Tobias Heed

Tobias Heed is a University Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at Paris Lodron University Salzburg, specializing in cognitive neuroscience with a focus on tactile perception, motor control, and multisensory integration. His research examines how the brain processes touch, integrates sensory information, and guides movement across the lifespan.

His primary research interests include spatial coding mechanisms in touch, the influence of body posture and movement on perceptual organization, developmental trajectories of sensorimotor integration from infancy to adulthood, and pain-related movement avoidance. He investigates how tactile temporal order judgments reveal fundamental aspects of spatial processing and how visual-tactile recalibration alters perceptual hand maps.

Analysis of his recent publications (2023-2025) reveals sustained focus on parietal cortex function in tactile-motor transformations, limb-specific coding in 3D space, and the neural basis of crossing effects in temporal order judgments. His work increasingly incorporates meta-analytic approaches and cross-species comparisons between macaque and human ventral intraparietal areas.

Professor Heed co-leads the Children's Sensory Lab at the university, which investigates how children discover their bodies and the world through sensory experiences. His media engagements, including features in 'Wie Kinder ihren Körper und die Welt entdecken' (How Children Discover Their Body and World), demonstrate active science communication about embodied cognition and body-world interactions.