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Dr Luc Boutsen

Neurosciences Research Institute
School of Life & Health Sciences
Aston University
Birmingham B4 7ET
UK

l.boutsen@aston.ac.uk
TEL +44 (0) 121 204 4069
FAX +44 (0) 121 204 4090

Office: SW 508 (South Wing)

Lecturer on the Psychology Teaching Programme
Member of the Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences and Sensory and Perceptual Systems Research Groups

Luc Boutsen

Last update: 24 November 2010

About me

Current position:

  • Lecturer in Psychology
  • Honorary Research Fellow, University of Birmingham

Interested in a PhD or a postdoc?

If 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. Configural and emotional processing in faces

3. Brain mechanisms underlying object-based visual attention using EEG

Previous positions and higher education:

  • Postdoctoral research fellow, Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (1999-2004)
  • 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)

Teaching

  • PY1122 Cognitive Psychology 1 (memory, attention)
  • PY2234 Cognitive Neuropsychology (neuropsychology)
  • Masters courses
  • Final year research projects

Research

I am interested in the psychology and neuroscience of visual cognition: How we use visual information to interpret, navigate and act in the world. My research includes the following topics:

  • shape and figure-ground perception
  • object and face recognition
  • visual attention
  • categorisation
  • methods: behavioural experiments, neuropsychology, EEG

Publications

  • Riddoch, M. J., Johnston, R. A., Bracewell, R. M., Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (2008). Are faces special? A case of pure prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 25, 3-26.
  • Boutsen, L., Humphreys, G. W., Praamstra, P., & Warbrick, T. (2006). Comparing neural correlates of configural processing in faces and objects: An ERP study of the Thatcher illusion. NeuroImage, 32, 352-367.
  • Praamstra, P., Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (2005). Frontoparietal control of spatial attention and motor intention in human EEG. Journal of Neurophysiology, 94, 764-774. [PDF]
  • Ballaz, C., Boutsen, L., Peyrin, C., Humphreys, G. W., & Marendaz, C. (2005). Visual search for object orientation can be modulated by canonical orientation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 31, 20-39. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (2003). On the interaction between perceptual and response selection: Neuropsychological evidence. Neurocase, 9, 239-250. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (2003). The effect of inversion on encoding of normal faces and the Thatcher illusion. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56A, 955-975. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (2002). Face context interferes with local part processing in a prosopagnosic patient. Neuropsychologia, 40, 2305-2313. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., & Marendaz, C. (2001). Detection of shape orientation depends on salient axes of symmetry and elongation: Evidence from visual search. Perception & Psychophysics, 63, 404-422. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (2000). Axis-based grouping reduces visual extinction. Neuropsychologia, 38, 896-905. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., & Humphreys, G. W. (1999). Axis-alignment affects perceptual grouping: Evidence from simultanagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 655-672. [PDF]
  • Boutsen, L., Lamberts, K., & Verfaillie, K. (1998). Recognition times of different views of 56 depth-rotated objects: A note concerning Verfaillie and Boutsen (1995). Perception & Psychophysics, 60, 900-907.
  • Verfaillie, K., & Boutsen, L. (1995). A corpus of 714 full-colour images of depth-rotated objects. Perception & Psychophysics, 57, 925-961.

Funding and collaborations

- Boutsen, L., Humphreys, G. W., & Praamstra, P. Decomposing event-related brain potentials during face perception (ESRC, 05/2004 - 09/2005)

I also collaborate in research on the following topics:

- Object and face perception– Glyn W. Humphreys (University of Birmingham)

- Mechanisms of the visual route to action - Sanjay Kumar, Glyn W. Humphreys (University of Birmingham)

- Similarity and category-specificity – Laura Shapiro (Aston)

Membership

- Experimental Psychology Society [link]

- Psychonomic Society [link]

- Association for Psychological Science [link]

Conference participation

- Experimental Psychology Society [link]

- Psychonomic Society [link]

- European Conference of Visual Perception [link]

- Cognitive Neuroscience Society [link]