Laboratory of Biological Psychology

Connecting the dots: Similar visual orthographic acquisition for Braille or line junctions - Psychonomic Bulletin & Review Most written systems share basic shape features with natural objects such as line junctions, a commonality thought to be at the basis of fluent reading. Studies that compared reading acquisition for d...

Out now another piece of my PhD. In short, we show that learning a new script, with or without line junctions (├ v. ⠗), mostly relies on the linguistic mapping of one script to a pre-existing orthography, with limited contribution of the script's visual features
doi.org/10.3758/s13423-025-02788-1

🚨New paper alert from #HopLab! Check the preprint below 👇🏼

Thanks @ebbsociety.bsky.social for this amazing opportunity! It’s a pleasure for me to share my work at such international conference. #FENS2026

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been awarded a #MargueriteMarieDelacroix research grant to continue studying ASD-related biological mechanisms in a new mouse model. I’m deeply grateful for the renewed support and looking forward to starting this new project. Stay tuned for the results!

Congratulations to Samuël Budniok for successfully defending his PhD doctoral thesis “oxytocin across species: from mechanisms in rodents to implications for human attachment development”. Well done!

📣New paper in LBP by Samuel Budniok with Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, Guy Bosmans, and @mhvij.bsky.social. Check it out below!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The party drug MDMA (“ecstasy”) shows promising efficacy as adjunct to psychotherapy. The psychostimulant with entactogenic properties is known to induce arousal and euphoria. We now studied the neurochemistry underlying the behavioral effects of MDMA in rats lacking serotonin in the brain.

Just attended another interesting meeting organized by #StichtingMarguerite-MarieDelacroix. Very intriguing talks and discussions. I’m very glad to be part of this!
Thanks to the organizing committee and scientific board, and for the inspiring words by Prof. Dr. Rudy Van Coster.

Super excited to share a new preprint!

We asked a simple-but-big question:

What changes in the brain when someone becomes an expert?

Using chess ♟️ + fMRI 🧠 + representational geometry & dimensionality 📈, we ask:

1️⃣ WHAT information is encoded?
2️⃣ HOW is it structured?
3️⃣ WHERE is it expressed?

1/n

Another LBP story has reached the end: yesterday Laura Vercammen from Bram Vervliet’s lab successfully defended her PhD! Congrats, Laura! @tombeckers.bsky.social @lauraluyten.bsky.social

And a special thanks to the organising committee for making it happen!

Congrats to the winners! 🎉

A paper plane race!

There is always a bit of time for fun! Last week we had a LBP social event with a customised quiz about our colleagues and faculty, pizza and..

🚨New paper in LBP! Check it out below 👇🏼

New paper (and thread) on the representational dynamics of the main dimensions of object space: jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx... 1/n

Our Behavioural Brain Research special issue on Ultrasonic Communication in Rodents is growing, rapidly – and actually a lot faster than I manage to post about it. Nine new manuscripts got accepted since my last post. Quite impressive work. Check it out:
www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

EARA COMMENT: Nature highlights polarised discourse over the value of animal research Two comment articles with opposite perspectives about the role of animals in biomedical research have been featured in Nature.

Two #comment articles with opposite perspectives about the role of #animals in #biomedical #research have been featured in the scientific journal #Nature, fueling a polarised discourse that can confuse and misinform the public and decision-makers. #NAM #SciencePolicy
www.eara.eu/post/eara-co...

‼️ New paper alert in LBP! Check this recently published paper from @hansopdebeeck.bsky.social group below 👇🏼

Congrats @matilda-gordon.bsky.social ! You’ve got this! ✨ @hansopdebeeck.bsky.social

📣 Calling all early career #neuroscientists!
@thetransmitter.bsky.social & Neuromatch are teaming up to better understand how to support #EarlyCareer Researchers. Whether you're a student, postdoc, or launching your career, we want to hear from you.
➡️ www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...

📢 Big news in LBP! Congratulations to our PhD students who won the prestigious @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social fellowship!

‼️New Dr. in town! Huge congrats to @fcerpelloni.bsky.social from @hansopdebeeck.bsky.social lab for successfully defending his PhD! Well done!

@Kaat Dewals @Jolien Neven 2/2

On the second day, it was the turn of D’Hooge lab, with @unalbatuhanuysal.bsky.social @Sien Verelst @Samuël Budniok 1/2

@eliskbv.bsky.social @saramejiachavez.bsky.social 3/3

@Fabio Sousa @liviadicrescenzo.bsky.social @Emilie Bartsoen 2/3

During the first day, members from the @wohrlab.bsky.social shared their progress reports @parnian-saberi.bsky.social @tianhuawang.bsky.social @bvdvoort.bsky.social @Henry Werk 1/3

It’s that time of the year again: LBP retreat! Rudi D’Hooge and @markuswohr.bsky.social labs gathered together for 2 full days of science. A special thank you to Dr. Elodie Ey for bringing her expertise on animal research to this event!