I became a dr. last week! Thanks to everyone who made it an amazing day - I had a blast.

New preprint (doi.org/10.64898/202...) shows that where you look next is an economic decision. Saccades trade off effort-costs (measured via pupil) against monetary rewards. 1) By default, participants have strong saccade direction preferences (e.g., cardinal over diagonal, up over down) (1/4)

Reward and intrinsic effort-costs drive saccade selection 👀. But what happens when these factors compete? Our newest preprint shows that saccade selection follows principles of economic decision-making:

We often fail to pay attention to what's important for extended periods of time. What's going on in the brain when we're failing to pay attention? In a new preprint, we show that frontal potentials (fP3) track visual and auditory attentional lapses. doi.org/10.64898/202... #neuroscience

New paper out: Trial-level sequence modeling reveals hidden dynamics of dual-task interference. We decoded, at the trial level, the sequence of cognitive operations people take when multitasking. We found that how cognitive operations interleaved across tasks predicted RT and accuracy!

Investigations into whether we can search for multiple targets in a simultaneous fashion have led to mixed findings. In this new PsychScience article, we report that people CAN search concurrently, but don't always DO so... 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Past experiences shape current selection. But when and how strong are past and present targets represented in the brain? In our newest paper, we show that past and present search targets are concurrently represented in the brain. Out now in @plosbiology.org doi.org/10.1371/jour... #neuroscience

What do we look for when searching for objects in our daily-life environments? Very happy that I can now share this review, together with @suryagayet.bsky.social , @predictivebrain.bsky.social and @peelen.bsky.social🥳 A brief thread below!

New paper alert: very proud to share our review published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, spearheaded by @maellelerebourg.bsky.social, and together with @peelen.bsky.social and @predictivebrain.bsky.social, about goal-directed search in real-world environments. See below for a thread/tldr!

Do you want to measure pupil size while participants move their eyes around 👀? We offer a straightforward solution to gaze-induced distortions on pupil size measurements in our newest paper!

We show that synesthesia is sensory and automatic in nature: the pupil scales with the brightness of experienced synesthetic colors. doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Now in its new dress @elife.bsky.social (convincing & valuable in round 1). If anyone wants to pick up the method, happy to share & explain!

Hey bluesky 👋 really excited about this one! 👀

My first TEDx talk just came out. It's always fun to talk about your own research area to the general audience, and its even more fun when you are lucky enough to be supported by such a platform. Happy to hear your thoughts :-) youtu.be/UyUclyHx8d8?...

Our commentary @stigchel.bsky.social on Ruth Rosenholtz' Visual Attention in Crisis paper is now available: doi.org/10.1017/S014... We argue that effort must be considered when aiming to quantify capacity limits or a task's complexity.

Celebration time 🥳 @liangyouzhang.bsky.social publishes the 1st empirical paper of his PhD! We show that numerosity adaptation (a seemingly high-level stim property) suppresses neural responses in early visual cortex; these adaptation FX increase as we progress thru the visual processing hierarchy.

This paper is now published in Journal of Neuroscience! www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...

Planning on running a RIFT study? In a new manuscript, we put together the RIFT know-how accumulated over the years by multiple labs (@lindadrijvers.bsky.social, @schota.bsky.social, @eelkespaak.bsky.social, with Cecília Hustá and others). Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

Filled with a bunch of extra analyses, this is now accepted in The Journal of Neuroscience @sfn.org! You can have a sneak peak here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧠 Regularization, Action, and Attractors in the Dynamical “Bayesian” Brain direct.mit.edu/jocn/article... (still uncorrected proofs, but they should post the corrected one soon--also OA is forthcoming, for now PDF at brainandexperience.org/pdf/10.1162-...)

Spatial attention and working memory are popularly thought to be tightly coupled. Yet, distinct neural activity tracks attentional breadth and WM load. In a new paper @jocn.bsky.social, we show that pupil size independently tracks breadth and load. doi.org/10.1162/JOCN...

1/ Why are we so easily distracted? 🧠 In our new EEG preprint w/ Henry Jones, @monicarosenb.bsky.social and @edvogel.bsky.social we show that distractibility is associated w/ reduced neural connectivity — and can be predicted from EEG with ~80% accuracy using machine learning.

Very excited to announce my first paper is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! Using EEG, we identify an item-based measure of storage in working memory that generalizes across auditory and visual items. authors.elsevier.com/a/1ljFF3QW8S... #PsychSciSky #neuroskyence #workingmemory

🧠 Excited to share that our new preprint is out!🧠 In this work, we investigate the dynamic competition between bottom-up saliency and top-down goals in the early visual cortex using rapid invisible frequency tagging (RIFT). 📄 Check it out on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Surely you know about eye dominance. You probably don’t know it’s not a unitary phenomenon: in this paper I show that sensory eye dominance varies over the visual field. In the Discussion I propose an explanation for why this variation might exist. Curious? Read it here: doi.org/10.1167/jov....

Had a blast at last week's symposium! Inspiring to hear all the talks about EEG and attention. I presented on the neural correlates of saccade preparation and covert spatial attention. Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Last week's symposium titled "Advances in the Encephalographic Study of Attention" was a great success! Held in the KNAW building in Amsterdam and sponsored by the NWO, many of (Europe's) leading attention researchers assembled to discuss the latest advances in attention research using M/EEG.

In this new preprint, in review @elife.bsky.social, we show what processing steps make up the reaction time using single trial #EEG modelling in a contrast #decision task. In this 🧵 I'm telling the story behind it as I think it is quite interesting and I can't write it like this in the paper...

Thrilled to share that I successfully defended my PhD dissertation on Monday June 16th! The dissertation is available here: doi.org/10.33540/2960

New paper out at Journal of Memory and Language! We knew that individual differences in working memory predict source memory, but did it predict simple item recognition memory (that relied on less attention resources than source memory)? Our answer is: YES! (with @edvogel.bsky.social ) 1/5

Now published in Attention, Perception & Psychophysics @psychonomicsociety.bsky.social Open Access link: doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Thanks to the support of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and @knaw-nl.bsky.social , we're thrilled to announce the international symposium "Advances in the Encephalographic study of Attention"! 🧠🔍 📅 Date: June 25th & 26th 📍 Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam

Sensory sensitivity We study how people react to sensory input like lights and sounds. You can help by completing a short online questionnaire. You can also sign up for an optional 3-hour lab session in Utrecht (€12/ hour) involving EEG and hearing tests. Take the survey here: tinyurl.com/457z89ta

Long overdue! Didn't promote this one amid twitter/X chaos. But nearing the end of my PhD, I want to do this project justice and post it here: Is visual working memory used differently when errors are penalized? Out already 1+ year ago in JEP:LMC: research-portal.uu.nl/ws/files/258... 🧵 (1/3)

Good morning #VSS2025, if you care for a chat about the role of attention in binding object features (during perceptual encoding and memory maintenance), drop by my poster now (8:30-12:30) in the pavilion (422). Hope to see you there!

@vssmtg.bsky.social presentations today! R2, 15:00 @chrispaffen.bsky.social: Functional processing asymmetries between nasal and temporal hemifields during interocular conflict R1, 17:15 @dkoevoet.bsky.social: Sharper Spatially-Tuned Neural Activity in Preparatory Overt than in Covert Attention

Attending @vssmtg.bsky.social? Come check out my talk on EEG decoding of preparatory overt and covert attention! Tomorrow in the Attention: Neural Mechanisms session at 17:15. You can check out the preprint in the meantime:

We previously showed that affordable eye movements are preferred over costly ones. What happens when salience comes into play? In our new paper, we show that even when salience attracts gaze, costs remain a driver of saccade selection. OA paper here: doi.org/10.3758/s134...

Preparing overt eye movements and directing covert attention are neurally coupled. Yet, this coupling breaks down at the single-cell level. What about populations of neurons? We show: EEG decoding dissociates preparatory overt from covert attention at the population level: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Thrilled to share that, as of May 1st, I have started as a postdoc at The University of Manchester! I will investigate looked-but-failed-to-see (LBFTS) errors in visual search, under the expert guidance of Johan Hulleman and Jeremy Wolfe. Watch this space!

Where a person will look next can be predicted based on how much it costs the brain to move the eyes in that direction.

If you're interested in this article, here's the link: trebuchet.public.springernature.app/get_content/... Thanks to my supervisors @suryagayet.bsky.social @chrispaffen.bsky.social and @Stefan Van der Stigchel for their support!🎉

In our latest paper @elife.bsky.social we show that we choose to move our eyes based on effort minimization. Put simply, we prefer affordable over more costly eye movements. eLife's digest: elifesciences.org/digests/9776... The paper: elifesciences.org/articles/97760 #VisionScience

We show that eye-movements are selected based on effort minimization - finally final in @elife.bsky.social eLife's digest: elifesciences.org/digests/9776... & the 'convincing & important' paper: elifesciences.org/articles/97760 I consider this my coolest ever project! #VisionScience #Neuroscience

New preprint! We present two very large eye tracking datasets of museum visitors (4-81 y.o.!) who freeviewed (n=1248) or searched for a +/x (n=2827) in a single feature-rich image. We invite you to (re)use the dataset and provide suggestions for future versions 📋 osf.io/preprints/os...

Out in Psychophysiology (OA): Typically, pupillometry struggles with complex stimuli. We introduced a method to study covert attention allocation in complex video stimuli - effects of top-down attention, bottom-up attention, and pseudoneglect could all be recovered. doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70036

Presaccadic attention facilitates visual continuity across eye movements. However, recent work may suggest that presaccadic attention doesn't shift upward. What's going on? Our paper shows that presaccadic attention moves up- and downward using the pupil light response. doi.org/10.1111/psyp.70047

New paper out now in JEP:G. "Individual differences in working memory and attentional control continue to predict memory performance despite extensive learning." psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/xg…

Brains minimize energy consumption while maximizing computation. In humans, this trade-off is reconciled towards complex behaviors & hence relatively high energy use Review & synthesis with @sharnajamadar.bsky.social @annabhlr.bsky.social & Hamish Deery tinyurl.com/47c9n65w osf.io/preprints/os...

🎉New paper out in JEP:HPP [email protected] @suryagayet.bsky.social @chrispaffen.bsky.social and Stefan Van der Stigchel. We asked whether memory traces are formed for items that have not yet been selected for immediate action, while we are actively sampling targets for imminent action.