Renzo Lanfranco
@renzolanfranco.bsky.social
Principal Researcher in Cognitive Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. Interested in consciousness, visual & body perception, self, face recognition, metacognition & altered states of consciousness | https://ki.se/en/people/renzo-lanfranco
Pinned
Conscious and unconscious eye contact at the limits of vision
Eye contact is one of the most potent social signals, but it remains unclear how little visual input is sufficient to register direct gaze, and whether such registration requires conscious awareness. ...
doi.org
1/11 New preprint! Can we register eye contact before we consciously see gaze direction? We flashed faces for just 1–5 ms and found that direct gaze facilitates face detection before explicit gaze awareness. 🧵
doi.org/10.64898/202... Work with: @axc.bsky.social & @arvidguterstam.bsky.social
doi.org/10.64898/202... Work with: @axc.bsky.social & @arvidguterstam.bsky.social
🧠 New paper out in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience! Led by Boris Lucero & Andrés Canales-Johnson
How does intelligence relate to the developing brain? We asked whether it reflects stronger local neural responses or more efficient communication across brain networks.
doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...
How does intelligence relate to the developing brain? We asked whether it reflects stronger local neural responses or more efficient communication across brain networks.
doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...
Redirecting
doi.org
September 22, 2026 at 12:25 PM
🧠 New paper out in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience! Led by Boris Lucero & Andrés Canales-Johnson
How does intelligence relate to the developing brain? We asked whether it reflects stronger local neural responses or more efficient communication across brain networks.
doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...
How does intelligence relate to the developing brain? We asked whether it reflects stronger local neural responses or more efficient communication across brain networks.
doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
we started out just wanting to point out that, despite its popularity, comparing hits vs misses in detection tasks is actually not a very good way to study subjective experience / consciousness. but we ended up expanding it to make it relevant for clinical stuff too
led by @tomnakamura.bsky.social
led by @tomnakamura.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Disturbances of conscious experience are central features of many psychiatric and mental health disorders. Experimental studies of conscious perception are therefore increasingly cited ....
Disturbances of conscious experience are central features of many psychiatric and mental health disorders. Experimental studies of conscious perception are therefore increasingly cited ....
Hitting and missing on consciousness
Disturbances of conscious experience are central features of many psychiatric and mental health disorders. Experimental studies of conscious perception are therefore increasingly cited in clinical an....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 17, 2026 at 2:47 PM
we started out just wanting to point out that, despite its popularity, comparing hits vs misses in detection tasks is actually not a very good way to study subjective experience / consciousness. but we ended up expanding it to make it relevant for clinical stuff too
led by @tomnakamura.bsky.social
led by @tomnakamura.bsky.social
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
📖 New review out today in @natrevneuro.nature.com: Towards an integrative neuroscience of metacognition 🧠🧪
Full-text link to the paper is here: rdcu.be/9YK3mF7dYhFa
Full-text link to the paper is here: rdcu.be/9YK3mF7dYhFa
September 16, 2026 at 4:35 PM
📖 New review out today in @natrevneuro.nature.com: Towards an integrative neuroscience of metacognition 🧠🧪
Full-text link to the paper is here: rdcu.be/9YK3mF7dYhFa
Full-text link to the paper is here: rdcu.be/9YK3mF7dYhFa
Worth reading, especially if you're a Beatles fan like me:
"Need Help! writing a paper title? All you need is the Beatles" | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
"Need Help! writing a paper title? All you need is the Beatles" | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
Need Help! writing a paper title? All you need is the Beatles
At least 3200 scientific publications refer to the Fab Four’s music—by far the most of any top-selling artist
www.science.org
September 16, 2026 at 11:10 AM
Worth reading, especially if you're a Beatles fan like me:
"Need Help! writing a paper title? All you need is the Beatles" | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
"Need Help! writing a paper title? All you need is the Beatles" | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
How much information about a stimulus is available to a perceptual system, and how much of that information becomes consciously accessible? In this new Perspective, “Perceptual awareness as an information-distribution problem,” I propose an information-theoretic framework. 🧵Preprint: osf.io/zmf5h
OSF
osf.io
September 14, 2026 at 12:56 PM
How much information about a stimulus is available to a perceptual system, and how much of that information becomes consciously accessible? In this new Perspective, “Perceptual awareness as an information-distribution problem,” I propose an information-theoretic framework. 🧵Preprint: osf.io/zmf5h
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
📣 My lab at NYU currently has two open post-doc positions. We are interested in understanding perception, thinking, and hallucinations.
We employ a range of cutting-edge techniques in human neuroscience (e.g., 7T fMRI, MEG, iEEG/DES) and computational approaches (e.g., DNN modeling).
We employ a range of cutting-edge techniques in human neuroscience (e.g., 7T fMRI, MEG, iEEG/DES) and computational approaches (e.g., DNN modeling).
September 1, 2026 at 7:19 PM
📣 My lab at NYU currently has two open post-doc positions. We are interested in understanding perception, thinking, and hallucinations.
We employ a range of cutting-edge techniques in human neuroscience (e.g., 7T fMRI, MEG, iEEG/DES) and computational approaches (e.g., DNN modeling).
We employ a range of cutting-edge techniques in human neuroscience (e.g., 7T fMRI, MEG, iEEG/DES) and computational approaches (e.g., DNN modeling).
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
PhD position (4 years, paid) on an NWO-funded project on the Role of Foveal Processing in Spatial Attention at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, supervised by Dr. Mieke Donk (main PI) and me! For more information:
workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/ph...
workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/ph...
Vacancy — PhD position (4 years) on the Role of Foveal Processing in Spatial Attention
Are you interested in understanding how attention shapes what we see? Would you like to combine behavioural experiments, psychophysics, and eye tracking to uncover how the brain selects and prioritise...
workingat.vu.nl
August 19, 2026 at 7:46 AM
PhD position (4 years, paid) on an NWO-funded project on the Role of Foveal Processing in Spatial Attention at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, supervised by Dr. Mieke Donk (main PI) and me! For more information:
workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/ph...
workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/ph...
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
well on time for my bi-yearly post I'm sharing the final version of this very cool work we started with @cjungerius.bsky.social @smfleming.bsky.social @svangaal.bsky.social @fahrenfort.bsky.social in 2021, when I was young and full of hope. Now out in @natcomms.nature.com 1/11
The act of detecting a stimulus contaminates measures of conscious experience with decision biases - Nature Communications
A central challenge in consciousness research is determining whether people truly experience a stimulus. Here, the authors show that context biases traditional detection measures, whereas continuous r...
www.nature.com
July 21, 2026 at 1:51 PM
well on time for my bi-yearly post I'm sharing the final version of this very cool work we started with @cjungerius.bsky.social @smfleming.bsky.social @svangaal.bsky.social @fahrenfort.bsky.social in 2021, when I was young and full of hope. Now out in @natcomms.nature.com 1/11
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Our new chapter on the cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis, led by @renzolanfranco.bsky.social I think it provides a balanced overview of where the field is at.
Our chapter “Cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis,” with @devinterhune.bsky.social, is out in "Consciousness: A Comprehensive Reference". We review how suggestion shapes perception, cognition & agency, & why hypnosis is a powerful tool for consciousness research:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
July 24, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Our new chapter on the cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis, led by @renzolanfranco.bsky.social I think it provides a balanced overview of where the field is at.
Our chapter “Cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis,” with @devinterhune.bsky.social, is out in "Consciousness: A Comprehensive Reference". We review how suggestion shapes perception, cognition & agency, & why hypnosis is a powerful tool for consciousness research:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
July 23, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Our chapter “Cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis,” with @devinterhune.bsky.social, is out in "Consciousness: A Comprehensive Reference". We review how suggestion shapes perception, cognition & agency, & why hypnosis is a powerful tool for consciousness research:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Happy to share our new pre-print "Attention reshapes the information dynamics of thalamic and cortical prediction-error learning" led by the great Juho Äijälä, Thread below👇
July 16, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Happy to share our new pre-print "Attention reshapes the information dynamics of thalamic and cortical prediction-error learning" led by the great Juho Äijälä, Thread below👇
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
🧵1/10
New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen!
We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants.
Short answer: the evidence says no.
New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen!
We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants.
Short answer: the evidence says no.
June 22, 2026 at 8:32 PM
🧵1/10
New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen!
We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants.
Short answer: the evidence says no.
New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen!
We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants.
Short answer: the evidence says no.
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
New paper: A systematic review and meta-analysis (k = 22) found no evidence that the rubber hand illusion modulates pain in healthy participants (Hedges’ g = 0.036). These findings challenge claims that body ownership illusions attenuate pain. Thread by lead author @saracoppi.bsky.social below.
🧵1/10
New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen!
We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants.
Short answer: the evidence says no.
New paper out! In collaboration with @brainself.bsky.social and Karin Jensen!
We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed studies testing whether the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), the classic body ownership illusion, reduces pain in healthy participants.
Short answer: the evidence says no.
July 11, 2026 at 12:37 PM
New paper: A systematic review and meta-analysis (k = 22) found no evidence that the rubber hand illusion modulates pain in healthy participants (Hedges’ g = 0.036). These findings challenge claims that body ownership illusions attenuate pain. Thread by lead author @saracoppi.bsky.social below.
What is the minimal exposure required to process facial features? In our reply to Mamassian & Wexler in Nat Comm, we address important questions about the limits of this approach and explain why manipulating exposure duration can offer advantages over other common visibility manipulations.
REPLY TO “The meaningfulness of searching for minimal exposure duration to understand visual perception” - Nature Communications
Nature Communications - REPLY TO “The meaningfulness of searching for minimal exposure duration to understand visual perception”
www.nature.com
July 9, 2026 at 4:12 PM
What is the minimal exposure required to process facial features? In our reply to Mamassian & Wexler in Nat Comm, we address important questions about the limits of this approach and explain why manipulating exposure duration can offer advantages over other common visibility manipulations.
1/11 New preprint! Can we register eye contact before we consciously see gaze direction? We flashed faces for just 1–5 ms and found that direct gaze facilitates face detection before explicit gaze awareness. 🧵
doi.org/10.64898/202... Work with: @axc.bsky.social & @arvidguterstam.bsky.social
doi.org/10.64898/202... Work with: @axc.bsky.social & @arvidguterstam.bsky.social
Conscious and unconscious eye contact at the limits of vision
Eye contact is one of the most potent social signals, but it remains unclear how little visual input is sufficient to register direct gaze, and whether such registration requires conscious awareness. ...
doi.org
July 7, 2026 at 3:44 PM
1/11 New preprint! Can we register eye contact before we consciously see gaze direction? We flashed faces for just 1–5 ms and found that direct gaze facilitates face detection before explicit gaze awareness. 🧵
doi.org/10.64898/202... Work with: @axc.bsky.social & @arvidguterstam.bsky.social
doi.org/10.64898/202... Work with: @axc.bsky.social & @arvidguterstam.bsky.social
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Thrilled to share our @natcomms.nature.com article: "Broadband synergy versus oscillatory redundancy in the visual cortex", a cross-species research effort led by Louis Roberts. Thread below!
June 24, 2026 at 2:45 PM
Thrilled to share our @natcomms.nature.com article: "Broadband synergy versus oscillatory redundancy in the visual cortex", a cross-species research effort led by Louis Roberts. Thread below!
What makes a body feel like our own? The sense of body ownership is a core aspect of self-awareness, and it depends on the integration of multiple sensory signals. What role do visual predictions play in body ownership? Check out our new paper in Royal Society Open Science: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Disentangling visually driven tactile predictions from multisensory integration in body ownership
Abstract. The sense of owning one’s body is essential for distinguishing internal from external sensations. Research using bodily illusions shows that this
doi.org
April 1, 2026 at 9:08 AM
What makes a body feel like our own? The sense of body ownership is a core aspect of self-awareness, and it depends on the integration of multiple sensory signals. What role do visual predictions play in body ownership? Check out our new paper in Royal Society Open Science: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Today I am excited to introduce respyra - an open-source Python toolbox for respiratory tracking experiments in interoception research!
Now on PyPI (pip install respyra) with a preprint on PsyArXiv:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
GitHub: github.com/embodied-com...
Now on PyPI (pip install respyra) with a preprint on PsyArXiv:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
GitHub: github.com/embodied-com...
February 27, 2026 at 12:55 PM
Today I am excited to introduce respyra - an open-source Python toolbox for respiratory tracking experiments in interoception research!
Now on PyPI (pip install respyra) with a preprint on PsyArXiv:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
GitHub: github.com/embodied-com...
Now on PyPI (pip install respyra) with a preprint on PsyArXiv:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
GitHub: github.com/embodied-com...
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Happy to see this collaboration out - fun project led by Lorena Desdentado, Olga Pollatos, and colleagues using our heart rate discrimination task. "Cardiac interoception in action: Modulation after a stress induction with a speech task" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #neuroskyence
February 23, 2026 at 6:25 PM
Happy to see this collaboration out - fun project led by Lorena Desdentado, Olga Pollatos, and colleagues using our heart rate discrimination task. "Cardiac interoception in action: Modulation after a stress induction with a speech task" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #neuroskyence
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Next Consciousness Club is this Wednesday 25th Feb at 11am UK time!
Anat Arzi @anatarzi.bsky.social will be talking about "The Dynamics of (Un)Consciousness: Insights from Olfaction and Respiration"
All welcome, for more info and how to join please see: metacoglab.org/consciousnes...
Anat Arzi @anatarzi.bsky.social will be talking about "The Dynamics of (Un)Consciousness: Insights from Olfaction and Respiration"
All welcome, for more info and how to join please see: metacoglab.org/consciousnes...
February 22, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Next Consciousness Club is this Wednesday 25th Feb at 11am UK time!
Anat Arzi @anatarzi.bsky.social will be talking about "The Dynamics of (Un)Consciousness: Insights from Olfaction and Respiration"
All welcome, for more info and how to join please see: metacoglab.org/consciousnes...
Anat Arzi @anatarzi.bsky.social will be talking about "The Dynamics of (Un)Consciousness: Insights from Olfaction and Respiration"
All welcome, for more info and how to join please see: metacoglab.org/consciousnes...
Den här frågan är viktig för mig – skriv gärna under: www.mittskifte.org/petitions/in...
Ingen retroaktivitet i den nya medborgarskapslagen
Detta handlar om rättssäkerhet, rättvisa och förutsägbarhet i svensk lagstiftning. Att införa en ny lag med skärpta krav är en sak – men att tillämpa den retroaktivt och ignorera en föreslagen övergån...
www.mittskifte.org
February 11, 2026 at 8:22 AM
Den här frågan är viktig för mig – skriv gärna under: www.mittskifte.org/petitions/in...
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
Our new paper on different types of underconfidence in relation to anxiety symptoms and gender out now in Psychological Medicine 😊
doi.org/10.1017/S003...
with @smfleming.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1017/S003...
with @smfleming.bsky.social
Gender and anxiety reveal distinct computational sources of underconfidence | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core
Gender and anxiety reveal distinct computational sources of underconfidence - Volume 56
doi.org
January 15, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Our new paper on different types of underconfidence in relation to anxiety symptoms and gender out now in Psychological Medicine 😊
doi.org/10.1017/S003...
with @smfleming.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1017/S003...
with @smfleming.bsky.social
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
New preprint: Confidence-accuracy dissociations in perceptual decision making. A review I was supposed to write 3 years ago for my VSS Young Investigator Award. Better late than never 😅 I tried to organize the literature and explore the likely mechanisms. Feedback welcome!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
January 13, 2026 at 6:13 PM
New preprint: Confidence-accuracy dissociations in perceptual decision making. A review I was supposed to write 3 years ago for my VSS Young Investigator Award. Better late than never 😅 I tried to organize the literature and explore the likely mechanisms. Feedback welcome!
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
How does the brain make the self feel grounded? In new work with Mariano D’Angelo, @brainself.bsky.social & @mariechancel.bsky.social, we show alpha oscillations set the time window for binding vision & touch, providing causal evidence for how body ownership emerges. Out in @natcomms.nature.com 🧠
Client Challenge
www.nature.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:04 PM
How does the brain make the self feel grounded? In new work with Mariano D’Angelo, @brainself.bsky.social & @mariechancel.bsky.social, we show alpha oscillations set the time window for binding vision & touch, providing causal evidence for how body ownership emerges. Out in @natcomms.nature.com 🧠
Reposted by Renzo Lanfranco
New results! Faster parietal alpha frequency tightens, and slower alpha widens, the temporal window for vision–touch integration for the sense of one’s own body. Causal and computational evidence. Nature Communications
news.ki.se/how-brain-wa...
news.ki.se/how-brain-wa...
How brain waves shape our sense of self
A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in Nature Communications, reveals how rhythmic brain waves known as alpha oscillations help us distinguish between our own body and the external world...
news.ki.se
January 12, 2026 at 2:17 PM
New results! Faster parietal alpha frequency tightens, and slower alpha widens, the temporal window for vision–touch integration for the sense of one’s own body. Causal and computational evidence. Nature Communications
news.ki.se/how-brain-wa...
news.ki.se/how-brain-wa...