Sign in

Helen Blank

@helenblank.bsky.social
580 followers 358 following 40 posts

Professor of Predictive Cognition at Faculty of Psychology @ruhr-uni-bochum.de Emmy Noether Research Group Leader PI @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social @ UKE Hamburg blanklab.eu

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Helen Blank
Ondrej Zika @ondrejzika.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Only a few days remaining to submit an Expression of Interest for this PhD/Postdoc.
031
Reposted by Helen Blank
Franziska Knolle @franziskaknolle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
🚨 Registration closes September 30! We have an amazing programme! So join us for *the* meeting on voices, visions, presences & more - with 5 stellar keynotes!! We are looking forward to seeing you in Munich! 🧠🥨 Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
ICHR and ECHR Satellite Meeting 2026, Munich, Germany - REGISTRATION
We are pleased to welcome you to the 2026 ICHR and ECHR Satellite Meeting, hosted by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Klinikum rechts der Isar, in Munich, Germany, from 19–21 October 2026. Pl...
022
Reposted by Helen Blank
The Power of Expectations @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Here are some impressions from the Essen #GlobalWalkAgainstPain, held in the remarkable surroundings of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Zeche Zollverein. Together, we raised awareness of what it means to live with pain — and of the challenges we still face in understanding and treating it.
122
Helen Blank @helenblank.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Very much looking forward to our Network symposium on predictive processing in Bochum this October: predcommlab.github.io/symposium-20...
predcommlab.github.io
Predictive Processing Network Symposium 2026
052
Reposted by Helen Blank
Franziska Knolle @franziskaknolle.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
🚨Registration is now open for the 2026 ICHR & ECHR Satellite Meeting in Munich, 19–21 October! Deadline: 30 September 2026 Programme and registration details: sites.google.com/view/echrich... We hope to see many of you in Munich in October!🥨🧠 @theichr.bsky.social&@echrhallucinations.bsky.social
079
Reposted by Helen Blank
Tina Lonsdorf @tinalonsdorf.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
we have an open position for a post-doc (100%) or PhD student (75%) at Bielefeld University - starting 1.11 or later (there is room for flexibility). jobs.uni-bielefeld.de/job/view/503...
jobs.uni-bielefeld.de
Research Position (m/f/d) (Postdoctoral researcher...
<p>The ‘Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience’ research group investigates human experience and behaviour at the interface betwee...
11711
Reposted by Helen Blank
The Power of Expectations @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
New opinion paper in @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social led by Katja Wiech and @ulrikebingel.bsky.social! ▶️ Beyond Bayesian integration: how meaning shapes placebo effects Read the paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
1126
Helen Blank @helenblank.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
👀
041
Reposted by Helen Blank
Heleen Slagter @haslagter.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
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
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...
03934
Reposted by Helen Blank
Jamal A. Williams @jayneuro.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Our new paper is out in Nature Communications! 🎶🧠✨ If you're interested in how the brain represents meaning evoked by music, check it out. Shout out to my Princeton team for making this happen!🚀 @jalon.bsky.social, @margulisa.bsky.social, Karen Christianson, Cara Turnbull, Grace Simmons, Uri Hasson
0166
Reposted by Helen Blank
Tim Kietzmann @timkietzmann.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
📢 We are hiring a full professor in "Intelligence in Biological and Artificial Systems". Come join us at Germany's first and largest cognitive science program. Please share far and wide, and get in touch with any questions. www.uni-osnabrueck.de/en/universit...
uni-osnabrueck.de
129 FB 8 W3 Professorship Intelligence in Biological and Artificial Systems, Institute of Cognitive Science: Uni Osnabrück
05731
Reposted by Helen Blank
Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
🚨 Job alert 🚨 Our department @vuamsterdam.bsky.social is hiring an Assistant Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience! Join our lovely community here in beautiful Amsterdam! 🧠🔥 Deadline: October 15 Apply: workingat.vu.nl/vacancies/as...
workingat.vu.nl
Vacancy — Assistant Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience
Join the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) as Assistant Professor in cognitive neuroscience.
16348
Reposted by Helen Blank
The Power of Expectations @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Tolles Interview mit @ulrikebingel.bsky.social vom Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR) 🔽 www.gesundheitsforschung-bmftr.de/de/mit-dem-p...
gesundheitsforschung-bmftr.de
Mit dem Placebo-Effekt wirken viele Behandlungen besser - DLR Gesundheitsforschung
Wie gut eine Therapie wirkt, wird auch durch den Placebo-Effekt beeinflusst. Wie sich dieser beeinflussen lässt und welche Rolle Therapeutinnen und Therapeuten dabei spielen, erläutert Professorin Ulr...
043
Reposted by Helen Blank
Aidan Horner @aidanhorner.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Check out the new preprint from the amazing @adamjcurtis.bsky.social! Memory Benefits for Schematically Incongruent Sequences Depend on the Type of Violation #neuroskyence #psychscisky #cognition 🧪
13113
Reposted by Helen Blank
Phil Corlett @philcorlett.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
A key challenge for computational psychiatry is to distinguish state from trait markers and go beyond cross-sectional studies. Here we show that as paranoia waxes and wanes in patients with schizophrenia, so too do volatility priors
14315
Reposted by Helen Blank
bioDGPS and DGPA @biodgps-dgpa.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Neue Perspektive der Fachgruppe Biologische Psychologie und Neuropsychologie in der Psychologischen Rundschau: KI aus Sicht der biologischen Psychologie und Neuropsychologie: Grundlagen, Anwendungen, Grenzen econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1...
econtent.hogrefe.com
KI aus Sicht der biologischen Psychologie und Neuropsychologie: Grundlagen, Anwendungen, Grenzen: Eine Perspektive der Fachgruppe Biologische Psychologie und Neuropsychologie: Psyc...
Zusammenfassung: Die Biologische Psychologie und Neuropsychologie (BNP) untersucht die biologischen Grundlagen psychischer Prozesse – von molekularen Mechanismen bis hin zu endokrinen Regulationssyste...
1128
Reposted by Helen Blank
Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
The PhD position in our lab closes 31 July - apply now!
01918
Reposted by Helen Blank
The Power of Expectations @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
A lay summary explains this cool study from @stefaniebrassen.bsky.social et al. 😍 www.clearskyscience.com/en/10.1038/s...
clearskyscience.com
Acute placebo responsiveness predicts longitudinal expectation effects in antidepressant treatment · Clear Sky Science
Study shows that positive treatment expectations can bias emotional perception toward happiness and predict antidepressant outcomes.
073
Helen Blank @helenblank.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Congrats to Sihui Zhang and team Ioannis Terzidis, @rosenblaug.bsky.social & Christoph Korn! It was a pleasure to be a (small) part of this one: Pupil dilation reflects prediction errors in learning about others’ personality traits 👀⁉️https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsag060
doi.org
Pupil dilation reflects prediction errors in learning about others’ personality traits
Abstract. Learning about others’ personality traits is crucial for building personal relationships. This learning process can be conceptualized as reductio
040
Reposted by Helen Blank
ShitMyReviewersSay @shitmyreviewerssay.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
'The enormous and overwhelming -not to say pathetic- admiration, even adoration of the author for her subject is barely acceptable'
static.klipy.com
Gordon Ramsay Says 'Pathetic' on MasterChef
ALT: Gordon Ramsay Says 'Pathetic' on MasterChef
042
Reposted by Helen Blank
Ricarda Lang @ricardalang.eurosky.social · 22/07/2026
Friedrich Merz wollte doch was gegen hohe Krankenstände machen - wie wäre es, die Psychotheraphie nicht kaputt zu sparen?
481401340
Reposted by Helen Blank
The Power of Expectations @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
More than words: Experience shapes #placebo pain relief through additional brain pathways 🧠 We're excited to share our latest publication in @natcomms.nature.com! 🤩 🔗 Read the paper: rdcu.be/fuxmn #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #PainResearch #BrainImaging #TeamScience #Reproducibility
11810
Reposted by Helen Blank
Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The hippocampus sits at the interface of perception & memory, allowing us to link past, present, & future through its role in generating predictions. Excited to share this theme issue in @royalsociety.org's Philosophical Transactions B, co-edited with @barense.bsky.social & @mariamaly.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org
Volume 381 Issue 1954 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society
Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.
211753
Reposted by Helen Blank
Clare Press @clarepress.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
An exciting MEG+pupillometry study by @quiringehmacher.bsky.social demonstrating coordination between mechanisms mediating perception and learning. Sensory cortex tracks prediction error continuously in a graded manner, while the brainstem only responds once crossing a threshold. Excellent summary👇
0147
Reposted by Helen Blank
Peter Kok @peterkok.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
I am recruiting a postdoctoral researcher and a PhD student, funded by a new ERC grant. The grant focuses on the role of the hippocampus in visual perception, using 7T fMRI (hippocampal subfields, cortical layers) and MEG+iEEG. The intended start dates for both positions are in early 2027. 🧠🟦 1/3
210391
Reposted by Helen Blank
Matan Mazor @matanmazor.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
A bee analogue of Kohler's insight learning experiments
0195
Reposted by Helen Blank
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft @dfg.de · 17/06/2026
#ECR, PhDs and postdocs, take note! Are you aiming for a professorship and would like to lead an independent junior research group? Then come to our info session about the DFG's Emmy Noether Programme, its eligibility requirements and your funding opportunities. Full Details▶️ sohub.io/gnb1
Logo und Titel "Emmy Noether Programme", danebem die Daten:
in English
Thursday
25 June 2026
2:00 - 3:30 o. m. CEST
Hinweis auf Kurzlink: www.dfg.de/prospects
Außerdem das kleine Logo zur Prospects DFG Research Career Series
12115
Helen Blank @helenblank.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Proud to share @carina-ufer.bsky.social's new preprint on prior precision as a key in perceptual inference under competing priors. 👇
180
Reposted by Helen Blank
Shervin Safavi @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
1/11 Happy to share our TICS paper on using the flexibility of one of the most basic cognitive functions, perception, to understand one of the most complex cognitive dysfunctions, psychiatric conditions (also my first formal work in computational psychiatry 🎉) 📄: www.cell.com/trends/cogni... 🧵 : 👇
cell.com
Perceptual multistability: a multifaceted window into brain dysfunctions
Perceptual multistability, observed across species and sensory modalities, offers valuable insights into numerous cognitive functions and dysfunctions. For instance, differences in temporal dynamics a...
320966
Reposted by Helen Blank
bioDGPS and DGPA @biodgps-dgpa.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
#PuG2026 was a fantastic conference! Now you can already safely the date for #PuG2027 in Oldenburg: 6-8 May, 2027! 🧠
05616
Helen Blank @helenblank.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Fantastic resource of German sentences to study predictive processes! Thank you @esterner.bsky.social & @franziskaknolle.bsky.social
061
Reposted by Helen Blank
Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 03/05/2026
Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations doi.org/10.59350/5zt... 🧪
doi.org
Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations
Phylopic, NIH Bioart, Bioicons, Scidraw, Open Science Art, Health Icons, Servier Medical Art, Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Noun Project, Segment Anything, Excalidraw, draw.io, Biographics
6406227
Reposted by Helen Blank
The International Consortium on Hallucinations Research @theichr.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Call for papers: ICHR/ECHR 2026 (deadline June 15) The next meeting of ICHR will be at TU Munich (Oct 19-21), hosted by the fantastic @franziskaknolle.bsky.social! Get your abstracts in and join us for *the* meeting on voices, visions, presences & more - with 5 stellar keynotes 1/n
A poster for ICHR Munich 2026
188
Reposted by Helen Blank
Jonas Obleser @jonasobleser.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
We have two job openings in my lab currently — for a postdoc (100% FTE some teaching four years) and a postdoc/phd student (75% FTE no teaching three years). Check them out at www.uni-luebeck.de/aktuelles/be...
12428
Reposted by Helen Blank
IGOR DGPs @igor-dgps.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
It's that time of the year: IGOR is going to #PuG2026 in Heidelberg! 🧠 Interested in open and reproducible science? Come meet us, discover our latest work, and get involved. 🧵 Check the thread below for all our events #PuG2026 #IGOR [1/6]
11911
Reposted by Helen Blank
Ruhr-Universität Bochum @ruhr-uni-bochum.de · 26/05/2026
Mit seinem Werk über das Bewusstsein erlangte David Chalmers vor 30 Jahren große Popularität. Im Juni diskutiert er in Bochum alte und neue Fragen zum Thema.
news.rub.de
Internationale Koryphäen diskutieren das Problem des Bewusstseins
Vor 30 Jahre veröffentlichte David Chalmers sein bahnbrechendes Buch „The Conscious Mind“, in dem er eine Wissenschaft des Bewusstseins theoretisch fundieren wollte. Im Juni kommt er nach Bochum.
0103
Reposted by Helen Blank
Philip Sulewski @psulewski.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Now out in Nature Neuroscience: "Fixation duration on natural scenes is explained by memory encoding not processing demand". www.nature.com/articles/s41... Our eyes don't linger because recognition is hard; they linger to remember. Let me take you on a quick tour. 🧵
nature.com
Fixation duration on natural scenes is explained by memory encoding not processing demand - Nature Neuroscience
By combining magnetoencephalography and eye tracking, this study sheds light on why people fixate on some parts of natural scenes longer than others. Rather than visual complexity, fixation durations ...
323377
Reposted by Helen Blank
Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience @bernsteinneuro.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
💭 How, when, and where do we remember events we have truly experienced? Philosophers and computational neuroscientists are working together to answer this question. Learn more in this @ruhr-uni-bochum.de story feat. Bernstein member Sen Cheng 👉️ bit.ly/4fz8n2R #Neuroskyence #BernsteinNetwork 🧠 📈
072
Reposted by Helen Blank
Ole Goltermann @olegolt.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
A recent paper by Epp et al. in NN claimed that ~40% of reported BOLD findings could be misinterpreted. In our reanalysis, we identified several statistical issues that, in our view, undermine these conclusions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 👇 1/11
biorxiv.org
14626
Reposted by Helen Blank
Stefanie Brassen @stefaniebrassen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
How much do treatment expectations matter in depression? Our new paper underscores the translational value of experimental placebo models for understanding and predicting real-world expectation effects. Part of our work in @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social Read more: rdcu.be/fiAkd
rdcu.be
Acute placebo responsiveness predicts longitudinal expectation effects in antidepressant treatment
Translational Psychiatry - Acute placebo responsiveness predicts longitudinal expectation effects in antidepressant treatment
0216
Reposted by Helen Blank
Ulrike Bingel @ulrikebingel.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
What an inspiring day focussing on Translation in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience! Thanks to Sigrid Elsenbruch, Dirk Scheele and Adriane Icenhour for bringing us together and the great talks and discussions. So glad to have such amazing colleages nearby and in our Network!
022
Reposted by Helen Blank
Dirk Gütlin @gutlin.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Rethinking hierarchy: the auditory system as an integrated cortical–subcortical network www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Rethinking hierarchy: the auditory system as an integrated cortical–subcortical network - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
The auditory system differs from other senses in the complexity of its subcortical pathways. King and colleagues examine how subcortical structures transform sound representations and integrate sensor...
24414
Reposted by Helen Blank
Benjamin Lowe @brainboyben.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
And it's out now in Cortex: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Summary below 🧵
sciencedirect.com
The latency of a domain-general visual surprise signal is attribute dependent
Predictions concerning upcoming visual input play a key role in resolving percepts. Sometimes input is surprising, under which circumstances the brain…
1217
Reposted by Helen Blank
The Power of Expectations @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
😍 What an opening day of @w-i-d.de's museum boat #MSWissenschaft 2026! 😍 Our speaker and PI @ulrikebingel.bsky.social presented our finished exhibit to school children and invited guests such as Dorothee Bär (@dorobaer.bsky.social), the Federal Minister of Research, Technology and Space.
1114
Reposted by Helen Blank
Matt Davis @drmattdavis.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
I'm pleased to share this excellent paper from @abbiebradshawphd.bsky.social with @clarepress.bsky.social that presents an active inference account of speech motor control doi.org/10.3758/s134...
Diagram showing a speaker and listener interacting with each other. 

The speaker predicts they will say "head", but actually produces "had". The resulting sensory prediction error is minimised by active inference - changing speech movements to correct for this error.

The listener predicts they will hear "head" but hears "had" and performs perceptual inference to minimise their sensory prediction error - updating their predictions during perception.
1198
Reposted by Helen Blank
Jonas Obleser @jonasobleser.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
The Obleser lab will be hiring soon! New postdoc (fully funded) and new PhD or part-time postdoc position (soft-money funded). Spread the word. Start in Sept/Oct. Watch out for official announcements! Please be in touch. auditorycognition.com obleserlab.com hoerhanse.de lemmi.uni-luebeck.de
14444
Reposted by Helen Blank
Efthymia Kapnoula @effiekapnoula.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
New paper out on speech perception consistency by @brianwwl.bsky.social! 👏
193
Reposted by Helen Blank
Ulrike Bingel @ulrikebingel.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Yeah - unser SFB Podcast „Wirkstoff Wort - der Podcast für Gute Kommunikation in der Medizin ist draußen! Hört mal rein. Danke an das großartige Public Outreach Team des SFBs!
0116
Reposted by Helen Blank
Christian Schnell @neuroschnell.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
New Unsolved Mystery, by Jörn Diedrichsen @diedrichsenjorn.bsky.social and Samuel D. McDougle @actlab.bsky.social, published this week in PLOS Biology about the contributions of the cerebellum to cognitive function: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org
How does the cerebellum contribute to cognitive functions?
The role of the cerebellum in motor functions is well understood. But why is the same circuitry engaged in functions such as working memory, language, and social cognition? This Unsolved Mystery looks...
0298
Reposted by Helen Blank
Phil Corlett @philcorlett.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Some thoughts on @franziskaknolle.bsky.social recent paper on speech expectations, hallucinations, and glutamate: illness and chronicity may be important in understanding the role of glutamate in prior weighting www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000...
biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com
Hallucinations, Prior Overweighting, and Glutamate
Perception is not passive. It is a synthetic process, governed not only by the information incident on our sensory epithelia but also by our knowledge and prior experiences of the world, through model...
075