# Researchers Find Brain Mechanism Behind 'Flashes of Intuition'

_Friday, July 10, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT · Science · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Researchers Find Brain Mechanism Behind 'Flashes of Intuition' — Primary](https://nyulangone.org/news/sites/default/files/2025-06/1500x1000_Amengual%2CD-020823-PhysicianFocus-022-%282%29.jpg)

Researchers at NYU Langone Health have identified the high-level visual cortex as the brain region where stored images, or priors, are accessed to enable one-shot perceptual learning, according to a study published online today in Nature Communications. The study, led by co-senior author Biyu J. He, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, used fMRI, EEG, iEEG, and machine learning models to pinpoint how priors guide rapid object recognition. The research team found that the high-level visual cortex showed the earliest neural signaling changes during prior-guided recognition, matching behavioral and computational evidence. The work also revealed connections between visual perception mechanisms and the broader "aha moment" of insight, with implications for understanding hallucinations in neurological disorders. Co-senior author Eric K. Oermann, MD, noted the findings could inform AI models capable of humanlike one-shot learning. The study was supported by the W.M. Keck Foundation, National Science Foundation grant BCS-1926780, and NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

## Sources

- [nyulangone.org](https://nyulangone.org/news/researchers-find-brain-mechanism-behind-flashes-intuition)

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Retrieved: 2026-07-10T06:42:09.448Z
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