Professor Bettina Forster

Overview

Professor Forster researches the brain processes that underlie perception of one’s (and other’s) body and touch experiences by using behavioural, psychophysiological and electroencephalographic (EEG) measures. Tina is an expert in somatosensory event related potentials (ERPs) and published over 50 research articles using this approach (see Vibel et al., 2023 for an introduction to this method). Her research has identified new neural markers of body perception - the Late Somatosensory Negativity (LSN) a marker of preparatory activity in somatosensory cortex when expecting touch, first described in Gherri et al., 2012, 2015; and the N140cc signifying tactile target selection first described in Forster et al., 2016. Furthermore, she has put forward a new analysis approach to investigate embodied cognition by isolating somatosensory activity from visual carry over effects (first applied in Sel et al., 2014 and detailed in Galvez-Pol et al., 2020, 2021). Her main line of current research questions focuses on the role of somatosensory cortex in embodied cognition; that is, when perceiving other’s emotions (e.g. Arslanova et al., 2023), or sensory experiences (e.g. Forster Abad-Hernando, 2024) and the mechanisms underlying breathing and meditation induced changes to body perception (e.g. Bokk & Forster, 2022). 

Her research work has been supported by funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the Welcome Trust, the Experimental Psychology Society and the Bial Foundation.

Professor Forster co-leads the Centre for Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (https://researchcentres.city.ac.uk/clinical-social-and-cognitive-neuroscience). She contributes to teaching on undergraduate BSc in Psychology and the postgraduate MSc in Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience and supervising PhD students. She has held a wide range of administrative leadership roles (i.e. Chair of the Research and the Ethics Committees, BSc Psychology Programme Director) and has organized several research conferences (e.g. BACN 2024).

Professor Forster is an expert in somatosensory electrophysiology. She researches the brain mechanisms of body perception using behavioural, electrophysiological and psychophysiological measures. Body perception is not only the perception of touch and proprioception of one's body but also crucially contributes to the sense of self, emotion perception and social perception. In her research Tina has been forging new research approaches and advanced our understanding of body perception and embodied cognition.

Research supervision

PhD and internship applications related to her field research are welcome.

Current research students:
Charlotte Ellis & Georgie Dixon

Research grants and awards

B. Forster (2022) 'In your skin: electroencephalography of touch observation' BIAL Foundation (£40,000)
K. Yarrow, B. Forster, S. Bestmann (2014). 'Novel neurometric measures of speeded decision making' funded by Leverhulme Trust (£216K)
I. Arslanova & B. Forster. Experimental Psychology Society Summer Research Internship (£2500)
M. Karlinski & B. Forster. Welcome Trust Biomedical Summer Scholarship. (£2500)
B. Forster (2012). City University Pump Priming Funding (£4,362) ‘The Bodily Self’
Staff Research Prize for excellence in research (£1000), City University London (December 2007)
Forster, B (2006). ‘Mechanisms of tactile spatial orienting and selection’ funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC; £371K).

Featured publications

1. Fanghella, M., Dima, D., Pinotsis, D., Gaigg, S.B., Calvo‐Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2026). Changes in Intrinsic Activity of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex Causally Explain Differences in Emotion Perception in Autism. Autism Research, 19(4). doi:10.1002/aur.70197

   [publisher’s website]

2. Galigani, M., Romeo, M., Bruno, V., Forster, B. and Garbarini, F. (2025). The somatosensory side of the affordance: How seeing an object influences touch. NeuroImage, 319, pp. 121427-121427. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121427

   [publisher’s website]

3. Galigani, M., Romeo, M., Scanferlato, N., Valeriani, M., Forster, B. and Garbarini, F. (2025). Somatosensory coding of visual self-identity. NeuroImage, 318. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121405

   [publisher’s website]

4. Forster, B. and Abad-Hernando, S. (2024). In your skin? Somatosensory cortex is purposely recruited to situate but not simulate vicarious touch. NeuroImage, 289. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2024.120561

   [publisher’s website]

5. Arslanova, I., Meletaki, V., Calvo-Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2023). Perception of facial expressions involves emotion specific somatosensory cortex activations which are shaped by alexithymia. Cortex, 167, pp. 223-234. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2023.06.010

   [publisher’s website]

6. Bokk, O. and Forster, B. (2022). The Effect of a Short Mindfulness Meditation on Somatosensory Attention. Mindfulness, 13(8), pp. 2022-2030. doi:10.1007/s12671-022-01938-z

   [publisher’s website]

7. Fanghella, M., Gaigg, S.B., Candidi, M., Forster, B. and Calvo-Merino, B. (2022). Somatosensory Evoked Potentials Reveal Reduced Embodiment of Emotions in Autism. The Journal of Neuroscience, 42(11), pp. 2298-2312. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0706-21.2022

   [publisher’s website]

8. Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2021). Probing the neural representations of body-related stimuli: A reply to Tamè & Longo's commentary. Cortex, 134, pp. 362-364. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.11.004

   [publisher’s website]

9. Galvez-Pol, A., Forster, B. and Calvo-Merino, B. (2020). Beyond action observation: Neurobehavioral mechanisms of memory for visually perceived bodies and actions. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 116, pp. 508-518. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.06.014

   [publisher’s website]

10. Sel, A., Calvo-Merino, B., Tsakiris, M. and Forster, B. (2020). The somatotopy of observed emotions. Cortex, 129, pp. 11-22. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.002

    [publisher’s website]

11. Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2020). Revealing the body in the brain: An ERP method to examine sensorimotor activity during visual perception of body-related information. Cortex, 125, pp. 332-344. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.01.017

    [publisher’s website]

12. Arslanova, I., Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B. and Forster, B. (2019). Searching for bodies: ERP evidence for independent somatosensory processing during visual search for body-related information. NeuroImage, 195, pp. 140-149. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.03.037

    [publisher’s website]

13. Galvez-Pol, A., Calvo-Merino, B., Capilla, A. and Forster, B. (2018). Persistent recruitment of somatosensory cortex during active maintenance of hand images in working memory. NeuroImage, 174, pp. 153-163. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.03.024

    [publisher’s website]

14. Forster, B., Tziraki, M. and Jones, A. (2016). The attentive homunculus: ERP evidence for somatotopic allocation of attention in tactile search. Neuropsychologia, 84, pp. 158-166. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.02.009

    [publisher’s website]

15. Sel, A., Calvo-Merino, B., Tuettenberg, S. and Forster, B. (2015). When you smile, the world smiles at you: ERP evidence for self-expression effects on face processing. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience

    [publisher’s website]

16. Sel, A., Forster, B. and Calvo-Merino, B. (2014). The emotional homunculus: ERP evidence for independent somatosensory responses during facial emotional processing. J Neurosci, 34(9), pp. 3263-3267. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0106-13.2014

    [publisher’s website]

17. Sambo, C.F., Forster, B., Williams, S.C. and Iannetti, G.D. (2012). To blink or not to blink: fine cognitive tuning of the defensive peripersonal space. J Neurosci, 32(37), pp. 12921-12927. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0607-12.2012

    [publisher’s website]

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