Recent News

Conference Homepage: https://predcommlab.github.io/symposium-2026/#about
Upcoming Events
<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>
<i>Philosophy</i> <br>Henry Taylor (University of Birmingham) <br><b>TBA</b>
Relevant Publications
For full list of selected publications, see the publications page
The impact of contingency awareness on the neurocircuitry underlying pain-related fear and safety learning
Single neuron responses in NCL, MVL, and Wulst during the observation of videos of conspecifics support population feature coding
Varieties of self-to-memory dynamics in autobiographical memory: the case of depression
What is self-control? A discussion of unresolved issues.
Selective spatial attention to competing speakers in azimuth and depth: Evidence from real and virtual environments
Stress, path integration, and the entorhinal cortex
Animal empathy reconsidered: a multidimensional profile account
Learning What to Remember: Semantic Attention in Generative Episodic Memory Model. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN).
Fayyaz, Z., Rathjens, J., Cheng, S., & Wiskott, L.. (2026). Learning What to Remember: Semantic Attention in Generative Episodic Memory Model. In Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN).
Predictive acoustical processing in human cortical layers
Reading media and multitasking: effects on comprehension and metacomprehension when reading multiple texts
The multidimensional profile methodology (MPM) for comparative cognition: towards a universal strategy of understanding animal minds
Abstract How can we develop an adequate scientific understanding of the minds of nonhuman animals? We argue for a methodology based on multi-dimensional profile accounts. Such accounts are already used for the comparative study of norm cognition, consciousness, empathy and …
The Relationship Between Vividness of Positive Future-Oriented Mental Imagery, Anhedonia, and Positive Affect
The vividness with which people can imagine positive events happening in their future has been linked to a number of different aspects of psychopathology and wellbeing. These relationships are hypothesised to arise from the role of mental imagery in thinking …
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 …
Positive mental health predicts amelioration of suicidal ideation in patients undergoing cognitive behavioral therapy
Background Positive mental health has been shown to confer resilience against suicidal ideation and behavior. Yet, studies on treatment seeking populations are rare. The aim of the present study was to investigate, whether PMH predicts the amelioration of suicidal ideation …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Epigenetic markers of disease risk and psychotherapy response in anxiety disorders – a longitudinal analysis of the DNA methylome
Abstract Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation are hypothesized to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders and to predict as well as relate to treatment response. An epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) (Illumina MethylationEPIC BeadChip) was performed …

