Lenny van Dyck
@levandyck.bsky.social
PhD candidate in CogCompNeuro at JLU Giessen
Exploring brains, minds, and worlds 🧠💭🗺️
https://levandyck.github.io/
Exploring brains, minds, and worlds 🧠💭🗺️
https://levandyck.github.io/
Pinned
Lenny van Dyck
@levandyck.bsky.social
· Jun 18
www.biorxiv.org
How is high-level visual cortex organized?
In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
🧵 1/n
In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
🧵 1/n
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
🧨 Preprint alert
Is it easier to find a ball than a shoe? The answer lies in how variable we think these objects are in the real-world. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
w/ the amazing @dkaiserlab.bsky.social & @luchunyeh.bsky.social 🦄
🧵1/8
Is it easier to find a ball than a shoe? The answer lies in how variable we think these objects are in the real-world. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
w/ the amazing @dkaiserlab.bsky.social & @luchunyeh.bsky.social 🦄
🧵1/8
www.biorxiv.org
February 9, 2026 at 10:26 AM
🧨 Preprint alert
Is it easier to find a ball than a shoe? The answer lies in how variable we think these objects are in the real-world. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
w/ the amazing @dkaiserlab.bsky.social & @luchunyeh.bsky.social 🦄
🧵1/8
Is it easier to find a ball than a shoe? The answer lies in how variable we think these objects are in the real-world. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
w/ the amazing @dkaiserlab.bsky.social & @luchunyeh.bsky.social 🦄
🧵1/8
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
February 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
1/7 Can infants recognise the world around them? 👶🧠 As part of the FOUNDCOG project, we scanned 134 awake infants using fMRI. Published today in Nature Neuroscience, our research reveals 2-month-old infants already possess complex visual representations in VVC that align with DNNs.
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Human visual cortex representations may be much higher-dimensional than earlier work suggested, but are these higher dimensions of cortical activity actually relevant to behavior? Our new paper tackles this by studying how different people experience the same movies. 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...
High-dimensional structure underlying individual differences in naturalistic visual experience
Han and Bonner reveal that individual visual experience arises from high-dimensional
neural geometry distributed across multiple representational scales. By characterizing
the full dimensional spectru...
www.cell.com
January 30, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Human visual cortex representations may be much higher-dimensional than earlier work suggested, but are these higher dimensions of cortical activity actually relevant to behavior? Our new paper tackles this by studying how different people experience the same movies. 🧵 www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
What should academics be doing right now?
I have been writing up some thoughts on what the research says about effective action, and what universities specifically can do.
davidbau.github.io/poetsandnurs...
It's on GitHub. Suggestions and pull requests welcome.
github.com/davidbau/poe...
I have been writing up some thoughts on what the research says about effective action, and what universities specifically can do.
davidbau.github.io/poetsandnurs...
It's on GitHub. Suggestions and pull requests welcome.
github.com/davidbau/poe...
January 26, 2026 at 3:27 AM
What should academics be doing right now?
I have been writing up some thoughts on what the research says about effective action, and what universities specifically can do.
davidbau.github.io/poetsandnurs...
It's on GitHub. Suggestions and pull requests welcome.
github.com/davidbau/poe...
I have been writing up some thoughts on what the research says about effective action, and what universities specifically can do.
davidbau.github.io/poetsandnurs...
It's on GitHub. Suggestions and pull requests welcome.
github.com/davidbau/poe...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
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
January 16, 2026 at 10:38 AM
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
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Our new paper in @sfnjournals.bsky.social shows different neural systems for integrating views into places--PPA integrates views *of* a location (e.g., views of a landmark), while RSC integrates views *from* a location (e.g., views of a panorama). Work by the bluesky-less Linfeng Tony Han.
#JNeurosci: Using fMRI, Han and Epstein explored how people integrate different kinds of views to form mental maps of places, revealing two sets of brain regions involved in integrating views of landmarks into existing mental maps of a virtual city.
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0187-25.2025
https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0187-25.2025
January 7, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Our new paper in @sfnjournals.bsky.social shows different neural systems for integrating views into places--PPA integrates views *of* a location (e.g., views of a landmark), while RSC integrates views *from* a location (e.g., views of a panorama). Work by the bluesky-less Linfeng Tony Han.
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Now in press at Nature Communications!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check it out if you are interested in category selectivity, the organization of visual cortex, and topographic models!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check it out if you are interested in category selectivity, the organization of visual cortex, and topographic models!
December 21, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Now in press at Nature Communications!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check it out if you are interested in category selectivity, the organization of visual cortex, and topographic models!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check it out if you are interested in category selectivity, the organization of visual cortex, and topographic models!
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
December 11, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Dimensionality reduction may be the wrong approach to understanding neural representations. Our new paper shows that across human visual cortex, dimensionality is unbounded and scales with dataset size—we show this across nearly four orders of magnitude. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
New Correspondence with @davidpoeppel.bsky.social in Nat Rev Neurosci. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Here, we critique a recent paper by Rosas et al. We argue that "Bottom-up" and "Top-down" neuroscience have various meanings in the literature.
PDF: rdcu.be/eSKYI
Here, we critique a recent paper by Rosas et al. We argue that "Bottom-up" and "Top-down" neuroscience have various meanings in the literature.
PDF: rdcu.be/eSKYI
Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience as collections of practices - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Top-down and bottom-up neuroscience as collections of practices
www.nature.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:13 PM
New Correspondence with @davidpoeppel.bsky.social in Nat Rev Neurosci. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Here, we critique a recent paper by Rosas et al. We argue that "Bottom-up" and "Top-down" neuroscience have various meanings in the literature.
PDF: rdcu.be/eSKYI
Here, we critique a recent paper by Rosas et al. We argue that "Bottom-up" and "Top-down" neuroscience have various meanings in the literature.
PDF: rdcu.be/eSKYI
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Investigating individual-specific topographic organization has traditionally been a resource-intensive and time-consuming process. But what if we could map visual cortex organization in thousands of brains? Here we offer the community with a toolbox that can do just that! tinyurl.com/deepretinotopy
December 1, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Investigating individual-specific topographic organization has traditionally been a resource-intensive and time-consuming process. But what if we could map visual cortex organization in thousands of brains? Here we offer the community with a toolbox that can do just that! tinyurl.com/deepretinotopy
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Y’all are reading this paper in the wrong way.
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
“Our findings challenge the conventional focus on low-dimensional coding subspaces as a sufficient framework for understanding neural computations, demonstrating that dimensions previously considered task-irrelevant and accounting for little variance can have a critical role in driving behavior.”
Neural dynamics outside task-coding dimensions drive decision trajectories through transient amplification
Most behaviors involve neural dynamics in high-dimensional activity spaces. A common approach is to extract dimensions that capture task-related variability, such as those separating stimuli or choice...
www.biorxiv.org
November 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Y’all are reading this paper in the wrong way.
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
We love to trash dominant hypothesis, but we need to look for evidence against the manifold hypothesis elsewhere:
This elegant work doesn't show neural dynamics are high D, nor that we should stop using PCA
It’s quite the opposite!
(thread)
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Our target discussion article out in Cognitive Neuroscience! It will be followed by peer commentary and our responses. If you would like to write a commentary, please reach out to the journal! 1/18 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @cibaker.bsky.social @susanwardle.bsky.social
August 29, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Our target discussion article out in Cognitive Neuroscience! It will be followed by peer commentary and our responses. If you would like to write a commentary, please reach out to the journal! 1/18 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @cibaker.bsky.social @susanwardle.bsky.social
Really looking forward to #CCN2025!
On Tuesday, I'm presenting new work with @kathadobs.bsky.social on segregated vs. integrated face & body processing in visual cortex 😊🧍🧠
Using DNNs & fMRI, we test competing hypotheses, finding both distinct & shared selectivity.
Come by Poster A64 for more.
On Tuesday, I'm presenting new work with @kathadobs.bsky.social on segregated vs. integrated face & body processing in visual cortex 😊🧍🧠
Using DNNs & fMRI, we test competing hypotheses, finding both distinct & shared selectivity.
Come by Poster A64 for more.
August 11, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Really looking forward to #CCN2025!
On Tuesday, I'm presenting new work with @kathadobs.bsky.social on segregated vs. integrated face & body processing in visual cortex 😊🧍🧠
Using DNNs & fMRI, we test competing hypotheses, finding both distinct & shared selectivity.
Come by Poster A64 for more.
On Tuesday, I'm presenting new work with @kathadobs.bsky.social on segregated vs. integrated face & body processing in visual cortex 😊🧍🧠
Using DNNs & fMRI, we test competing hypotheses, finding both distinct & shared selectivity.
Come by Poster A64 for more.
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Very much looking forward to #CCN2025! Would love to see you at our lab's talks and posters, and meet me at the panel discussion in the Algonauts session on Wednesday!
August 11, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Very much looking forward to #CCN2025! Would love to see you at our lab's talks and posters, and meet me at the panel discussion in the Algonauts session on Wednesday!
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
New preprint out! We propose that action is a key dimension shaping the topographic organization of object categories in lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC)—and test whether standard and topographic neural networks capture this pattern. A thread:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵 1/n
Investigating action topography in visual cortex and deep artificial neural networks
High-level visual cortex contains category-selective areas embedded within larger-scale topographic maps like animacy and real-world size. Here, we propose action as a key organizing factor shaping vi...
www.biorxiv.org
August 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM
New preprint out! We propose that action is a key dimension shaping the topographic organization of object categories in lateral occipitotemporal cortex (LOTC)—and test whether standard and topographic neural networks capture this pattern. A thread:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵 1/n
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Super excited to share our new article: “Dissociable cortical regions represent things and stuff in the human brain” with @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, @rtpramod.bsky.social and @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Things and Stuff: How the brain distinguishes oozing fluids from solid objects
YouTube video by McGovern Institute
www.youtube.com
August 1, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Super excited to share our new article: “Dissociable cortical regions represent things and stuff in the human brain” with @nancykanwisher.bsky.social, @rtpramod.bsky.social and @joshtenenbaum.bsky.social
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Video abstract: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0XR...
Paper: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWxv3QW8S...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
🧠 NEW PREPRINT
Many-Two-One: Diverse Representations Across Visual Pathways Emerge from A Single Objective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Many-Two-One: Diverse Representations Across Visual Pathways Emerge from A Single Objective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Many-Two-One: Diverse Representations Across Visual Pathways Emerge from A Single Objective
How the human brain supports diverse behaviours has been debated for decades. The canonical view divides visual processing into distinct "what" and "where/how" streams – however, their origin and inde...
www.biorxiv.org
July 30, 2025 at 1:32 PM
🧠 NEW PREPRINT
Many-Two-One: Diverse Representations Across Visual Pathways Emerge from A Single Objective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Many-Two-One: Diverse Representations Across Visual Pathways Emerge from A Single Objective
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
What makes humans similar or different to AI? In a paper out in @natmachintell.nature.com led by @florianmahner.bsky.social & @lukasmut.bsky.social, w/ Umut Güclü, we took a deep look at the factors underlying their representational alignment, with surprising results.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Dimensions underlying the representational alignment of deep neural networks with humans - Nature Machine Intelligence
An interpretability framework that compares how humans and deep neural networks process images has been presented. Their findings reveal that, unlike humans, deep neural networks focus more on visual ...
www.nature.com
June 23, 2025 at 8:03 PM
What makes humans similar or different to AI? In a paper out in @natmachintell.nature.com led by @florianmahner.bsky.social & @lukasmut.bsky.social, w/ Umut Güclü, we took a deep look at the factors underlying their representational alignment, with surprising results.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
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):
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...
www.pnas.org
June 16, 2025 at 11:34 AM
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):
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):
How is high-level visual cortex organized?
In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
🧵 1/n
In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org
June 18, 2025 at 12:28 PM
How is high-level visual cortex organized?
In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
🧵 1/n
In a new preprint with @martinhebart.bsky.social & @kathadobs.bsky.social, we show that category-selective areas encode a rich, multidimensional feature space 🌈
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
🧵 1/n
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
What shapes the topography of high-level visual cortex?
Excited to share a new pre-print addressing this question with connectivity-constrained interactive topographic networks, titled "Retinotopic scaffolding of high-level vision", w/ Marlene Behrmann & David Plaut.
🧵 ↓ 1/n
Excited to share a new pre-print addressing this question with connectivity-constrained interactive topographic networks, titled "Retinotopic scaffolding of high-level vision", w/ Marlene Behrmann & David Plaut.
🧵 ↓ 1/n
June 16, 2025 at 3:11 PM
What shapes the topography of high-level visual cortex?
Excited to share a new pre-print addressing this question with connectivity-constrained interactive topographic networks, titled "Retinotopic scaffolding of high-level vision", w/ Marlene Behrmann & David Plaut.
🧵 ↓ 1/n
Excited to share a new pre-print addressing this question with connectivity-constrained interactive topographic networks, titled "Retinotopic scaffolding of high-level vision", w/ Marlene Behrmann & David Plaut.
🧵 ↓ 1/n
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
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...
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
May 28, 2025 at 9:29 AM
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...
academicpositions.nl/ad/centrum-w...
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Announcement: Workshop at #CCN2025
🧠 Modeling the Physical Brain: Spatial Organization & Biophysical Constraints
🗓️ Monday, Aug 11 | 🕦 11:30–18:00 CET | 📍 Room A2.07
🔗 Register: tinyurl.com/CCN-physical...
#NeuroAI @cogcompneuro.bsky.social
🧠 Modeling the Physical Brain: Spatial Organization & Biophysical Constraints
🗓️ Monday, Aug 11 | 🕦 11:30–18:00 CET | 📍 Room A2.07
🔗 Register: tinyurl.com/CCN-physical...
#NeuroAI @cogcompneuro.bsky.social
Home
tinyurl.com
May 27, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Announcement: Workshop at #CCN2025
🧠 Modeling the Physical Brain: Spatial Organization & Biophysical Constraints
🗓️ Monday, Aug 11 | 🕦 11:30–18:00 CET | 📍 Room A2.07
🔗 Register: tinyurl.com/CCN-physical...
#NeuroAI @cogcompneuro.bsky.social
🧠 Modeling the Physical Brain: Spatial Organization & Biophysical Constraints
🗓️ Monday, Aug 11 | 🕦 11:30–18:00 CET | 📍 Room A2.07
🔗 Register: tinyurl.com/CCN-physical...
#NeuroAI @cogcompneuro.bsky.social
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
What are the organizing dimensions of language processing?
We show that voxel responses during comprehension are organized along 2 main axes: processing difficulty & meaning abstractness—revealing an interpretable, topographic representational basis for language processing shared across individuals
We show that voxel responses during comprehension are organized along 2 main axes: processing difficulty & meaning abstractness—revealing an interpretable, topographic representational basis for language processing shared across individuals
May 23, 2025 at 5:00 PM
What are the organizing dimensions of language processing?
We show that voxel responses during comprehension are organized along 2 main axes: processing difficulty & meaning abstractness—revealing an interpretable, topographic representational basis for language processing shared across individuals
We show that voxel responses during comprehension are organized along 2 main axes: processing difficulty & meaning abstractness—revealing an interpretable, topographic representational basis for language processing shared across individuals
Reposted by Lenny van Dyck
Excited to share on my first post on Bluesky our new paper in NHB examine the innate and developing aspects of the wiring of the visual system. Congratulations to @emilykubota.bsky.social and the baby MRI team on this important work
The latest paper from my PhD is now out in Nature Human Behavior! rdcu.be/edRwQ
White matter connections of human ventral temporal cortex are organized by cytoarchitecture, eccentricity and category-selectivity from birth
Nature Human Behaviour - Kubota et al. find that white matter connections of ventral temporal cortex are innately organized by cytoarchitecture, category and eccentricity from birth, and also...
rdcu.be
March 21, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Excited to share on my first post on Bluesky our new paper in NHB examine the innate and developing aspects of the wiring of the visual system. Congratulations to @emilykubota.bsky.social and the baby MRI team on this important work