Professor Bettina Forster

Overview

Professor Forster's research investigates neural basis of body perception and its role in cognition. She is an expert in electrophysiology (i.e. EEG) of body / touch perception. She leads the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit and is co-director of the Center for Psychological Well-being and Neuroscience. Current research questions include:
- what is the role of attention in body awareness? and what is its neural basis?
- what is the neural signature of attention to the body?
- Is the way we attend to our body and our awareness of it malleable and what factors play a role?
- embodied cognition: when and how does the body representation in out brain contribute to it?
- what is the role of somatosensory cortex in emotion processing? is it automatic or dependent of certain (personality/experience?) factors?
- how do psychological therapies, like mindfulness, or body centered practise, like yoga or dance, affect one's body awareness and well-being?

Her research work has been supported by funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (2006 - 2010), the Leverhulme Trust (2014 - 2017), the Welcome Trust (2015), the Experimental Psychology Society (2016) and the Bial Foundation (2021-2023).


Professor Forster contributes to teaching in Biological Psychology on the BSc Psychology (PS1005 and PS2004) and in Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience and Research Methods (PSM204 and PSM209) on the MSc in Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience. In addition, she supervises research students at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She has held a wide range of administrative leadership roles within the Psychology Department (i.e. Chair of the Research and the Ethics Committee, Undergraduate student Admissions, BSc Psychology Programme Director).

Professor Forster researches the brain processes that underlie perception of ones body by using electroencephalography (EEG) to track changes of electrical brain activity, Her research describes neural processes that occur when we perceive touch considering the influence of seeing or moving our body, expectations and social interactions. Her research aims to understand the role of body perception in embodied cognition including emotion perception and self-awareness. Further, she is investigating the neural basis of psychological therapies, like mindfulness training.

Research supervision

PhD and internship applications related to her field research are welcome.

Current research students:
Hana Villar ' the neurocognitive changes induced by mindfulness based therapy'
Carmen Kohl 'the neural basis of speeded decision making' (co-supervised with Kielan Yarrow')
Alejandro Galvez-Pol 'the neural basis of sensorimotor memory' (co-supervised with Beatriz Calvo-Merino)

Former PhD students:
Silvia Goss (2008 – 2012) “Mirror Touch”
Alexander Jones (2007 – 2012) “Neural Correlates of Tactile Attention”
Chiara F. Sambo (2005 – 2009) “Crossmodal Spatial Representations”

Research grants and awards

• K. Yarrow, B.Forster, S. Bestmann (2014). 'Novel neurometric measures of speeded decision making' funded by Leverhulme Trust (£216K)
• B.Forster (2012). City University Pump Priming Funding (£4,362) ‘The Bodily Self’
• B. Calvo-Merino & B. Forster (2010). City University Pump Priming Funding (£3,981) ‘Neurocognitive mechanisms of aesthetic perception’
• Staff Research Prize for excellence in research (£1000), City University London (December 2007)
• Forster, B (2006). ‘Mechanisms of tactile spatial orienting and selection’ funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC; £371K).

Featured publications

1. Bokk, O. and Forster, B. (2022). The Effect of a Short Mindfulness Meditation on Somatosensory Attention. Mindfulness, 13(8), pp. 2022–2030. doi:10.1007/s12671-022-01938-z.
2. Fanghella, M., Gaigg, S.B., Candidi, M., Forster, B. and Calvo-Merino, B. (2022). Somatosensory Evoked Potentials Reveal Reduced Embodiment of Emotions in Autism. The Journal of Neuroscience, 42(11), pp. 2298–2312. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0706-21.2022.
3. Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2021). Probing the neural representations of body-related stimuli: A reply to Tamè & Longo's commentary. Cortex, 134, pp. 362–364. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.11.004.
4. Galvez-Pol, A., Forster, B. and Calvo-Merino, B. (2020). Beyond action observation: Neurobehavioral mechanisms of memory for visually perceived bodies and actions. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 116, pp. 508–518. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.06.014.
5. Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2020). Revealing the body in the brain: An ERP method to examine sensorimotor activity during visual perception of body-related information. Cortex, 125, pp. 332–344. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.01.017.

Publications by category