Check out our latest insights on proactive visual and motor prioritization dynamics in working memory, now out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...

Proactive Visual and Motor Prioritization Differentially Scale with Cue Reliability

Environmental cues enable the brain to anticipate and prepare for upcoming behavior, such as by selectively prioritizing relevant visual representations and associated action plans in working memory i...

doi.org

Finally out: my review in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social covering how my lab and others have been ‘Looking into working memory through micro eye movements’ over the years. What does the microsaccade bias buy us? A lot I argue. Go see for yourself at: doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

Flexible and sparse spatial organization in visual working memory revealed by biases in micro gaze behavior - our latest findings spearheaded by @baiweiliu.bsky.social, now out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...

Sparse Spatial Scaffolding for Visual Working Memory

When holding information “in mind,” it is vital to keep individual representations separated and selectively accessible for guiding behavior. Space is known to serve as a foundational scaffold for mne...

doi.org

Our latest findings: bringing together the core insights so far from our NWO-funded project on "Externally driven internal attention", led by @annavanharmelen.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Exogenously driven neural reactivation of spatially matching visual working-memory contents. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Putting the 'Spotlight' on a recent article by @fannycazettes.bsky.social et al. by discussing how “brain leakage” can expose cognitive computations in bodily movements – in turn opening new ways to track cognition. Now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social. authors.elsevier.com/a/1mDCZ4sIRv...

Last week to freely download our recent TINS Forum article 'Disambiguating dimensions of external and internal brain processes' before it hits a paywall. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lygsbotq7...

Freek van Ede@freekvanede.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Disambiguating dimensions of 'external' and 'internal' brain processes. Check our article in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social on concepts and open question in this burgeoning area of research, with @danielagresch.bsky.social and Kia Nobre from @brognition.bsky.social. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lygsbotq7...

Now out in #ScienceAdvances: @baiweiliu.bsky.social and I ask how internal (goal) and external (sensory) selection are coordinated during visual search. The key insight: internal and external selection are not inherently serial, but may develop in parallel in the human brain: doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Concurrent selection of internal goals and external sensations during visual search

Internal and external selection processes can codevelop in time to yield efficient search behavior.

doi.org

Disambiguating dimensions of 'external' and 'internal' brain processes. Check our article in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social on concepts and open question in this burgeoning area of research, with @danielagresch.bsky.social and Kia Nobre from @brognition.bsky.social. authors.elsevier.com/a/1lygsbotq7...

Dani Gresch@danielagresch.bsky.social · 10mo ago

📣 Out in TINS (@cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social): Neural processing is often described as either externally or internally directed. In our new Forum article, we (@freekvanede.bsky.social & Kia Nobre) propose a multilevel framework for conceptualising external and internal continua of brain processes.

New position, new social media account. After 5 fantastic years in Tuebingen, I moved to @yale.edu and the @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this summer - which means that I’ll be recruiting PhD students and postdocs. Please help me to spread the word and see current opportunities below 👇

The human-neuroscience N2pc marker of covert and internal attention co-occurs with spatial biases in microsaccades, 200-300 ms after prompted to shift attention. (How) are these empirical phenomena related? Check it out in the latest work led by @baiweiliu.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Microsaccades strongly modulate but do not directly cause the EEG N2pc marker of spatial attention

Researchers often study human attention using microsaccades and the N2pc EEG marker, but it is unclear to what extent microsaccades contribute to N2pc. This study shows that microsaccades modulate N2p...

doi.org

Our latest study showing how humans look into working memory to verify potential search targets - literally. Now out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social. Check out the article here: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/3...

Looking into Working Memory to Verify Potential Search Targets

Finding what you are looking for is a ubiquitous task in everyday life that relies on a two-way comparison between what is currently viewed and internal search goals held in memory. Despite a wealth o...

jneurosci.org

In 2023, I proposed that microsaccades may predominantly track shifting but not maintaining covert visual-spatial attention: doi.org/10.1073/pnas.... In a project led by Anna van Harmelen, we now provide empirical support for this: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Microsaccades track shifting but not necessarily maintaining covert visual-spatial attention

Covert attention enables the brain to prioritise relevant visual information without directly looking at it. Ample studies have linked covert visual-spatial attention to the direction of small fixatio...

doi.org

Looking for a summer read? Look no further! ☀️ Our most recent paper with Sage Boettcher, @freekvanede.bsky.social and @kianobre.bsky.social is out @plosbiology.org! 🪩 Sensory and motor working-memory contents are both prioritised dynamically, but their prioritisation can be temporally decoupled 🧠

Sensory and motor contents are prioritized dynamically in working memory

Attention flexibly modulates sensory contents in working memory, but the dynamics of motor content modulation in working memory remain unclear. This study shows that brain representations of both sens...

journals.plos.org

📢 New paper out in JoN [@sfnjournals.bsky.social]! With Larissa, Freek [@freekvanede.bsky.social], Kia [@brognition.bsky.social] and Sage [@dynacog-lab.bsky.social], we ask which and when WM contents get reselected after an interrupting external-attention task. 🧵 below (1|9) doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...

Neural Dynamics of Reselecting Visual and Motor Contents in Working Memory after External Interference

In everyday tasks, we must often shift our focus away from internal representations held in working memory to engage with perceptual events in the external world. Here, we investigated how our interna...

doi.org

⏰Finally out in final form: elifesciences.org/articles/100...

Re-focusing visual working memory during expected and unexpected memory tests

Memory tests evoke a second stage of internal attentional deployment following both expected and unexpected memory tests, extending attentional re-orienting to working memory.

elifesciences.org

A huge honour to be among the 2025 Ammodo Science Awardees for Fundamental Research. Vital credit is due to my mentors and to the past and current members of my team. www.ammodo-science.org/story/ammodo...

Laureates Ammodo Science Award 2025 announced

Leila Akkari, Marvin Tanenbaum, Rik Peels, Jenneke van der Wal, Yoeri van de Burgt, Nathalie Katsonis, Janna Cousijn and Freek van Ede are the winners of the Ammodo Science Award 2025. The laureates w...

ammodo-science.org

Handing out this year's Young Investigator Awards at CNS2025, on behalf of the committee, was a true pleasure and honor - and such fantastic awardees and talks, as well as a truly stimulating meeting once again. Thanks @cogneuronews.bsky.social

Cognitive Neuroscience Society@cogneuronews.bsky.social · last yr.

@freekvanede.bsky.social presents the Young Investigator Award to @esfinn.bsky.social and @andrebastosof.bsky.social Congratulations! #CNS2025

Bringing together our findings on microsaccade biases during rehearsal and selection in visual working memory, suggesting a 'silent spatial scaffold' for working memory whereby spatial organisation stays preserved even if active space-based rehearsal has ceased www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Microsaccades reveal preserved spatial organisation in visual working memory despite decay in location-based rehearsal

Space provides a foundational scaffold for retaining and selecting visual information in working memory. It remains unclear, however, whether and how …

sciencedirect.com

Our latest findings showing how internal and external visual selection do not necessarily ‘take turns’ but can run in parallel, led by @baiweiliu.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Concurrent selection of internal goals and external sensations during visual search

Flexible goal-directed behaviour relies on the selective processing of internal goal representations and external sensations. Yet, internal and external selection processes have classically been studi...

biorxiv.org

Our latest insights into the important role of 'action' in the study of visual working memory: set-size effects driven by changes in action readiness, not visual accessibility. Work led by Rose Nasrawi now out in Progress in Neurobiology: doi.org/10.1016/j.pn...

Our latest findings help appreciate why microsaccades and attention shifts are often correlated but not obligatorily linked: attention shifts do not cause new microsaccades but exclusively bias the direction of microsaccades that happen to be made when shifting attention. rdcu.be/dXNoW

Attentional shifts bias microsaccade direction but do not cause new microsaccades

Communications Psychology - Microsaccades are eye-movements that are modulated by covert and internal shifts of attention. This work shows how shifts in attention bias microsaccade direction...

rdcu.be

📜Preprint alert: our latest EEG findings reveal the foreground role action-readiness plays in visual-memory-guided behaviour. Take-home-message: working-memory load affects memory readiness, not accessibility per se. Led by Rose Nasrawi: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Memory load influences our preparedness to act on visual representations in working memory without affecting their accessibility

bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution

biorxiv.org

We are also thrilled this work made it to the Editor's pick at @eNeuro: blog.eneuro.org/2024/01/edit...

Freek van Ede@freekvanede.bsky.social · 3y ago

Over the past years, we have repeatedly shown how microsaccades are a powerful index for selection in visual working memory. We now show that microsaccades also track multi-item rehearsal through memorised locations: doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...

Over the past years, we have repeatedly shown how microsaccades are a powerful index for selection in visual working memory. We now show that microsaccades also track multi-item rehearsal through memorised locations: doi.org/10.1523/ENEU...

Microsaccades Track Location-Based Object Rehearsal in Visual Working Memory

Besides controlling eye movements, the brain's oculomotor system has been implicated in the control of covert spatial attention and the rehearsal of spatial information in working memory. We investiga...

doi.org