Research

The Blanke Lab has three missions – the neuroscientific study of consciousness, the adaptation and development of technologies for human neuroscience, and the development of cognitive neuroprostheses in clinical research.

The Blanke lab studies the multisensory brain mechanisms of body perception (somatosensory, vestibular, motor and visual signals) in cortical networks. For this we apply paradigms from cognitive science, neuroscience, neuroimaging, robotics, virtual reality in healthy subjects and a large range of neurological, psychiatric and orthopedic patients. Our main goal is to understand the brain mechanisms involved in multisensory own body perception in order to develop a neurobiological model of self-consciousness.

Concerning technology development, we have pioneered the use of digital technologies such as virtual and augmented reality in neuroscience and also introduced engineering techniques such as robotics and haptics to human neuroscience of multisensory perception, consciousness and cognition, by fully integrating them with behavioral and neuroscience technologies, including MRI-compatible robotics.

Finally, work in cognitive neuroprosthetics exploits these neuroscientific insights and the technological expertise (robotics, haptics, virtual reality, and augmented reality) to develop novel diagnostics and also therapeutics for patients suffering from chronic pain, paraplegia, and limb amputation as well as schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.