Bastien Blain

Exciting new project led by @jpheffne showing prediction errors can explain happiness in human-AI interactions. Builds off our recent work linking mood & language led by @jihyuncindy_hur doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2… If we want AI to increase well-being, we need to measure it.

I am SO excited to share my latest #preprint with collaborators @RobbRutledge, @zebkDotCom, @MartinJChadwick, @summerfieldlab, and others from DeepMind: "Increasing happiness through conversations with artificial intelligence" arxiv.org/abs/2504.02091 A short 🧵 1/7

The affective gradient hypothesis: an affect-centered account of motivated behavior Opinion by Amitai Shenhav (@amitaishenhav) Free access before Nov 13: authors.elsevier.com/a/1jpv%7E_V1r-…

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 “Considering information-sharing motives to reduce misinformation” out now in Current Opinion in Psychology with @affectivebrain. doi.org/10.1016/j.cops… (1/n)

Origins and consequences of cognitive fatigue Feature Review by Mathias Pessiglione, Bastien Blain (@Bastien__Blain), Antonius Wiehler (@ntonius_w), & Shruti Naik Free access before May 20: tinyurl.com/2va75b5j

🧠 One of the key limitation of LLMs today is their lack of metacognition: they were (mostly) not trained to know what they know or don't know, what they can or can't do. 🚀At @FlowersINRIA, we're proposing an approach to build metacognition into LLMs: MAGELLAN !

Very pleased to start a 5-year research program using data science to investigate the role of instability in severe mental illness. If you/someone you know want to join the team, PM me (recruitment starts soon). Thanks to @OxHealthBRC, @OxPsychiatry, and Sir Jules Thorn Charity

The metabolic costs of cognition Review by Sharna D. Jamadar (@SharnaJamadar), Anna Behler (@Anna_NeuroSci), Hamish Deery (@DeeryHamish), & Michael Breakspear (@DrBreaky) Free access before March 4: tinyurl.com/47c9n65w

New(ish) paper w/ @affectivebrain & @Bastien__Blain in @SciReports! We find that during stress (both COVID and personal events), people search for more “How” questions online. This shift indicates a heightened demand for actionable info. Link: nature.com/articles/s4159… 🧵1/3

.@Moshe_Glickman and @affectivebrain reveal a human-AI feedback loop, where AI amplifies subtle human biases, which are then further internalized by humans. This cycle increases human bias over time across domains. nature.com/articles/s4156…

Super happy to share this paper with Lucia Ricciardi and Bart Swinnen and others looking anxiety in PD! Turns out that basal ganglia theta indexes trait anxiety in 3 independent cohorts. academic.oup.com/brain/advance-…

I’m thrilled to see this out now, & couldn’t be happier that it landed in TiCS! I already wrote a 🧵on the positive case I’m making (below). I want to briefly elaborate on the negative case: why the status quo on goals & value is in need of a new account. From my conclusion:

Our paper on the Affective Gradient Hypothesis is now out on @TrendsCognSci! 🧠 ➡️sciencedirect.com/science/articl… For a short summary of how this theory originated and what it proposes, see this 🧵:

Computational psychiatry friends: I am teaching a seminar on CPSY for the 2nd time (previous: 2021) and want to update my syllabus. Can you help? What are your favorites* (can be your own papers!) on the following: *Ideally: easy to read & informative on both model and disorder

Beyond discrete-choice options Review by AH Hadian Rasanan , NJ Evans, @laurafontanesi, @CManningPhD, C Huang-Pollock, @dora_matzke, @AndrewHeathcot8, @JoergRieskamp, @MaartenSpeek, MJ Frank, @StePalminteri, C Lucas, J Busemeyer, R Ratcliff, & JA Rad tinyurl.com/3dsbs3zm

I am so excited to be part of this fantastic project. Submit your work and join us @NeurIPSConf in Vancouver!

Prediction is likely the most basic cognitive process, but we almost always think of it as applied forwards In some environments, though, it's more efficient to apply it backwards - estimating the actions that will likely precede a given outcome It turns out that's what we do👇

Our newest preprint explores whether feelings (affect) may be the only form of value you need to motivate thoughts and actions. "The affective gradient hypothesis: An affect-centered account of motivated behavior." osf.io/preprints/psya… See 🧵 below to learn more:

Are humans behaving more like foragers even on typical reinforcement learning tasks? Work by Zid et al. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…