Reuben Rideaux
@reubenrideaux.bsky.social
Studies brains, eats plants, and catches waves.
I suspect the exposure needed to form expectations will reflect tuning to probabilistic properties of the natural environment.
June 23, 2026 at 11:01 AM
I suspect the exposure needed to form expectations will reflect tuning to probabilistic properties of the natural environment.
I’ve looked at the development of effects in the behavioural data and they seem to emerge relatively quickly, with the speed/accuracy effect appearing before precision. The neural effects require many more trials to detect, but this may just be an SNR issue.
June 23, 2026 at 11:00 AM
I’ve looked at the development of effects in the behavioural data and they seem to emerge relatively quickly, with the speed/accuracy effect appearing before precision. The neural effects require many more trials to detect, but this may just be an SNR issue.
10/9 While our results are broadly consistent with Clare et al's (elegant) Opposing Process Theory, they propose early sharpening of the sensory neural code. By contrast, our results seem to show that the early process, which benefits expected events, is driven by a decision/motor priming effect.
The Perceptual Prediction Paradox
From the noisy information bombarding our senses, our brains must construct percepts
that are veridical – reflecting the true state of the world – and informative – conveying
what we did not already k...
www.cell.com
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
10/9 While our results are broadly consistent with Clare et al's (elegant) Opposing Process Theory, they propose early sharpening of the sensory neural code. By contrast, our results seem to show that the early process, which benefits expected events, is driven by a decision/motor priming effect.
9/9 Led by Ziyue Hu, with Dominic Tran. Open access in @sfnjournals.bsky.social 👇
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
9/9 Led by Ziyue Hu, with Dominic Tran. Open access in @sfnjournals.bsky.social 👇
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
doi.org/10.1523/JNEU...
8/9 Big picture — two complementary mechanisms:
1️⃣ early & attention-gated: speeds responses to expected events
2️⃣ later & automatic: dampens sensory detail, freeing resources to encode the unexpected
Efficiency and adaptability, reconciled; the brain appears to have its cake and eat it too.
1️⃣ early & attention-gated: speeds responses to expected events
2️⃣ later & automatic: dampens sensory detail, freeing resources to encode the unexpected
Efficiency and adaptability, reconciled; the brain appears to have its cake and eat it too.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
8/9 Big picture — two complementary mechanisms:
1️⃣ early & attention-gated: speeds responses to expected events
2️⃣ later & automatic: dampens sensory detail, freeing resources to encode the unexpected
Efficiency and adaptability, reconciled; the brain appears to have its cake and eat it too.
1️⃣ early & attention-gated: speeds responses to expected events
2️⃣ later & automatic: dampens sensory detail, freeing resources to encode the unexpected
Efficiency and adaptability, reconciled; the brain appears to have its cake and eat it too.
7/9 That loss of detail for expected stimuli appeared fast (~100–200 ms after onset) and tracked individual differences: the more expectation suppressed someone's neural code, the fuzzier their recall.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
7/9 That loss of detail for expected stimuli appeared fast (~100–200 ms after onset) and tracked individual differences: the more expectation suppressed someone's neural code, the fuzzier their recall.
6/9 The EEG revealed why. Feature-specific decoding showed attention effects BEFORE the stimulus and expectation effects AFTER it — with no interaction. Attention produced a pre-stimulus (possibly decision/motor) signal aligned to the expected event; expectation blunted the neural code.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
6/9 The EEG revealed why. Feature-specific decoding showed attention effects BEFORE the stimulus and expectation effects AFTER it — with no interaction. Attention produced a pre-stimulus (possibly decision/motor) signal aligned to the expected event; expectation blunted the neural code.
5/9 Part 2 — the twist: those same expected events were reproduced with LOWER precision. Better at detecting them, but fuzzier at reporting their exact features. And unlike the speed benefit, this blur was unaffected by attention.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
5/9 Part 2 — the twist: those same expected events were reproduced with LOWER precision. Better at detecting them, but fuzzier at reporting their exact features. And unlike the speed benefit, this blur was unaffected by attention.
4/9 Behaviour, part 1: people were faster AND more accurate at detecting expected events — and that benefit grew when they were also paying attention. Expectation clearly helps performance.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
4/9 Behaviour, part 1: people were faster AND more accurate at detecting expected events — and that benefit grew when they were also paying attention. Expectation clearly helps performance.
3/9 The problem: expectation, attention & low-level adaptation often get tangled. We separated them; combining EEG, pupillometry & behaviour in a task that varied attention and predictability independently, while avoiding repeated stimuli in the same location.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
3/9 The problem: expectation, attention & low-level adaptation often get tangled. We separated them; combining EEG, pupillometry & behaviour in a task that varied attention and predictability independently, while avoiding repeated stimuli in the same location.
2/9 Predictive processing says the brain leans on internal models, exploiting regularities to stay efficient. But which events get priority: the reliable expected ones (via sharpening) or the informative unexpected ones (via dampening)? There's empirical evidence and ecological arguments for both.
June 23, 2026 at 7:29 AM
2/9 Predictive processing says the brain leans on internal models, exploiting regularities to stay efficient. But which events get priority: the reliable expected ones (via sharpening) or the informative unexpected ones (via dampening)? There's empirical evidence and ecological arguments for both.