Research

Research projects and scientific interests.

Research Overview

My research centers on Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation (FPVS), a powerful EEG method for measuring rapid, frequency-tagged neural responses to visual stimuli in just a few minutes of recording time. FPVS seems to be still limited to research settings, even though it has been explicitly recommended for use in a clinical setting in recent publications (for example, see works by Stothart et al.). The main goal of my current work is to help standardize FPVS methods and make them easier to deploy outside of research lab settings by non-experts to expand the utility of FPVS.

Standardizing FPVS Workflows via Software Tools

FPVS has demonstrated the ability to produce strong, reliable neural responses in various research domains, but this method is still only being actively utilized in a small number of research labs. Increasing awareness of the effectiveness of FPVS and solving potential barriers to its adoption are important goals of my research.

One of the main barriers to the adoption of FPVS outside of the lab is the lack of standardized software tools designed specifically for FPVS. While there are many general-purpose EEG software tools available (such as EEGLab, LetsWave, etc), they still require advanced knowledge of EEG data analysis techniques and are therefore still inaccessible to the non-expert user. Additionally, these general-purpose tools are often designed for a wide range of EEG experiments, meaning they add unnecessary complexity for FPVS-specific tasks. My goal is therefore to create dedicated software tools that make it easier for researchers to design FPVS experiments, analyze FPVS data, and share their work in a more standardized way. To learn more about my software development efforts, see the Software page.

Ongoing FPVS Projects

Our lab is using FPVS to study how the brain responds to visual, emotional, and semantic information across several research areas:

  • Dyslexia and individual differences in language-related processing
  • Anxiety-linked differences in emotional face processing
  • Fear of heights and visual sensitivity to height-related stimuli
  • Effects of creatine on emotional processing
  • Effects of hormonal birth control on emotional processing in women across different phases of the menstrual cycle

Across these projects, FPVS provides a way to measure targeted neural responses with short EEG recordings, making it useful for research questions where participant burden, clinical relevance, and reproducibility matter.

Recently Completed FPVS Work on Semantic Categorization

During my research for my M.S. degree, I completed a semantic categorization FPVS study using highly visually similar stimuli. The results suggest that FPVS can still elicit a semantic categorization response even when visual differences between categories are tightly controlled. However, the signal-to-noise ratio was weaker than in other published semantic categorization work, likely due to the low semantic distance and low visual variability of the stimuli used. This manuscript is currently in preparation.

This project helped to clarify both the promise and the limits of FPVS semantic categorization designs: strong visual control is valuable, but reducing semantic distance can also reduce response strength.

Suggested Reading

If you are unfamiliar with FPVS and would like to learn more, I suggest starting with the following publications. While this is not an exhaustive list, these works provide a solid foundation for understanding the capabilities of FPVS and the strengths of this methodology.

  • Vandenheever, D., Davidson, H., Kemp, J., Murphy, Z., Kujawa, A., Shi, J., Nadorff, M. R., Bates-Brantley, K., & Sidwell, M. (2025). Exploring facial expression processing with fast periodic visual stimulation and diverse stimuli. Brain and Cognition, 189, 106338. DOI
  • David, J., Quenon, L., Hanseeuw, B., Ivanoiu, A., Volfart, A., Koessler, L., & Rossion, B. (2025). An objective and sensitive electrophysiological marker of word semantic categorization impairment in Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical Neurophysiology, 170, 98-109. DOI
  • Hauk, O., Marchive, M., Volfart, A., Schiltz, C., Rossion, B., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Lochy, A. (2025). Word-selective EEG/MEG responses in the English language obtained with fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS). Imaging Neuroscience, 3. DOI
  • Hauk, O., Rice, G. E., Volfart, A., Magnabosco, F., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Rossion, B. (2021). Face-selective responses in combined EEG/MEG recordings with fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS). NeuroImage, 242, 118460. DOI
  • Volfart, A., Rice, G. E., Lambon Ralph, M. A., & Rossion, B. (2021). Implicit, automatic semantic word categorisation in the left occipito-temporal cortex as revealed by fast periodic visual stimulation. NeuroImage, 238, 118228. DOI
  • Stothart, G., Quadflieg, S., & Milton, A. (2017). A fast and implicit measure of semantic categorisation using steady state visual evoked potentials. Neuropsychologia, 102, 11-18. DOI
  • Rossion, B., Torfs, K., Jacques, C., & Liu-Shuang, J. (2015). Fast periodic presentation of natural images reveals a robust face-selective electrophysiological response in the human brain. Journal of Vision, 15(1), 18. DOI
  • Rossion, B. (2014). Understanding individual face discrimination by means of fast periodic visual stimulation. Experimental Brain Research, 232(6), 1599-1621. DOI