Several lab members attended the Society for the Biology of Decision-Making meeting in Paris (https://sbdm2026.sciencesconf.org/). We kicked off with a satellite event, co-organised with the Palminteri lab, focusing on the intersection of cognitive science and sustainability: https://magdalenasabat.github.io/pre-sbdm. During the main meeting, Isabelle presented her DisRNN work, Robin his work on confidence fluctuations (preprint), and Anne gave a talk on dynamical systems models of arousal-driven state transitions (preprint).

For the 2026 course Psychology of the Climate Crisis, students worked on creative projects to communicate insights they learned to a broader public. Enjoy!

Anne visited a group of curious 4-6 year olds (pre-K, kleuterklas in Dutch) to talk brains! They knew the brain helps you think and feel (for instance when you’re hungry) and that it’s in the head. We learned that there are two big parts of the brain connected by a little bridge to talk with each other; that there are many parts of the brain that do slightly different things, and we compared the brain of a human with that of a mouse.

Everyone went home with a DIY brain hat (recommended for curious scientists of all ages).

We are happy to welcome Magdalena Sabat as a postdoc in the lab. She will investigate early warning signals of social tipping points, jointly supervised by Anne and Jan Willem Bolderdijk at the University of Amsterdam.

We kicked off Magdalena’s start with several days of brainstorming with an amazing group of collaborators. Welcome!

We had a great time at the Cognitive Computational Neuroscience meeting in Amsterdam, with a satellite meeting on scientists for social good, posters, and a talk. It was great to meet old and new friends and collaborators!

by Georgia Turner

The day before the CCN 2025 conference kicked off in Amsterdam, attendees from career stages ranging from pre-PhD students to keynote speakers gathered together for an event focused on ‘Science for Social Good’. The three-hour session covered big-picture reflections on the role of scientists in society, as well as practical tips like how to switch research topics or start a non-profit. But across these varied topics, one thread ran through every discussion: Can we make contribution to social good not just an accepted, but integral, part of our lives as scientists? 

For the first iteration of the new course Psychology of the Climate Crisis, students worked on creative projects to communicate insights they learned to a broader public. Find their creative contributions below!

• Coping with climate anxiety: @climatewarriors https://www.instagram.com/climatewarriors/
• Climate mythbusting quiz https://substack.com/inbox/post/163459434
• It’s just us and the climate podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4B9DPI8xjll9bpQnZdBsRT?si=i-p4B-hyQa2YcVOjlzQr7g
• Recipes for change cookbook: pdf
• Infographic on ChatGPT’s environmental impact: https://anneurai.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/infographic_chatgpt_no_qr-1.png

With panelists Karline Janmaat, Christian Tudorache, Michelle Spierings and Anne Urai, and with Tonko Zijlstra as a moderator, we had an interesting and stimulating discussion about the ethics of animal research. With expertise from ethology to behavioral biology and neuroscience, the discussion touched on issues of research culture, institutional and legal frameworks for animal studies, the broader use of animals in society and the 3 Rs in animal research.