I have always believed that ideas from basic systems neuroscience could eventually help people. But for years that felt more like hope than reality. But look! This is one of the most personally satisfying papers my lab has produced because we’re getting there. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧪🧵 1/

🧵 New paper from lab, CNN shape bias is optimal when training focuses on the object (similar to toddlers) bias peaks. Too much background, or over-cropping that breaks the object → it falls. doi.org/10.1080/0954... 💾 led by @niklasmuller.bsky.social, w/ @cgmsnoek.bsky.social @irisgroen.bsky.social

CCN 2028 will be hosted in North America again! We invite researchers & institutions to submit a proposal for 2028. Organizing chairs don't just host — they help shape CCN's organizational and scientific identity. Submit your proposal 👇 2026.ccneuro.org/host-ccn-pro... #CCN2028

We believe visual neuroscience is undergoing a paradigm shift — and the Beyond Binding exchange in @TrendsCogSci makes it visible. Five papers, excellent critics, and a discussion that sharpened and nuanced our argument. Thread 👇

Now out in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social: our short response to @neurosteven.bsky.social & Edward de Haan's recent paper on the binding problem. We argue that the binding problem arises because of tradeoffs faced by any information processing system, including the brain and DNNs. shorturl.at/RGXzt

🧠 New preprint: Why do deep neural networks predict brain responses so well? We find a striking dissociation: it’s not shared object recognition. Alignment is driven by sensitivity to texture-like local statistics. 📊 Study: n=57, 624k trials, 5 models doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Datasets like NSD & THINGS offer rich stimuli but often test a single task. After great conversations at #CCN2025 on multi-task studies & generalization in brains & models, I thought I would repost our perspective for those interested in this topic. We need multiple tasks!👉 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Centering cognitive neuroscience on task demands and generalization - Nature Neuroscience

Task demands are a primary determiner of behavior and neurophysiology. Here the authors discuss how understanding their influence through multitask studies and tests of generalization is the key to ar...

doi.org

#CCN2025 is over. Over 5 days there were 6 fantastic keynotes, 550 posters, 3 community events, 3 keynote & tutorials, 3 generative adversarial collaborations, 8 Satellite events, 1 community lunch meeting, 1 cross-conference hackathon, 1 competition, coffee all day, stroopwafels on day 1,

That's a wrap for CCN2025 -- and so planning for CCN2026 in New York is starting today! Save travels to all participants and remember to fill out the feedback survey sent via email!

The moment we've all been waiting for— #CCN2025 is HERE! Today we start with satellite events, and tomorrow the main conference begins in Amsterdam! We'll be sharing daily updates about each day's program, so follow the CCN account to stay in the loop. Can't wait to see everyone!

After preparing for a full year together with @neurosteven.bsky.social and all other amazing organizers of @cogcompneuro.bsky.social, #CCN2025 is finally here! While I'm proud of the entire program we put together, I'd now like to highlight my own lab's contributions, 6 posters total:

CCN2025 kicks off this Tuesday in Amsterdam (with satellite events Monday)! Fun fact: We might be getting the best conference weather Amsterdam has ever seen ☀️ Can't wait to meet everyone and dive into the exciting program ahead. See you there!

In these tumultuous times, still happy to report a scientific achievement: our preprint on affordance perception was just published in PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Using behavior, fMRI and deep network analyses, we report two key findings. To recapitulate (preprint 🧵lost on other place):

Representation of locomotive action affordances in human behavior, brains, and deep neural networks | PNAS

To decide how to move around the world, we must determine which locomotive actions (e.g., walking, swimming, or climbing) are afforded by the immed...

pnas.org

There are 2 PhD positions in my lab in Amsterdam (collaboration with Sander Bohte, @tessamdekker.bsky.social and Ingmar Visser) on NeuroAI of developmental vision. academicpositions.nl/ad/centrum-w...

2 PHD-STUDENTS IN NEUROAI OF DEVELOPMENTAL VISION (M/F/X) - Academic Positions

Join an interdisciplinary team to research developmental vision in NeuroAI. Requires a strong computational background, deep learning skills, and a Master's ...

academicpositions.nl

Phew decisions are out..!! Congratulations to the authors of the 26 papers selected for the first edition of the CCN Proceedings 📜 @eringrant.bsky.social @neurosteven.bsky.social @cogcompneuro.bsky.social 1/2

🧠 #CCN2025 (August 12-15, Amsterdam) Update: Early registration deadline approaching! ⏰ Register by May 23 for early pricing ($375 student/$495 regular) ➡️ 2025.ccneuro.org/meeting-regi... Full schedule now available: 2025.ccneuro.org/schedule-of-...

Waarom zien we wat we zien? 👀 @neurosteven.bsky.social en Sander Bohté starten onderzoek naar hoe onze hersenen supersnel leren wat belangrijk is om te zien. Hiervoor hebben ze nu geld van NWO ontvangen. Gefeliciteerd en veel succes met het onderzoek!🥳 www.nwo.nl/nieuws/van-a...

Van aardappelmicrobioom to zwaartekrachtgolven: 21 projecten van start bij Open Competitie ENW-M | NWO

De onderwerpen variëren van onderzoek naar hoe het menselijke visuele systeem leert, kankeronderzoek, onderzoek naar materialen die zichzelf kunnen assembleren vanuit een ‘ontwerploze’ toestand en de ...

nwo.nl

I am so happy—this is the first 1st author paper I have written, since the cancer diagnosis of my late wife seven years ago. 📑 PAPER ALERT: "Beyond binding: from modular to natural vision" in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2025) sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣! CCN2025 submissions have closed with impressive results: 613 submissions. A 21% increase from last year! Thank you to everyone who contributed. Looking forward to welcoming you all to Amsterdam this summer for what promises to be our biggest conference yet! #CCN2025 #Amsterdam

A little less than 24hrs to go! ⏱️ @neurosteven.bsky.social and I are *very much* looking forward to receiving your 2-page abstract on your latest exciting findings at the intersection of cognitive science, neuroscience and AI ♟️🧠🤖 and to welcome you to Amsterdam in August! bsky.app/profile/cogc...

CogCompNeuro@cogcompneuro.bsky.social · last yr.

🗓️ **CCN25 deadline reminder**: 2-page extended abstract submissions are due this Thursday (April 10th). We recommend drafting submissions in OpenReview (openreview.net/group?id=ccn...) well in advance. OpenReview drafts remain editable until the deadline.

📢 CALL FOR SATELLITE EVENT PROPOSALS: CCN 2025 @ University of Amsterdam Submit your workshop, tutorial or special session proposal for Aug 11, 2025 to complement the main CCN conference program. Deadline: April 10, 2025 Details in thread 👇 #CCN2025 #CogNeuro

"Approximately 1 in 7 Scientific Papers Are Fake" - that is the title of @jamesheathers.bsky.social's provocative preprint. James submitted it to @metaror.bsky.social and we now have 3 peer reviews and an editorial assessment you can read here: metaror.org/kotahi/artic... !

Approximately 1 in 7 Scientific Papers Are Fake

metaror.org

New preprint (#neuroscience #deeplearning doi.org/10.1101/2025...)! We trained 20 DCNNs on 941235 images with varying scene segmentation (original. object-only, silhouette, background-only). Despite object recognition varying (27-53%), all networks showed similar EEG prediction.

I wrote a commentary on a very nice paper that just appeared in @brain1878.bsky.social by @selmalugtmeijer.bsky.social, Sobolewska, de Haan & @neurosteven.bsky.social. Spoiler: It's about modularity in mid-level vision. 🤓 Original paper: doi.org/10.1093/brai... Commentary: doi.org/10.1093/brai...

How modular are modules in visual cortex?

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Visual feature processing in a large stroke cohort: evidence against modular organization’ by Lugtmeijer, Sobolewska

doi.org

We are extremely excited to announce Hava Siegelmann from the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a keynote speaker of CCN2025! If you want to contribute to this year’s CCN program, the March 14 deadline for special event submissions is approaching rapidly (details below!).

Excellent and provocative lecture by @ulrichschimmack.bsky.social on measurement at the 4M winterschool. "It is hard to reward people for thinking." "There is nothing wrong with exploring the data. How else will we discover new things? Especially when your crappy model does not fit."

127 8-page submissions for #CCN2025. Abstracts look great. We had hoped for 80. CCN Proceedings appears to have launched successfully. Will yield 30-35 great papers. 🙏 to the Debbie Yee, Sneha Aenugu, and especially @jaspervdb.bsky.social and @eringrant.bsky.social

Registration for CCN2025 is open! 2025.ccneuro.org/meeting-regi...

Hey Bsky friends on #neuroskyence! Very excited to share our @iclr-conf.bsky.social paper: TopoNets! High-performing vision and language models with brain-like topography! Expertly led by grad student Mayukh and Mainak! A brief thread...

Next week registration for CCN2025 will open. Do not forget to check this years social. It will be at IJver, nested in Amsterdam North's iconic NDSM wharf. There will be a 7 course walking dinner.