Redmond O'Connell

Check out our new paper showing early V1 choice probability effects while accounting for other potentially mediating processes - the interesting fruits of yet more excellent, rigorous work by Kieran Mohr

thanks as ever to @dpmcgovern.bsky.social and @spk3lly.bsky.social

Finally, we note that this component bears many similarities to the classic Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) and Readiness Potential (RP) and that our results point to a potential unifying account of these signals.

This suggests that the brain uses urgency signal not only to accelerate motor planning but also to hasten cognitive deliberation

But the signal is not itself directly tied to motor execution. When decision reports must be withheld until cued, this signal terminates alongside neural signatures of evidence accumulation and well before the final response.

This frontocentral ERP component builds as a function of time, but not evidence strength, and adapts to varying time pressure demands in a manner that closely tracks static and dynamic bound adjustments identified both by behavioural modeling and effector-selective motor preparation signals.

A Movement-Independent Signature of Urgency During Human Perceptual Decision Making - PubMed How does the brain adjust its decision processes to ensure timely decision completion? Computational modelling and electrophysiological investigations have pointed to dynamic 'urgency' processes that serve to progressively reduce the quantity of evidence required to reach choice commitment as time e …

Check out our new paper which isolates a human brain signal that specifically tracks the growing urgency to commit to a choice pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41611534/. This one was a long time coming! Sterling work from @harveymccone.bsky.social and a bunch of past lab members!

Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom - Nature Ecology & Evolution Using phylogenetic comparative methods across 237 species from disparate phyla, the authors show that species with fast-paced ecologies have higher temporal resolution of perception.

Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom www.nature.com/articles/s41... - new paper with Clinton Haarlem, Cliodhna Hynes and colleagues

Different species see the world as fast as they need to...

The major findings are that multiple aspects of a species' ecology shape the tempo of visual perception, which is a highly evolvable trait:

🤣

- I'm the exact right person to take on this challenge

⏳ Just over 2 weeks left to apply! ⏳

We are looking for talented Cognitive Neuroscientists to join our team at Trinity College Dublin for postdoc positions funded by a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator grant.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPV296/r...

www.ktsetsoslab.net/_files/ugd/0...

Huge congrats Shane! 👏

Tracing the neural trajectories of evidence accumulation and motor preparation processes during voluntary decisions Voluntary decisions have previously been described by where they arise in the brain and how actions corresponding to one's choice are prepared. However, the processes by which these internally guided ...

Interested in how we make preference-driven decisions, and how this is implemented in the brain?

We report that neural correlates of evidence accumulation (CPP, Mu/Beta) are also observed during value-based decisions.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Led by @laurencf.bsky.social (Lauren Fong)

1/n

Big Doughnutty News.
Just out in Nature: the all-new 2025 Doughnut. Transformed from a single-year snapshot to an annual global monitor of 21st century social & ecological thriving. Available to all in an open-access paper by @andrewlfanning.bsky.social and me. 🧵 1/
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out our reviewed preprint, now out in eLife!
With @spk3lly.bsky.social, @redmondoconnell.bsky.social and Anna Geuzebroek

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

While we work on improving the [solid] paper based on the reviews, here are the key take-home messages:

Introducing hMFC: A Bayesian hierarchical model of trial-to-trial fluctuations in decision criterion! Now out in @plos.org Comp Bio.
led by Robin Vloeberghs with @anne-urai.bsky.social Scott Linderman

Paper: desenderlab.com/wp-content/u... Thread ↓↓↓

#PsychSciSky #Neuroscience #Neuroskyence

Common neural choice signals reflect accumulated evidence, not confidence! Now out in @cerebralcortex.bsky.social w @helenevanmarcke.bsky.social @pierreledenmat.bsky.social @yfvisser.bsky.social @denizerdil.bsky.social a.o.

Paper: desenderlab.com/wp-content/u... Thread ↓↓↓

On Wednesday at 16:30, I will be presenting at a symposium organised by @redmondoconnell.bsky.social SY24: Integrating Distinct Viewpoints On The Neural Origins Of Metacognition.

I will show a series of experiments on higher-order monitoring for distinguishing imagination and perception.

Thanks Charlotte 🤣

Trinity College unveils 'gamechanger' brain scanner. Watch the full interview with Professor Redmond O'Connell with RTE here:

www.rte.ie/news/ireland...

@redmondoconnell.bsky.social

Check out our new multisensory decision study!
We tackle a decades-old Q: does faster detection of bimodal targets come from a race or co-activation between modalities? And also a vital, orthogonal Q: is it one decision process or two?
A1: co-activation
A2: two!
Read here: rdcu.be/eASYd

Delighted to share this paper, now published in @arvoinfo.bsky.social. With @spk3lly.bsky.social‬ and Anna Geuzebroek we explored differences in visual cortical responses for pattern pulses and pattern reversals. Here's the link:
jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx...

Ireland launches global talent fund! www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...
If you're a neuroscience professor (assistant/associate/full) and would consider relocating to the vibrant and booming city of Dublin, please get in touch!

1/3 Check out our new commentary bsky.app/profile/imag....

Laminar MEG is possible across all cortical depths. Our comprehensive simulations outline SNR, head movement, and micro/macro anatomical limitations to source reconstruction precision. Not perfect by any chance, lots of confirmatory work ahead, but it's promising.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Neurally-informed modelling unravels a single evidence accumulation process for choices and subsequent confidence reports Subjective confidence in perceptual choices depends on computations occurring prior to and after choice commitment. However, the nature of these computations remains unclear. Current models disagree o...

Our newest preprint is out (doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.05.658071), with @lucvermeylen.bsky.social,Dasha Monakhovych, Cameron McCabe, Sarah-Louise Mannion, @kobedesender.bsky.social, @redmondoconnell.bsky.social, comparing post-decision confidence models against behaviour and neural decision signals...

#RLDM2025 officially starts tomorrow! 🚀 Have you checked out our program? See details below, full program is available at rldm.org 👀

New to RLDM? Join our first-timers gathering tonight, 6-7pm, at Kennedy's Pub (30-32 Westland Row) 😊

📢 #RLDM2025 is nearly here – 11–14 June at Trinity College Dublin ☘️

Join researchers from AI, neuroscience, psychology & beyond to explore the latest in reinforcement learning & decision making.

🎟️ Register now to secure your spot: rldm.org #ReinforcementLearning #AI #Neuroscience #CognitiveScience

Dissociable encoding of evolving beliefs and momentary belief updates in distinct neural decision signals - Nature Communications People are capable of making near-optimal decisions in volatile, changing environments. Here, the authors show how two neural decision signals encode distinct aspects of the belief updating process un...

Very happy to share this paper, now published in
@natcomms.nature.com! nature.com/articles/s41...
With @spk3lly.bsky.social and @neuromurphy.bsky.social, we investigated the neural computations that allow us to make near-optimal decisions in changing environments. Here's a short summary: