diff --git a/mlcolvar/cvs/unsupervised/autoencoder.py b/mlcolvar/cvs/unsupervised/autoencoder.py
index d846dd9e..2040c265 100644
--- a/mlcolvar/cvs/unsupervised/autoencoder.py
+++ b/mlcolvar/cvs/unsupervised/autoencoder.py
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ def forward_cv(self, x: torch.Tensor) -> (torch.Tensor):
         return x
 
     def encode_decode(self, x: torch.Tensor) -> (torch.Tensor):
-        x = self.forward(x)
+        x = self.forward_cv(x)
         x = self.decoder(x)
         if self.norm_in is not None:
             x = self.norm_in.inverse(x)
@@ -161,4 +161,4 @@ def test_autoencodercv():
     trainer.fit( model, datamodule )
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    test_autoencodercv() 
\ No newline at end of file
+    test_autoencodercv()