Durk Talsma

Dr. Durk Talsma

What fascinates you in the area of cognitive neuropsychology?

A number of aspects in this field are very interesting. By the time you’re starting a research project for example, you don’t know how it will end up. Even though you have a hypothesis about a certain process, there is no guarantee that things will actually work the way you think they will. There is also the technical aspect of doing research. There is a continuous development of new methods, and although we already have a selection of methods to choose from, there are still situations where the existing methodologies don’t apply, and which force you to go back to the drawing board, and design something from scratch. The interplay between this need to learn to use and develop new methodologies and the new insights into cognitive processes they provide is quite fascinating. Finally, from a more practical perspective, the job also offers a lot of variety and unpredictability, which keeps it interesting.

What are recent accomplishments in your research?

In the past I have been working on investigating the interrelations between Attentional processes and Multisensory Integration. There is a continual debate going on whether these processes interact or not. Our electrophysiological recording showed that these interactions are definitely there, although precise nature of these interactions remains to be investigated.

What are you working on at the moment?

My current work focuses on the interplay between various aspects of attention. More specifically, there is a process known as bottom-up driven attention, which can be seen as the automatic capture of an intense stimulus in the environment, such as a loud noise, or a flash of light. Secondly, there is also a top-down influence of attention, which can be seen as a process that help you focus on what you are doing right now (for instance reading a text), without getting distracted by the environmental stimuli I mentioned earlier.