NOCIONS all publications
NOCIONS all publications
Arthur Courtin - postdoc (FNRS)
When we touch something warm or cold, our brain must quickly interpret these temperature cues to learn about the environment, maintain homeostasis, and protect the body. Yet thermosensation is a surprisingly noisy sense: because of its unique neuroanatomy, temperature signals reach the brain with more variability and delay than those of other sensory systems. What does the brain do when faced with such uncertain information?
My work explores what makes thermosensory signals so noisy, and whether (and how) the nervous system navigates this uncertainty. To probe these questions, I develop computational models that capture how the brain infers temperature from ambiguous input, and I test them against behavioural measures (reaction times, choices) and neurophysiological recordings (EEG). Through this approach, I aim to uncover the principles that allow the brain to interpret temperature reliably despite noisy and delayed sensory evidence.
Group members
Publications
2026
Interoceptive ability is uncorrelated across respiratory and cardiac axes in a large scale psychophysical study
Commun Psychol
Banellis L, Nikolova N, Ehmsen JF, Courtin AS, Vejlø M, Tyrer A, Böhme RA, Fardo F, Allen MG
in press.