Hans Supèr

Hans Supèr

Universitat de Barcelona

Life & Medical Sciences

2017-present: Director of ACAP; 2013-present: CTO Braingaze SL;  2009-2014: Director of the VISCA lab; 2005-present: Research Professor, ICREA; 2005-present: Assistant professor University of Barcelona; 2002-2005: Head of the Vision and Cognition-II group, NIN, KNAW, The Netherlands; 1999-2001: Senior postdoc, NIN, NWO, The Netherlands; 1997-1999: Postdoc in the lab of Prof. Dr. V. Lamme, NORI, The Netherlands; 1992-1996: PhD student in the lab of Prof. Dr. E. Soriano, University of Barcelona.


Research interests

I started my scientific journey by studying the ontogenetic and evolutionary development of the cerebral cortex to get a grasp of the immense complexity of the cortex. To learn about the functional organization of the neocortex, I continued my research studying system neurophysiology in awake, behaving monkeys and neural circuit dynamics using computer simulations. In 2011 we discovered a novel eye movement in cognitive processing.  We termed it Cognitive Vergence. The use of Cognitive Vergence has been patented worldwide, and I founded the start-up company (Braingaze) in 2013. End 2017 I started the centre ACAP at the UB where graduate and master students can carry out clinical work using Cognitive Vergence. Currently, my research investigates 1) the neural mechanism of dynamic neural interactions, 2) the function of Cognitive Vergence in visual cognition, 3) clinical applications of Cognitive Vergence in early diagnosis of mental pathology being ADHD, Alzheimer, ASD, Dyslexia, 4) interactive eye-tracking games to train cognitive behaviour. Methods we use are computational spiking networks, eye tracking, machine learning, and psychophysics.

Selected publications

- Sara Boxhoorn, Nico Bast, Hans Super, Leonie Polzer, Hannah Cholemkery, and Christine M. Freitag (2020), 'Pupil dilation during visuospatial orienting differentiates between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61, 5, 614 - 624.

- Carolina Jimenez, Elizabeth; Romeo, August; Perez Zapata, Laura; Sole Puig, Maria; Bustos-Valenzuela, Patricia; Canete, Jose; Varela Casal, Paloma; Super, Hans 2020, 'Eye vergence responses in children with and without reading difficulties during a word detection task', Vision Research, 169, 6 - 11.