Scientific topics
Keywords
ITMO
Louise Kirsch PhD Cognitive Neuroscience
Course and current status
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2021 – Current: Assistant Professor – INCC, Université de Paris, Paris, France
2021 Research Associate – ISIR, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France PI: Dr Malika Auvray, Project: “In someone else’s shoes: Improving social perspective-taking through spatial flexibility in schizophrenia”
2018 – 2020 Research Associate – ISIR, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France PI: Prof Vincent Hayward & Dr Malika Auvray, Project: “Developmental Tool Mastery - Sensing the World with Tools across the lifespan”
2015 - 2018 Research Associate – University College London, Londres, UK PI: Dr Aikaterini Fotopoulou, Project: “Embodied Minds and Mentalised Bodies : The Bodily Self”
2014 - 2015 Research Assistant – School of Psychology, Bangor University, UK Supervisor : Prof Emily Cross, Project: “Watch & Learn: Mapping the Behavioural and Neural Profile of Observational Learning throughout the Lifespan”
2011 - 2014 PhD Student – School of Psychology, Bangor University, UK Supervisors: Prof Emily Cross et Prof Paul Downing, Project: “Shaping perception with experience: insights from brain and behaviour”
EDUCATION
2011- 2014 PhD – Cognitive Neuroscience (‘No correction’), Bangor University, UK Title: “Shaping perception with experience: Insights from brain and behaviour”, Supervisors: Emily Cross and Paul Downing
2008 - 2011 Diploma of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Specialization: Biology and Cognitive Science), ENS, Paris
2010 - 2011 Master in Cognitive Neurosciences, 'Cogmaster' (Second year) Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), EHESS and University Paris Descartes
2009 - 2010 Master in Biology, specialization in Neuroscience (First year) Ecole Normale Supérieure and University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris
2008 - 2009 Licence of Science, specializing in Biology (equivalent to a BSc) September 2008: admission on record to study at ENS
2006 - 2008 Preparatory classes: two-year undergraduate intensive course in Biology, mathematics and physics preparing for national competitive examination for admission to the French "Grandes Ecoles”, BCPST, Henri IV, Paris
Scientific summary
My research interests lie squarely within social cognition and focus on how experience shapes perception of the self and others.
I have pursued two main approaches to address these interests.
The first approach focuses on the impact of multisensory experience on action perception at the motor processing levels, as well as at the affective level. I used dance as a model for understanding how complex actions are learned and perceived, as dance enables us to focus on complex movement ”for movement’s sake”, without additional considerations of the instrumental goal or intention of a movement; but with an affective component.
What brings together my past, current, and future research is the investigation of the interaction between the body and multisensory experiences in understanding ourselves and others, while always taking into account how affect shapes perception.
To so, I combine behavioural, physiological and brain imaging methods, in typical young adults, as well in the elderly and neurological patients (especially after stroke).
