Jan Theeuwes
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jthee.bsky.social
Jan Theeuwes
@jthee.bsky.social
Professor of Cognitive Psychology. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Using intracranial recordings from 22 people, we show that hippocampal theta activity enables earlier decoding of the upcoming target, supporting automatic performance. This is specific to the hippocampus, with later involvement of ripple bursts.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Automaticity speeds the retrieval of instances from the human hippocampus | PNAS
Automatic processing allows humans to perform tasks with minimal effort following learning. Although theories of automaticity propose that learning...
www.pnas.org
October 30, 2025 at 6:11 PM
If you are interested in the attentional capture debate... You should read this paper.

acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:...
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acrobat.adobe.com
September 27, 2025 at 3:19 PM
By integrating the 'pinging' technique with fMRI-based multivariate pattern analysis, we provide evidence for a dual-format representation of attention during the preparatory period.

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
doi.org
September 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Jan Theeuwes
🧠 Excited to share that our new preprint is out!🧠
In this work, we investigate the dynamic competition between bottom-up saliency and top-down goals in the early visual cortex using rapid invisible frequency tagging (RIFT).

📄 Check it out on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Dynamic competition between bottom-up saliency and top-down goals in early visual cortex
Task-irrelevant yet salient stimuli can elicit automatic, bottom-up attentional capture and compete with top-down, goal-directed processes for neural representation. However, the temporal dynamics und...
www.biorxiv.org
August 27, 2025 at 9:16 PM
By using a visual pinging technique, we uncovered a latent sensory-like format of attentional templates that remains hidden during passive preparation.

In @elife.bsky.social: Dual-format attentional template during preparation in human visual cortex doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Dual-format attentional template during preparation in human visual cortex
doi.org
June 26, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Reposted by Jan Theeuwes
Thanks to the support of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and @knaw-nl.bsky.social , we're thrilled to announce the international symposium "Advances in the Encephalographic study of Attention"! 🧠🔍

📅 Date: June 25th & 26th
📍 Location: Trippenhuis, Amsterdam
June 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
This study challenges the idea that the early PD component is a marker of proactive distractor suppression. Instead, this study suggests that this early positivity reflects general salience processing and/or sensory imbalance rather than specific suppression mechanisms
direct.mit.edu/jocn/article...
A Flash in the Pan? Distractor Suppression Cannot Be Inferred from the Early Lateralized Positivity
Abstract. Humans excel at avoiding distraction in visual environments, successfully filtering out repeated salient distractors that could otherwise capture attention. A recent theoretical perspective ...
direct.mit.edu
May 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Through experience, humans can learn to suppress locations that frequently contain distracting stimuli. Using SSVEPs and ERPs, this study shows that such learned suppression modulates early neural responses, indicating it occurs during initial visual processing.
www.jneurosci.org/content/jneu...
www.jneurosci.org
May 26, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Reposted by Jan Theeuwes
New Preprint! Here, we test the causal role of selective attention in the acquisition of reward-related attentional biases. W/ @mavadillo.bsky.social, @jthee.bsky.social , Dirk van Moorselaar and @jlupiane.bsky.social.
The Role of Selective Attention in Value-Modulated Attentional Capture: https://osf.io/kv2rx
April 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Humans can learn to ignore distracting locations, but the neural basis remains unclear. We used SSVEPs and ERPs to investigate how spatial suppression is learned.

www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
Learning modulates early encephalographic responses to distracting stimuli: a combined SSVEP and ERP study
Through experience, humans can learn to suppress locations that frequently contain distracting stimuli. However, the neural mechanism underlying learned suppression remains largely unknown. In this st...
www.jneurosci.org
April 19, 2025 at 10:17 PM
In this ERP study, we examined the Pd in response to color singleton distractors and dynamic motion distractors during visual search (the additional singleton paradigm)

direct.mit.edu/jocn/article...
Differential Neural Mechanisms Underlying Inhibition of Color and Dynamic Motion Distractors
Abstract. Navigating visually complex environments requires focusing on relevant information while filtering out (salient) distractions. The signal suppression hypothesis posits that salient stimuli g...
direct.mit.edu
February 27, 2025 at 9:49 AM
We used a brain "pinging" again and found that distractor suppression is reactive rather than proactive, meaning attention is first drawn to the distractor before being suppressed.
Neural mechanisms of learned suppression uncovered by probing the hidden attentional priority map
Learned suppression of distractor locations in visual search emerges through reactive mechanisms that involve initial spatial selection prior to suppression.
doi.org
February 27, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Our fMRI study shows suppression in early visual cortex for those locations that are likely to contain distacting information.

Proactive distractor suppression in early visual cortex doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Proactive distractor suppression in early visual cortex
doi.org
February 20, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Pinging the brain again: Not proactive, suppression is reactive. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
Pinging the Hidden Attentional Priority Map: Suppression Needs Attention
doi.org
January 30, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Reposted by Jan Theeuwes
💬🙇🏼‍♀️💬🙇🏼‍♀️💬🙇🏼‍♀️
The advantage of spaced studying is well documented for explicit learning, but is there such an advantage for incidental #StatisticalLearning of novel #Language?

Jasper de Waard from @jthee.bsky.social’s lab tested it! Find out what we found here : 🔗 doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Taking time: Auditory statistical learning benefits from distributed exposure - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
In an auditory statistical learning paradigm, listeners learn to partition a continuous stream of syllables by discovering the repeating syllable patterns that constitute the speech stream. Here, we a...
doi.org
January 18, 2025 at 11:23 AM