The Brain & Cognition Laboratory is a cognitive neuroscience research group at Yale University headed by Anna Christina (Kia) Nobre. Our group is made up of ~25 postdoctoral fellows and graduate and undergraduate students from around the globe. We were previously based at the University of Oxford (1994-2023), where many lab members are still based. Our transatlantic group is spread across the Wu Tsai Institute and the Department of Psychology at Yale, and the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA) and the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford.
We have different research backgrounds and interests but come together in our curiosity to understand the workings of human cognition. How does the brain turn energies in the world to cohesive and meaningful experience in our minds? What are the principles linking brain and mind that can help guide prevention and treatment of mental and brain disorders? We take a rigorous scientific approach to address manageable chunks of these puzzles, drawing on the sharpest tools available to investigate brain, behaviour, and their interrelations. We especially enjoy forging conceptual innovation by designing new experimental approaches, refining methods, and integrating perspectives.
LATEST NEWS!
Dec 2024
Marcus, Nahid, Dejan, and Kia studied how different forms of learning—contextual associations and statistical regularities—guide attention and memory. Their research reveals that while both forms enhance visual search and recall, they operate on distinct time courses and mechanisms. Published in PLOS ONE, read more here.
Dec 2024
How do predictions guide attention as we age? In this recent publication, Nir, Sage, and Kia explored how spatiotemporal cues help adults focus amid distractions. Their research shows that while attention declines with age, the ability to use predictive cues remains robust. Published in npj Science of Learning, read more here.
Nov 2024
Congratulations to Joey Zhou, who will be returning home to start an exciting new faculty position at Shenzhen University. Joey will be starting their own group there and will be responsible for their MEG facility. Kudos! We wish Joey all the best with their new endeavours and look forward to visiting soon!
Nov 2024
We are delighted that Dr Melinda Sabo has been awarded a Walter Benjamin Fellowship to join us a s postdoctoral researcher at the Brain & Cognition Lab at Yale. Melinda will join us next February to start developing her exciting new line of research on the mechanisms and consequences of selective long-term-memory retrieval.
OCt 2024
A warm welcome to Irene, who has started her postdoctoral position with us at Yale after completing her doctoral degree in the Brognition Lab at Oxford. Irene will be developing her independent line of research on temporally structured and dynamic processing of sensory and mnemonic information and applying insights to the language domain. If you want to know more, just click on the People tab and then on her headshot!
SEP 2024
Following her PeerJ Award at ECVP 2024, our DPhil student Gwen is now a featured blogger! Her latest post shares insights about her award-winning research project and her future plans. Read more about Gwen’s exciting work here: PeerJ Blog.
SEP 2024
Our previous postdoctoral research fellow Freek van Ede was recently featured in Science News as part of the SN10: Early-Career Scientists to Watch. His research on explores how the brain organizes information by studying eye movements. Check out the full feature here: Science News.
AUG 2024
Congratulations to Gwen for Winning the ECVP Poster Prize!
We are thrilled that our very own Gwen Williams has won the ECVP poster prize for her outstanding poster titled “Feature- and Motor-Based Temporal Predictions Benefit Visual Search Performance in Dynamic Settings.” This recognition highlights the significance and quality of her research. Well-deserved Gwen!
JUNE 2024
Kia recently sat down with John Foxe, Director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester, to discuss her research and career contributions for the Neuroscience Perspectives series. Her interview is available to watch here.
JUNE 2024
Kia’s Fred Kavli DCC Award lecture, “Focus through Time”, is now available on YouTube! Click here to watch it.
JUNE 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Dani Gresch and Dr. Oli Kohl on successfully passing your vivas! We are incredibly proud of your achievements and look forward to seeing where your journey takes you next!
mAY 2024
Congratulations to Levi Kumle for their publication in Communications Psychology! Their paper, “Multifaceted consequences of visual distraction during natural behaviour,” uses virtual reality to explore the effects of distractibility in encoding, visual search, working memory, and decision-making. Check it out here!
mAY 2024
Mats Van Es was recently interviewed for the Journal of Open Source Software’s podcast, JOSSCast: Open Source for Researchers. Mats joins episode 9, “Reproducibility in Neuroscience”, where they discuss reproducible science and added functionality to FieldTrip, a MATLAB software toolbox for analyzing brain imaging data. Check out the episode here.
April 2024
This year, Kia has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) as an international honorary member. With humility and joy, she joins one of the oldest learning societies in the United States and looks forward to working with other members to explore challenges facing society, identify solutions, and promote nonpartisan recommendations that advance the public good.
April 2024
On April 15th, Kia received the Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Award and gave her Award Lecture “Focus through Time” at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting in Toronto, Canada. Members from the Brain & Cognition Lab from both Oxford and Yale were there to celebrate the special moment. Congratulations Kia!
mArch 2024
Congratulations to Mats Van Es for placing third in the BRAINscapes Image Competition during the 2024 Oxford Neuroscience Symposium. Check out his submission here!
MARCH 2024
Welcome to our new postdoctoral research fellow, William Narhi-Martinez!
JANUARY 2024
Dani Gresch is leading our efforts to understand how we seamlessly shift attention between the contents in the world and in our minds to achieve our goals. Check out our first paper in Cognition: “Shifting attention between perception and working memory”. Let us know what you think!
JANUARY 2024
Congratulations to Levi Kumle for receiving a Graduate Student Award by the Cognitive Neuroscience Society for their 2024 Conference in Toronto. Levi will be presenting their work using VR to track how people use sensory and memory signals to guide decisions and behavior in natural immersive settings.
NOVEMBER 2023
HUGE congratulations to B&C’s very own, Kia Nobre, for being recognized as the 2024 Fred Kavli Distinguished Career Contributions Awardee. She will accept this prestigious award and give a lecture at the 2024 CNS Conference in Toronto.
