Jeroen Smeets
jbjsmeets.bsky.social
Jeroen Smeets
@jbjsmeets.bsky.social
Scientist investigating how we use our senses to control our movements
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
I think almost all scientific projects should be planned carefully. And I think an app can dramatically improve that. So I wrote an app for that (free for now, if you can fund this let me know). I tested it quite a bit (>8000 users in beta so far). try it: planyourscience.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
A new, Short and Sweet open-access paper on how briefly hiding the hand impedes goal-directed arm movements. Briefly is really brief: we find a decrease in performance in goal-directed movements due to just a few ms without vision of the hand (target remains visible). doi.org/10.1177/0301...
October 27, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
Our next #SpeakerSpotlight for VR Summit 2025! ✨

Featuring:
Gavin Buckingham (Univ. of Exeter)
Jason Friedman (Tel Aviv Univ.)
Jeroen Smeets (VU Amsterdam)

📅 Summit Oct 20–21 • Rotunde Bochum

Register/submit: vrs.rub.de

#VRSummit #XR #VR #HCI #Neuroscience #VRresearch #VRcademicSky
September 8, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Following a discussion with Mindy Levin about the limitations of using VR in motor control and rehabilitation, I joined her in writing this review.
July 9, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
OK so totally crazy thought but hear me out how about we stop paying so much money to Elsevier and Wiley and Springer and other publishers and like use that money to finance universities so we don't shut down programs in the Netherlands right now ..
April 23, 2025 at 12:19 PM
For those who can understand some Dutch: an interview on Dutch National radio about broken escalators, the size-weight illusion, and motion sickness: www.nporadio1.nl/nieuws/binne...
Waarom gaat over een stilstaande roltrap lopen zo moeizaam?
Je hebt het vast weleens gevoeld: het vreemde en bijna onhandige gevoel wanneer je een stilstaande roltrap oploopt. Waarom is dat eigenlijk zo ongemakkelijk, terwijl het in principe gewoon een trap is...
www.nporadio1.nl
April 22, 2025 at 2:11 PM
When trying to learn from reward, you explore after non-rewarded trials. One generally assumes that this exploration is random. In our new paper, in contrast, we find that participants repeat changes in the same direction more than random exploration predicts. doi.org/10.1007/s002...
The sign of exploration during reward-based motor learning is not independent from trial to trial - Experimental Brain Research
Humans can learn various motor tasks based on binary reward feedback on whether a movement attempt was successful or not. Such ‘reward-based motor learning’ relies on exploiting successful motor comma...
doi.org
April 16, 2025 at 5:51 AM
In a recent paper, it was argued that the tendency to direct saccades between target and distractor depends on their distance. In a letter to the editor, we argue that their data can be easily explained by assuming that 20% of the saccades is directed at that global location.
doi.org/10.1016/j.vi...
Redirecting
doi.org
March 18, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
The dynamic version is even more disturbing...
March 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
@yfvisser.bsky.social Visser promoveerde vorige maand op haar onderzoek naar communicatie tussen brein en spieren onder stress. Vandaag ook in @nrc.nl:

www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...
Je spieren zijn meestal nét wat meer voorbereid op de ene actie dan op de andere
Durf te vragen: Neurowetenschapper Yvonne Visser wil snappen hoe het gezonde brein werkt en hoe we besluiten nemen. „Daar staan we nooit bij stil maar dat is eigenlijk heel bijzonder.”
www.nrc.nl
February 6, 2025 at 12:22 PM
In this new paper by Eleonora Assarioti, we found that in perceptual discrimination tasks, participants tend to choose the option with the lowest explicit motor costs. This challenges the view that the motor system merely executes decisions. dx.doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
Reaching Distance Influences Perceptual Decisions
Participants performed two perceptual discrimination tasks in which we manipulated the motor costs of the two response options by varying the distance to the response buttons. We found a bias towards...
dx.doi.org
February 3, 2025 at 4:24 PM
@ns-online.bsky.social: waarom adviseren jullie de reizigers van Groningen naar Hilversum (en Utrecht om in Amersfoort over te stappen met een kwartier wachten, terwijl de ic dit weekend gewoon rechtstreeks door rijdt naar Hilversum? @rover-online.bsky.social
November 30, 2024 at 3:27 PM
Many authors and textbooks assume that sensory recalibration involves adjusting some consistent internal representation, map, or body schema. In an elegant study, Fuchs & Heed provide new evidence that this is not the case: tactile recalibration is task-specific. doi.org/10.1111/ejn....
Rescaling perceptual hand maps by visual‐tactile recalibration
After concurrent visual and tactile stimuli have been presented repeatedly with a spatial offset, unisensory tactile stimuli, too, are perceived with a spatial bias towards the previously presented v...
doi.org
November 21, 2024 at 10:54 AM
When I was on Twitter, I asked how scientists determine the age of their human participants. As about two-thirds of the respondents (and 2/3 of authors) ask for rounded-down age, the average ages reported in the literature may be biased by half a year. Open access at doi.org/10.1016/j.ac...
November 18, 2024 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
Dear all, I am looking for a postdoc for an ERC-funded project on meditation and the predictive brain in my lab. More details can be found here: heleenslagter.com/positions Feel free to reach out with any questions! Please help spread the word!
Positions
heleenslagter.com
September 21, 2024 at 3:10 PM
Scientists have a peculiar way to report the average age of their human participants. They suggest they know this average with a few days precision, but introduce a half year bias. Read about it in my short paper doi.org/10.1016/j.ac...
Redirecting
doi.org
August 10, 2024 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
I am recruiting two PhD students to work on proprioception in an FWO funded project:
www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...
#sensorimotor

Spread the word
April 11, 2024 at 1:10 PM
This is an elegant experiment using a new task (grasping thin objects using a precision grip) to find out how grasping is controlled. The answer: "the digits-in-space hypothesis provides the most plausible account of the data". Worth reading!
April 3, 2024 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
🚨Job alert!🚨 Are you curious about curiosity, and looking for a post-doc position? Then please consider applying: www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
Feel free to e-mail/DM me if you have questions.

Thanks very much for sharing/re-posting!
March 19, 2024 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
The final version of the paper is now openly available at Neuron via www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Like most neuroscientists, we have an opinion on consciousness. Our opinion: "Stop arguing apples aren't oranges and vice versa; use both to better understand fruit". The final paper will appear in Neuron soon, but here's an early draft preprint for the impatient.
Here’s the result of a massive collaboration within the Human Brain Project to pinpoint what we know about the neural mechanisms of consciousness across scales. ⚖️

led by J.Storm, with @chrisklink.bsky.social and many others

accepted in Neuron

osf.io/preprints/ps...
March 5, 2024 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
New open PhD position in my lab at the Donders Institute!

We are looking for a motivated PhD candidate with an interest in the computational underpinnings of body augmentation and embodiment.

Deadline: 14 February, 2024

Link: www.ru.nl/en/working-a...
January 30, 2024 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Jeroen Smeets
Want to come do a post-doc with me (or anyone else at
Western)? Get in touch soon... the Western Postdoc Fellowship Program has a deadline coming up: t.co/ET0v56dQwn
January 16, 2024 at 8:24 PM
Interested to find out what determines whether visual information about one's motion in virtual reality leads to cyber-sickness? We have a (funded) PhD position available to answer this question.
werkenbij.vu.nl/ad/phd-posit...
Apply before January 7th
December 9, 2023 at 4:22 PM
Today, I’ll be presenting my poster on the control of pointing at #sfn23. If you are in DC: Poster board CC10.
November 11, 2023 at 12:47 PM
Interested in #variability and motor #learning? Visit the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on December 6 for the PhD defense of Nina van Mastrigt and symposium with presentations by @jjodx.bsky.social, Marit Ruitenberg and Pieter Medendorp + a panel discussion on motor exploration outside the lab!
October 26, 2023 at 2:49 PM