Prof. Dr. Floris P. de Lange
Chair for Cognitive Computational Neuroscience
Research professorship of the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Life and Health" of the University of Bonn.
Perception, action and decision-making
How do expectations shape perception? How does our perception influence our behaviour?
Brain processes strongly influence how we perceive the world around us, and how we make choices. Our objectives, attention, expectations and prior knowledge, all play an important role in this context. Floris de Lange studies the brain mechanisms that underlie these phenomena, using behavioural and neuroimaging methods (MEG, fMRI, TMS) in the healthy and pathological brain to examine how percepts and decisions are shaped by what we expect (prediction) and deem relevant (attention).
De Lange's main research focus lies on the question of how the brain's continuous stream of predictions is generated at the neurobiological level. He explores how predictions are represented in the brain, and how the information that it provides can be combined with new sensorial input. His research illustrates the notion that the brain is not a machine that processes information passively, but rather a prediction machine that actively uses prior knowledge to predict the future. Specifically, de Lange has made contributions to the understanding of how, when, and why the visual brain combines predictions with visual information. Another one of his discoveries was that visual imagery and visual input activate distinct layers of the primary visual cortex.
Currently, de Lange is also looking into the underlying mechanisms of surprise and its relationship with curiosity.
Curriculum Vitae
Prof. Dr. Floris P. de Lange is the founder and principal investigator of the Predictive Brain Lab. He holds the chair for computational neuroscience at the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Life and Health” of the University of Bonn since July 2025. Floris de Lange is also a full Professor at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
De Lange completed his first Master's degree in Neuropsychology in 2001 and a second Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence in 2003, both at Radboud University Nijmegen. Building on this foundation, he graduated with a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the same university in 2008. In his doctoral studies, he was guided by Ivan Toni, and focused on motor imagery. In his thesis "Neural mechanisms of motor imagery", de Lange used fMRI and MEG technique to explore how mental stimulations of perception and action are neurally implemented. His findings suggested that motor imagery involves a realistic internal simulation of actions, and is subject to similar influences from external factors like proprioception. In addition, his studies revealed that the simulation involved in motor imagery is largely implicit and appears unaffected by alterations in psychological factors such as fatigue, motivation, or self-monitoring. De Lange succeeded in starting a conversation on whether action observation triggers a simulation similar to motor imagery and whether both processes draw upon the same cognitive mechanisms for different purposes.
Transitioning to a post-doctoral role from 2007 to 2009, de Lange worked in the laboratory of Prof. Stanislas Dehaene at NeuroSpin neuroimaging center in Paris, France. During this period, he focused on investigating the neural dynamics involved in conscious and unconscious decision-making processes.
In 2009, de Lange established the Predictive Brain Lab at the Donders Institute. As a principal investigator, de Lange focuses primarily on the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying predictive processing during perception and decision-making. Specifically, de Lange's research explores how perception arises by combining various forms of prior knowledge with incoming information in the brain, and in particular how the brain may operate as a prediction machine.
Research
- Threat-related human behaviour, learning and memory
- Theoretical and computational neuroscience
- Virtual reality
- Movement analysis
Teaching
- --
2001: MSc in Neuropsychology, Radboud University, Nijmegen
2003: MSc in Artificial Intelligence, Radboud University, Nijmegen
2008: Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience, Radboud University, Nijmegen
Key Publications
Ekman, M., Kok, P. & Lange, F.P. de (2017). Time-compressed preplay of anticipated events in human primary visual cortex. Nature Communications, 8,15276. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15276 [Full text]
Fritsche, M., Mostert, P. & Lange, F.P. de (2017). Opposite Effects of Recent History on Perception and Decision. Current Biology, 27 (4), 590-595. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.006 [Full text]
Summerfield, C. & Lange, F.P. de (2014). Expectation in perceptual decision making: neural and computational mechanisms. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. doi: 10.1038/nrn3838
Kok, P., Toni, I., Dijkerman, H.C., Lange, F.P. de & Albers, A.M. (2013). Shared representations for working memory and mental imagery in early visual cortex. Current Biology, 23 (15), 1427-1431. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.05.065 [Full text]
Kok, P., Jehee, J.F.M. & Lange, F.P. de (2012). Less is more: Expectation sharpens representations in the primary visual cortex. Neuron, 75, 265-270. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.04.034
Awards
NWO Vici Grant - Dutch Research Council
2024
KNAW Ammodo Science Award for fundamental research - Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences
2021
ERC Consolidator Grant - European Research Council
2020
USERN Prize in Social Sciences - Universal Scientific Education and Research Network
2016
Publications
For a comprehensive list of Floris de Lange's publications, please visit this page.