Recent News

Conference Homepage: https://predcommlab.github.io/symposium-2026/#about
Upcoming Events
<i>Philosophy</i> <br>Stephan Pohl (NYU) & Wej Ji Ma (NYU)<br><b>Clarifying the Conceptual Dimensions of Representation in Neuroscience</b>
<i>Philosophy</i> <br>Megan Peters (UCL) & Hojjat Azimi Asrari (UCL)<br><b>How Brains Build Higher Order Representations of Uncertainty</b>
<i>Biopsychology</i> <br>Anika Kuckertz (Heinrich Heine Universität Düssledorf) & Kai Benning (FZ Juelich)) <br><b>TBA</b>
<i>Philosophy</i> <br>Nathan Wildman (Tilburg)<br><b>Fictional virtual actions</b>
<i>Cognitive Psychology</i> <br>Leander Fester (RUB) <br><b>Freezing in humans? Postural sway as a readout of conditioned fear</b>
<i>Philosophy</i> <br>Krystyna Bielecka (University of Warsaw) & Marcin Milkowski (Polish Academy of Sciences)<br><b>Contentful Skills: Procedural Memory and the Representational Challenge to Non-Representational Cognition</b>
Relevant Publications
For full list of selected publications, see the publications page
Stress, path integration, and the entorhinal cortex
From Gut Feeling to Gray Matter: Mapping Defecation Urgency in Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Accuracy of self-control judgments by informants: can others tell where and how much we care, struggle, and succeed?
Selective spatial attention to competing speakers in azimuth and depth: Evidence from real and virtual environments
The effects of pre-extinction stress vs. physical exercise on contextual retrieval and generalization
Varieties of self-to-memory dynamics in autobiographical memory: the case of depression
A computationally efficient music processing algorithm for cochlear implants based on an auditory adaptation model
Predictive acoustical processing in human cortical layers
Remembering without (representational) memory: a neuro-computational study on regaining categoricity and compositionality from minimal traces
The impact of contingency awareness on the neurocircuitry underlying pain-related fear and safety learning
An Experimental Investigation of the Causal Role of Mental Imagery in the Experience of Involuntary Memories
Involuntary memories are thought to affect emotion, cognition, and behaviour, and it is often assumed that their impact is amplified when they are rich in mental imagery. However, this assumption has yet to be directly investigated. The current study tested …
Costly pain avoidance and its impact on the modulation and extinction of visceral pain-related fear
Abstract Along the gut-brain axis, visceral pain demonstrably evokes emotional learning and memory processes shaping behavior in clinically relevant ways. Avoidance motivated by learned fear may constitute a major obstacle to treatment success in extinction-based interventions. However, the effects of …
Deceptive XAI: Typology, Creation and Detection
Predictive processing’s flirt with transcendental idealism
Abstract The popular predictive processing (PP) framework posits prediction error minimization (PEM) as the sole mechanism in the brain that can account for all mental phenomena, including consciousness. I first highlight three ambitions associated with major presentations of PP: (1) …
Representational dynamics during extinction of fear memories in the human brain
Abstract Extinction learning—the suppression of a previously acquired fear response—is critical for adaptive behaviour and core for understanding the aetiology and treatment of anxiety disorders. Electrophysiological studies in rodents have revealed critical roles of theta (4–12 Hz) oscillations in amygdala and …
Prior knowledge activation as preparation prior to instruction: does the coverage of relevant prior knowledge affect learning?
Abstract Two-phase instructional designs such as Productive and Vicarious Failure employ preparatory activities before explicit instruction. It is assumed that during this preparatory activity, students need to activate their prior knowledge in order to be prepared for subsequent instruction. However, …
Neurite density but not myelination of specific fiber tracts links polygenic scores to general intelligence
Abstract White matter is fundamental for efficient information transfer and thus crucial for intelligence. Previous studies demonstrated associations between fractional anisotropy and intelligence, but it remains unclear whether this relation is due to greater axon density, parallel, homogenous fiber orientation …

