Brent Pitchford

Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combin...

@dotproduct.bsky.social's first first author paper is finally out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! Her findings show that content-specific predictions fluctuate with alpha frequencies, suggesting a more specific role for alpha oscillations than we may have thought. With @jhaarsma.bsky.social. 🧠🟦 🧠🤖

Fast and robust visual object recognition in young children The visual recognition abilities of preschool children rival those of state-of-the-art artificial intelligence models.

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...

UofG crows showing our incoming new students the values of hard work, focus and perseverance

Call for papers on conflict adaptation across single- and multi-tasking paradigms in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory & Cognition

The deadline for initial submissions is 1 October 2026.

Calling all PhD students & early career researchers! Boost your EEG skills in Nottingham, Dec 16–17. Hands-on training with ANT Neuro, Open Science Tools & @psychopy.org. Register: eventbrite.com/e/1692116779839

#Neurotechnology #BrainResearch #ScienceTraining

Distinct neural processing underlying visual face and object perception in dyslexia Developmental dyslexia is a disorder marked by difficulties in reading, spelling, and connecting sounds to written language. The high-level visual dys…

Excited to share a new article from @icevislab.bsky.social! In a sample of over 60 people, we found distinct neural differences underlying object and face recognition in dyslexia. These findings highlight crucial domain-general visual processes that may contribute to word reading challenges.

It shouldn’t need saying, but these institutions are not going to stop capitulating to Trump until they have reason to fear the cost of doing so.

And that burden is on the public to impose.

Protest, boycott, strikes, mockery, whatever.

Make them feel it, or they won’t stop.

there is still beauty in the world

Common neural choice signals reflect accumulated evidence, not confidence! Now out in @cerebralcortex.bsky.social w @helenevanmarcke.bsky.social @pierreledenmat.bsky.social @yfvisser.bsky.social @denizerdil.bsky.social a.o.

Paper: desenderlab.com/wp-content/u... Thread ↓↓↓

Postdoctoral Position at McGill University, Montreal, Canada

The Attention & Social Cognition Lab at McGill University invites applications for a postdoctoral researcher to join our dynamic team under the direction of Professor Jelena Ristic.
Application deadline: Fall 2025 (or until filled)

Interested in #EEG #FPVS #FaceLearning?

*An Ecological and Objective Neural Marker of Implicit Learning of Unfamiliar Identities*

Preprint 👉 osf.io/preprints/ps...

@bfh-ch.bsky.social University of Malta @snsf.ch

Let that number sink in.

This is how to do it when you’re fighting for the future of your democracy.

Our target discussion article out in Cognitive Neuroscience! It will be followed by peer commentary and our responses. If you would like to write a commentary, please reach out to the journal! 1/18 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @cibaker.bsky.social @susanwardle.bsky.social

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

Postdoc (80%) in the Cognition Lab at University of Zurich, Switzerland

We are looking for a postdoc to work with us on the capacity limits of cognition (working memory, attention, long-term memory, ...).

Application deadline: 10 September 2025

Our oscillations consensus paper is finally out as a preprint 🤩 thanks to everyone involved
arxiv.org/abs/2507.15639

Our conversation analysis software is now on CRAN! Reach out with any questions. We hope it’s useful for all you language and social interaction folks out there.

Join us on August 22nd in collaboration with CSBBCS and SPARK Society for a free online webinar on finding postdoc opportunities!
Visit the following link to register for the event: shorturl.at/BVPtC
We hope to see you there!!
Please note that the meeting will be held exclusively in English.

I want to get to a stage in my career where I don't feel the need to appease every one of Reviewer 2's requests.

Potential role of developmental experience in the emergence of the parvo-magno distinction - Communications Biology Developmentally-driven computational modeling study suggests that early sensory experience shapes distinct neuronal response properties in the visual system, providing a potential account of the emerg...

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).

Journal of Vision Special Issue The vision-language interface Call for papers Vision and language are often considered to be separate cognitive systems, studied by separate research teams. However, they interact when we use vision for linguistic communication: when reading printed text, when describing verbally the things we see, and when observing the expressions and gestures of an interlocutor (during sign language, for example). The development of these critical skills changes the brain, such that the visual and language systems influence one another. In particular, regions of the cerebral cortex that are typically responsive to visual stimuli are also recruited for linguistic tasks. But some of those ideas are controversial. For instance, for well over a century scientists have debated whether the brains of literate individuals contain a region that is specialized for recognizing written words. The Journal of Vision invites submissions for a Special Issue on the interface between vision and language. The unique perspectives and techniques of vision science contribute much to the understanding of language. This special issue welcomes empirical papers that use behavioral/psychophysical, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and stimulation methods. Topics include, but are not limited to: - Functional specialization in the brain for reading and naming - Semantic representations in the brain - Letter recognition and perceptual learning - Sign language comprehension - Eye movements during reading or other linguistic tasks - Development of visual skills for reading and communication - Links between visual cortical activity and representations in large language models - Visual processing differences in dyslexia Editors: Susana Chung Kalanit Grill-Spector Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga Hans Op de Beeck Zeynep Saygin Alex White Oscar Woolnough Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2025. All papers will be subject to peer review.

For everyone out there working at the intersection of vision and language. We are currently accepting submissions for a Journal of Vision Special Issue on the vision-language interface
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...

#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky

Why can't Microsoft just accept those of us with more than one account? It doesn't have to be this difficult.

Dog-sled going past the Le Château Montebello.

Main public room in Le Château Montebello decorated for Christmas. The building is the world's largest "log cabin".

Le Château Montebello is situated on the banks of the Ottawa river, separating Quebec and Ontario.

Group photo the school of 2018 at the Winter school on the Neuroscience of Consciousness

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... 🧠🧪

We have a PhD position for an upcoming project in metacognition research in Potsdam / Berlin. A great opportunity for those interested in cognitive modeling of confidence and EEG.

More information at coconeuro.github.io/phd2025

Kindly share this opportunity with potential candidates - Thanks!

NEUROCOG 2025 is taking place in Brussels Nov 17–18!

The theme: AI and the Human Brain 🤖 🧠

We’re thrilled to welcome 6 amazing invited speakers:
@evfedorenko.bsky.social, @nicoschuck.bsky.social, @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @jeffreybowers.bsky.social, @irisgroen.bsky.social & @mtoneva.bsky.social

"We thank the reviewers for their helpful comments"

I am delighted to report that SIDIC, the Symposium for Individual Differences in Cognition, will return in 2025 as a Psychonomics affiliate meeting, & Akira Miyake will deliver the Keynote address. Submissions will open 6/15-8/1; please consider joining us! Info: caliberlab.wixsite.com/sidic2025

boy Ontario is just so thoroughly squandering this moment

I personally find the results from the extinction phase to be quite interesting. This is often where you see the greatest effect of the reward association magnitude for the colour word, suggesting that maybe distraction is strongest when motivation decreases. Future work is obviously needed :)

But the impairment by the reward-associated colour words was persistent but often not as influenced by these factors. Ultimately these results suggest some interesting similarities with reward-based distraction in spatial attention tasks like visual search but also some nice differences as well.