Profile avatar
apmackey.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Psychology at Penn
7 posts 1,057 followers 481 following
Prolific Poster

It's publication day for 📘Elusive Cures. What a moment! 1st book, 1st time on Mindscape (which, as many of you know, is one of my favorite podcasts). Here, @seanmcarroll.bsky.social and I have a wide-ranging conversation around: Why are brain and mental disorders so hard to understand and treat?

CIFAR invites applications for senior PhD and postdocs to participate in the Neuroscience of Consciousness Winter School, held in Montebello, Canada Dec 10-12, 2025. The Winter School is hosted by members of CIFAR’s Brain, Mind, and Consciousness program. Please repost. cifar.ca/next-generat... 🧠🧪

Excited to announce that our paper (led by @hyejinjadelee.bsky.social & Derek Smith) is out in @nathumbehav.nature.com go.illinois.edu/Lee2025_NHB We use 36 days of testing in 4 inhibitory control tasks to examine the precision of inhibitory control measures in *individuals* and how they vary 🧵👇

You have FOUR (4) more days to order a Biology is Bigger than Binaries shirt, designed by the lovely and talented @franzanth.bsky.social. In this nightmare of a year, merch is keeping @skypeascientist.bsky.social afloat. Even if you don't order, RT's help so much! Get 'em: squidfacts.bigcartel.com

Have recent changes led to uncertainty in your future scientific career? Wonder it's like in Australia? Good news! Monash's is seeking to hire talented EMCRs from other countries. Come join a wonderful community of brain mappers & modellers! www.monash.edu/research/eme...

Our R01 was part of yesterday's "mass termination" at Harvard; 1 of ~1000 NIH grants in Trump's "fight". The irony of how many Jewish (& non-Jewish) researchers/scientists/physicians/patients/students will be harmed in the name of "fighting antisemitism" is sickening.deliberately cruel. #AcademicSky

📣 It's official: I'm super excited to share that I'll be joining Rice University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences! Lab will launch in Summer 2026— I'll be recruiting over the next year, so please spread the word! Short thread ⤵️

Last weekend, I had the incredible experience of sharing the science of adolescence with 3000 curious, engaged listeners at TEDx Portland. The day was filled with amazing talks and performances that opened minds – and brought tears to many pairs of eyes. It's hard to put into words... 1/

The Learning and Brain Development Lab (PI: Juliet Y. Davidow, PhD) at Northeastern in Boston is hiring a full-time lab manager! Assist in conducting an NSF CAREER awarded project on adolescent neurocognitive development of motivated learning! northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

Six months ago, I accepted a postdoc offer in a fabulous lab. Three days ago, the Trump administration terminated the NSF grant supporting the position. Today, my offer had to be rescinded, and my PhD defense is a week away. (1/3)

Come check out the lab's research at @srcdorg.bsky.social this week! @leonardlearnlab.bsky.social

Excited to head to SRCD this week! @catehartley.bsky.social and I will be giving talks on Saturday morning, 8:30-10:00 AM in Auditorium 2 as a duo address on "Development of cognition, learning, and brain plasticity". Please join us!

LIVID and horrified (but not surprised) to learn that our R01’s diversity supplement was terminated. This is just idiotic and cruel. Opinions / experience on submitting an appeal? I know it is very unlikely to result in funds being reinstated, but I wonder if there is still some use in submitting?

Excited to share our new study: "Cold memories control whole-body thermoregulatory responses" by @andreamunozz.bsky.social, @aaron-douglas.bsky.social & team at @tcddublin.bsky.social, in collaboration with @lydialynch.bsky.social & @drchristineannd.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.

Grateful for Sen. Cory Booker! A black man breaking the record of a segregationist on the senate floor. Powerful. We need these moments right now more than ever!!

The rhetorical victory is this: the proposal that we can and will outlast them.

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/...

We think of white matter as the brain's highways—uniform conduits between cortices. But what if we study development along tracts? Turns out the journey matters as much as the cortical destination! We're thrilled to share “Two Axes of White Matter Development” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n

Last year, I was overjoyed to receive an NIH NRSA fellowship to study toddler brains and caregiving effects on memory at Columbia. Last night, my grant was terminated.

Overparenting can hold kids back—but our research shows that framing tasks as learning opportunities helps parents step back and foster kids' independence! ✨ Read more in our latest Psychology Today piece: www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/deve... @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social @mika-asaba.bsky.social

We're READY.

I'm hiring a full-time research assistant to start this Summer! The lab studies perception and cognition from infancy to adulthood using neuroimaging, behavioral, and computational approaches For more details about the lab and the position, see: vlad-lab.com/join #psychjobs #neurojobs

Congratulations to the 2025 APS Spence Award Recipients! 🎉 #AcademicSky #Psychology @drjuandeltoro.bsky.social @chazfirestone.bsky.social @ashleylwatts.bsky.social @minuekim.bsky.social @julia-a-leonard.bsky.social @markthornton.bsky.social @gemmasharpe.bsky.social

Ok good work folks, we're up to being able to fund 6-7 (really depends on how much people ask for, the range is $300-1000, and people are asking generally for 500-1000 in the applications that have come in so far). Applications are open until Feb 14! Apply here bit.ly/scienceirl

Shocked to receive the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) 🤯 Beyond grateful to the Biden administration, NSF, and the Changing Brain Lab members past & present!

Overparenting is on the rise and hurts children’s motivation starting in early childhood. How can we help parents step back? Our new paper in Child Dev shows that pointing out learning opportunities reduces overparenting. srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

☀️ New preprint! ☀️ Cognitive tests from 23,000+ participants in 4 datasets show cyclical fluctuations across the calendar year, including a small but replicable “summer slide” where youth show worst performance after school vacation. t.ly/OMzgl #PsychSciSky #CogPsyc #CogDev #devpsy #CogSci Thread /1

Super excited to share our official ACORN Lab website!! 🍁🧠 appliedcognitionlab.psychology.uconn.edu We are recruiting new team members at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels - join us! #Neuroskyence #neuroimaging #PsychSciSky #CogPsyc #ClinPsych #CogDev #devpsy #CogSci

For decades, developmental psychologists have noticed that optimism declines with age. Why does this presumably good thing decrease across development? In this Nature Reviews Psych article, @jessicas.bsky.social and I draw from prior hypotheses to offer an integrated account.