New paper! 🚨Check it out and attend @cogsci.nl talk today at 2pm @escop.bsky.social ✨👀

Sebastiaan Mathôt@cogsci.nl · 3w ago

And finally I will talk about a large group project in which we show that pupil-size changes alone (independently of external stimuli) trigger retinal responses. dx.doi.org/10.1111/psyp... with @olaf.dimigen.de @hakankarsilar.bsky.social @anavili.bsky.social @veerahelmisofia.bsky.social

@anavili.bsky.social will kick off by talking about this preprint, in which she uses pupillometry to track how attention shifts within after images. Very innovative work! dx.doi.org/10.64898/202...

Very excited to visit Hangzhou, #China! This afternoon in the 14:00 session, @veerahelmisofia.bsky.social @anavili.bsky.social and I will talk about pupil size, attention, and retinal responses. 👁️ ⭐ #escopcopm2026

Arrived to Hangzhou to attend ESCoP CoPM 2026 @escop.bsky.social ! I’ll be talking tomorrow at 14.30 (Room 4) about the pupil size and attention! 👁️

error term manifesting itself

@anavili.bsky.social ⭐ once again uses pupillometry to address a fundamental open question in vision science: can covert attention be deployed within afterimages? The answer is: yes ✅ #science #vision #pupillometry #preprint 👇

Ana Vilotijević@anavili.bsky.social · 5mo ago

⚡Does attention operate *inside* an afterimage?⚡ We show that it does and that this is reliably tracked by the pupil! Once again, the pupil proves to be a pretty amazing window into the mind👁️, but what does this mean for attention? Check out our preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @cogsci.nl

⚡Does attention operate *inside* an afterimage?⚡ We show that it does and that this is reliably tracked by the pupil! Once again, the pupil proves to be a pretty amazing window into the mind👁️, but what does this mean for attention? Check out our preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @cogsci.nl

🚨New preprint! We show that pupil constriction doesn’t just regulate light input, it actually **generates** activity in the human retina and visual cortex, even without changes in visual stimulation! ⚡ Check it out 👁️ doi.org/10.64898/202...

Sebastiaan Mathôt@cogsci.nl · 5mo ago

❤️‍🔥 Exciting new preprint ❤️‍🔥 #Pupil constriction causes, by itself and independently of visual stimulation, activity in the human #retina and #visual system. w/ @anavili.bsky.social @veerahelmisofia.bsky.social @hakankarsilar.bsky.social @olaf.dimigen.de 1/4 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

And these manuscripts show how you can actually use this technique to test fundamental research questions: dx.doi.org/10.1093/cerc... 1/3 👇

Non-image-forming vision as measured through ipRGC-mediated pupil constriction is not modulated by covert visual attention

Abstract. In brightness, the pupil constricts, while in darkness, the pupil dilates; this is known as the pupillary light response (PLR). The PLR is driven

dx.doi.org

Interesting work!

Ana Vilotijević@anavili.bsky.social · 7mo ago

🚨Pupillometrists! Reviewer2: “But what if changing pupil size unintentionally affected arousal?” 👁️ Now we give you the answer! In collaboration with Snell lab www.snelllab.eu, we show that you can safely manipulate pupil size, via ipRGC activation, without unintentionally altering arousal!

New preprint! We mapped out how ‘diffuse’ predictions affect neural representations. We show predictions reshape the geometric layout of the neural representations by compressing the representational spread and stabilize the neural code by reducing the neural variance during memory encoding.

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Diffuse predictions stabilize and reshape the neural code during working memory encoding https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707359v1

🚨 New #Review #Preprint 🚨 Veera Ruuskanen proposes a new, concrete framework to understand how and why pupil size 👁️, neural activity 🧠, and behavior 💃 interact. doi.org/10.31234/osf... #psychology #neuroscience #pupillometry #perception

SigmundAI.eu can now implement complete psychological experiments in #OpenSesame. From scratch based on verbal description. Astonishing how far #AI has come 😵‍💫 #psychology

🚨Pupillometrists! Reviewer2: “But what if changing pupil size unintentionally affected arousal?” 👁️ Now we give you the answer! In collaboration with Snell lab www.snelllab.eu, we show that you can safely manipulate pupil size, via ipRGC activation, without unintentionally altering arousal!

A confound-free method to manipulate pupil size in psychological experiments - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Researchers are increasingly showing interest in the ways in which various cognitive processes are influenced by the size of the pupil. However, this realm of research is complicated by the pupil’s no...

link.springer.com

"Wait ... isn't that the woman from all those groundbreaking pupillometry studies? Did she not have a PhD yet?" No she didn't–until now. Congrats @anavili.bsky.social !!! 👌💪🙌

Ana Vilotijević@anavili.bsky.social · 8mo ago

PhD Cognitive Neuroscience ✅👩‍🎓

Congratulations Ana on this superb dissertation!  Was a pleasure to read the thesis and be part of the i̶̶̶n̶̶̶t̶̶̶e̶̶̶r̶̶̶r̶̶̶o̶̶̶g̶̶̶a̶̶̶t̶̶̶i̶̶̶o̶̶̶n̶̶̶ ̶̶̶c̶̶̶o̶̶̶m̶m̶i̶̶̶t̶̶̶t̶̶̶e̶̶̶e̶̶̶ defense board! :)

Ana Vilotijević@anavili.bsky.social · 8mo ago

PhD Cognitive Neuroscience ✅👩‍🎓

PhD Cognitive Neuroscience ✅👩‍🎓

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?...

How reality is simulated by your brain | Surgya Gayet | TEDxEindhoven

YouTube video by TEDx Talks

youtu.be

🌱🌎🐝🤖

Sebastiaan Mathôt@cogsci.nl · 8mo ago

"If you look closely, there are lots of similarities in how humans, animals, plants, and AI think. But there are also differences, and these differences are just as fascinating and important." mindwise-groningen.nl/een-wereld-v... #psychology #biology #AI #science

nl.linkedin.com/pulse/interv... #wetenschap #psychologie #biologie #AI #boeken @knaw-nl.bsky.social

Interview Sebastiaan Mathôt: kunnen hommels, planten en AI’s echt denken?

Cognitief neuropsycholoog Sebastiaan Mathôt schreef het boek Een wereld vol denkers, waarin hij het begrip ‘intelligentie’ ruim uitlegt. Mathôt is spreker bij de publiekslezing ‘Wat heeft een mier aan...

nl.linkedin.com

Talking today about whether attention can modulate retinal activity, come join! 👁️ #nvp25

Sebastiaan Mathôt@cogsci.nl · 9mo ago

This afternoon at #nvp2025, an entire session on cognitive #pupillometry 👁️ with talks by @anavili.bsky.social , @cstrauch.bsky.social and others. See you at 👉 12:00! #psychology

Synesthetes claim sensory experiences, such as seeing color when reading or hearing a (black) number. 
But how genuine are these reports and sensations? We introduce a rather direct measure of synesthetic perception: Synesthetes’ pupils respond to evoked color as if it was real color #vision! 👁️🎨🧪

New today in @Nature: your visual cortex contains touch-based body maps. bit.ly/VisualBodyMaps Your brain transforms what you see into first-person, body-referenced codes: A previously unknown bridge between vision and touch.

Als een 🦚 zo trots om *Een wereld vol denkers* door heel Nederland in de boekhandels te zien liggen! Een ontdekkingsreis door de gedachtewerelden van mens, dier, plant en #AI! #boeken #wetenschap #psychologie #biologie

A good reason to make it to the early #visualcognition session of today's #ecvp2025 👉 @anavili.bsky.social will talk about how attending to fuzzy bright/dark patches that have faded from awareness (through adaptation-like processes) still affect pupil size! ⚫👀⚪ Paper: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

Important work for pupillometry researchers! Check out the preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵3/3

Namely: maybe these inducers also affect arousal and through that route behavior. Joshua Snell and @anavili.bsky.social rigorously tested this and found that the technique is solid: red and blue inducers affect pupil size, but do not appear to affect behavior by modulating arousal. 🧵2/3

Blue light strongly constricts the pupil—thanks to ipRGCs—but can we use it to manipulate pupil size without messing with behaviour? In a simple 2x2 (background color x task difficulty), we (w/ Joshua, Luise @vuamsterdam.bsky.social) show that background color affects pupil size, but not behaviour!

Through experience, humans can learn to suppress locations that frequently contain distracting stimuli. Using SSVEPs and ERPs, this study shows that such learned suppression modulates early neural responses, indicating it occurs during initial visual processing. www.jneurosci.org/content/jneu...

Thank you Karl Gegenfurtner and Doris Braun for two fantastic talks last week in our department!