Hans Op de Beeck
@hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
590 followers 580 following 16 posts
Professor in Brain & Cognition, KU Leuven, Belgium - The brain rules the mind; would-be runner and musician.
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Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
bpitchford.bsky.social
Excited to share a new article from @icevislab.bsky.social! In a sample of over 60 people, we found distinct neural differences underlying object and face recognition in dyslexia. These findings highlight crucial domain-general visual processes that may contribute to word reading challenges.
Distinct neural processing underlying visual face and object perception in dyslexia
Developmental dyslexia is a disorder marked by difficulties in reading, spelling, and connecting sounds to written language. The high-level visual dys…
www.sciencedirect.com
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
davidecortinovis.bsky.social
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
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
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
anndooms.bsky.social
“Waar zijn de personages die kinderen leren dat ze niet hoeven te wachten tot iemand anders de wereld redt, maar dat ze zelf het verschil kunnen maken?”
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
metr.org
METR @metr.org · Jul 10
We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers.

The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
owoolnough.bsky.social
For everyone out there working at the intersection of vision and language. We are currently accepting submissions for a Journal of Vision Special Issue on the vision-language interface
Submission deadline: Dec 31st
jov.arvojournals.org/ss/visionlan...

#neuroskyence #VisionScience #PsychSciSky
Journal of Vision Special Issue
The vision-language interface
Call for papers
Vision and language are often considered to be separate cognitive systems, studied by separate research teams. However, they interact when we use vision for linguistic communication: when reading printed text, when describing verbally the things we see, and when observing the expressions and gestures of an interlocutor (during sign language, for example). The development of these critical skills changes the brain, such that the visual and language systems influence one another. In particular, regions of the cerebral cortex that are typically responsive to visual stimuli are also recruited for linguistic tasks. But some of those ideas are controversial. For instance, for well over a century scientists have debated whether the brains of literate individuals contain a region that is specialized for recognizing written
words.
The Journal of Vision invites submissions for a Special Issue on the interface between vision and language. The unique perspectives and techniques of vision science contribute much to the understanding of language. This special issue welcomes empirical papers that use behavioral/psychophysical, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and stimulation methods.
Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Functional specialization in the brain for reading and naming
- Semantic representations in the brain
- Letter recognition and perceptual learning
- Sign language comprehension
- Eye movements during reading or other linguistic tasks
- Development of visual skills for reading and communication
- Links between visual cortical activity and representations in large language models
- Visual processing differences in dyslexia
Editors:
Susana Chung
Kalanit Grill-Spector
Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga
Hans Op de Beeck
Zeynep Saygin
Alex White
Oscar Woolnough
Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2025. All
papers will be subject to peer review.
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
bogaertslab.bsky.social
NEUROCOG 2025 is taking place in Brussels Nov 17–18!

The theme: AI and the Human Brain 🤖 🧠

We’re thrilled to welcome 6 amazing invited speakers:
@evfedorenko.bsky.social, @nicoschuck.bsky.social, @summerfieldlab.bsky.social, @jeffreybowers.bsky.social, @irisgroen.bsky.social & @mtoneva.bsky.social
NeuroCog » November 17-18, 2025
neurocog.be
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
I came with my own money (Belgian & international fellowships), and during my stay I spent many tens of thousands of US dollars. I myself motivated and helped other researchers to do the same. This is an unbelievably stupid decision, with global and long-term consequences. 3/3
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
It will make bright researchers from other countries think twice before embarking on a US adventure. This is a major loss, in particular for USA. As I witnessed from within, US science benefited enormously from the presence of the international scholars. The economic gains were also substantial. 2/3
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
As a prior J1 visa holder (postdoc at MIT), I express my support for all those affected by this decision. The possibility of such a sudden and politically motivated stop of enrollment of international students and scholars will have a chilling effect on the prestige of all US institutes. 1/3
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
socialbrain.bsky.social
The cuts to NIH and NSF will cost 100s of billions in the short term and will reduce GPT by ~7% over the next 25-30 years
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
lkfazio.bsky.social
Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale
rebekahtromble.bsky.social
NSF has posted an “update on priorities.”

They’re canceling all “DEI and misinformation/disinformation” grants.

And the guidance on how to fulfill the longstanding, legally mandated Broadening Participation requirement is utterly incoherent.

www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...
Updates on NSF Priorities
www.nsf.gov
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
standehaene.bsky.social
Call for new research group leaders… literally 50 meters from NeuroSpin and its 6 MRI magnets and MEG!

Come work with us !
neuropsi.bsky.social
⚠️2025 NeuroPSI call for new group leaders
▶️ We are open to a wide range of research topics, from molecules to cognition and from embryo to adult.
▶️ We offer generous lab and office space.
▶️ Junior and mid-career scientists: apply before May the 30th!

Learn more: neuropsi.cnrs.fr/ao2025/
Offres nouvelles équipes - Institut des Neurosciences Paris‑Saclay
Appel pour de nouveaux chefs d'équipes à l'Institut NeuroPSI.
neuropsi.cnrs.fr
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
peterkok.bsky.social
We have an opening for a 12 month Research Assistant post, funded by an ERC grant. The postholder would help with several neuroimaging projects, including MEG and 7T fMRI. Please repost and share with anyone who may be interested. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... #neuroskyence #Neuroimaging
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk
Reposted by Hans Op de Beeck
crampell.bsky.social
Hearing from a govt contractor that Dept of Education is terminating What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) contracts.
WWC is a website that rigorously evaluates education policies, programs, and products to determine what's effective and not. It's an invaluable tool for school, district, state leaders
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
One does not expect a civilized country to disrupt science and silence its scientists in this way. All my support to the excellent scientists at NIH. Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring
Researchers facing
www.science.org
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
These intracranial data also show a large variety of tuning profiles, which is easy to forget when one is only used to noninvasive imaging data that miss most of that diversity. Anyway, it is cool and inspiring that we can see the brain from all these different perspectives. n/n
a cartoon of a person jumping over an optical illusion with a push sign above them
ALT: a cartoon of a person jumping over an optical illusion with a push sign above them
media.tenor.com
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
With intracranial data we learned that the selectivity of most individual sites was characterized by an interaction between shape and category coding rather than a coding of shape or category irrespective of the other dimension (main effects). 7/n
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
For example, in the earlier fMRI study on shape and category, we noticed a combined coding of shape and category in many regions in higher level visual cortex, resulting in a population-level representational space with two dimensions: 6/n
hansopdebeeck.bsky.social
With fMRI, and even more with EEG/MEG, we see blobs of activity, tuning for broad dimensions and categories, smooth topographies, traveling waves, etc. However, these findings hide a complex organization and a diversity of tuning properties at a finer scale. 5/n