Peter Kok
@peterkok.bsky.social
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the FIL, UCL, using human neuroimaging to study how our prior knowledge influences the way we perceive the world. https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/team/visual-perception-team/
Pinned
Peter Kok
@peterkok.bsky.social
· Oct 21
Contents of visual predictions oscillate at alpha frequencies
Predictions of future events have a major impact on how we process sensory signals. However, it remains unclear how the brain keeps predictions online in anticipation of future inputs. Here, we combin...
www.jneurosci.org
@dotproduct.bsky.social's first first author paper is finally out in @sfnjournals.bsky.social! Her findings show that content-specific predictions fluctuate with alpha frequencies, suggesting a more specific role for alpha oscillations than we may have thought. With @jhaarsma.bsky.social. 🧠🟦 🧠🤖
Reposted by Peter Kok
I hope every Democratic member of the House and Senate reads this and factors it into whatever funding bill gets agreed to. We have seen what ICE can do to U.S. Citizens in the streets, imagine what they will do at the polls. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Steve Bannon says ICE will ‘surround the polls’ as Trump doubles down on taking over elections
Trump doubled down on his comments to nationalize voting Tuesday during an Oval Office press conference. “If you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections,” Trump sai...
www.democracydocket.com
February 4, 2026 at 9:34 PM
I hope every Democratic member of the House and Senate reads this and factors it into whatever funding bill gets agreed to. We have seen what ICE can do to U.S. Citizens in the streets, imagine what they will do at the polls. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Reposted by Peter Kok
"Senate Dems considered a requirement banning ICE agents from polling sites as a demand in negotiating the DHS funding bill. But that was not included in their final list..."
Crazy idea: Given what Trump's said, update the "final list" to include it.
politi.co/4t6pxt0
Crazy idea: Given what Trump's said, update the "final list" to include it.
politi.co/4t6pxt0
‘A pretext to rig the election’: Democrats scramble to block ICE crackdowns near polling sites
Election officials are preparing for the possibility of immigration enforcement activity at or near polling sites in November.
politi.co
February 4, 2026 at 4:01 PM
"Senate Dems considered a requirement banning ICE agents from polling sites as a demand in negotiating the DHS funding bill. But that was not included in their final list..."
Crazy idea: Given what Trump's said, update the "final list" to include it.
politi.co/4t6pxt0
Crazy idea: Given what Trump's said, update the "final list" to include it.
politi.co/4t6pxt0
Reposted by Peter Kok
Democrats should defund and restrain ICE to the degree possible. And they should insist on this condition at least: No ICE (or Border Patrol) anywhere near the polls or early voting election locations this fall.
Steve Bannon,
"We're gonna have ICE surround the polls...We'll never again allow an election to be stolen."
"We're gonna have ICE surround the polls...We'll never again allow an election to be stolen."
February 4, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Democrats should defund and restrain ICE to the degree possible. And they should insist on this condition at least: No ICE (or Border Patrol) anywhere near the polls or early voting election locations this fall.
Reposted by Peter Kok
Congratulations to @lillianbehm.bsky.social, Nick Turk-Browne, and a huge team for putting together this paper (out today) on lessons from a decade of attempts to study awake infants with fMRI:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Infants: Insights From More Than 750 Scanning Sessions
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants has the potential to reveal how the early developing brain gives rise to cognition and behavior. However, awake infant fMRI poses signifi...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 31, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Congratulations to @lillianbehm.bsky.social, Nick Turk-Browne, and a huge team for putting together this paper (out today) on lessons from a decade of attempts to study awake infants with fMRI:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Peter Kok
🚨🚨Given current situation and with the sharply deteriorating situation in #trumpland, I think it is unwise, imprudent and just a very bad idea for the EU to go ahead with plans to grant #US border authorities unprecedented access to Europeans’ data. 🧵
www.politico.eu/article/eu-m...
www.politico.eu/article/eu-m...
EU plan to share data with US border force sparks surveillance fears
Washington is demanding access to sensitive data as ICE heightens fears in Europe.
www.politico.eu
February 4, 2026 at 7:53 AM
🚨🚨Given current situation and with the sharply deteriorating situation in #trumpland, I think it is unwise, imprudent and just a very bad idea for the EU to go ahead with plans to grant #US border authorities unprecedented access to Europeans’ data. 🧵
www.politico.eu/article/eu-m...
www.politico.eu/article/eu-m...
Reposted by Peter Kok
EU citizens might find (or will find) themselves exposed to all sort of retaliation on US soil from T. administratio, if you give them access to personal data😡
🚨🚨Given current situation and with the sharply deteriorating situation in #trumpland, I think it is unwise, imprudent and just a very bad idea for the EU to go ahead with plans to grant #US border authorities unprecedented access to Europeans’ data. 🧵
www.politico.eu/article/eu-m...
www.politico.eu/article/eu-m...
EU plan to share data with US border force sparks surveillance fears
Washington is demanding access to sensitive data as ICE heightens fears in Europe.
www.politico.eu
February 4, 2026 at 9:59 AM
EU citizens might find (or will find) themselves exposed to all sort of retaliation on US soil from T. administratio, if you give them access to personal data😡
Reposted by Peter Kok
Nice thread here on the situation with the #WestHamParkLTN, which in another survey had satisfied 59% of residents and has had positive outcomes for congestion, safety, and air quality—but is still being sent back for reconsideration.
We naturally hope the decision makers won’t change their mind.
We naturally hope the decision makers won’t change their mind.
The committee has now sent the officers' decision to make the scheme permanent back to the council after members raised concerns that there wasn't a 'clear majority' in favour of keeping it.
In a council survey, 51% supported the LTN while 47% did not. mgov.newham.gov.uk/documents/s1...
In a council survey, 51% supported the LTN while 47% did not. mgov.newham.gov.uk/documents/s1...
mgov.newham.gov.uk
February 4, 2026 at 9:06 AM
Nice thread here on the situation with the #WestHamParkLTN, which in another survey had satisfied 59% of residents and has had positive outcomes for congestion, safety, and air quality—but is still being sent back for reconsideration.
We naturally hope the decision makers won’t change their mind.
We naturally hope the decision makers won’t change their mind.
Reposted by Peter Kok
I CAN’T BELIEVE VERY TALENTED ARTISTS LIKE KID ROCK AND NICKI MINAJ WERE SNUBBED AGAIN AND WILL BE WALKING HOME WITH ZERO (0) GRAMMYS.
February 2, 2026 at 6:36 AM
I CAN’T BELIEVE VERY TALENTED ARTISTS LIKE KID ROCK AND NICKI MINAJ WERE SNUBBED AGAIN AND WILL BE WALKING HOME WITH ZERO (0) GRAMMYS.
Reposted by Peter Kok
ICE agent: “I fired 5 shots. She had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.” 😳
February 3, 2026 at 9:57 PM
ICE agent: “I fired 5 shots. She had 7 holes. Put that in your book, boys.” 😳
Reposted by Peter Kok
“Unlike human reviewers, who care about knowledge, LLMs have no stake in whether a finding is true, a method convincing or a theory illuminating. They have not helped build the edifice of knowledge. They belong to no epistemic community. They cannot be embarrassed to be wrong.”
'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3
AI is not a peer, so it can’t do peer review
If we still believe that science is a vocation grounded in argument, curiosity and care, we can’t delegate judgement to machines, says Akhil Bhardwaj
www.timeshighereducation.com
February 4, 2026 at 6:31 AM
“Unlike human reviewers, who care about knowledge, LLMs have no stake in whether a finding is true, a method convincing or a theory illuminating. They have not helped build the edifice of knowledge. They belong to no epistemic community. They cannot be embarrassed to be wrong.”
Reposted by Peter Kok
Honestly dismayed any of this needs saying.
'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3
AI is not a peer, so it can’t do peer review
If we still believe that science is a vocation grounded in argument, curiosity and care, we can’t delegate judgement to machines, says Akhil Bhardwaj
www.timeshighereducation.com
February 4, 2026 at 6:35 AM
Honestly dismayed any of this needs saying.
Reposted by Peter Kok
happening this morning in Minneapolis -- ICE agents drawing guns on observers. I reiterate again that it is only a matter of time before DHS kills more innocent people in Minnesota. Congress needs to shut this shit down right now.
February 3, 2026 at 4:19 PM
happening this morning in Minneapolis -- ICE agents drawing guns on observers. I reiterate again that it is only a matter of time before DHS kills more innocent people in Minnesota. Congress needs to shut this shit down right now.
Reposted by Peter Kok
'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3
AI is not a peer, so it can’t do peer review
If we still believe that science is a vocation grounded in argument, curiosity and care, we can’t delegate judgement to machines, says Akhil Bhardwaj
www.timeshighereducation.com
February 3, 2026 at 8:17 AM
'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3
Reposted by Peter Kok
Passage of time in the brain, in the mind, both?
Commentary on @lapate.bsky.social recent work
#drift #fmri #human #time
Please,👇 if we missed relevant observations in the field!
w/ @vigano.bsky.social @beneuroscience.bsky.social & R. Bordas
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
@brainthemind.bsky.social
Commentary on @lapate.bsky.social recent work
#drift #fmri #human #time
Please,👇 if we missed relevant observations in the field!
w/ @vigano.bsky.social @beneuroscience.bsky.social & R. Bordas
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
@brainthemind.bsky.social
Check out our commentary on a recent paper arguing that neural activity in the (lateral) entorhinal cortex intrinsically drifts over a month-long period in humans.
With @virginievanw.bsky.social @vigano.bsky.social and Raphaël Bordas.
www.eneuro.org/content/13/1...
With @virginievanw.bsky.social @vigano.bsky.social and Raphaël Bordas.
www.eneuro.org/content/13/1...
A Passage of Time Signal in the Human Brain
In a dense-sampling resting–state functional magnetic resonance imaging study, Wang et al. (2025) recorded two individuals’ functional connectivity patterns over 30 consecutive days to find a marker o...
www.eneuro.org
January 31, 2026 at 7:30 AM
Passage of time in the brain, in the mind, both?
Commentary on @lapate.bsky.social recent work
#drift #fmri #human #time
Please,👇 if we missed relevant observations in the field!
w/ @vigano.bsky.social @beneuroscience.bsky.social & R. Bordas
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
@brainthemind.bsky.social
Commentary on @lapate.bsky.social recent work
#drift #fmri #human #time
Please,👇 if we missed relevant observations in the field!
w/ @vigano.bsky.social @beneuroscience.bsky.social & R. Bordas
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
@brainthemind.bsky.social
Reposted by Peter Kok
It should not take a court order to get a toddler out of a prison.
January 31, 2026 at 9:22 PM
It should not take a court order to get a toddler out of a prison.
Reposted by Peter Kok
Happy to be part of this new paper analyzing lesion-induced aphantasia, now accepted in Cortex. One more reason to believe that the Fusiform Imagery Node is important for the conscious experience of mental imagery. Here: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....
Lesions Causing Aphantasia are Connected to the Fusiform Imagery Node
The absence of visual mental imagery, called aphantasia, occurs congenitally in up to 3% of the general population, but the brain regions responsible for aphantasia remain uncertain. Rare cases of acq...
www.medrxiv.org
January 30, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Happy to be part of this new paper analyzing lesion-induced aphantasia, now accepted in Cortex. One more reason to believe that the Fusiform Imagery Node is important for the conscious experience of mental imagery. Here: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....
Reposted by Peter Kok
Breaking news: New Dutch cabinet reversing €1.5 billion in cuts to education and science
www.scienceguide.nl/2026/01/kabi...
www.scienceguide.nl/2026/01/kabi...
Kabinet-Jetten gaat met 1,5 miljard bezuinigingen op onderwijs en wetenschap terugdraaien - ScienceGuide
Voor investeringen in het onderwijs is door de nieuwe coalitie een envelop van structureel 1,5 miljard euro beschikbaar gesteld. Dit geld wordt onder andere besteed aan terugdraaien van de bezuiniging...
www.scienceguide.nl
January 30, 2026 at 12:59 PM
Breaking news: New Dutch cabinet reversing €1.5 billion in cuts to education and science
www.scienceguide.nl/2026/01/kabi...
www.scienceguide.nl/2026/01/kabi...
Reposted by Peter Kok
What is the brain for? Active inference is widely discussed as a unifying framework for understanding brain function, yet its empirical status remains debated. Our review identifies core predictions across the action-perception cycle and evaluates their empirical support: osf.io/preprints/ps...
January 29, 2026 at 8:29 AM
What is the brain for? Active inference is widely discussed as a unifying framework for understanding brain function, yet its empirical status remains debated. Our review identifies core predictions across the action-perception cycle and evaluates their empirical support: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Peter Kok
Will Donald "Coup Guy" Trump attempt another coup? Who can say?
Ossoff: "This is a seismic event. This should have people across the country absolutely shook. This is a huge deal. This is an FBI raid on the Fulton County Elections office ... This is a shot across the bow at the midterm elections. He tried to steal power when he lost it in 2020."
January 29, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Will Donald "Coup Guy" Trump attempt another coup? Who can say?
Reposted by Peter Kok
Do goal-directed actions minimize prediction error? Together with @haslagter.bsky.social and @fahrenfort.bsky.social I identified falsifiable predictions of active inference and reviewed the extent to which they are supported by empirical results. Read the preprint here: tinyurl.com/2by8k3h6
OSF
osf.io
January 26, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Do goal-directed actions minimize prediction error? Together with @haslagter.bsky.social and @fahrenfort.bsky.social I identified falsifiable predictions of active inference and reviewed the extent to which they are supported by empirical results. Read the preprint here: tinyurl.com/2by8k3h6
Reposted by Peter Kok
Preprint alert!!! We recorded directly from the human ventral tegmental area (VTA), the principal source of cortical dopaminergic innervation, while patients performed an instrumental learning task. 🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
January 28, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Preprint alert!!! We recorded directly from the human ventral tegmental area (VTA), the principal source of cortical dopaminergic innervation, while patients performed an instrumental learning task. 🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by Peter Kok
Here's what ICE is up to in Northeast Minneapolis today. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Warning: video is hard to watch
Warning: video is hard to watch
January 27, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Here's what ICE is up to in Northeast Minneapolis today. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Warning: video is hard to watch
Warning: video is hard to watch
Reposted by Peter Kok
The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal!
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)
Attention-like regulation of theta sweeps in the brain's spatial navigation circuit
Spatial attention supports navigation by prioritizing information from selected locations. A candidate neural mechanism is provided by theta-paced sweeps in grid- and place-cell population activity, which sample nearby space in a left-right-alternating pattern coordinated by parasubicular direction signals. During exploration, this alternation promotes uniform spatial coverage, but whether sweeps can be flexibly tuned to locations of particular interest remains unclear. Using large-scale Neuropixels recordings in freely-behaving rats, we show that sweeps and direction signals are rapidly and dynamically modulated: they track moving targets during pursuit, precede orienting responses during immobility, and reverse during backward locomotion — without prior spatial learning. Similar modulation occurs during REM sleep. Canonical head-direction signals remain head-aligned. These findings identify sweeps as a flexible, attention-like mechanism for selectively sampling allocentric cognitive maps. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, Synergy Grant 951319 (EIM) The Research Council of Norway, Centre of Neural Computation 223262 (EIM, MBM), Centre for Algorithms in the Cortex 332640 (EIM, MBM), National Infrastructure grant (NORBRAIN, 295721 and 350201) The Kavli Foundation, https://ror.org/00kztt736 Ministry of Science and Education, Norway (EIM, MBM) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; NTNU, Norway (AZV)
www.biorxiv.org
January 28, 2026 at 10:03 AM
The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal!
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)
Reposted by Peter Kok
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?...
youtu.be/UyUclyHx8d8?...
How reality is simulated by your brain | Surgya Gayet | TEDxEindhoven
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
youtu.be
January 28, 2026 at 3:39 PM
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?...
youtu.be/UyUclyHx8d8?...
Reposted by Peter Kok
This is totally wild. Remember the object they are attending to is presented egocentrically, but the allocentric theta sweeps follow it. The whole system is wired up to provide something like an "integrated attention reflex".
The hippocampal map has its own attentional control signal!
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)
Our new study reveals that theta #sweeps can be instantly biased towards behaviourally relevant locations. See 📹 in post 4/6 and preprint here 👉
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
🧵(1/6)
Attention-like regulation of theta sweeps in the brain's spatial navigation circuit
Spatial attention supports navigation by prioritizing information from selected locations. A candidate neural mechanism is provided by theta-paced sweeps in grid- and place-cell population activity, which sample nearby space in a left-right-alternating pattern coordinated by parasubicular direction signals. During exploration, this alternation promotes uniform spatial coverage, but whether sweeps can be flexibly tuned to locations of particular interest remains unclear. Using large-scale Neuropixels recordings in freely-behaving rats, we show that sweeps and direction signals are rapidly and dynamically modulated: they track moving targets during pursuit, precede orienting responses during immobility, and reverse during backward locomotion — without prior spatial learning. Similar modulation occurs during REM sleep. Canonical head-direction signals remain head-aligned. These findings identify sweeps as a flexible, attention-like mechanism for selectively sampling allocentric cognitive maps. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, Synergy Grant 951319 (EIM) The Research Council of Norway, Centre of Neural Computation 223262 (EIM, MBM), Centre for Algorithms in the Cortex 332640 (EIM, MBM), National Infrastructure grant (NORBRAIN, 295721 and 350201) The Kavli Foundation, https://ror.org/00kztt736 Ministry of Science and Education, Norway (EIM, MBM) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; NTNU, Norway (AZV)
www.biorxiv.org
January 28, 2026 at 10:28 AM
This is totally wild. Remember the object they are attending to is presented egocentrically, but the allocentric theta sweeps follow it. The whole system is wired up to provide something like an "integrated attention reflex".