Luc Boutsen

I am interested in visual cognition, that is, understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms of visual attention, perception and decisions from visual information. I study these mechanisms with regard to how our brain selects and processes faces and objects. My research aims to understand the nature of information selection by the brain’s visual system, and how this information is used across brain regions for subsequent decisions and actions.

Broad areas of interest: Visual cognition object and face perception, attention, perceptual organisation, tool perception, semantic categorisation, neuropsychological deficits of visual perception and attention.

Current projects:

• The cognitive psychology / neuroscience of facial difference
• Category-specificity in visual object recognition
• Visual affordances and tool perception

Methodology:

• EEG, ERP, oscillations

I use electroencephalography to study event-related potentials (ERPs) and oscillatory activity during cognitive tasks and paradigms (e.g., oddball detection, fast periodic visual stimulation, spatial cueing).

Current:

Programme Director, MSc Psychology (Conversion)

PY4520 Research Project in Psychology

PY3508 Perceiving People

Past  :

Cognitive psychology (memory, perception, attention), Neuropsychology of visual cognition, Philosophy of mind

• Ph.D. Psychology, Universite P. Mendes France, Grenoble, France (1998)
• M.Sc. Cognitive Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (1995)
• B.Sc. Psychology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium (1993)

f you are interested in doing a PhD or a postdoc in cognitive neuroscience, please contact me for an informal discussion of topics and funding opportunities. Currently I am interested in the following topics:

1. The time course of object and face processing using EEG

2. The effect of facial disfigurements on perception and attention to faces

3. Configural and emotional processing in faces

4. Brain mechanisms underlying object-based visual attention 

Email:  [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0) 121 204 4069
Fax: +44 (0) 121 204 4090
Office: SW 508 (South Wing)