Irena Arslanova

Irena Arslanova is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, conducting cutting-edge research at the intersection of cardiac physiology and cognitive processes. Her work investigates how bodily signals, particularly heart activity, shape attention, time perception, and social cognition through rigorous experimental paradigms.

Her research spans psychophysiology, time perception, interoception, social cognition, and cognitive neuroscience, focusing on how cardiac rhythms modulate subjective experiences. She examines the bidirectional relationship between physiological states and cognitive functions, revealing how heartbeat timing influences alertness, distorts temporal judgments, and enables inference of others' physiological states. This work bridges experimental psychology, neuroscience, and physiology to advance understanding of embodied cognition.

Analysis of her publications shows a cohesive research trajectory centered on the heart as a dynamic modulator of cognition. Her studies consistently demonstrate cardiac phase effects on attentional systems, heartbeat-dependent time perception distortions, and social cognition mechanisms rooted in interoceptive awareness. These findings establish the cardiovascular system as a fundamental component of perceptual and cognitive processing rather than a passive background process.

Dr. Arslanova has received the prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, a highly competitive award supporting outstanding early-career researchers. Her fellowship project has generated exceptional academic and public impact:

• Picked up by 11 major news outlets
• Blogged by 2 independent science communicators
• Posted by 291 X (Twitter) users
• Featured on 3 Facebook pages
• Reddited by 4 communities
• Discussed in 2 YouTube videos
• Cited by 5 Bluesky users
• Accumulated 69 Mendeley readers

Her Leverhulme Trust-funded project "In search of experienced time: the heart as a subjective pacemaker" (2024-2027) represents a significant research investment with substantial societal reach. While student advising details aren't publicly documented, her active publication record and high-impact project demonstrate strong research leadership and community engagement through open-access dissemination and public communication of findings.