Clare Press
@clarepress.bsky.social
PI of Action & Perception Lab at UCL. Professor. Cognitive neuroscience, action, perception, learning, prediction. Cellist, lazy runner, mum.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/action-and-perception-lab/
https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/team/action-and-perception/
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/action-and-perception-lab/
https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/team/action-and-perception/
Pinned
Clare Press
@clarepress.bsky.social
· Nov 2
McGettigan and Press Inaugural Professorial Lectures 2025
YouTube video by UCL PALS
www.youtube.com
I finally gave my Professorial Inaugural Lecture. A great night with friends, family, & colleagues, & sharing the stage with a good friend @cmcgettigan.bsky.social🥂
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTG... Bookmarks flag both my lecture and
@celiaheyes.bsky.social’s (far more entertaining!) intro
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTG... Bookmarks flag both my lecture and
@celiaheyes.bsky.social’s (far more entertaining!) intro
Reposted by Clare Press
Here’s a thought that might make you tilt your head in curiosity: With every movement of your eyes, head, or body, the visual input to your eyes shifts! Nevertheless, it doesn't feel like the world does suddenly tilts sideways whenever you tilt your head. How can this be? TWEEPRINT ALERT! 🚨🧵 1/n
a husky puppy is laying on the floor with its tongue out and wearing a blue collar .
ALT: a husky puppy is laying on the floor with its tongue out and wearing a blue collar .
media.tenor.com
January 21, 2026 at 12:28 PM
Here’s a thought that might make you tilt your head in curiosity: With every movement of your eyes, head, or body, the visual input to your eyes shifts! Nevertheless, it doesn't feel like the world does suddenly tilts sideways whenever you tilt your head. How can this be? TWEEPRINT ALERT! 🚨🧵 1/n
Reposted by Clare Press
Cost of being female lead/corresponding author in biomedical sciences: "[T]he median amount of time spent under review is 7.4%–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles" even in disciplines where women well-represented. #AcademicSky
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Biomedical and life science articles by female researchers spend longer under review
Women are underrepresented in academia, especially in STEMM fields, at top institutions, and in senior positions. This study analyzes millions of biomedical and life science articles, revealing that f...
journals.plos.org
January 21, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Cost of being female lead/corresponding author in biomedical sciences: "[T]he median amount of time spent under review is 7.4%–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles" even in disciplines where women well-represented. #AcademicSky
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Clare Press
#BrainMeeting 🧠 Alert! 🎺
This Friday, January 16th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Janneke Jehee giving a talk entitled "Uncertainty in perceptual decision-making"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
This Friday, January 16th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Janneke Jehee giving a talk entitled "Uncertainty in perceptual decision-making"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
January 12, 2026 at 9:14 AM
#BrainMeeting 🧠 Alert! 🎺
This Friday, January 16th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Janneke Jehee giving a talk entitled "Uncertainty in perceptual decision-making"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
This Friday, January 16th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Janneke Jehee giving a talk entitled "Uncertainty in perceptual decision-making"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
Reposted by Clare Press
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
January 9, 2026 at 1:27 AM
With some trepidation, I'm putting this out into the world:
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
gershmanlab.com/textbook.html
It's a textbook called Computational Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience, which I wrote for my class.
My hope is that this will be a living document, continuously improved as I get feedback.
Reposted by Clare Press
How do priors influence speech processing? Do they enhance expected signals or highlight the unexpected (prediction errors)? @fabianschneider.bsky.social' s work shows: It depends!
Same sound, different perception: Do expectations change what you hear?👂🧠
We paired faces w topics and played the same ambiguous speech w different faces. The brain sharpened sensory signals toward predictions and showed gated prediction errors at higher levels.
Read @plosbiology.org. Blueprint👇
We paired faces w topics and played the same ambiguous speech w different faces. The brain sharpened sensory signals toward predictions and showed gated prediction errors at higher levels.
Read @plosbiology.org. Blueprint👇
Sensory sharpening and semantic prediction errors unify competing models of predictive processing in human speech comprehension
Speech comprehension relies on predictive mechanisms, but models disagree on whether the brain prioritizes expected or unexpected information. This study shows that sharpening of sensory representatio...
dx.plos.org
January 12, 2026 at 1:02 PM
How do priors influence speech processing? Do they enhance expected signals or highlight the unexpected (prediction errors)? @fabianschneider.bsky.social' s work shows: It depends!
Reposted by Clare Press
#BrainMeeting 🧠 Alert! 🎺
This Friday, November 7th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Simon Van Gaal giving a talk entitled "Linking global state fluctuations and recurrent processing to conscious perception in humans"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
This Friday, November 7th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Simon Van Gaal giving a talk entitled "Linking global state fluctuations and recurrent processing to conscious perception in humans"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
November 3, 2025 at 9:09 AM
#BrainMeeting 🧠 Alert! 🎺
This Friday, November 7th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Simon Van Gaal giving a talk entitled "Linking global state fluctuations and recurrent processing to conscious perception in humans"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
This Friday, November 7th, the Brain Meeting speaker will be Simon Van Gaal giving a talk entitled "Linking global state fluctuations and recurrent processing to conscious perception in humans"
In person or online. For more information:
www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/event
I finally gave my Professorial Inaugural Lecture. A great night with friends, family, & colleagues, & sharing the stage with a good friend @cmcgettigan.bsky.social🥂
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTG... Bookmarks flag both my lecture and
@celiaheyes.bsky.social’s (far more entertaining!) intro
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTG... Bookmarks flag both my lecture and
@celiaheyes.bsky.social’s (far more entertaining!) intro
McGettigan and Press Inaugural Professorial Lectures 2025
YouTube video by UCL PALS
www.youtube.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:07 PM
I finally gave my Professorial Inaugural Lecture. A great night with friends, family, & colleagues, & sharing the stage with a good friend @cmcgettigan.bsky.social🥂
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTG... Bookmarks flag both my lecture and
@celiaheyes.bsky.social’s (far more entertaining!) intro
Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTG... Bookmarks flag both my lecture and
@celiaheyes.bsky.social’s (far more entertaining!) intro
Reposted by Clare Press
Thrilled that our paper is out today in Nature!
www.nature.com/articles/s4...
www.nature.com/articles/s4...
Sensory expectations shape neural population dynamics in motor circuits
Nature - Experiments with human volunteers and macaques show that expectations produced by probabilistic cueing of future sensory inputs shape motor circuit dynamics in order to increase the...
www.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Thrilled that our paper is out today in Nature!
www.nature.com/articles/s4...
www.nature.com/articles/s4...
Reposted by Clare Press
@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
October 21, 2025 at 11:05 AM
@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. 🧠🟦 🧠🤖
Reposted by Clare Press
📣 BIG NEWS EVERYONE. I am so excited to announce…
🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉
The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉
The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
October 13, 2025 at 4:29 PM
📣 BIG NEWS EVERYONE. I am so excited to announce…
🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉
The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
🎉 I’m moving to University College London @ucl.ac.uk to join the Experimental Psychology department in @uclpals.bsky.social! 🎉
The big move happens in spring/summer. So I’m already exploring recruiting staff & students at UCL for fall 2026!
Reposted by Clare Press
New position, new social media account. After 5 fantastic years in Tuebingen, I moved to @yale.edu and the @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this summer - which means that I’ll be recruiting PhD students and postdocs. Please help me to spread the word and see current opportunities below 👇
October 6, 2025 at 6:46 PM
New position, new social media account. After 5 fantastic years in Tuebingen, I moved to @yale.edu and the @wutsaiyale.bsky.social this summer - which means that I’ll be recruiting PhD students and postdocs. Please help me to spread the word and see current opportunities below 👇
Reposted by Clare Press
Post doc job alert 📢! Announcing a v exciting job on a Wellcome-funded project in my group at UCL, looking at auditory hallucinations... Advert here 👀: rb.gy/230w8l - deadline is end of Oct. Please apply! 1/5
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).
rb.gy
September 30, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Post doc job alert 📢! Announcing a v exciting job on a Wellcome-funded project in my group at UCL, looking at auditory hallucinations... Advert here 👀: rb.gy/230w8l - deadline is end of Oct. Please apply! 1/5
Reposted by Clare Press
New #job alert! Clinical research fellow / postdoc in #computationalpsychiatry at the @mpc-comppsych.bsky.social / @uclqsion.bsky.social and UCL psychiatry. We will aim to understand the computations engaged by serotonin in the treatment of depression. Please re-sky. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
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
October 1, 2025 at 3:58 PM
New #job alert! Clinical research fellow / postdoc in #computationalpsychiatry at the @mpc-comppsych.bsky.social / @uclqsion.bsky.social and UCL psychiatry. We will aim to understand the computations engaged by serotonin in the treatment of depression. Please re-sky. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Reposted by Clare Press
Next up in our Psychological Sciences Seminar Series:
🎤 Prof. Clare Press
🗓 Wed 8 Oct, 12:30–1:30 pm (note the earlier time)
📍 Room 612, Malet Street, + online via Teams
@clarepress.bsky.social @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social
🎤 Prof. Clare Press
🗓 Wed 8 Oct, 12:30–1:30 pm (note the earlier time)
📍 Room 612, Malet Street, + online via Teams
@clarepress.bsky.social @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social
October 2, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Next up in our Psychological Sciences Seminar Series:
🎤 Prof. Clare Press
🗓 Wed 8 Oct, 12:30–1:30 pm (note the earlier time)
📍 Room 612, Malet Street, + online via Teams
@clarepress.bsky.social @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social
🎤 Prof. Clare Press
🗓 Wed 8 Oct, 12:30–1:30 pm (note the earlier time)
📍 Room 612, Malet Street, + online via Teams
@clarepress.bsky.social @birkbeckpsychology.bsky.social
Reposted by Clare Press
NEWS! Nation capable of spotting spurious link between paracetamol and autism still baffled by obvious link between guns and mass shootings
Nation capable of spotting spurious link between paracetamol and autism still baffled by obvious link between guns and mass shootings
The United States has once again demonstrated its unique talent for scientific deduction by confidently declaring there may be a link between pregnant women taking paracetamol and children developi…
buff.ly
September 23, 2025 at 7:18 AM
NEWS! Nation capable of spotting spurious link between paracetamol and autism still baffled by obvious link between guns and mass shootings
Reposted by Clare Press
Out for a while but forgot to post it. Using pupil size as a proxy for arousal, we show that the inverted-U shaped arousal–performance curve (Yerkes-Dodson law) is not fixed, but can shift globally depending on neuromodulatory state (atomoxetine): arousal recalibration www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
September 23, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Out for a while but forgot to post it. Using pupil size as a proxy for arousal, we show that the inverted-U shaped arousal–performance curve (Yerkes-Dodson law) is not fixed, but can shift globally depending on neuromodulatory state (atomoxetine): arousal recalibration www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Clare Press
somehow I missed this!
Dopamine represents a domain-general teaching signal:
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Dopamine represents a domain-general teaching signal:
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Striatal dopamine signals errors in prediction across different informational domains
Dopamine reflects prediction errors not only about reward but also about valueless stimuli, challenging many current theories.
www.science.org
September 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
somehow I missed this!
Dopamine represents a domain-general teaching signal:
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Dopamine represents a domain-general teaching signal:
www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Clare Press
Thrilled that our new review "Motor Working Memory" is now in press at TiCS!
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
September 15, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Thrilled that our new review "Motor Working Memory" is now in press at TiCS!
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
@cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social
By me +
Hanna Hillman
We argue that a dedicated research program on 'working memory for movements' is long overdue
Link: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lmMX4sIRv...
Please come to see our lab presentations at #ICON2025, by the brilliant Kirsten Rittershofer and Quirin Gehmacher. Sorry I can't be there myself, it looks a brilliant meeting 🎉
September 16, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Please come to see our lab presentations at #ICON2025, by the brilliant Kirsten Rittershofer and Quirin Gehmacher. Sorry I can't be there myself, it looks a brilliant meeting 🎉
Reposted by Clare Press
Looking forward to #CCN2025! Please come to say hello and check out our lab's presentations 👇
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
August 11, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Looking forward to #CCN2025! Please come to say hello and check out our lab's presentations 👇
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
Reposted by Clare Press
🚨 We’re hiring: Associate Professor/Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
🧠 Lead pioneering imaging-informed cognitive neuroscience research
🌍 Open to international applicants | Visa sponsorship available
📍 Permanent, full-time, on-site
🔗 Apply now: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
🧠 Lead pioneering imaging-informed cognitive neuroscience research
🌍 Open to international applicants | Visa sponsorship available
📍 Permanent, full-time, on-site
🔗 Apply now: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
August 11, 2025 at 3:53 PM
🚨 We’re hiring: Associate Professor/Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
🧠 Lead pioneering imaging-informed cognitive neuroscience research
🌍 Open to international applicants | Visa sponsorship available
📍 Permanent, full-time, on-site
🔗 Apply now: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
🧠 Lead pioneering imaging-informed cognitive neuroscience research
🌍 Open to international applicants | Visa sponsorship available
📍 Permanent, full-time, on-site
🔗 Apply now: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Looking forward to #CCN2025! Please come to say hello and check out our lab's presentations 👇
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
August 11, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Looking forward to #CCN2025! Please come to say hello and check out our lab's presentations 👇
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
@compcogneuro.bsky.social
Reposted by Clare Press
My favourite talk @assc28.bsky.social was just delivered by @matanmazor.bsky.social showing that dualists are warmer 💕 @ronyhirsch.bsky.social #assc28
July 9, 2025 at 8:22 AM
My favourite talk @assc28.bsky.social was just delivered by @matanmazor.bsky.social showing that dualists are warmer 💕 @ronyhirsch.bsky.social #assc28
Reposted by Clare Press
“The goal of academic training is not to solve problems as efficiently and quickly as possible, but to develop skills for identifying and dealing with novel problems, which have never been solved before.”
If you agree with our 5 requests to our universities, please sign 🖊️ the open letter and don’t forget to confirm your email! ☺️🙏
openletter.earth/open-letter-...
openletter.earth/open-letter-...
June 29, 2025 at 12:19 PM
“The goal of academic training is not to solve problems as efficiently and quickly as possible, but to develop skills for identifying and dealing with novel problems, which have never been solved before.”
Reposted by Clare Press
Research is NOT the same as innovation. Spend the money at least equally on bottom-up research by @erc.europa.eu. ERC grantees @ercgrantees.Baku.social are the most successful in the EIC, but there is no innovation without fundamental Bluesky research by the ERC
sciencebusiness.net/news/europea...
sciencebusiness.net/news/europea...
EU should double, if not triple, the EIC budget, Zaharieva says
The European Commission hopes to at least double the budget of the European Innovation Council (EIC), if not triple it, when the agency can only finance 4% of the projects it receives, research commis...
sciencebusiness.net
July 1, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Research is NOT the same as innovation. Spend the money at least equally on bottom-up research by @erc.europa.eu. ERC grantees @ercgrantees.Baku.social are the most successful in the EIC, but there is no innovation without fundamental Bluesky research by the ERC
sciencebusiness.net/news/europea...
sciencebusiness.net/news/europea...