The 33rd annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS 2026) kicked off in Vancouver with about 1,200 participants! Today’s sessions included the Data Blitz sessions, a Rising Stars session, Poster Session A, and the keynote lectur
#CNS2026 Student Lounge located in BURRARD room, free snacks and drinks available!
— CNS 2026 Annual Meeting (@cnsmtg.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 2:24 PM
e by Peter Hagoort (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics) about the language-ready brain. We closed out the day with our Welcome Reception. Check out some highlights in photos and posts below.
Welcome all to Vancouver for #CNS2026! We are excited for a stellar four days of science.
🧪— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 12:37 PM
Fantastic start to #CNS2026 at DataBlitz! Lots of cool findings already! One highlight for me: how differently people recall positive collective memories vs. personal memories, reflecting distinct functions of collectivistic vs individually experienced memory. Great talk: @signysheldon.bsky.social
— Mohith M. Varma (Mo) (@mohithvarma.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 2:22 PM
CNSers! Please tag your conference posts with #CNS2026. We will be posting here and with that hashtag throughout the meeting in Vancouver.
— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Join us for some fantastic talks at the Rising Stars session, starting now in Salon EF, being kicked off by Vishnu Murty #CNS2026
— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Alex Barnett (via Zoom due to travel disruptions) is presenting his research about how events are stored into memory and how event
representations shape what is remembered. And he starts with “story time.” #CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:12 PM
The science in the talks is outstanding but you can also come for Murty’s stand-up comedy in between the talks #CNS2026
— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:20 PM
Can relate to the setup in the next talk by Blaire Dube, about how we hold visual details of our luggage in our memory…last night, saw someone with the exact same suitcase as me and was convinced they were walking off with mine!
All about visual representation in memory and distraction
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Another relatable real-world example in a talk by Mengyuan Gong about the “template” we use to guide our attention, in this case, how we think about hailing a cab
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:41 PM
Next up: Peter Hitchcock on new ways to measure and understand depression in the brain, beyond self reporting
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:51 PM
And Hitchcock offers yet another great example, of challenges for new parents…and why some people are more prone to depression than others
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Now, Laura Gwilliams on neural algorithms for language, and how our brain continues to process words in parallel even while listening to and understanding a simple sentence like “We ate sushi in Vancouver”
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 5:09 PM
“A key problem that predictive brains need to solve is setting the ‘balance’ between stubbornness and flexibility…” Yes!
A highly relevant talk now by Daniel Yon
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Lastly, in this fantastic Rising Stars session, Anastasia Kiyonaga discusses the idea that working memory is adaptively allocated across the sensory and motor structures to support current needs — in contrast to earlier neuroscience frameworks
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Poster Session A…check it out now!
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 6:10 PM
On now at #CNS2026: Our keynote talk by Peter Hagoort, about our language-ready brain. Intro from Sabine Kastner, who opens with welcome remarks, reminding us all about the global nature of science.
Join us now in the Ballroom.
@mpi-nl.bsky.social 1/— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Hagoort begins his talk on language by contrasting the seemingly effortless development of language skills in his daughter when she was young to the intensity of learning how to tie her shoes
Excited to see the full house!
#CNS2026— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 8:13 PM
What a wonderful keynote by Peter Hagoort! For more information on Hagoort’s work, read this exclusive Q&A on the CNS blog:
www.cogneurosociety.org/making-the-b…
#CNS2026 10/ end 🧵— Cognitive Neuroscience Society (@cogneuronews.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 9:12 PM
-Lisa M.P. Munoz
