Cognitive Neuroscience Society

CNS 2026 guest post by Taryn Green and Frederik Bergmann (CNSTA) Perhaps now more than in previous years, as career opportunities seem to grow thinner especially with recent funding cuts to U.S. federal research, PhD students and postdocs face pressing decisions about next steps, career development, and sustaining momentum. At the same time, maintaining work-life […] The post Survival to Sustaina…

CNS 2026 guest post by Mohith (Mo) M. Varma Sitting through the four talks at the “Mapping Emotions in the Brain” symposium at the CNS 2026 annual meeting, I couldn’t shake the feeling I was watching the scientific equivalent of Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 masterpiece where four witnesses give different accounts of the same pivotal […] The post Down the Rashomon Hole: Reflections on Mapping E…

We closed out CNS 2026 in Vancouver with another excellent poster session, followed by a whopping 6 more symposia, including on the how the brain creates language, with insights from genes, neural pathways, neuroprosthetics, and computational models. Check out some highlights the posts below. #CNS2026 It’s been an unforgettable four days in Vancouver, and we have one more day of world-class scien…

CNS 2026 Press Release VANCOUVER – March 8, 2026 – Learning French, reading the latest Andy Weir novel, hanging out with friends for St. Patrick’s Day — language is central to all these everyday activities. Seemingly effortless from childhood, language, it turns out, is quite complex, not constrained to one set of genes or one region in the brain. Cognitive neuroscientists are now using a diverse…

The second day of CNS 2026 was richly packed with 6 stimulating symposia — on topics ranging from the cognitive neuroscience in infants to individual factors that affect brain aging and resilience — two poster sessions, multiple practical workshops, and the George A. Miller Prize lecture by Joseph Ledoux about fusing the science of emotion with the science of consciousness. Check out some highlig…

CNS 2026 Press Release VANCOUVER – March 8, 2026 – Age is more than just one number. While neuroscientists used to think of cognitive aging as a single trendline, they now realize that vast individual differences require a more predictive and personalized approach. As they uncover more factors that affect cognition over time, they are realizing that modeling the aging brain requires more diverse …

Q&A with Joseph LeDoux When asked about his career journey in cognitive neuroscience. Joseph LeDoux points to a documentary about Beatles producer George Martin. In the film, Martin says something that has always resonated with LeDoux. When asked why he thinks he was so successful in music, Martin says something like: “when I started music school, I had very little musical training, and so I alwa…

CNS 2026 Q&A with Monica Rosenberg Monica Rosenberg has been interested in the brain-mind interface before she even knew it was possible to study it professionally. In a fourth grade science fair project, she tested the effects of aging on reaction time by having people catch a ruler dropped vertically and recording how far it fell before they caught it. “I regressed a bit in fifth grade with a p…

CNS 2026 Q&A with Samuel McDougle As a member of a Connecticut-based band, Samuel McDougle has many opportunities to display a range of motor skills on a regular basis, whether playing bluegrass fiddle, mandolin, or guitar. From his love of music has sprung a focus within cognitive neuroscience on how people learn and get better […] The post Taking Action Seriously in the Brain: Revealing the Rol…

CNS 2026 Q&A with Peter Hagoort From his days as an undergraduate student assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics to his work now as Director of the Institute, Peter Hagoort has come full circle in his career, seeking to unlock the mechanisms of language in the brain. For more than four decades, he […] The post Making the Brain Language Ready: A Journey of Discovery appeared f…

School is almost out for summer in many places around the world, and as any parent or teacher knows, asking young kids about how their school day was, or even what they did for the summer, can be a challenge. Many children struggle to freely describe their day to day experiences, perhaps saying nothing at […] The post How Was Your School Day?: Unpacking Free Recall in Young Children appeared firs…

CNS 2025 guest post by Lauren Homann (CNSTA president) As cognitive neuroscience trainees look toward the future, many are considering options beyond traditional academic pathways. With growing uncertainty around research funding, increasing academic precarity, and a shifting policy landscape, the scientific world is in flux. These challenges, while daunting, also invite a reevaluation of what [……

CNS 2025 Press Release BOSTON – April 1, 2025 – Most people donning virtual reality (VR) goggles are seeking the thrill of being immersed in a fictitious video game world. But some are donning them for an entirely different experience: to help researchers identify those most at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.  “We know that […] The post How VR Technology is Changing the Game for Alzheimer…

The third day of CNS 2025 in Boston included 4 symposia — on topics ranging from use of smartphones to better understand and strengthen memory to visual development across cognitive systems — 2 poster sessions, a workshop on navigating difficult times, the Young Investigator Award lectures by Emily Finn and André Bastos, and the Fred […] The post CNS 2025: Day 3 Highlights appeared first on Cogni…

CNS 2025 Press Release BOSTON – March 31, 2025 – A memory is not a straight line from one point to another, even if we sometimes think of them like linear stories. This key insight that cognitive neuroscientists have known for many years is now guiding a new type of research—to explore not only how […] The post How Dreams, Novelty, and Emotions Can Shape Memories: Lessons from Smartphone Studies …

The second day of CNS 2024 was richly packed with 6 stimulating symposia — on topics ranging from the role of sleep in emotional healing and deploying attention in real-world learning to the cognitive functions of replay — two poster sessions, an XR workshop, and the George A. Miller Prize lecture by Ken Paller about […] The post CNS 2025: Day 2 Highlights appeared first on Cognitive Neuroscience…

The 32nd annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS 2025) kicked off in Boston with 1,500 participants! Today’s sessions included the Data Blitz sessions, a workshop on science communications, Poster Session A, and the keynote lecture by Adriana Galván (UCLA) about embracing teens as strategic risk-takers. We closed out the day with our Welcome […] The post CNS 2025: Day 1 Highligh…

CNS 2025 Q&A with André Bastos In some moments in time, technology seems to catch up with theory in powerful ways to elucidate new truths about fundamental processes in the brain. Now is that moment for understanding how brain rhythms coordinate to make everyday predictions that guide our learning and decision-making, says André Bastos, a […] The post Tapping into the Rhythms That Lead to Predict…

CNS 2025 Q&A with Emily Finn In today’s highly polarized society, most people can at least agree to the idea that any two individuals can view an event in vastly different ways. And those perceptions become our reality. But how can scientists study those perceptions in a robust way that speaks not only to the […] The post Viewing Different Views of the World Through a Scientific Lens appeared fir…

CNS 2025: Q&A with Marie Banich Marie Banich’s journey in cognitive neuroscience started with very personal motivations: first from a curiosity about what her family’s propensity for left handedness meant and then to a drive to help people who suffer from unwanted thoughts, after witnessing the devastating effects that had on a loved one. But […] The post Leveraging Brain Connectivity to Control …