Lisa Spiering
Postdoctoral neuroscientist @Oxford • she/her • decision-making, learning and mental health
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringApplications will be opening soon for BAMB! 2026 The summer school will take place from 12 - 23 July 2026 www.bambschool.org
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringNow online in @biologicalpsych.bsky.social CNNI - our paper showing that reliance on habitual responding in transdiagnostic compulsivity may be underpinned by uncertainty about learned environmental structure 📃 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- 📰 New preprint! We show using computational modelling that transdiagnostic compulsivity is associated with greater uncertainty about learned task structure This work was led by Siri Sookud, starting during her MSc osf.io/preprints/ps...
- 🎉 My PhD work has just been published in @natcomms.nature.com! How do we learn who caused what - and how much control we had - when outcomes depend on multiple people? We studied how humans do so using a new social learning task, computational modelling and fMRI. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵👇
- We observed a striking behaviour: People purposefully make mistakes to gather information about their control over ambiguous joint outcomes. We refer to this behaviour as “active disambiguation” (AD). In line with their behaviour, they also report employing AD after the task.
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- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚀 Deadline for this is this Sunday! 🏃♀️
- 🚀 Excited to announce that I'm looking for people (PhD/Postdoc) to join my Cognitive Modelling group @uniosnabrueck.bsky.social. If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here: tinyurl.com/coxijobs Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️
- Do check out this amazing opportunity to join the brilliant @lilweb.bsky.social's lab 🤩! Do apply, deadline is 4th Jan
- 🚀 Excited to announce that I'm looking for people (PhD/Postdoc) to join my Cognitive Modelling group @uniosnabrueck.bsky.social. If you want to join a genuinely curious, welcoming and inclusive community of Coxis, apply here: tinyurl.com/coxijobs Please RT - deadline is Jan 4‼️
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringPassionate about women's mental health? Interested in brain stimulation? Excited by cutting edge neurotech? Come do a PhD with me! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (thread)
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- Reposted by Lisa SpieringNew preprint in advance of a Phil Trans paper. Outlining a theoretical argument bridging Bayesian causal learning and empowerment in reinforcement learning. And empirical data that kids do too! arxiv.org/abs/2512.08230
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringNew study out today in Nature Comms: www.nature.com/articles/s41..., in which we set out to test whether ultrasound could influence the reward-related learning computations of the nucleus accumbens, building on decades of work on dopaminergic prediction error and reinforcement learning. And it did.
- Check out this preprint by @simyciri.bsky.social on the role of basis functions in social decision-making across development 🚀!
- 🥳!!NEW PREPRINT!!🥳 We show that the tendency to compress complex social information into priors about social structures becomes more pronounced during adolescence. osf.io/preprints/ps... I am soooooo excited to share this work, together with @mkwittmann.bsky.social and @yongling.bsky.social.
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering📣🔥Thrilled to announce that 2026 Computational Psychiatry Conference will take place in New Haven, CT, btw July 14-16 - www.cpconf.org @robbrutledge.bsky.social @drrickadams.bsky.social @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social @docqhuys.bsky.social @clairegillan.bsky.social Sonia Bishop More info to come soon!
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering1/ Excited to share that our symposium review covering cognitive mapping in the PFC just came out in the Journal of Neuroscience: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/4...
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringThere are 3 Oxford-based post doc positions for this Wellcome Trust project that will be advertised soon! If you have experinece in neurostimulation (tms/tus) and/or modelling of cogneuro data in humans do contact one of us (me, @mkflugge.bsky.social @lilweb.bsky.social, Jacinta OShea) to discuss!
- Repetitive negative thoughts will be investigated using a range of cutting-edge brain science techniques as part of a new study led by the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford and funded by Wellcome @wellcometrust.bsky.social 👇 tinyurl.com/364es88k
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering1/4 I’m super excited to share our latest PNAS paper: a 7T-fMRI study shows that functional connectivity between habenula and VTA in humans is associated with individual differences in negative learning bias, which further associates with higher anxiety and depression scores. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering(1/3) Focused ultrasound stimulation is a versatile neuroscience tool. Depending on parameter settings it can safely and reversibly alter brain function, or it can lead to lasting tissue damage. That’s why we have safety guidelines (see ITRUSST: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... ).
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringWhen does new learning interfere with existing knowledge in people and ANNs? Great to have this out today in @nathumbehav.nature.com Work with @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @tsonj.bsky.social, Lukas Braun and Jan Grohn www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- New preprint out with @summerfieldlab.bsky.social! When does new learning interfere with existing knowledge? We compare continual learning in humans and artificial neural networks, revealing similar patterns of transfer & catastrophic interference (1/8) osf.io/preprints/ps...
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringA brain injury was reported in a trial using ultrasound, framed as low-intensity TUS. Kim Butts Pauly and I reviewed the case and disagreed with how it's presented. Key acoustic data are missing. Case: doi.org/10.1016/j.br... Letters: www.elsa-fouragnan.com/blog | web.stanford.edu/~kimbutts/Le...
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringSuper happy to see this review out! We ask why people are so reluctant to abandon goals and how this commitment could be understood computationally. Work with Jill O'Reilly & @yaelniv.bsky.social
- Check out this chapter on recent methods in measuring brain plasticity - by the amazing @luiantaverra.bsky.social et al ✨🧠!
- 📘🧠💥@fabianrenz.bsky.social , @nicoschuck.bsky.social & I thought about methods to measure brain plasticity and wrote an overview of exciting new methods and developments! Read our chapter, out now in The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Enhancement and Brain Plasticity academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚀 We’re hiring - Join our lab 🚀 🔍 Hiring: PhD (75% TV-L) & Postdoc (100% TV-L) 🧠 fMRI, VR, EEG, modelling We combine a range of cognitive neuroscience methods to study flexible behaviour. 📅 Start: Feb 2026 or later | ⏳ Apply by Nov 3! More details: tinyurl.com/ms3a9ajt #CognitiveNeuroscience
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringLooking for a PhD? Interested in cognitive computational neuroscience, motivation and decision-making? See our project listed in the BBSRC MIBTP competition for funding for a 4-year PhD in the @msnlab.bsky.social in the @thechbh.bsky.social. Deadline 27/11. More info: tinyurl.com/5d5vz8m7
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚨 Last Minute Spots Now Available🚨 Last minute spots became available for this year's @biodgps-dgpa.bsky.social Young Scientist Retreat🧠! If you want to come to Hamburg next week register vie email: 📧sarah.danboeck@uni-mannheim.de Strongly Recommend!🙌 #Biopsychology #YoungScientists
- 🚀 Young Scientist Retreat 2025 – Hamburg 🌍 📅 October 21–24, 2025 👉 Register here: tinyurl.com/ycmyshra (Google Form) If this does not work, feel free to write sarah.danboeck@uni-mannheim.de Let’s connect, learn & grow together in Hamburg! 🌟 ysr2025 #Biopsychology #YoungScientists (more below)
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringHow do we decide to reach out and make friends? My PhD work on this question is out today in @pnas.org 🎉 Study done in collaboration with the incredible @mirunarascu.bsky.social, @sorcha-hamilton.bsky.social, Ingrid Yu, and my two amazing supervisors, Matthew Rushworth and @mkflugge.bsky.social👇
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚨Out now in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social 🚨 We explore the use of cognitive theories/models with real-world data for understanding mental health. We review emerging studies and discuss challenges and opportunities of this approach. With @yaelniv.bsky.social and @eriknook.bsky.social Thread ⬇️
- Reposted by Lisa Spieringjob alert 🚨 come join us in beautiful Würzburg 🏰🌳🍷🫧this 3yrs Postdoc position is for German speakers interested in child&adolescent clinical psych. Although initially limited to 3 years, this position offers a possibility of tenure! happy to answer any question in advance-shoot me an📨&pls share🙃
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringPost doc job alert 📢! Announcing a v exciting job on a Wellcome-funded project in my group at UCL, looking at auditory hallucinations... Advert here 👀: rb.gy/230w8l - deadline is end of Oct. Please apply! 1/5
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringNew #job alert! Clinical research fellow / postdoc in #computationalpsychiatry at the @mpc-comppsych.bsky.social / @uclqsion.bsky.social and UCL psychiatry. We will aim to understand the computations engaged by serotonin in the treatment of depression. Please re-sky. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringWhat influences whether people have fun with a task? Our paper “Leveling up fun: learning progress, expectations and success influence enjoyment in video games” with @thecharleywu.bsky.social and @ericschulz.bsky.social now in Scientific Reports! rdcu.be/eI069 Paper summary below 1/4
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering😍 Our latest is out now in @commspsychol.nature.com. 🤩 We show with Bayesian modelling and experimental manipulation of uncertainty that developmental differences in social influence depend on differences in the internal uncertainty people have about their choice doi.org/10.1038/s442...
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringInterested in building computational models of anxiety? See below for a potential PhD opportunity with me Feel free to reach out if you'd like to know more! @kingsioppn.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social kcl-mrcdtp.com/project/unde...
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚨 I am over the moon 🌓 to announce that I am joining University College Dublin @ucddublin.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor this fall to start the Uncertain Mind (UMI) lab 💫 I am looking for PhD/Postdoc candidates to join (more below 👇 ). Please RT as the deadline is pretty soon 🙏
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringEarly bird registration for "The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025" conference ends on 30th September! This meeting provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the neural, behavioural and computational mechanisms of foraging across species. uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis... Please share!
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering✨ I’m so excited and grateful to have been awarded an #ERC Starting Grant! 🧠✨ The project aims to investigate how the brain builds and uses cognitive maps to guide behaviour, how emotions shape these computations, and what this all means for mental health 🧠
- We are very proud of our researchers Beatrice Baragli, Jerome Beetz, Jacqueline Degen, Mona Garvert, Jake Greenfield, and Jens Hör: They have been awarded prestigious ERC Starting Grants worth €1.5 million. Congratulations! @erc.europa.eu #ERCStG ➡️ www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/news-and-...
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚨We believe this is a major step forward in how we study hippocampus function in healthy humans. Using novel behavioral tasks, fMRI, RL & RNN modeling, and transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), we demonstrate the causal role of hippocampus in relational structure learning.
- Causal necessity of human hippocampus for structure-based inference in learning biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering📢 We're hiring a Research Assistant in cognitive neuroscience & computational psychiatry! 📢 Join us at UCL to conduct an MEG study of reward & memory, exploring how brain signals link to variability in apathy and anhedonia. 🔗 apply from next week: lmdlab.github.io 🚨closes September 12th!
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringWe are super excited about the first human transcranial ultrasound study from our lab which is now on BiorXiv, showing the amygdala‘s role in processing ambiguous emotions and showing TUS changed resting-state connectivity and metabolite concentrations (GABA) in the amygdala - a huge team effort! 🥳🙏🏼
- Very happy to share my first preprint from @oxexppsy.bsky.social @oxneuro.bsky.social ! We (me + co-first authors @lilweb.bsky.social @mirunarascu.bsky.social + PI @mkflugge.bsky.social + many others) used transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (TUS/tFUS/LIFU) of the human amygdala ... (1/15)
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringMy first PhD paper - with @lhuntneuro.bsky.social and @summerfieldlab.bsky.social - is now out in @plosbiology.org! We ask: how do humans (and deep neural networks) navigate flexibly even in unfamiliar environments, such as a new city? Link: plos.io/45uSwNm 🧵 (1/6)
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering📢 Job announcement: Two (!) 3-year postdoc jobs in our lab at UCL 📢 🧠💫🔊 We are looking for postdocs interested in the abstract mechanisms underlying social cognition. Modelling, fMRI and non-invasive ultrasound, a new deep-brain stimulation method. Please RT www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🚨PREPRINT ALERT🚨 Why do some people get stuck doing things that no longer make sense, or are even harmful? Our new study shows compulsivity isn’t just about weakened goal-directed control; people high in compulsivity also form stronger habits 📄: osf.io/preprints/ps... #PaperFairy #Habits #CogSci
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringFor any postdocs who are are looking to transition to independence and might be keen to join us here at @kingsioppn.bsky.social, King's Prize fellowship applications are open (deadline 27 Nov) 👇 See link for details, and feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/119505-...
- Saying goodbye to beautiful Tübingen now. #CPConf2025 was absolutely fantastic! Learned so much about comp psychiatry and had lovely discussions about my work on causal learning and control, and their relationship to mental health ✨
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- Reposted by Lisa SpieringI am delighted to announce registration and abstract submission is open for "The Mechanistic Basis of Foraging 2025" to be held at the Edgbaston Park Hotel, University of Birmingham, UK on 3-5th November 2025. uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
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- Reposted by Lisa SpieringThrilled 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...
- Reposted by Lisa SpieringJoin us for the Mechanistic Basis of Foraging meeting in Birmingham, UK from 3–5 November 2025 - a multidisciplinary event exploring the neural, behavioural and computational foundations of foraging across species: uobevents.eventsair.com/the-mechanis...
- Reposted by Lisa Spiering🌟 Research Assistant opportunity 🌟 I'm looking for an RA to support research @thechbh.bsky.social on social information seeking and decision making, including fMRI and MEG 🧠 Details: tinyurl.com/chbh-ra-uob Deadline: 20th July ⏳ Start: From September 🗓️ Please share 🔁
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- Reposted by Lisa SpieringAre you coming to @rldmdublin2025.bsky.social #RLDM2025? Join our workshop on Gamification in Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience with an amazing speaker lineup! 🎮👾🧠💫 w/ @ondrejzika.bsky.social @ingrdmrtn.bsky.social
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- Reposted by Lisa Spiering📢 Fantastic post doc job opportunity in my group and co-supervised by DeepMind's @mariaeckstein.bsky.social - now live! Ad here: tinyurl.com/26rafzdc - deadline May 29th. This is part of a very exciting collaboration with @melgaby.bsky.social and Matt Nour, funded by @wellcometrust.bsky.social.
