Peter Ulric Tse

Peter Ulric Tse is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. He holds a BA in Physics/Mathematics from Dartmouth College (1984), a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Harvard University (1998), and completed postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen. His research spans the neural bases of consciousness, attention, and volitional operations in working memory.

• BA, Dartmouth College (Physics/Mathematics, 1984)
• PhD, Harvard University (Cognitive Psychology, 1998)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

His work investigates preconscious and unconscious neural processing that constructs conscious experience, utilizing illusions to decode brain operations. He explores the interplay between top-down volitional attention and bottom-up sensory processing, and the neural code enabling mental causation. Recent publications focus on form-motion interactions, network dynamics in working memory, and cortical activation patterns in visual masking.

He directs the NSF EPSCoR Attention Consortium and leads collaborative research using high-resolution fMRI at Vanderbilt University. His book The Neural Basis of Free Will (MIT, 2013) delves into volitional control and neural causation.

• NSF award 2241975 (collaborative project funding)