Daniel Bor

University of Cambridge

About Me

I am a neuroscientist based at the University of Cambridge. I received my BA in psychology and philosophy from Balliol College, Oxford University, in 1997, and my PhD in cognitive neuroscience from St. John’s College, Cambridge University in 2002. I have published research in various fields, including how the brain processes consciousness, attention, memory and intelligence, and the extent that mental training can boost cognitive performance, or even change how we perceive the world. I am the author of a general audience book on consciousness science, The Ravenous Brain, which was chosen as a best book of 2012 in the Wall Street Journal, the Book of the Week at the Times Higher Education magazine, and the September main selection at Scientific American Book Club. I also co-wrote the introductory popular science book, 30 Second Brain. I have written articles on neuroscience and psychology for various popular magazines, including Scientific American Mind, New Scientist, Slate and Wired UK. I have also appeared on various radio shows, to talk about neuroscience, and have given many public talks, including at the London Science Museum, and the Royal Institution.

Visit me: www.danielbor.com

My Research

My main research focus right now is on the effects of drowsiness and conscious level (both measured neurally) on cognition, and how this is modulated by age and disease (Alzheimer's disease, especially). Linking these fields together, I am currently funded by a Wellcome Trust grant to find the neural basis of cognitive reserve, which is our ability to maintain cognitive function when neurally strained, for instance due to Alzheimer's disease brain damage. One endpoint of this research is to discover ways to boost cognitive reserve in dementia and other populations.

Other research areas I study include synaesthesia, neurofeedback, working memory, attention, intelligence, strategic processing and chunking in the normal population, as well as those with focal brain damage, those on the autistic spectrum and savants.

I have used cognitive training, both as an experimental tool to simulate synaesthesia in those without this condition, and as a potentially clinical tool, to raise cognition, either in the normal population, or to halt cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease.

In all these research areas I employ a range of neuroimaging techniques, including fMRI, MEG, EEG, PET and TMS.