Research Areas

visual perception of motion

I am a biologist and neuroscientist working in experimental psychology. I am interested in the relations and interactions between structure and function in the control and perception of human movements. In this respect I aim to understand the structure and functions of the central nervous system. My current experimental research is on the visual perception of biological motion. The two major topic are:
(1) The underlying visual mechanisms and  (2) the interactions between visual and somato-motor mechanisms.
 In the former we ask in what ways is biological motion like object perception. The latter theme is about the interactions of different perceptual systems: visual, somatosensory and motor perception. This is particularly relevant for our experimental work on chronic, unspecific back pain.
My current theoretical work is on the evolution and development of body form. Recent themes are (1) the function, evolution and development of the optic chiasm and contralateral visual and motor representations in the brain, and (2) the evolution of the adult echinoderm body form.

Selected Publications

de Lussanet, M. H. E. 2010 A hexamer origin of the echinoderms’ five rays. Evol. Dev. in press.

de Lussanet, M. H. E. & Lappe, M. 2010 Bistable alternation of point-light biological motion. Cogn. Dynamics. in press.

Wittinghofer, K., de Lussanet, M. H. E. & Lappe, M. 2010 Category-specific interference of object recognition with biological motion perception. J. Vis. in press.

de Lussanet, M. H. E., Fadiga, L., Michels, L., Kleiser, R., Seitz, R. J. & Lappe, M. 2008 Interaction of visual hemifield and body view in biological motion perception. Eur. J. Neurosci. 27, 514–522.

de Lussanet, M. H. E. & Muller, M. 2007 The smaller your mouth, the longer your snout: predicting the snout length of Syngnathus acus, Centriscus scu- tatus and other pipette feeders. J. R. Soc. Interface 4(14), 561–673.

Academic CV