Zakaria Djebbara
@zakdjebbara.bsky.social
Active Inference, Phenomenology, Mobile Brain/Body Imaging, generally fascinated by rhythms.
Associate Professor, Architecture & Cognitive Neuroscience, Aalborg University, Denmark
ⵣ
Associate Professor, Architecture & Cognitive Neuroscience, Aalborg University, Denmark
ⵣ
🚀 New paper! We just took a major step in understanding how architecture shapes cognition.
Our paper shows that something as simple as corners in rooms or corridors can shift canonical spatial attention cueing costs.
Key method? Mobile Brain/Body Imaging combined with VR!
bit.ly/47m6ssV
Our paper shows that something as simple as corners in rooms or corridors can shift canonical spatial attention cueing costs.
Key method? Mobile Brain/Body Imaging combined with VR!
bit.ly/47m6ssV
Turning corners in built environments shifts spatial attention costs
Human attention is typically studied under static laboratory conditions, yet everyday cognition unfolds during active interactions with the built envi…
bit.ly
October 24, 2025 at 9:15 AM
🚀 New paper! We just took a major step in understanding how architecture shapes cognition.
Our paper shows that something as simple as corners in rooms or corridors can shift canonical spatial attention cueing costs.
Key method? Mobile Brain/Body Imaging combined with VR!
bit.ly/47m6ssV
Our paper shows that something as simple as corners in rooms or corridors can shift canonical spatial attention cueing costs.
Key method? Mobile Brain/Body Imaging combined with VR!
bit.ly/47m6ssV
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
Experimentology is out today!!! A group of us wrote a free online textbook for experimental methods, available at experimentology.io - the idea was to integrate open science into all aspects of the experimental workflow from planning to design, analysis, and writing.
July 1, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Experimentology is out today!!! A group of us wrote a free online textbook for experimental methods, available at experimentology.io - the idea was to integrate open science into all aspects of the experimental workflow from planning to design, analysis, and writing.
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
🚨 We’re running a short self-report study on how BREATHING interacts with your daily life 🫁🌍
We're struggling to find participants and would truly appreciate your help; it only takes a few minutes.
👉 You can participate here: shorturl.at/rwwXc
🙏 Feel free to share the link with others. Thank you!
We're struggling to find participants and would truly appreciate your help; it only takes a few minutes.
👉 You can participate here: shorturl.at/rwwXc
🙏 Feel free to share the link with others. Thank you!
Breathing Through Your Day: A Brief Reflection Survey
You move, interact, speak, listen, think, and feel. Life unfolds through a rich variety of experiences and tasks.
test.uib.es
July 25, 2025 at 8:17 AM
🚨 We’re running a short self-report study on how BREATHING interacts with your daily life 🫁🌍
We're struggling to find participants and would truly appreciate your help; it only takes a few minutes.
👉 You can participate here: shorturl.at/rwwXc
🙏 Feel free to share the link with others. Thank you!
We're struggling to find participants and would truly appreciate your help; it only takes a few minutes.
👉 You can participate here: shorturl.at/rwwXc
🙏 Feel free to share the link with others. Thank you!
🚨 New publication!
My PhD student, Dylan Huynh, explored how landmarks and spatial geometry affect episodic memory using immersive VR.
We found that people remember better, and learn faster, when the environment around them is distinctive.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
My PhD student, Dylan Huynh, explored how landmarks and spatial geometry affect episodic memory using immersive VR.
We found that people remember better, and learn faster, when the environment around them is distinctive.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Investigating the effects of landmarks on memory performance
The built environment profoundly influences our brain, shaping how we perceive, remember, and interact with the world around us. Far from serving sole…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 21, 2025 at 10:47 AM
🚨 New publication!
My PhD student, Dylan Huynh, explored how landmarks and spatial geometry affect episodic memory using immersive VR.
We found that people remember better, and learn faster, when the environment around them is distinctive.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
My PhD student, Dylan Huynh, explored how landmarks and spatial geometry affect episodic memory using immersive VR.
We found that people remember better, and learn faster, when the environment around them is distinctive.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🌊🧠🏛️
@zakdjebbara.bsky.social delivered the final talk of the day which was on architecture and environmental rhythms #RPPW20
June 16, 2025 at 7:37 PM
🌊🧠🏛️
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
I am delighted to announce the upcoming
6th International Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Conference
in Berlin, August 26-28, 2026 at the beautiful Hotel Oderberger!
More information to follow in the coming weeks.
See you in Berlin in 2026!
#MobileEEG #MobileBrainImaging #EEG #NIRS #MoBI2026
6th International Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Conference
in Berlin, August 26-28, 2026 at the beautiful Hotel Oderberger!
More information to follow in the coming weeks.
See you in Berlin in 2026!
#MobileEEG #MobileBrainImaging #EEG #NIRS #MoBI2026
April 20, 2025 at 11:18 AM
I am delighted to announce the upcoming
6th International Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Conference
in Berlin, August 26-28, 2026 at the beautiful Hotel Oderberger!
More information to follow in the coming weeks.
See you in Berlin in 2026!
#MobileEEG #MobileBrainImaging #EEG #NIRS #MoBI2026
6th International Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Conference
in Berlin, August 26-28, 2026 at the beautiful Hotel Oderberger!
More information to follow in the coming weeks.
See you in Berlin in 2026!
#MobileEEG #MobileBrainImaging #EEG #NIRS #MoBI2026
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
Our new preprint is out with @stephen-ramanoel.bsky.social and @mobilebrainimaging.bsky.social !!! 🥳
Combining mobile EEG and Virtual Reality our results highlight multifaceted role of theta activity in the RSC during naturalistic human path integration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Combining mobile EEG and Virtual Reality our results highlight multifaceted role of theta activity in the RSC during naturalistic human path integration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Theta activity supports landmark-based correction of naturalistic human path integration
How do humans integrate landmarks to update their spatial position during active navigation task? Using immersive virtual reality and high-density mobile EEG, we investigated the neural underpinnings ...
www.biorxiv.org
March 22, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Our new preprint is out with @stephen-ramanoel.bsky.social and @mobilebrainimaging.bsky.social !!! 🥳
Combining mobile EEG and Virtual Reality our results highlight multifaceted role of theta activity in the RSC during naturalistic human path integration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Combining mobile EEG and Virtual Reality our results highlight multifaceted role of theta activity in the RSC during naturalistic human path integration
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This is amazing work!
🧠 Our new (NIH funded!) paper reveals how the brain creates internal dynamics during both real- and imagined navigation. We recorded directly from the human hippocampus as participants moved through physical space and when they mentally navigated imagined routes.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Human neural dynamics of real-world and imagined navigation - Nature Human Behaviour
Seeber et al. studied brain recordings from implanted electrodes in freely moving humans. Neural dynamics encoded actual and imagined routes similarly, demonstrating parallels between navigational, im...
www.nature.com
March 11, 2025 at 6:18 PM
This is amazing work!
Cognitive Maps vs. Visibility 🧠👀
In uncertain environments, how do we make navigation decisions? Is the distance on our mental map more important, or is it the destination's visibility?
This study was conducted by architecture students in our science book club!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In uncertain environments, how do we make navigation decisions? Is the distance on our mental map more important, or is it the destination's visibility?
This study was conducted by architecture students in our science book club!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Does the visibility of destination matter more than distance in human navigation? A pilot virtual reality study
Navigational decisions depend on both cognitive maps and immediate sensory experiences of the environment. However, when both cognitive maps and immediate sensory experiences are uncertain, it is u...
www.tandfonline.com
March 11, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Cognitive Maps vs. Visibility 🧠👀
In uncertain environments, how do we make navigation decisions? Is the distance on our mental map more important, or is it the destination's visibility?
This study was conducted by architecture students in our science book club!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
In uncertain environments, how do we make navigation decisions? Is the distance on our mental map more important, or is it the destination's visibility?
This study was conducted by architecture students in our science book club!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Very strange and suspect behaviour from OAP. Some science sleuthing skills in this thread expose their fishy activity.
Be careful out there friends!
Be careful out there friends!
After pointing out that some might interpret their generous "launch your academic journal" offer as a business opportunity conveniently free from the hassle of credible science, @openaccesspress.nsky.social responded with a second email demanding that I immediately and publicly retract my statement.
March 9, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Very strange and suspect behaviour from OAP. Some science sleuthing skills in this thread expose their fishy activity.
Be careful out there friends!
Be careful out there friends!
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
This feels like an invitation😁 So... just a heads-up that we are recruiting for 5 positions pretty soon in the area of cognitive/behavioural neuroscience/psychology. Scotland is a beautiful place and we have some amazing science going on here... watch this space!
And honestly you can capitalize on the US brain drain that is happening/going to happen. Scoop up those American scientists!
February 22, 2025 at 8:29 AM
This feels like an invitation😁 So... just a heads-up that we are recruiting for 5 positions pretty soon in the area of cognitive/behavioural neuroscience/psychology. Scotland is a beautiful place and we have some amazing science going on here... watch this space!
Ever wondered whether atmospheres affect your experience of the next space?
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Architectural atmospheres, priming effects and first impressions: a multi-perspective approach integrating self-report assessments and physiological responses
This paper studies the priming effects of architectural atmospheres on our first impressions of space. We applied a multi-perspective approach combining first-person-perspective insights (self-repo...
www.tandfonline.com
February 20, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Ever wondered whether atmospheres affect your experience of the next space?
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
HOT OFF THE PRESS - Back in 2019 we started asking ourselves what could you to demonstrate where werable, OPM-MEG technology could fit into naturalistic #neuroskyence.
One snag, we'd have to build the system from scratch first...
Anyway its 2025, read the paper here -> doi.org/10.1162/imag...
One snag, we'd have to build the system from scratch first...
Anyway its 2025, read the paper here -> doi.org/10.1162/imag...
February 18, 2025 at 3:50 PM
HOT OFF THE PRESS - Back in 2019 we started asking ourselves what could you to demonstrate where werable, OPM-MEG technology could fit into naturalistic #neuroskyence.
One snag, we'd have to build the system from scratch first...
Anyway its 2025, read the paper here -> doi.org/10.1162/imag...
One snag, we'd have to build the system from scratch first...
Anyway its 2025, read the paper here -> doi.org/10.1162/imag...
I’m only a few books in here in 2025, but this one is already a good candidate as my favourite this year!
February 10, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I’m only a few books in here in 2025, but this one is already a good candidate as my favourite this year!
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
🚨 Call for contributions!
We are hosting Dimensions of Radical Embodiment 3 at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, June 18-21, 2025
We are accepting abstract submissions for talks, posters, and brief ideas!
Deadline: March 14, 2025
radicalembodiment3.github.io
We are hosting Dimensions of Radical Embodiment 3 at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, June 18-21, 2025
We are accepting abstract submissions for talks, posters, and brief ideas!
Deadline: March 14, 2025
radicalembodiment3.github.io
January 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
🚨 Call for contributions!
We are hosting Dimensions of Radical Embodiment 3 at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, June 18-21, 2025
We are accepting abstract submissions for talks, posters, and brief ideas!
Deadline: March 14, 2025
radicalembodiment3.github.io
We are hosting Dimensions of Radical Embodiment 3 at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, June 18-21, 2025
We are accepting abstract submissions for talks, posters, and brief ideas!
Deadline: March 14, 2025
radicalembodiment3.github.io
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
🚨 new publication from our lab in @pnas.org !
"Expert navigators deploy rational complexity–based decision precaching for large-scale real-world planning"
Entropy of streets & successor representations explain planning speed
Colab wth Daniel McNamee at Champalimaud
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"Expert navigators deploy rational complexity–based decision precaching for large-scale real-world planning"
Entropy of streets & successor representations explain planning speed
Colab wth Daniel McNamee at Champalimaud
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
January 27, 2025 at 3:39 PM
🚨 new publication from our lab in @pnas.org !
"Expert navigators deploy rational complexity–based decision precaching for large-scale real-world planning"
Entropy of streets & successor representations explain planning speed
Colab wth Daniel McNamee at Champalimaud
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"Expert navigators deploy rational complexity–based decision precaching for large-scale real-world planning"
Entropy of streets & successor representations explain planning speed
Colab wth Daniel McNamee at Champalimaud
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
New Preprint! 🧐
We explored the ecological idea of resonance using virtual reality and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MOBI). It was challenging both technically and in terms of data analysis, but we are quite happy with the results. Check it out! ⬇️
doi.org/10.31234/osf... 1/
We explored the ecological idea of resonance using virtual reality and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MOBI). It was challenging both technically and in terms of data analysis, but we are quite happy with the results. Check it out! ⬇️
doi.org/10.31234/osf... 1/
OSF
doi.org
January 15, 2025 at 10:36 AM
New Preprint! 🧐
We explored the ecological idea of resonance using virtual reality and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MOBI). It was challenging both technically and in terms of data analysis, but we are quite happy with the results. Check it out! ⬇️
doi.org/10.31234/osf... 1/
We explored the ecological idea of resonance using virtual reality and Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MOBI). It was challenging both technically and in terms of data analysis, but we are quite happy with the results. Check it out! ⬇️
doi.org/10.31234/osf... 1/
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
🚨 New fMRI preprint from our lab 🚨
"Brain dynamics during architectural experience: prefrontal and hippocampal regions track aesthetics and spatial complexity"
Led by Lara Gregorians with co-authors, Zita Patai, Pablo Fernandez Velasco & Fiona Zisch.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
"Brain dynamics during architectural experience: prefrontal and hippocampal regions track aesthetics and spatial complexity"
Led by Lara Gregorians with co-authors, Zita Patai, Pablo Fernandez Velasco & Fiona Zisch.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
January 13, 2025 at 3:04 PM
🚨 New fMRI preprint from our lab 🚨
"Brain dynamics during architectural experience: prefrontal and hippocampal regions track aesthetics and spatial complexity"
Led by Lara Gregorians with co-authors, Zita Patai, Pablo Fernandez Velasco & Fiona Zisch.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
"Brain dynamics during architectural experience: prefrontal and hippocampal regions track aesthetics and spatial complexity"
Led by Lara Gregorians with co-authors, Zita Patai, Pablo Fernandez Velasco & Fiona Zisch.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#neuroskyence
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
Here is the MIT Tech Review article covering the data collection linked to this new Phd Opportunity at our new International Centre for NeuroArchitecture and NeuroDesign:
www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/13/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/13/1...
January 10, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Here is the MIT Tech Review article covering the data collection linked to this new Phd Opportunity at our new International Centre for NeuroArchitecture and NeuroDesign:
www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/13/1...
www.technologyreview.com/2024/09/13/1...
I mean… awesome timing for my preprint 😂
Neuroethology of natural actions in freely moving monkeys www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... - neural activity in freely moving conditions is richer and more generalizable than in restrained conditions
Neuroethology of natural actions in freely moving monkeys
The current understanding of primate natural action organization derives from laboratory experiments in restrained contexts (RCs) under the assumption that this knowledge generalizes to freely moving ...
www.science.org
January 10, 2025 at 2:06 PM
I mean… awesome timing for my preprint 😂
🧠🏛️ Understanding attentional biases using naturalistic mobile EEG in the built environment.
"... active movement through curved corridors reverses the typical spatial attention effect, ... contradicting previous findings from static settings."
Turns out mobility matters a great deal!
"... active movement through curved corridors reverses the typical spatial attention effect, ... contradicting previous findings from static settings."
Turns out mobility matters a great deal!
Attentional cueing effects are reversed during locomotion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.07.631651v1
January 7, 2025 at 5:41 PM
🧠🏛️ Understanding attentional biases using naturalistic mobile EEG in the built environment.
"... active movement through curved corridors reverses the typical spatial attention effect, ... contradicting previous findings from static settings."
Turns out mobility matters a great deal!
"... active movement through curved corridors reverses the typical spatial attention effect, ... contradicting previous findings from static settings."
Turns out mobility matters a great deal!
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
The brain’s action-mode is created by a dedicated action-mode network (AMN) rdcu.be/d5odm. In the brain’s mode continuum, AMN sits opposite DMN’s default-mode, as yin-yang. AMN might be key in pain, apathy, Parkinson’s. New @natrevneurosci.bsky.social w/ Marc Raichle & @gordonneuro.bsky.social 🧵 ⬇️
January 2, 2025 at 4:48 PM
The brain’s action-mode is created by a dedicated action-mode network (AMN) rdcu.be/d5odm. In the brain’s mode continuum, AMN sits opposite DMN’s default-mode, as yin-yang. AMN might be key in pain, apathy, Parkinson’s. New @natrevneurosci.bsky.social w/ Marc Raichle & @gordonneuro.bsky.social 🧵 ⬇️
"Where do I go? Decoding temporal neural dynamics of scene processing and visuospatial memory interactions using CNNs" from @stephen-ramanoel.bsky.social 's group.
Affordances during scene perception processed in early stages (100ms) over occipital cortex.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Affordances during scene perception processed in early stages (100ms) over occipital cortex.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Where do I go? Decoding temporal neural dynamics of scene processing and visuospatial memory interactions using CNNs
Visual scene perception enables rapid interpretation of the surrounding environment by integrating multiple visual features related to task demands and context, which is essential for goal-directed be...
www.biorxiv.org
December 21, 2024 at 8:06 AM
"Where do I go? Decoding temporal neural dynamics of scene processing and visuospatial memory interactions using CNNs" from @stephen-ramanoel.bsky.social 's group.
Affordances during scene perception processed in early stages (100ms) over occipital cortex.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Affordances during scene perception processed in early stages (100ms) over occipital cortex.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
Post-doc position:
AI might often enhance natural stupidity
But which factors determine whether AI will lead to smarter humans or more natural stupidity?
Let's figure it out 👋
🙏 Please repost so I could find someone crazy enough to work w me in Estonia on this✍️ ✉️
#edusky #psychscisky #neuroAI
AI might often enhance natural stupidity
But which factors determine whether AI will lead to smarter humans or more natural stupidity?
Let's figure it out 👋
🙏 Please repost so I could find someone crazy enough to work w me in Estonia on this✍️ ✉️
#edusky #psychscisky #neuroAI
December 12, 2024 at 6:38 PM
Post-doc position:
AI might often enhance natural stupidity
But which factors determine whether AI will lead to smarter humans or more natural stupidity?
Let's figure it out 👋
🙏 Please repost so I could find someone crazy enough to work w me in Estonia on this✍️ ✉️
#edusky #psychscisky #neuroAI
AI might often enhance natural stupidity
But which factors determine whether AI will lead to smarter humans or more natural stupidity?
Let's figure it out 👋
🙏 Please repost so I could find someone crazy enough to work w me in Estonia on this✍️ ✉️
#edusky #psychscisky #neuroAI
Reposted by Zakaria Djebbara
‼️New paper‼️
(also a major s-ccs #paper, with Judith Schepers & @benediktehinger.bsky.social)
Do you have RTs in your 🧠📈-data? Fixation durations? Movements?
How do event-durations affect your data? And how to deal with this?
🧵 ⤵ 1 / 5
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
🧪 #EEG #fMRI #neuroimage
(also a major s-ccs #paper, with Judith Schepers & @benediktehinger.bsky.social)
Do you have RTs in your 🧠📈-data? Fixation durations? Movements?
How do event-durations affect your data? And how to deal with this?
🧵 ⤵ 1 / 5
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
🧪 #EEG #fMRI #neuroimage
December 11, 2024 at 2:21 PM
‼️New paper‼️
(also a major s-ccs #paper, with Judith Schepers & @benediktehinger.bsky.social)
Do you have RTs in your 🧠📈-data? Fixation durations? Movements?
How do event-durations affect your data? And how to deal with this?
🧵 ⤵ 1 / 5
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
🧪 #EEG #fMRI #neuroimage
(also a major s-ccs #paper, with Judith Schepers & @benediktehinger.bsky.social)
Do you have RTs in your 🧠📈-data? Fixation durations? Movements?
How do event-durations affect your data? And how to deal with this?
🧵 ⤵ 1 / 5
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
🧪 #EEG #fMRI #neuroimage