future of the discipline. Our results reveal a complex and sometimes paradoxical worldview. While 64% of participants endorse reductive physicalism—the view that mental activity is fully reducible to brain function—only 17.5% reject free will. Despite estimating that current knowledge covers only a limited portion of brain structure and function (30%), respondents express marked optimism about the future of neuroscience, including the prospect of fully understanding the human being and mental disorders through neuroscience, and even achieving mind reading and mental uploading. A principal component analysis identified five latent dimensions, some of which vary systematically across sociodemographic and disciplinary factors. These findings indicate that neuroscientists hold diverse philosophical commitments that diverge from common narratives of hard determinism. The prevalence of neuroessentialist views further highlights the need for sustained interdisciplinary dialogue to address the conceptual, ethical, and societal implications of neuroscientific progress.
Faster But Less Precise: Expectation Enhances Response Speed While Reducing Sensory Fidelity The brain’s remarkable ability to process continuous sensory inputs with adaptive efficiency—balancing flexibility while minimizing metabolic cost—is thought to rely on predictive mechanisms that generate and update internal models that leverage statistical regularities in the environment. However, it remains unclear whether this efficiency arises from prioritizing reliable, expected events or informative, unexpected ones, as they offer complementary adaptive advantages. To isolate genuine expectation effects, we combined electroencephalography (EEG), pupillometry, and behavioral measures in a paradigm that independently manipulated task relevance (selective attention) and stimulus predictability, while minimizing stimulus repetition at identical spatial locations to control for low-level adaptation. Human participants (both sexes) responded faster and more accurately to expected events, which was enhanced when attention was engaged; however, these events were reproduced with lower precision, independent of attention. Feature-specific neural decoding revealed prestimulus effects of attention and poststimulus effects of expectation, with no interaction between the two. Attention increased decoding accuracy, while expectation reduced accuracy. The reduced representational fidelity for expected events appeared rapidly (∼100–200 ms after stimulus onset) and correlated with individual differences in perceptual precision. Collectively, our findings indicate two complementary processes that define how the brain leverages redundancy in the environment: an early (prestimulus) mechanism, which supports rapid motor responses to expected events and is mediated by attention, and a later (poststimulus) process, which dampens sensory responses to expected events and is unaffected by attention.
Verbal versus Nonverbal Processing Leads to Generalized Hemispheric Laterality Effects that Span Multiple Networks Precision neuroimaging was used to explore specialization for verbal versus nonverbal processing. Consistent with prior findings, individuals exhibited a spatially left-lateralized association language network, with regions in both hemispheres robustly responding to processing of meaning-based sentences. We next examined differential responses to verbal (words) versus nonverbal (faces) materials within the same working memory task. The right hemisphere components of the language network responded more strongly to nonverbal than to verbal materials, splitting the network’s functional profile between the hemispheres. Similar patterns were observed across multiple association networks including putative cognitive-control, action-mode, and attention networks. The hemispheric laterality effect was prospectively replicated in a second independent study. These findings highlight a generalized laterality phenomenon that transcends the specialization of individual networks that has been the recent focus of the human systems neuroscience field, and aligns with a broad mechanism that modulates processing between the hemispheres.
Scent of a father: Paternal body odors boost interbrain synchrony Olfactory cues are ancient signals and mammalian young utilize maternal body odors (BO) to form a bond to their habitat in the absence of the mother, strengthen associative learning, and grow a social brain. Whether infants respond to their father’s BO and how paternal BO impact their brain maturation is still unknown. Utilizing ecologically-valid paradigms with dual-electroencephalography recordings, we measured infant-father and infant-stranger interbrain synchrony during naturalistic interactions and assessed the effects of paternal BO. Infants show greater interbrain synchrony with father compared to a stranger male. Paternal BO increase infant-stranger interbrain synchrony and enhance the father-typical positive arousal, providing evidence that infants process their father’s odor and can invoke his presence in his absence. Fathers contribute to brain maturation by enhancing cross-hemisphere connectivity in alpha rhythm that sustains attention regulation during stimulating social interactions. Paternal olfactory cues can invoke infants’ associative learning and may push the development of more complex neural and behavioral competencies.
Context over categories in social vision For more than two decades, research on social vision has been guided by modular accounts of cortical organization, in which regions such as the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA) are specialized for processing specific categories of visual stimuli. Here, I argue that the EBA is better understood as a flexible, context-sensitive node embedded within distributed neural systems. This perspective reflects a shift from static maps of category-selectivity toward dynamic accounts of how activity and connectivity across the visual system support behavior. Thus, future work must capture how specialized systems flexibly coordinate in complex social environments.
Compressive learning scaffolds higher-order network structure to enhance human knowledge acquisition Humans naturally seek knowledge, yet integrating vast, fragmented information remains challenging. Traditionally, knowledge acquisition has relied on random walks within network—an unguided and inefficient process. Here, we introduce “compressive learning”, a conceptual framework that embeds higher-order structural features—specifically node-degree inhomogeneity—into pre-learning trajectories to scaffold more efficient learning. We show that scale-free networks, owing to their pronounced degree inhomogeneity, are more compressible and more learnable than other network types. Critically, pre-learning paths that highlight this inhomogeneous higher-order structure facilitate subsequent network learning. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings reveal that compressive pre-learning enhances structured neural representations in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Two-stage computational modeling indicates that compressive learning constructs a network skeleton defined by higher-order structure that efficiently accommodates new inputs. Together, our results highlight the central role of higher-order network structure in human learning and offer a strategic approach to effectively integrating fragmented information into a coherent knowledge framework.
Exploring neural underpinning of Christian faith: How far can we go? Several neuroimaging studies demonstrated that spiritual/religious beliefs and practices rely on the same brain regions as secular cognition. Several reviews shaped the framework within which religious and secular cognition interacts, emphasizing the need for a precise definition of religiousness and spirituality.
Christian faith presents a well-defined theological context, characterized by belief in its tenets; trust and commitment; and allegiance expressed as confession of faith or associated practices. Anthropological studies indicate that spiritual certainties develop with practice over longer periods of time.
Only a few neuroimaging studies explored the neural correlates of Christian faith. Three investigated propositional belief, five prayer, and two spiritual practice. This sparse evidence leaves several key issues open. Christian commitment and practice may yield, over time, dedicated sets of neuronal structures and/or networks and foster interplay with secular cognition. To explore these aspects, we formulate five hypotheses and propose methodological approaches to test them. We also outline options to investigate the inner disposition of trust and commitment, which has not yet been studied in the context of Christian faith.
Pursuing investigations into the neural underpinning of faith may not only reveal how the faith is represented in our brains, but also how faith possibly modifies it.