Surya Gayet
@suryagayet.bsky.social
Assistant professor in cognitive (neuro)science at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), interested in consciousness, working memory, attention, and perception.
Head of the CAP-Lab: http://www.cap-lab.net
ORCID: 0000-0001-9728-1272
Head of the CAP-Lab: http://www.cap-lab.net
ORCID: 0000-0001-9728-1272
Reposted by Surya Gayet
Excited to share that my first article is now published in Communications Biology!
Humans and many animals have an innate ability to rapidly perceive numerosity—the number of objects in a visual scene. But how does our brain process this fundamental capability?
Read the full paper: rdcu.be/eRxMi
Humans and many animals have an innate ability to rapidly perceive numerosity—the number of objects in a visual scene. But how does our brain process this fundamental capability?
Read the full paper: rdcu.be/eRxMi
Numerosity adaptation suppresses early visual responses
Communications Biology - Numerosity adaptation suppresses monotonic neural responses to numerosity displays in the early visual cortex, with more suppression for higher numerosity adaptors....
rdcu.be
November 25, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Excited to share that my first article is now published in Communications Biology!
Humans and many animals have an innate ability to rapidly perceive numerosity—the number of objects in a visual scene. But how does our brain process this fundamental capability?
Read the full paper: rdcu.be/eRxMi
Humans and many animals have an innate ability to rapidly perceive numerosity—the number of objects in a visual scene. But how does our brain process this fundamental capability?
Read the full paper: rdcu.be/eRxMi
Celebration time 🥳 @liangyouzhang.bsky.social publishes the 1st empirical paper of his PhD!
We show that numerosity adaptation (a seemingly high-level stim property) suppresses neural responses in early visual cortex; these adaptation FX increase as we progress thru the visual processing hierarchy.
We show that numerosity adaptation (a seemingly high-level stim property) suppresses neural responses in early visual cortex; these adaptation FX increase as we progress thru the visual processing hierarchy.
Numerosity adaptation suppresses monotonic neural responses to numerosity displays in the early visual cortex, with more suppression for higher numerosity adaptors. Therefore, numerosity adaptation effects begin in early sensory stages of processing.
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Numerosity adaptation suppresses early visual responses - Communications Biology
Numerosity adaptation suppresses monotonic neural responses to numerosity displays in the early visual cortex, with more suppression for higher numerosity adaptors. Therefore, numerosity adaptation ef...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Celebration time 🥳 @liangyouzhang.bsky.social publishes the 1st empirical paper of his PhD!
We show that numerosity adaptation (a seemingly high-level stim property) suppresses neural responses in early visual cortex; these adaptation FX increase as we progress thru the visual processing hierarchy.
We show that numerosity adaptation (a seemingly high-level stim property) suppresses neural responses in early visual cortex; these adaptation FX increase as we progress thru the visual processing hierarchy.
Very proud of this great piece of multi-lab work by Kabir & Husta, et al.
Want to measure attention across the visual field (without interfering with ongoing perceptual/attentional processes)? Use RIFT!
Here we share our how-to-RIFT knowledge, including analysis code, quantitative comparisons, ..
Want to measure attention across the visual field (without interfering with ongoing perceptual/attentional processes)? Use RIFT!
Here we share our how-to-RIFT knowledge, including analysis code, quantitative comparisons, ..
Planning on running a RIFT study? In a new manuscript, we put together the RIFT know-how accumulated over the years by multiple labs (@lindadrijvers.bsky.social, @schota.bsky.social, @eelkespaak.bsky.social, with Cecília Hustá and others).
Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
October 29, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Very proud of this great piece of multi-lab work by Kabir & Husta, et al.
Want to measure attention across the visual field (without interfering with ongoing perceptual/attentional processes)? Use RIFT!
Here we share our how-to-RIFT knowledge, including analysis code, quantitative comparisons, ..
Want to measure attention across the visual field (without interfering with ongoing perceptual/attentional processes)? Use RIFT!
Here we share our how-to-RIFT knowledge, including analysis code, quantitative comparisons, ..
Wait whut!? Doing science with the awesome RR?? Go for it y'all! Can heavily recommend :-)
We’re looking for a postdoc to join our Max Planck group in Germany some time in 2026. If you have computational and/or neuroimaging expertise, and are interested in questions intersecting perception and cognition, please reach out! I’ll also be happy to chat at the #Bernsteinconference this week.
September 30, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Wait whut!? Doing science with the awesome RR?? Go for it y'all! Can heavily recommend :-)
If you are up for a nice academic battle, consider responding to our BBS paper "Studying unconscious processing: contention and consensus". The deadline is October 15th. Link below!
The call for commentaries on our BBS paper is out now (deadline October 15): shorturl.at/Hu3Yu. In the paper (shorturl.at/4Rbk6), we provide recommendations and outstanding issues about designing experimental paradigms, analyzing data, and reporting the results of studies on unconscious processing 👇
September 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
If you are up for a nice academic battle, consider responding to our BBS paper "Studying unconscious processing: contention and consensus". The deadline is October 15th. Link below!
If you were as unfortunate as me, and missed King Kabir (@arora-borealis.bsky.social)'s talk at #ECVP2025 on the differences (in early visual processing) between internal and external attentional selection... no worries, you can find the paper here: share.google/TDIZCDK9puB6...
August 28, 2025 at 11:44 AM
If you were as unfortunate as me, and missed King Kabir (@arora-borealis.bsky.social)'s talk at #ECVP2025 on the differences (in early visual processing) between internal and external attentional selection... no worries, you can find the paper here: share.google/TDIZCDK9puB6...
Very happy to see this preprint out! The amazing @danwang7.bsky.social was on fire sharing this work at #ECVP2025, gathering loads of attention, and here you can find the whole thing!
Using RIFT we reveal how the competition between top-down goals and bottom-up saliency unfolds within visual cortex.
Using RIFT we reveal how the competition between top-down goals and bottom-up saliency unfolds within visual cortex.
August 28, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Very happy to see this preprint out! The amazing @danwang7.bsky.social was on fire sharing this work at #ECVP2025, gathering loads of attention, and here you can find the whole thing!
Using RIFT we reveal how the competition between top-down goals and bottom-up saliency unfolds within visual cortex.
Using RIFT we reveal how the competition between top-down goals and bottom-up saliency unfolds within visual cortex.
Looking forward to joining #ECVP2025 tomorrow. CAP-Lab is well represented, with 3 talks (@lassedietz.bsky.social on Monday, and @arora-borealis.bsky.social and I on Tuesday), and 2 posters (by @danwang7.bsky.social on Tuesday, and @yichen-yuan.bsky.social on Wednesday). Please come by for a chat! 💜
August 24, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Looking forward to joining #ECVP2025 tomorrow. CAP-Lab is well represented, with 3 talks (@lassedietz.bsky.social on Monday, and @arora-borealis.bsky.social and I on Tuesday), and 2 posters (by @danwang7.bsky.social on Tuesday, and @yichen-yuan.bsky.social on Wednesday). Please come by for a chat! 💜
How is it possible that you can hear "brainstorm" or "green needle" in the EXACT same audio fragment (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1okD...)? I wrote a short and accessible blog post about this with @samdekater.bsky.social for the @brainhelpdesk.bsky.social: brainhelpdesk.nl/en/vraag/how... (in EN or NL)
How is it possible that we can hear either ‘green needle’ or ‘brainstorm’ whilst the audio fragment remains the same?
Je hebt het misschien niet door, maar je brein is continu aan het gissen hoe de wereld om je heen nu eigenlijk in elkaar steekt. Wat we uiteindelijk bewust ervaren, is een combinatie van wat we van te...
brainhelpdesk.nl
August 11, 2025 at 1:52 PM
How is it possible that you can hear "brainstorm" or "green needle" in the EXACT same audio fragment (www.youtube.com/watch?v=1okD...)? I wrote a short and accessible blog post about this with @samdekater.bsky.social for the @brainhelpdesk.bsky.social: brainhelpdesk.nl/en/vraag/how... (in EN or NL)
Looking forward to @compcogneuro.bsky.social's #CCN2025, which takes place in my backyard this year.
If you are there as well, hook me up for a chat, and go and visit
@lassedietz.bsky.social, @liangyouzhang.bsky.social, and
@arora-borealis.bsky.social's posters on Tue/Wed/Fri.
[1/2]
If you are there as well, hook me up for a chat, and go and visit
@lassedietz.bsky.social, @liangyouzhang.bsky.social, and
@arora-borealis.bsky.social's posters on Tue/Wed/Fri.
[1/2]
August 11, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Looking forward to @compcogneuro.bsky.social's #CCN2025, which takes place in my backyard this year.
If you are there as well, hook me up for a chat, and go and visit
@lassedietz.bsky.social, @liangyouzhang.bsky.social, and
@arora-borealis.bsky.social's posters on Tue/Wed/Fri.
[1/2]
If you are there as well, hook me up for a chat, and go and visit
@lassedietz.bsky.social, @liangyouzhang.bsky.social, and
@arora-borealis.bsky.social's posters on Tue/Wed/Fri.
[1/2]
Happy to see this one out in BBS: a multi-lab collaborative effort toward achieving consensus on (10) best practices for researching unconscious processes, and a discussion of (9) outstanding issues. Kudos to Francois, Maor, Liad, & Nathan for leading this project. Looking forward to the responses!
📢Excited to share our paper, "Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus", published in BBS.
The paper is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 leading researchers in the field, from 10 different countries🌏
Check out the full ms👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The paper is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 leading researchers in the field, from 10 different countries🌏
Check out the full ms👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus
www.cambridge.org
July 29, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Happy to see this one out in BBS: a multi-lab collaborative effort toward achieving consensus on (10) best practices for researching unconscious processes, and a discussion of (9) outstanding issues. Kudos to Francois, Maor, Liad, & Nathan for leading this project. Looking forward to the responses!
Reposted by Surya Gayet
📢Excited to share our paper, "Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus", published in BBS.
The paper is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 leading researchers in the field, from 10 different countries🌏
Check out the full ms👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The paper is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 leading researchers in the field, from 10 different countries🌏
Check out the full ms👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus
www.cambridge.org
July 29, 2025 at 9:32 AM
📢Excited to share our paper, "Studying unconscious processing: Contention and consensus", published in BBS.
The paper is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 leading researchers in the field, from 10 different countries🌏
Check out the full ms👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
The paper is the result of a collaborative effort of 32 leading researchers in the field, from 10 different countries🌏
Check out the full ms👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
I had loads of fun today, sharing thoughts and projects during a joint lab-meeting with @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social's Imagine Reality Lab. Two hours were way too short to discuss all the cool projects!
Thanks everyone for your contributions 💜
Thanks everyone for your contributions 💜
July 24, 2025 at 9:00 PM
I had loads of fun today, sharing thoughts and projects during a joint lab-meeting with @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social's Imagine Reality Lab. Two hours were way too short to discuss all the cool projects!
Thanks everyone for your contributions 💜
Thanks everyone for your contributions 💜
Reposted by Surya Gayet
After five years of confused staring at Greek letters, it is my absolute pleasure to finally share our (with @smfleming.bsky.social) computational model of mental imagery and reality monitoring: Perceptual Reality Monitoring as Higher-Order inference on Sensory Precision ✨
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
July 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
After five years of confused staring at Greek letters, it is my absolute pleasure to finally share our (with @smfleming.bsky.social) computational model of mental imagery and reality monitoring: Perceptual Reality Monitoring as Higher-Order inference on Sensory Precision ✨
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Surya Gayet
New paper with @peelen.bsky.social showing that objects in familiar configurations (e.g., 🍽️) facilitate one another by 200 ms of visual processing time. Out now in Cortex! 🧠 doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
The timecourse of inter-object contextual facilitation
High-level vision is frequently studied at the level of either individual objects or whole scenes. An intermediate level of visual organisation that h…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 21, 2025 at 3:55 AM
New paper with @peelen.bsky.social showing that objects in familiar configurations (e.g., 🍽️) facilitate one another by 200 ms of visual processing time. Out now in Cortex! 🧠 doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
Reposted by Surya Gayet
Exciting new preprint from the lab: “Adopting a human developmental visual diet yields robust, shape-based AI vision”. A most wonderful case where brain inspiration massively improved AI solutions.
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
arxiv.org
July 8, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Exciting new preprint from the lab: “Adopting a human developmental visual diet yields robust, shape-based AI vision”. A most wonderful case where brain inspiration massively improved AI solutions.
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
Work with @zejinlu.bsky.social @sushrutthorat.bsky.social and Radek Cichy
arxiv.org/abs/2507.03168
Looking for a PhD in visual cognitive neuroscience, within a colorful lab with a very smart and fun PI? Rosanne is recruiting! I would apply if I wasn't this old.
Curious about the visual human brain, a vibrant and collaborative lab, and pursuing a PhD in the heart of Europe? My lab is recruiting for a 3-year PhD position. More details: www.rademakerlab.com/job-add
PhD position — Rademaker lab
www.rademakerlab.com
July 1, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Looking for a PhD in visual cognitive neuroscience, within a colorful lab with a very smart and fun PI? Rosanne is recruiting! I would apply if I wasn't this old.
This was loads of fun! Thanks @docdocdunk.bsky.social and @jthee.bsky.social for the invitation, and for letting us share some of our latest RIFT projects.
Last week's symposium titled "Advances in the Encephalographic Study of Attention" was a great success! Held in the KNAW building in Amsterdam and sponsored by the NWO, many of (Europe's) leading attention researchers assembled to discuss the latest advances in attention research using M/EEG.
June 30, 2025 at 7:49 AM
This was loads of fun! Thanks @docdocdunk.bsky.social and @jthee.bsky.social for the invitation, and for letting us share some of our latest RIFT projects.
Reposted by Surya Gayet
1/ Can AI be conscious? My Behavioral & Brain Sciences target article on ‘Conscious AI and Biological Naturalism’ is now open for commentary proposals. Deadline is June 12. Take-home: real artificial consciousness is very unlikely along current trajectories. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Call for Commentary Proposals - Conscious artificial intelligence and biological
Call for Commentary Proposals - Conscious artificial intelligence and biological naturalism
www.cambridge.org
June 7, 2025 at 8:59 AM
1/ Can AI be conscious? My Behavioral & Brain Sciences target article on ‘Conscious AI and Biological Naturalism’ is now open for commentary proposals. Deadline is June 12. Take-home: real artificial consciousness is very unlikely along current trajectories. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Reposted by Surya Gayet
I am so excited to share that our paper 'A neural basis for distinguishing imagination from reality' is now published in @cp-neuron.bsky.social! 🧠✨ See thread below! doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
June 5, 2025 at 3:05 PM
I am so excited to share that our paper 'A neural basis for distinguishing imagination from reality' is now published in @cp-neuron.bsky.social! 🧠✨ See thread below! doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
Reposted by Surya Gayet
Thanks to the support of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and @knaw-nl.bsky.social , we're thrilled to announce the international symposium "Advances in the Encephalographic study of Attention"! 🧠🔍
📅 Date: June 25th & 26th
📍 Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
📅 Date: June 25th & 26th
📍 Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
June 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Thanks to the support of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and @knaw-nl.bsky.social , we're thrilled to announce the international symposium "Advances in the Encephalographic study of Attention"! 🧠🔍
📅 Date: June 25th & 26th
📍 Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
📅 Date: June 25th & 26th
📍 Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
Reposted by Surya Gayet
New preprint, w/ @predictivebrain.bsky.social !
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Higher-level spatial prediction in natural vision across mouse visual cortex
Theories of predictive processing propose that sensory systems constantly predict incoming signals, based on spatial and temporal context. However, evidence for prediction in sensory cortex largely co...
www.biorxiv.org
May 23, 2025 at 11:39 AM
New preprint, w/ @predictivebrain.bsky.social !
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
we've found that visual cortex, even when just viewing natural scenes, predicts *higher-level* visual features
The aligns with developments in ML, but challenges some assumptions about early sensory cortex
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Surya Gayet
🚨New paper!🚨
Meta-analysis on 4M p-values across 240k psych articles: How has psychology changed since the replication crisis began? How is replicability linked to citations, impact factor, and university prestige? 🧵
Paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Interactive: pbogdan.com/meganal
Meta-analysis on 4M p-values across 240k psych articles: How has psychology changed since the replication crisis began? How is replicability linked to citations, impact factor, and university prestige? 🧵
Paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Interactive: pbogdan.com/meganal
April 9, 2025 at 1:15 PM
🚨New paper!🚨
Meta-analysis on 4M p-values across 240k psych articles: How has psychology changed since the replication crisis began? How is replicability linked to citations, impact factor, and university prestige? 🧵
Paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Interactive: pbogdan.com/meganal
Meta-analysis on 4M p-values across 240k psych articles: How has psychology changed since the replication crisis began? How is replicability linked to citations, impact factor, and university prestige? 🧵
Paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Interactive: pbogdan.com/meganal
While @andresahakian.bsky.social wraps up his thesis (and uploads a bunch of preprints) we share this paper here that came out a while ago, but remained under the radar: we investigated how penalties for external sampling and for making errors differentially affect (unrestricted) working memory use.
Long overdue! Didn't promote this one amid twitter/X chaos. But nearing the end of my PhD, I want to do this project justice and post it here:
Is visual working memory used differently when errors are penalized?
Out already 1+ year ago in JEP:LMC: research-portal.uu.nl/ws/files/258...
🧵 (1/3)
Is visual working memory used differently when errors are penalized?
Out already 1+ year ago in JEP:LMC: research-portal.uu.nl/ws/files/258...
🧵 (1/3)
a soccer player with the number 10 on his jersey is being shown a red card
ALT: a soccer player with the number 10 on his jersey is being shown a red card
media.tenor.com
May 29, 2025 at 9:13 AM
While @andresahakian.bsky.social wraps up his thesis (and uploads a bunch of preprints) we share this paper here that came out a while ago, but remained under the radar: we investigated how penalties for external sampling and for making errors differentially affect (unrestricted) working memory use.
Reposted by Surya Gayet
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...