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MD Ph.D. Henrik EHRSSON Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

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 Born in Sweden in 1972, Henrik Ehrsson is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in the problem of how we come to sense that we own our body. He thinks the key to solving this problem is to identify the multisensory mechanisms whereby the central nervous system distinguishes between sensory signals from one's body and from the environment. By clarifying how the normal brain produces a sense of ownership of one s body, we can learn to project ownership onto artificial bodies and simulated virtual ones; and even make two people have the experience of swapping bodies with one another. This could have important applications in the fields of virtual reality and neuro-prosthetics. Dr. Ehrsson is currently leading the Brain, Body and Self Laboratory at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. In 2010 he was promoted to associate professor at this institution, and to date he has authored 40 original articles and book chapters. His research findings have been highly cited by other academics (1800 citations) and also attracted widespread interest in the general press including reports by New York Times, Der Spiegel, The Economist, National Geographic, BBC, CNN and ABC News. Dr. Ehrsson received his postdoctoral training at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging (2002-2006), University College London, UK. His training to become a medical doctor took place at the Karolinska Institutet (1992-2002) and he obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the same institution in 2001.