Peter Kok
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peterkok.bsky.social
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
@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. 🧠🟦 🧠🤖
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
Reposted by Peter Kok
1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
February 6, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Peter Kok
We don't really need to connect the dots because Trump is doing it for us. He wants to take control of federal elections so he can rig them in his favor. He knows he can't win a fair election.
February 6, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Peter Kok
See, The Guardian did it correctly. They observed and verified something that is racist and referred to it as such directly, without hiding behind uncertainty that's really a reflection of discomfort about telling the truth. News media can be honest if they want to be. #journalism
February 6, 2026 at 12:48 PM
Reposted by Peter Kok
We have released a subset of our simultaneous MEG and subthalamic LFP recordings from people with Parkinson’s with clinical metadata. The data cover rest and movement tasks, medication on and off states, and include MEG‑derived virtual electrodes for SMA and bilateral M1.

doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...
Sumultaneous subthalamic local field potentials and MEG-derived cortical activity in Parkinson's patients ON and OFF dopaminergic medication
This dataset contains simultaneous magnetoencephalography and subthalamic local field potential recordings acquired during deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson’s disease. Acquisition and preprocessing procedures are detailed in Litvak et al., Brain 2011 (doi:10.1093/brain/awq332) and Litvak et al., Journal of Neuroscience 2012 (doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0767-12.2012). All files are provided in FieldTrip raw format as defined in the FieldTrip data specification. Data from a subset of the original cohort are available due to ethical restrictions on data sharing.Recordings were obtained in two clinical states for each participant: after overnight withdrawal of dopaminergic medication and while receiving their usual medication. Clinical characteristics and medication doses are listed in subject_details.csv. Pre-operative motor scores were collected using standard clinical assessments.Experimental conditionsParticipants completed the following tasks:R: rest.SL: simple left-hand movement comprising a simultaneous button press with digits 2 to 4.SR: simple right-hand movement with the same gesture.CL: complex left-hand sequence consisting of successive presses of digits 2, 4 and 3.CR: complex right-hand sequence with the same pattern.Event timings for button presses are stored in the event channel.Recorded signalsThe dataset includes:Bipolar subthalamic local field potentials.Electro-oculography.Electromyography from the bilateral first dorsal interosseous muscles.Virtual electrode time series reconstructed from MEG for the supplementary motor area and bilateral primary motor cortices. Virtual electrode coordinates are reported in MNI space and were affine transformed to individual anatomy: SMA [−2 −10 59], left M1 [−37 −25 62], right M1 [37 −25 62].
doi.org
February 6, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Peter Kok
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
February 5, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Peter Kok
I see your point in that *most* predictive processing approaches are representational, but this is not necessary. I wrote about this here: direct.mit.edu/jocn/article...

Key quote from the abstract: "...without recourse to hidden states".
Regularization, Action, and Attractors in the Dynamical “Bayesian” Brain
Abstract. The idea that the brain is a probabilistic (Bayesian) inference machine, continuously trying to figure out the hidden causes of its inputs, has become very influential in cognitive (neuro)sc...
direct.mit.edu
February 6, 2026 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Peter Kok
Child at the podium: “A woo woo woo.”

Mamdani: That’s how I felt when we came up with this plan. Together, we will expand the idea of what is possible in our city—and what sounds and noises we can make at a press conference.
February 6, 2026 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by Peter Kok
A bit old now, but great Registered Report by Maya Raza (not on here)
Do novel experiences shortly before or after learning improve memory for what was learned?
They don’t according to Raza et al., but simply resting might.
Read about novel VR experiences versus wakeful rest as ways to improve memory: https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218251346156
February 5, 2026 at 6:36 PM
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
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
‘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
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."
February 4, 2026 at 1:21 PM
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/...
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
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...
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
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...
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
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.
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...
mgov.newham.gov.uk
February 4, 2026 at 9:06 AM
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
January 31, 2026 at 7:30 AM
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
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
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...
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