MetaLab appears in German TV documentary
The MetaLab was featured in a 3sat documentary about the frontiers of science - see from ~25 minutes in here!
Paper on perceptual reality monitoring published in Neuron
Nadine’s paper on the neural basis for perceptual reality monitoring judgments is now published in Neuron.
A nice writeup of these findings can be found on the UCL website. This work was covered in New Scientist magazine, and in the New Scientist podcast (from ~8 minutes in).
Congratulations Nadine!
Paper on transdiagnostic underconfidence published in Nature Communications
Sucharit’s paper on how people learn to form global confidence estimates, and how this is distorted in people with higher anxiety and depression symptoms, is now published in Nature Communications. We find that systematic global underconfidence can be partly explained due to a failure to learn from instances of high local confidence - a distortion in metacognitive learning. This might have implications for explaining why people fail to correct for biases in self-perception, for instance in impostor syndrome.
Congratulations Sucharit!
The paper can be found here, and a writeup of our findings in the Danish media is here.
MetaLab Retreat 2025 in the Cotswolds
The MetaLab went to a farm in the Cotswolds for our 2025 retreat. We had some great walks, some great talks, a debate about aphantasia, croquet and karaoke! And we were incredibly lucky with the weather!
Steve gives Francis Crick Lecture at the Royal Society
Steve gave this year’s Francis Crick Lecture at the Royal Society in January, and was awarded the associated Medal by Sir David Baulcombe. Thanks to everyone who turned out to support or watched online!
Summer School Applications are now open
We are hosting the fourth Summer School on Consciousness and Metacognition in 2025. It is a series of interdisciplinary summer schools hosted by UCL in London (UK) and PSL in Paris (France). The goal of this summer school is to serve as an intensive workshop, knowledge exchange, and networking opportunity.
The school will be hosted by UCL in London on 14-16 July 2025. For more information, and to apply see this page.
Lab Christmas lunch and goodbye to Nadine
Yesterday the lab had our Christmas lunch. We also said goodbye to Nadine who is leaving the MetaLab to start her own new Imagine Reality Lab. Nadine has been a central part of the MetaLab for the past 6 years, and was the driving force behind our the lab’s work on reality monitoring. Huge congratulations Nadine on becoming a PI - we will miss you, but we’re excited to see what you and your lab will get up to!
The MetaLab featured in the BNA Bulletin
The work going on in the MetaLab was the subject of a cover story in the British Neuroscience Association’s magazine, the BNA Bulletin. Check it out below!
Benjy's paper on numerical zero published in Current Biology
Congratulations to Benjy on his new Current Biology paper characterising a neural basis for non-symbolic and symbolic zero!
For more information see the Twitter thread below, or read this article covering the research in New Scientist .
New paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences on quality spaces
Steve and Nick Shea have a new paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences on how quality spaces interface with theories of consciousness.
The paper considers how localist, workspace, and higher-order theories of consciousness can accommodate claims about the qualitative character of experience and functionally support a quality space. We review existing empirical evidence for each of these positions, and highlight novel experimental tools, such as altering local activation spaces via brain stimulation or behavioural training, that can distinguish these accounts.
A Twitter thread with more details can be found below!
Lab BBQ and goodbye to Nan, Luna and Cristina
Steve hosted a lab BBQ to say goodbye to Nan, Luna and Cristina as they all finish in the MetaLab and move on to start their PhDs.
ASSC 2024 - Tokyo
Several lab members gave talk and poster presentations at the Association of the Scientific Study of Consciousness meeting in Tokyo and its satellite meetings.
Photos of lab members in Shinjuku and a selection of posters are included below.
Croatian Consciousness and Computation Meeting 2024
Several members of the Metalab visited Zagreb for the Croatian Consciousness and Computation Meeting. We had two days of talks, as well as exploring Zagreb and attending a function at the British Ambassador’s residence. And lots of lovely socialising!
Benjy's latest preprint highlighted in the New Scientist
Congratulations to Benjy Barnett whose latest preprint has been featured in the New Scientist magazine and on their podcast!
Fear of predators may have helped us conceptualise the idea of zero
See the full preprint here. And listen to the New Scientist episode here.
New paper published in PNAS Nexus
Congratulations to Benjy on his paper “Identifying content-invariant neural signatures of perceptual vividness” which is now published in PNAS Nexus
The study used data from different MEG and fMRI experiments to ask how the vividness of our perceptual experiences is encoded in the brain. We showed that there are signals in the brain that keep track of perceptual vividness independently from what is actually being perceived. This suggests there may be higher-order brain regions monitoring the reliability of our perceptual representations, and that this may contribute to our experience of vividness.
The paper is explained in more detail in Benjy’s Twitter thread.
Best of luck to Clara and Sucharit!
Clara Colombatto and Sucharit Katyal have both completed their postdocs in the Metalab. Clara is starting her own lab at the University of Waterloo and Sucharit is starting an postdoc at the University of Copenhagen. We wish them all the best in their exciting new roles!
Research on reality monitoring as one of 2023’s biggest breakthroughs
Nadine’s finding that a reality threshold distinguishes between perception and imagination was featured by Quanta Magazine as one of 2023’s biggest breakthroughs in biology and neuroscience!
MetaLab Retreat 2023 in the Lake District
Several members of the MetaLab went away to the wilds of the North Lakes in early October to learn, exchange ideas, cook, walk and generally talk science. A great time was had by all despite the sometimes windswept weather!
Science festivals in Rome and Bergamo
Steve represented the MetaLab on tour at science fesitvals in Rome (Il Festival di Salute) and Bergamo (BergamoScienza), with interviews and presentations about metacognition and self-awareness. Links to videos below (though with simultaneous translation in Italian!)
Steve awarded Francis Crick Medal and Lecture
Steve has been awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture by the Royal Society, “for tackling foundational questions about the neurobiology of conscious experience and advancing our understanding of the neural and computational basis of metacognition.” There will be an in-person lecture in autumn 2023 - watch this space!
I am over the moon to receive the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture from the @royalsociety - a huge honour, and an exciting recognition of consciousness science.
— Steve Fleming (@smfleming) August 30, 2023
V grateful to my generous mentors, and to lab members who have pushed boundaries I did not realise could be pushed! https://t.co/Si6bLT6f7N