Van Ede’s research focuses on internal attention, which involves the brain’s ability to select and use relevant information from past experiences to guide future behavior. This process relies heavily on working memory and attention, fundamental cognitive processes that are interconnected.
Van Ede aims to bridge the gap between studies of working memory and attention to gain a comprehensive understanding of cognitive processes. His work has led to the development of new techniques to measure how individuals process the world around them, shedding light on the relationship between attention and working memory.
Engaging with time as a factor in attention, Van Ede incorporates real-time brain activity measurements using electroencephalography (EEG). He explores how the brain orchestrates movements in time, moving away from traditional spatial-based attention research to consider temporal aspects in cognitive processes.
By pairing EEG with eye-tracking data, Van Ede discovered microsaccades, tiny eye movements that reflect shifts in attention. Participants’ eye movements showed a systematic pull towards areas of attention, offering insights into how the brain plans future actions based on incoming information.
The curious exploration of eye data has revealed how the brain plans possible actions in real time without waiting for all information to be processed. This approach underscores Van Ede’s intuition-driven research philosophy, where intriguing findings drive scientific inquiry rather than a specific end goal.
Recent studies involve participants playing in virtual reality environments, where Van Ede tracks eye movements to understand how the brain utilizes information to make plans. By observing the systematic pulling of microsaccades in a dynamic virtual world, he aims to uncover the mechanisms behind how the brain selects essential information for future actions.
