Dr Bettina Forster

Information:
Dr Bettina Foster
Specialism:
Cognitive Neuroscience; Psychophysiology; Attention and Body Perception; Multisensory Integration
Teaching:
PS3006 Neuroscience: Brain, Mind and Body; PS3001 honours project supervision; PS1005 Tutorials; PSM511 EEG/ERP methodology
Location:
Social Sciences Building, Room D411
Tel:
020 7040 4553
Fax:
020 7040 8580
Email:
b.forster@city.ac.uk
Office Hours:
9-10am Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
Administration:
Chair of the Psychology Department Research & Ethics Committee


Specialism

Tina’s research investigates how information coming from our body is processed and perceived; specifically how we select tactile information, and how we process touch and proprioceptive information considering the influence of other sensory modalities (especially vision), attentional states, social and internal action representations (i.e. seeing someone else act or preparing to act yourself) and other higher cognitive processes by employing behavioural, electrophysiological and neuropsychological measures.

 

Biography
Tina was awarded a PhD in Psychology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 1998. Her PhD research investigated sensory and sensory-motor integration in split-brained patients and people with callosal agenesis. Subsequent to her PhD Tina worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Verona, Italy, and at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. During these periods Tina’s research started to focus on inter-sensory integration (vision and touch), tactile perception and attentional selection of somatosensory information. For her research she employed behavioural measures (response times and error rates) in neurologically normal people, patients (i.e. split-brain; acallosal and neglect) and people with sensory deficits (i.e. blind), and, in addition, she acquired skills in electrophysiological research methods. In October 2004 Tina took up a lectureship at City University where she set up the EEG lab and established the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit http://www.city.ac.uk/psychology/research/CNRU/index.html. Tina holds collaborations with national and international laboratories and her research is kindly funded by the Biotechnological and Biological Research Council (BBSRC).


Recent Publications

j1Gillmeister, H., Adler, J., & Forster, B. (2009). Object-based Spatial Attention in Touch: Holding the Same Object with Both Hands Delays Attentional Selection. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, epub.






j2Sambo, C.F., Gillmeister, H. & Forster, B. (2009). Viewing the body modulates sustained spatial attention in touch. European Journal of Neuroscience, 30: 143 - 150.






j3Forster, B. & Pavone, E.F. (2008). Electrophysiological correlates of crossmodal visual distractor congruency effects: evidence for response conflict. Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral, Neuroscience  8: 65-73.






j4Sambo, C.F. & Forster, B. (2008). An ERP Investigation on Visuotactile Interactions in Peripersonal and Extrapersonal Space: Evidence for the Spatial Rule. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21: 1550 - 1559. 







j4Forster, B., & Eimer, M. (2007). Covert unimanual response preparation triggers attention shifts to effectors rather than goal locations. Neuroscience Letters 419: 142-146.






j5Forster, B., Eardley, A.F., & Eimer, M. (2007). Altered tactile spatial attention in the blind. Brain Research 1131: 149-154.








For a full list of publications see http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~forster/publications.htm

Website: http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/~forster/index.htm