Simon Kern
@skjerns.de
Sleep & Memory researcher @ CIMH Mannheim with @gordonfeld.bsky.social . Interested in replay and applied machine learning in the context of episodic and declarative memory.
MEG and Python enthusiast.
MEG and Python enthusiast.
Reposted by Simon Kern
Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations?
There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model).
We have thoughts™
1/n
There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model).
We have thoughts™
1/n
The Umwelt Representation Hypothesis: rethinking Universality
Recent studies reveal striking representational alignment between artificial neural
networks (ANNs) and biological brains, leading to proposals that all sufficiently
capable systems converge on univer...
www.cell.com
August 28, 2026 at 2:59 PM
Are brains and artificial neural networks converging onto universal representations?
There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model).
We have thoughts™
1/n
There is a seductive idea making the rounds in NeuroAI / machine learning: train systems well enough, and they all converge on the same representation of reality (i.e. a unique world model).
We have thoughts™
1/n
Reposted by Simon Kern
I care about reproducibility, but I find it deeply problematic that the British ecological society is trying to extract free labour from academics (oh no, you get free membership for a year!) to work for them for 3 years on computational reproducibility checks.
apply.workable.com/britishecolo...
apply.workable.com/britishecolo...
Associate Editor (Code Integrity and Accessibility) - British Ecological Society
Volunteer role: Associate Editor (Code Integrity and Accessibility) Organisation: British Ecological Society – Methods in Ecology and Evolution Term: 3 years Closing date: 25th Sept 17.00 BST…
apply.workable.com
August 28, 2026 at 8:58 AM
I care about reproducibility, but I find it deeply problematic that the British ecological society is trying to extract free labour from academics (oh no, you get free membership for a year!) to work for them for 3 years on computational reproducibility checks.
apply.workable.com/britishecolo...
apply.workable.com/britishecolo...
Reposted by Simon Kern
This is wild. >1/2 of HC synapses disappear in artificial hibernation, come back in same/similar locations & memories intact. ~1/2 of engram synapses-between two memory-tagged cells-are clustered on dendrites, those preferentially spared. Not biggest synapses. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
August 26, 2026 at 6:53 AM
This is wild. >1/2 of HC synapses disappear in artificial hibernation, come back in same/similar locations & memories intact. ~1/2 of engram synapses-between two memory-tagged cells-are clustered on dendrites, those preferentially spared. Not biggest synapses. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Simon Kern
we have an open position for a post-doc (100%) or PhD student (75%) at Bielefeld University - starting 1.11 or later (there is room for flexibility).
jobs.uni-bielefeld.de/job/view/503...
jobs.uni-bielefeld.de/job/view/503...
Research Position (m/f/d) (Postdoctoral researcher...
<p>The ‘Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience’ research group investigates human experience and behaviour at the interface betwee...
jobs.uni-bielefeld.de
August 24, 2026 at 2:32 PM
we have an open position for a post-doc (100%) or PhD student (75%) at Bielefeld University - starting 1.11 or later (there is room for flexibility).
jobs.uni-bielefeld.de/job/view/503...
jobs.uni-bielefeld.de/job/view/503...
Reposted by Simon Kern
📢 We are hiring a full professor in "Intelligence in Biological and Artificial Systems".
Come join us at Germany's first and largest cognitive science program.
Please share far and wide, and get in touch with any questions.
www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/universit...
Come join us at Germany's first and largest cognitive science program.
Please share far and wide, and get in touch with any questions.
www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/universit...
129 FB 8 W3 Professorship Intelligence in Biological and Artificial Systems, Institute of Cognitive Science: Uni Osnabrück
www.uni-osnabrueck.de
August 19, 2026 at 4:52 PM
📢 We are hiring a full professor in "Intelligence in Biological and Artificial Systems".
Come join us at Germany's first and largest cognitive science program.
Please share far and wide, and get in touch with any questions.
www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/universit...
Come join us at Germany's first and largest cognitive science program.
Please share far and wide, and get in touch with any questions.
www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/universit...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Now in Science: How does the brain’s navigation system allocate its limited representational resources during behavior?
We found that grid cells sweep toward locations of interest, providing a potential mechanism for allocating spatial attention in the cognitive map.🧵
science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We found that grid cells sweep toward locations of interest, providing a potential mechanism for allocating spatial attention in the cognitive map.🧵
science.org/doi/10.1126/...
August 6, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Now in Science: How does the brain’s navigation system allocate its limited representational resources during behavior?
We found that grid cells sweep toward locations of interest, providing a potential mechanism for allocating spatial attention in the cognitive map.🧵
science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We found that grid cells sweep toward locations of interest, providing a potential mechanism for allocating spatial attention in the cognitive map.🧵
science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Come and join our replication initiative in visual neuroscience! Low bar for entry, ideal for anyone from a Master’s student looking for a thesis to faculty who want to get back to the bench. 🤓
re-vision-initiative.org
re-vision-initiative.org
August 1, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Come and join our replication initiative in visual neuroscience! Low bar for entry, ideal for anyone from a Master’s student looking for a thesis to faculty who want to get back to the bench. 🤓
re-vision-initiative.org
re-vision-initiative.org
Reposted by Simon Kern
***New preprint from the lab*** showing “Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits”. In sleep we show spiking sequences in V1 (sensory neocortex!) that represent information that has not been directly experienced www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @bndu.ox.ac.uk @ndcnoxford.bsky.social
Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits
To make flexible decisions, the brain needs to make inferences between events that were not directly experienced together. In sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events, during periods of rest and sleep, spiking ...
www.biorxiv.org
July 28, 2026 at 2:10 PM
***New preprint from the lab*** showing “Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits”. In sleep we show spiking sequences in V1 (sensory neocortex!) that represent information that has not been directly experienced www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @bndu.ox.ac.uk @ndcnoxford.bsky.social
Still ongoing! If you are or know a sleep researcher, please share ❤️
Are you a sleep researcher? Then we're interested in your opinion on preregistrations!
Help advance the field by filling out this short (5-minute) survey redcap.link/1zg4tezm
(Any career stage, doesn't matter if you've preregistered before or not, we need you. Please share!)
Help advance the field by filling out this short (5-minute) survey redcap.link/1zg4tezm
(Any career stage, doesn't matter if you've preregistered before or not, we need you. Please share!)
Preregistration in Sleep Research - Practices and Barriers
redcap.link
July 28, 2026 at 11:12 AM
Still ongoing! If you are or know a sleep researcher, please share ❤️
Reposted by Simon Kern
🚨 new lab preprint!
Research from @gordonfeld.bsky.social during his DFG personal fellowship to my lab many moons ago:
Global structure of new relational knowledge
networks is represented in retrosplenial complex, and
node-distance in hippocampus
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Research from @gordonfeld.bsky.social during his DFG personal fellowship to my lab many moons ago:
Global structure of new relational knowledge
networks is represented in retrosplenial complex, and
node-distance in hippocampus
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
July 27, 2026 at 8:10 AM
🚨 new lab preprint!
Research from @gordonfeld.bsky.social during his DFG personal fellowship to my lab many moons ago:
Global structure of new relational knowledge
networks is represented in retrosplenial complex, and
node-distance in hippocampus
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Research from @gordonfeld.bsky.social during his DFG personal fellowship to my lab many moons ago:
Global structure of new relational knowledge
networks is represented in retrosplenial complex, and
node-distance in hippocampus
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Excited to finally share our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com:
Hippocampal ripples initiate cortical dimensionality expansion for memory retrieval
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @s-michelmann.bsky.social and @doellerlab.bsky.social
Hippocampal ripples initiate cortical dimensionality expansion for memory retrieval
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @s-michelmann.bsky.social and @doellerlab.bsky.social
Hippocampal ripples initiate cortical dimensionality expansion for memory retrieval - Nature Communications
How past experiences are reconstructed from memory remains unclear. Here the authors used intracranial EEG to show that hippocampal ripples reshape the geometry of cortical representations, supporting...
www.nature.com
July 24, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Excited to finally share our new paper in @natcomms.nature.com:
Hippocampal ripples initiate cortical dimensionality expansion for memory retrieval
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @s-michelmann.bsky.social and @doellerlab.bsky.social
Hippocampal ripples initiate cortical dimensionality expansion for memory retrieval
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With @s-michelmann.bsky.social and @doellerlab.bsky.social
Are you a sleep researcher? Then we're interested in your opinion on preregistrations!
Help advance the field by filling out this short (5-minute) survey redcap.link/1zg4tezm
(Any career stage, doesn't matter if you've preregistered before or not, we need you. Please share!)
Help advance the field by filling out this short (5-minute) survey redcap.link/1zg4tezm
(Any career stage, doesn't matter if you've preregistered before or not, we need you. Please share!)
Preregistration in Sleep Research - Practices and Barriers
redcap.link
July 22, 2026 at 7:10 AM
Are you a sleep researcher? Then we're interested in your opinion on preregistrations!
Help advance the field by filling out this short (5-minute) survey redcap.link/1zg4tezm
(Any career stage, doesn't matter if you've preregistered before or not, we need you. Please share!)
Help advance the field by filling out this short (5-minute) survey redcap.link/1zg4tezm
(Any career stage, doesn't matter if you've preregistered before or not, we need you. Please share!)
Reposted by Simon Kern
This is one of my favourite things. Direct replication of MEG and fMRI findings in intracranial recordings and a demonstration that cortical representations update in the right direction around hippocampal ripples.
For a long time I felt like there was a hesitation in neuroscience to ascribe anything like a planning function to the various "replay" events we see in the hippocampus, but I think this is rapidly changing.
Here's another new entry in human epilepsy patients:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
Here's another new entry in human epilepsy patients:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧠📈 🧪
Human hippocampal ripples coordinate planning sequences and compositional representations in neocortex - Nature Neuroscience
Human hippocampal ripples and replay interact with the prefrontal cortex to update mental representations online, letting the brain compositionally combine familiar elements in new ways for flexible p...
www.nature.com
July 7, 2026 at 7:51 PM
This is one of my favourite things. Direct replication of MEG and fMRI findings in intracranial recordings and a demonstration that cortical representations update in the right direction around hippocampal ripples.
Reposted by Simon Kern
We're finally getting the tools to study replay in humans. But why bother? What can we learn from it that we don't know from rodent recordings? Our thoughts are now out in a new TICS Forum
Great fun writing this w @smfleming.bsky.social + @maritpetzka.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Great fun writing this w @smfleming.bsky.social + @maritpetzka.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
What can we learn from studying replay in humans?
Noninvasive methods are making it possible to study neural replay in humans. Although focused on alignment with rodent findings, human research often …
authors.elsevier.com
July 7, 2026 at 1:00 PM
We're finally getting the tools to study replay in humans. But why bother? What can we learn from it that we don't know from rodent recordings? Our thoughts are now out in a new TICS Forum
Great fun writing this w @smfleming.bsky.social + @maritpetzka.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Great fun writing this w @smfleming.bsky.social + @maritpetzka.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Reposted by Simon Kern
“move from preprint to peer-reviewed publication leaves the central claims of most abstracts intact, indicating preprints are a reliable source…papers that were never posted as preprints were retracted at roughly twice the rate of those that were…” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Tracking claim changes from preprint to publication across 72,644 biomedical studies using large language models
Preprints now disseminate a large share of biomedical research before peer review. Because they have not yet passed peer review, some scientists regard preprint claims as unverified or potentially unr...
www.biorxiv.org
July 6, 2026 at 12:51 PM
“move from preprint to peer-reviewed publication leaves the central claims of most abstracts intact, indicating preprints are a reliable source…papers that were never posted as preprints were retracted at roughly twice the rate of those that were…” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Simon Kern
If you're dying with anxiety because the status of your paper has not changed from "under review" for weeks, you may want to read the Future of Peer Review report from Silverchair that came out recently and replaced the outdated Publons report from 2018... #ScientificPublishing #PeerReview /
June 29, 2026 at 7:10 AM
If you're dying with anxiety because the status of your paper has not changed from "under review" for weeks, you may want to read the Future of Peer Review report from Silverchair that came out recently and replaced the outdated Publons report from 2018... #ScientificPublishing #PeerReview /
Reposted by Simon Kern
New preprint! We show low arousal states promote hippocampal ripple genesis in sleep and wake.
This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Arousal state modulates human hippocampal ripples
Hippocampal ripples are transient, high-frequency oscillations linked to memory replay and consolidation. Ripples are well-characterized in rodents to occur during periods of behavioral inactivity (i....
www.biorxiv.org
June 29, 2026 at 11:50 AM
New preprint! We show low arousal states promote hippocampal ripple genesis in sleep and wake.
This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
This bridges rodent work, where ripples predominate during sleep, with human studies reporting ripples during active behavior, identifying low arousal as a common mechanism
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Simon Kern
Are the traveling dynamics of sleep slow waves functionally involved in memory consolidation? A new paper from the lab led by @norarouast.bsky.social shows that auditory stimulation during sleep disturbs SWS and affects the traveling dynamics of SWs - which mediated impaired memory consolidation!
Ever wondered what having auditory stimulation does to the sleep itself?
Random stimulation disturbs SWS, memory, and travelling dynamics of slow waves.
New paper in iScience with @mschoenauer.bsky.social, @denizkumral.bsky.social, and Steffen Gais!
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#sleep #neuroskyence
Random stimulation disturbs SWS, memory, and travelling dynamics of slow waves.
New paper in iScience with @mschoenauer.bsky.social, @denizkumral.bsky.social, and Steffen Gais!
doi.org/10.1016/j.is...
#sleep #neuroskyence
Redirecting
doi.org
June 26, 2026 at 8:54 AM
Are the traveling dynamics of sleep slow waves functionally involved in memory consolidation? A new paper from the lab led by @norarouast.bsky.social shows that auditory stimulation during sleep disturbs SWS and affects the traveling dynamics of SWs - which mediated impaired memory consolidation!
Reposted by Simon Kern
Big news! 🚀
The preprint for our #NODES Delphi study is out on PsyArXiv osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5bt6s_v1
What's this all about? 🧵
The preprint for our #NODES Delphi study is out on PsyArXiv osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5bt6s_v1
What's this all about? 🧵
OSF
osf.io
June 16, 2026 at 8:11 AM
Big news! 🚀
The preprint for our #NODES Delphi study is out on PsyArXiv osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5bt6s_v1
What's this all about? 🧵
The preprint for our #NODES Delphi study is out on PsyArXiv osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5bt6s_v1
What's this all about? 🧵
Reposted by Simon Kern
The extent of the IF obsession is evident from any and every Google search for a journal - even venues that don't warrant one. This literally makes or breaks journals - non-profits are hit particularly hard - and it stifles innovation and distorts science. 2/2
June 18, 2026 at 2:17 PM
The extent of the IF obsession is evident from any and every Google search for a journal - even venues that don't warrant one. This literally makes or breaks journals - non-profits are hit particularly hard - and it stifles innovation and distorts science. 2/2
Reposted by Simon Kern
Meet our new Alliance Fellow Pablo Rojas!
He will be working with the groups of @gordonfeld.bsky.social and Georgia Koppe
www.linkedin.com/posts/health...
He will be working with the groups of @gordonfeld.bsky.social and Georgia Koppe
www.linkedin.com/posts/health...
#healthlifesciencealliance #interdisciplinaryresearch #artificialintelligence #cognitivescience #neuroscience #machinelearning #collaboration #innovation #translationalresearch #heidelberg | Health + ...
Meet our new Alliance Fellow Pablo Rojas!
Could you tell us a bit about the work you do? Which field do you work in and who are your PIs?
I work at the intersection of cognitive science and artificial...
www.linkedin.com
June 17, 2026 at 7:54 AM
Meet our new Alliance Fellow Pablo Rojas!
He will be working with the groups of @gordonfeld.bsky.social and Georgia Koppe
www.linkedin.com/posts/health...
He will be working with the groups of @gordonfeld.bsky.social and Georgia Koppe
www.linkedin.com/posts/health...
🧠 New preprint! How well can current algorithms *actually* detect neural "replay" in the human brain under absolutely optimal conditions?
We built FASTIMAGES: A combined MEG + fMRI benchmark with KNOWN neural sequences, so replay-detection methods can finally be validated against a ground truth.
We built FASTIMAGES: A combined MEG + fMRI benchmark with KNOWN neural sequences, so replay-detection methods can finally be validated against a ground truth.
FASTIMAGES: Validating replay detection methods in human neuroimaging
A combined MEG + fMRI benchmark dataset with known neural sequences to validate replay detection methods (TDLM and SODA).
cimh-clinical-psychology.github.io
June 15, 2026 at 3:03 PM
🧠 New preprint! How well can current algorithms *actually* detect neural "replay" in the human brain under absolutely optimal conditions?
We built FASTIMAGES: A combined MEG + fMRI benchmark with KNOWN neural sequences, so replay-detection methods can finally be validated against a ground truth.
We built FASTIMAGES: A combined MEG + fMRI benchmark with KNOWN neural sequences, so replay-detection methods can finally be validated against a ground truth.
Reposted by Simon Kern
Interested in human replay and solid methods? Jointly with @skjerns.de we're releasing a benchmark dataset with known ground-truth neural sequences in MEG & fMRI, for developing & validating replay methods. First test: existing methods show similar effect sizes, but room to improve shorturl.at/6TgIr
FASTIMAGES: Validating replay detection methods in human neuroimaging using a combined MEG and fMRI dataset
Studies in rodents and humans using invasive electrophysiology have established that neural replay is a ubiquitous phenomenon in the brain that is associated with a wide range of cognitive functions, ...
shorturl.at
June 11, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Interested in human replay and solid methods? Jointly with @skjerns.de we're releasing a benchmark dataset with known ground-truth neural sequences in MEG & fMRI, for developing & validating replay methods. First test: existing methods show similar effect sizes, but room to improve shorturl.at/6TgIr
Reposted by Simon Kern
Der Tankrabatt kostet in zwei Monaten übrigens knapp 25-mal so viel wie die von der Bundesregierung versprochene und jetzt gestoppte Erhöhung der Wohnkostenpauschale beim BAFöG.
June 9, 2026 at 5:50 PM
Der Tankrabatt kostet in zwei Monaten übrigens knapp 25-mal so viel wie die von der Bundesregierung versprochene und jetzt gestoppte Erhöhung der Wohnkostenpauschale beim BAFöG.
Reposted by Simon Kern
Paying peer reviewers works.
Expanded Fast & Fair experiment @biologyopen.bsky.social:
• 5.5 vs 37.7 working days to decision with reviews
• ~3 vs ~9 reviewer invitations per manuscript
• no reduction in editor-assessed review quality
• similar acceptance rates
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Expanded Fast & Fair experiment @biologyopen.bsky.social:
• 5.5 vs 37.7 working days to decision with reviews
• ~3 vs ~9 reviewer invitations per manuscript
• no reduction in editor-assessed review quality
• similar acceptance rates
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
June 3, 2026 at 12:05 PM
Paying peer reviewers works.
Expanded Fast & Fair experiment @biologyopen.bsky.social:
• 5.5 vs 37.7 working days to decision with reviews
• ~3 vs ~9 reviewer invitations per manuscript
• no reduction in editor-assessed review quality
• similar acceptance rates
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Expanded Fast & Fair experiment @biologyopen.bsky.social:
• 5.5 vs 37.7 working days to decision with reviews
• ~3 vs ~9 reviewer invitations per manuscript
• no reduction in editor-assessed review quality
• similar acceptance rates
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...