Áine T. Dineen

We're hiring! 2 postdocs + 3 PhD students to join InfantNeuroAI at Trinity College Dublin: awake infant fMRI & OPM-MEG, plus computational models of how infants learn. Aims: understand infant visual cognition, infant neuroimaging methods, more energy-efficient learning 🧵 www.cusacklab.org/vacancies

New preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...: brain alignment in DNNs is almost fully complete at 3% of training. Features involved in classification are largely independent of those that predict the brain. With @niklasmuller.bsky.social , @irisgroen.bsky.social. @marcelvangerven.bsky.social

Delighted to share that I’ve been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for #InfantNeuroAI The project will investigate how human infants learn to understand the visual world, by combining awake infant neuroimaging (fMRI and OPM-MEG) with computational models from AI.

We are still hiring for our computational focus lab coordinator position! If you have a computational / software engineering background and are looking for more research experience before applying to graduate school, this would be a great fit. Read more about our lab here! www.vislearnlab.org

Why can't you remember being a toddler? Or can you? Nice feature in Time of our lab's work on infantile amnesia at @tcddublin.bsky.social Also of the labs of @sarahdpower.bsky.social at MPI Berlin, @franklandlab.bsky.social at Sick Kids, and Nick Turk-Browne at Yale. time.com/7380496/why-...

What and how do babies see? Rhodri Cusack discusses early visual development. Come to the session for the pics of babies (like the one below of baby watching "infant IMAX") and stay for the great science! @rhodricusack.bsky.social #CNS2026 2/

Tasks include watching movies, like Moana, while tracking brain development every 2 weeks A limitation of the work is that it's so far an n of 1, Ellis' daughter #CNS2026 7/ @camerontellis.bsky.social

The Transmitter writes about @clionaod.bsky.social's work with @ainedineen.bsky.social, @annatruzzi.bsky.social, Graham King, @lorinanaci.bsky.social, Keelin Harrison, Enna-Louise D'Arcy, Jessica White, @chiarac.bsky.social, Tamrin Holloway, Anna Kravchenko, @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social!

Functional MRI scans of more than 100 2-month-old infants suggest that they are capable of distinguishing among a variety of different objects. The findings challenge perceptions of cognitive development as a gradual process. By @helenak.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/cognitive-ne...

Human babies may be able to visually categorize different objects earlier than previously thought, even at two months of age, according to research in Nature #Neuroscience. go.nature.com/4tcQOu3 🧪

Human babies may be able to visually categorize different objects earlier than previously thought, even at two months of age, according to research published in Nature Neuroscience. The results challenge our understanding of visual development in infancy: #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence 🧠

This paper was an awesome collaborative effort of a @fitngin.bsky.social working group. It provides a detailed review of how DNNs can be used to support dev neuro research @lauriebayet.bsky.social and I wrote the network modeling section about how DNNs can be used to test developmental theories 🧵

Awake infant fMRI offers a rare window into early brain and cognitive development. In a new paper out now in Infancy, we leverage data from hundreds of infant scans from the Saxe and Turk-Browne Labs to reveal what factors drive scanning success — and how future studies can maximize data retention!

Through the Foundcog project we scanned 100+ infants with awake fMRI. In this Nature Neuroscience paper led by clionaod.bsky.social, we show that, by 2-months, infants’ brains already encode rich representations of object category. Congratulations Clíona on such beautiful results! 🧠✨

And thank you so much to all of our participants and their families!

1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.

The FIT'NG Trainee Committee is excited to be recruiting new members! It’s a great way to: ✨ Build your network ✨ Gain leadership experience ✨ Shape programming for trainees across the society Interested? Fill out our form by September 23rd: tinyurl.com/TraineeCommi...

@mariesantillo.bsky.social shows that 2 month old infant show significant activity in the MD cortex which is different from 9 month olds and independent of visual complexity

Dr. Anna Truzzi shares her fascinating findings on how baby brains exhibit longer timescales using both MRI and EEG!

Cliona O'Doherty present pioneering work relating awake infant fMRI data to adults and computational models of vision, with strong correspondence at 2 months of age!

Exciting new preprint from the lab: “Adopting a human developmental visual diet yields robust, shape-based AI vision”. A most wonderful case where brain inspiration massively improved AI solutions. Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168

1/ New paper out in @commsbio.nature.com, led by @marinv.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1038/s420...! Across several past studies, we showed how newborns' degraded vision may benefit human development and inspire more robust deep networks. We have referred to this as Adaptive Initial Degradations (AID).

My paper with @stellalourenco.bsky.social ‬is now out in Science Advances! We found that children have robust object recognition abilities that surpass many ANNs. Models only outperformed kids when their training far exceeded what a child could experience in their lifetime doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Not just one, but two fantastic chances to discuss how infant development can inform machine learning and vice-versa at CCN 2025 in Amsterdam!!! Satellite workshop sites.google.com/view/child2m... and Generative Adversarial Collaboration sites.google.com/ccneuro.org/...

First morning in Brisbane! Looking forward to exploring the city before #OHBM2025 kicks off! Excited to be here to share my research on early MD network engagement in infants. Come chat at poster #1029 🧠🌎

Why do we not remember being a baby? One idea is that the hippocampus, which is essential for episodic memory in adults, is too immature to form individual memories in infancy. We tested this using awake infant fMRI, new in @science.org #ScienceResearch www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Don't miss our next FIT'NG Together event this Thursday, April 10th at 12pm EST where we will discuss a new paper on Hippocampal Encoding of Memories in Human Infants (DOI: 10.1126/science.adt7570) with @tristansyates.bsky.social and other authors! Register for FREE at: tinyurl.com/fitngtogether

🥁FIT'NG 2024 submission site is now open! 🗓️The deadline to submit abstracts is May 15, 2024. Click the 🔗 to get more info: fitng.org/submissions/