Henrik Ehrsson

Henrik Ehrsson is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Neuroscience, Sweden. He holds a PhD and MD from Karolinska Institutet and has been a faculty member since 2008. His research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying body ownership, multisensory integration, and self-awareness, with implications for neuroprosthetics and virtual reality applications. He leads the Cognitive Neuroscience of Bodily Awareness and Self-Cognition Group and the Brain, Body, and Self Lab.

Education:

• MD and PhD, Karolinska Institutet (2003, 2001)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL (2008)

Research Interests: Dr. Ehrsson investigates how the brain integrates sensory signals to form a coherent body representation, with applications to neuropsychiatric disorders, neuroprosthetics, and virtual reality. His work explores the neural basis of self-location, memory encoding, and interoception (e.g., heartbeat awareness in blind individuals). Key themes include:

• Body ownership illusions and their neural substrates
• Cross-modal plasticity in sensory-deprived populations
• Techniques like fMRI, EEG, and virtual/augmented reality

Awards:

• ERC Advanced Grant (SELF-UNITY project)
• Swedish Research Council Distinguished Professorship
• Göran Gustafson Prize in Medicine

Grants & Labs: Funded by Swedish Research Council, ERC, and Hjärnfonden. His labs feature advanced VR setups, EEG, TMS, and neuroimaging collaborations. Collaborations include NYU, Utrecht University, and clinical teams for translational research.

Students: Supervises PhD/MA students like Xiaole Luan (Body Ownership) and August Hägerdal (Rubber Hand Illusion EEG studies).