Researchers within the Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience division (COSY) of the Institute seek to understand the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual, cognitive and motor functions in humans. More than 26 senior scientists and a total of 80 researchers are affiliated to COSY. Our research interests include the neural mechanisms of numerical and social cognition, executive functions, sensori-motor coordination, motor control, spatial perception, representation of time and expectation, sensory plasticity, impact of early visual defects on late development of cognitive functions, language and gesture understanding and production, semantics, somatosensory perception including pain, visual perception of complex naturalistic images (faces, objects and scenes), the dynamics of object grasping, psychometry, neuro-rehabilitation, biomechanics of locomotion, rhythm perception, and neural interfaces.
Our research relies on a wide range of methods and techniques available locally or through national and international collaborative networks: psychophysics and mental chronometry, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), scalp and intracerebral electroencephalography (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), recording of eye movements, and electromyography. These methods are complemented by neuropsychological studies of patients with lesions of the peripheral or central nervous system.
System and cognition division (COSY)
