Alexa Morcom @alexamorcom.bsky.social

Exciting update on our #EEG study of selective memory retrieval! Led by @moccia_arianna - story below

The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning. The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. We absolutely need immigration controls. And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation. The rhetoric around these reforms encourages the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities. The Government is wrong to think that reviews of safety in the person's country every few years will mean refugees can be returned at scale. That hasn't happened in Denmark. Brutal dictators tend to hang onto power. It would just move huge amounts of resource away from making our asylum system work as it should - by cutting initial decision delays and the appeals backlog, sorting out asylum accommodation, making the UK-France deal work, removing those whose claims fail etc. The Government must think again on this. theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/n…

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Xiaochen Y. Zheng, Roshan Cools, et al: Abstract rule generalization for composing novel meaning recruits a frontoparietal control network doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a…

I’m a chemist. And I need to say this - because it’s getting dangerous out there. The biggest health myth in the world isn’t about vaccines. Or GMOs. Or fluoride. It’s the root of all of them. It’s called chemophobia - and it’s killing science. Fear of “chemicals” now drives vaccine rejection, GMO bans, food hysteria, and entire political movements. From tampons to tap water, people have been taught to fear chemistry - the very thing that keeps us alive. Chemophobia tells us: “Natural is good.” “Synthetic is bad.” That’s a lie. Botulinum toxin is 100% natural and one of the deadliest molecules known. Aspirin is synthetic and life-saving. We’ve gone from banning harmful substances for good reason…to banning safe, well-tested molecules for emotional reasons. You’ve seen the slogans: “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.” “Paraben-free.” “Clean beauty.” They sound empowering. But they’re not science - they’re marketing. And they’re making the world dumber, poorer, and sicker. Your body doesn’t care if a molecule comes from a plant or a lab. Vitamin C is vitamin C. Formaldehyde is formaldehyde and your body makes more of it every day than any vaccine ever could. Dose matters. Source doesn’t. This fear isn’t harmless. It shapes public policy. It blocks innovation. It raises food prices. It slows down cancer treatments. Chemophobia is now mainstream and it’s costing lives. Scientists aren’t losing because we’re wrong. We’re losing because fear spreads faster than facts. Because influencers sell fear for clicks. Because lawyers monetize doubt. And because scientists are too tired to fight back. So here’s my message, as a chemist and as a citizen: 🧪 Learn how toxicology works. 📣 Call out chemical fear-mongering. ✅ Support policies based on evidence, not emotion. Chemistry isn’t the enemy. It’s the reason you have clean water, safe food, and modern medicine. If we let fear win, we lose all of it.

The authors used EEG connectivity and generative modeling across diverse populations to reveal that brain age gaps are influenced by geography, income, sex and education, with implications for understanding accelerated aging and #dementia. @AgustinMIbanez nature.com/articles/s4422…

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: Breast & Formula Fed Toddlers Linked to Autism Diagnosis 🚨

🧠DEMENTIA PREVENTION—Almost everyone needs to go out now and get the shingles vaccine ASAP. Don’t wait until age 50 for standard eligibility—ask your doctor for singles vax. MULTIPLE large studies worldwide now show that shingles vaccine strongly prevents dementia onset. Do it.

No firewall - all the evidence base you need, US friends!

13 PhD positions available in the framework of the HUM.AI.N-ACCENT MSCA Doctoral Network escop.eu/news/news/othe…

We thank Angela Rayner for her inspirational service as Deputy Leader and Deputy PM. A proud trade unionist, she championed workers’ rights, renters, and social housing, and gave working-class communities a powerful voice. Our full statement below:

[Replication] Online vs. in-lab: Two replication studies of the Think/No-Think paradigm [def.: skosmos.loterre.fr/P66/en/page/-J…]. Open access. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

#AcademicChatter #AcademicX

1 year on…. the controversial ‘pseudoscience’ letter involving 100+ researchers that stemmed out in part from this review has now been revised into a longer article, & now accepted in Nature Neuroscience

Are you a psychologist or neuroscientist who completed your PhD after 1st October 2022, or about to submit your thesis? Consider applying for the **4-year Career Research Development Fellowship** in Psychology at St John's College, Oxford. Please share! sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/vacan…

Insight into hippocampal dentate gyrus contributions to memory and perception, led by the incomparable @KMitchnick - this work emphasizes the value of single cases in understanding brain-behaviour relations.

SIX postdoc fellowships and more in BIG new memory research centre at Stirling Uni, Scotland!

One year to go! ⏳ The countdown to ICON 2025 in Porto begins NOW! In 1 year, Porto will be buzzing with cutting-edge research and innovation in cognitive neuroscience. Mark your calendars! 🗓️ #ICON2025 #CognitiveNeuroscience 🌍🧠

This is pretty shocking.

Our attention waxes and wanes over time. How does this influence the way our memories are organized? Pupil size at encoding, an index of attention, predicts the temporal structure of subsequent memory Super proud of @manasijkumar for this work! 👀 osf.io/preprints/psya…