Curriculum Vitae
Name: Morten Overgaard
Title: Ph.D. MA (psychology)
Date and place of birth: November 5th 1975, Glostrup, Denmark
Positions: Professor, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
Professor, Dept. of Psychology and Communication, Aalborg University
Address: Nørrebrogade 44, building 10G, Denmark
Head of Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit www.cnru.dk
Director of Danish Integrative Neuroscience REsearch Alliance, www.dinea.dk
Education:
2003 Ph.D. Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Aarhus
2000 MA Psychology, University of Copenhagen
1998 BA Psychology, University of Copenhagen
Positions:
201220112007 - 2012
2005 - 2012
2005
2003 – 2005
2001
2000-2003
1997-2000
Professor, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
Professor, Dept. of Psychology and Communication, Aalborg University
Associate professor, CFIN, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University
Senior research fellow, Hammel Neurorehabilitation and Research Unit
Post Doc, Hammel Neurorehabilitation and Research Unit (HNNR)
Post Doc, CFIN
Visiting researcher, University of Arizona
Ph.D. student, University of Aarhus
Teaching assistant, University of Copenhagen
Major grants and awards:
2013
Award from "Savværksejer Jeppe Juhl og hustru Ovita Juhl's Mindelegat" for coma
research
2012
Grant from The Danish Council for Independent Research (FKK) for the project
“Phenomenal consciousness and cognitive motor control” (6.3 Mio DKr)
2010
Grant from The Danish Council for Independent Research (FKK) for the project
“Intentional action, attention to objects, and working memory” (7.8 Mio DKr)
2010
The “Starting Grant” from European Research Council – the MindRehab project (12.5
Mio DKr)
2010
Grant from Karen Elise Jensen foundation for research on the use of hypnosis in
cognitive rehabilitation (500.000 DKr)
2007
Grant from the European Commission – FP6-NEST-PATHFINDER, the MindBridge
project (14.5 Mio DKr)
2007
Grant from the European Commission – FP6-NEST-PATHFINDER, the MINET
project (1.8 mio DKr)
2003
Grant from Carlsberg Foundation (to study introspective methods)
2000
Grant from The Fetzer Institute and University of Arizona (to study visual
consciousness)
1999
Silver medal, University of Copenhagen
Until my professorship in February 2011, 7.5 years after my Ph.D., I have been able to finance my
own position and all employed researchers in CNRU with grant applications.
Leadership experience:
2013Member of the Young Academy of Europe
2013Board member of Danish Neuroscience Center, Aarhus University Hospital
2012
Co-founder of Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Aalborg University
2011 CFIN/MindLab board member
2010 – 2015 Coordinator of the ERC MindRehab project
2007-2011 Member of the Management Committee for EU COST-action ”Consciousness: A
transdisciplinary, integrated approach”
2007Founder and head of Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU
2007- 2010 Coordinator of the EU NEST-PATHFINDER initiative MindBridge (over 30
scientists involved; 141 scientific publications)
2005Founder and head of Neuropsychological Laboratory, Hammel Neurorehabilitation
and Research Center
2001-2006 Founder and coordinator of Nordic Network for Consciousness Studies
I have been involved in research leadership since the beginning of my Ph.D. In 2001, I was
interviewed by Nature about leadership strategy.
Supervision:
2005-: 3 Post Doc, 13 Ph.D. students, several masters students and student research projects.
External referee for 4 Ph.D. projects (Psychology in Lund and Aarhus, medicine in Aarhus, and the
IT University, Copenhagen)
Editorial and reviewing commitments
Associate editor for Frontiers in Consciousness Research
Editorial board member for Science and Consciousness Reviews
Reviewer for a large number of scientific journals, including high impact journals e.g. The Lancet
and The Lancet Neurology.
Reviewer for The Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, China and The Netherland Organisation
for Scientific Research
Organizer of 10 international conferences held in Denmark and abroad
Teaching and lectures
About 80 research presentations in Denmark. About 50 research presentations at international
conferences and invited talks.
More than 20 courses in neuropsychology for psychologists, MD’s and therapists
More than 30 courses in cognitive science at the psychology departments in Copenhagen, Aarhus
and Aalborg, and 2 courses at the philosophy department in Aarhus
List of publications
Journal articles and book chapters with formal peer-review. Papers in review are not
included.
Overgaard, M. (accepted): The challenge of measuring consciousness, in M. Overgaard (ed):
Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research, Oxford University Press
Michael, J. Sandberg, K. Skewes, J. Wolf, T. Blicher, J. Overgaard, M. & Frith, C. (2014): TMS
(cTBS) demonstrates a causal role of premotor homunculus in action, Psychological Science, 25, 4,
963-972
Overgaard, M. & Mogensen, J. (2014): Conscious perception: A representational, nonreductionistic, level-dependent approach, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of
London – Series B: Biological Sciences, 369, 20130209
Crouzet, S. Overgaard, M. & Busch, N. (2014): The fastest saccadic responses escape visual
masking, PLoS ONE, 9, 2, 1-6
White, T. Engen, N. Sørensen, S. Overgaard, M. & Shergill, S. (2014): Certainty and confidence
from the triple-network perspective: A voxel-based meta-analysis, Brain and Cognition, 85, 191200
Overgaard, M. & Sandberg, K. (2014): Kinds of access, in: S. Fleming & C. Frith (Eds): The
Cognitive Neuroscience of Metacognition, Springer Verlag
Sandberg, K. Barnes, G.R., Rees, G. & Overgaard, M. (2014): MEG activity related to conscious
perception is stable within individuals across years but not between individuals, Journal of
Cognitive Neuroscience, 26, 4, 840-853
Vinding, M.C., Jensen, M. & Overgaard, M. (2014): Distinct electrophysiological potentials for
intention in action and prior intention for action, Cortex, 50, 86-99
Jensen, M., Vagnoni, E., Overgaard, M. & Haggard, P. (2014): Experience of action depends on
intention, not body movement: an experiment on memory for mens rea, Neuropsychologia, 55, 122127
Sørensen, T.A., Nordfang, M, Pedersen, M.N., Overgaard, M. & Ásgeirsson, Á.G. (2013):
Components of Attention in Synesthesia, Journal of Vision, 13(9), 1328
Vinding, M.C. Pedersen, M.N. & Overgaard, M. (2013): Unravelling intention: Distal intentions
increase the subjective sense of agency, Consciousness and Cognition 22(3), 810–815.
Sandberg, K., Bibby, B. M., & Overgaard, M. (2013). Measuring and testing awareness of
emotional face expressions. Consciousness and Cognition, 22(3), 806–809.
Sandberg, K., Bahrami, B., Kanai, R., Barnes, G. R., Overgaard, M., & Rees, G. (2013). Early
Visual Responses Predict Conscious Face Perception within and between Subjects during Binocular
Rivalry. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 25, 6, 969-985
Overgaard, M. Lindeløv, J. Svejstrup, S. Døssing, M. Hvid, T. Kauffmann, O. & Mouridsen, K.
(2013): Is conscious stimulus identification dependent on knowledge of the perceptual modality?
Testing the “source misidentifcation hypothesis”, Frontiers in Psychology: Consciousness
Research, 4, 116, 1-9
Sandberg, K. Overgaard, M. & Rees, G. (2012): Are the neural correlates of conscious contents
stable or plastic? Journal of Vision, 13, 12, 115
Overgaard, M. (2012): Blindsight: Recent and historical controversies on the blindness of
blindsight, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1-8
Overgaard, M. & Sandberg, K. (2012): Kinds of access: Different methods for report reveal
different kinds of metacognitive access, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.
Series B: Biological Sciences, 367, 1287-1296
Overgaard, M. & Grünbaum, T. (2012): Cognitive and non-cognitive approaches to consciousness,
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 3, 137
Overgaard, M. (2012): Defining experience, MIT Technology Review, Jan/Feb Issue, 1-2
Overgaard, M. & Overgaard, R. (2011): Measurements of consciousness in the vegetative state, The
Lancet, 6736 (11) 61224-5
Sandberg, K. Bibby, B. Timmermans, B. Cleeremans, A. & Overgaard, M. (2011): Task accuracy
and awareness as sigmoid functions of stimulus duration, Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 4,
1659-1675
Overgaard, M. & Grünbaum, T. (2011): Consciousness and modality: on the possible preserved
visual consciousness in blindsight subjects, Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 4, 1855-1859.
Jensen, M. & Overgaard, M. (2011): Neural plasticity and consciousness, Frontiers in Psychology,
2, 191, 1-4
Overgaard, M. & Mogensen, J. (2011): A framework for the study of multiple realizations: The
importance of levels of analysis, Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 79, 1-10
Sandberg, K. Bahrami, B. Lindeløv, J. Overgaard, M. & Rees, G. (2011): The impact of stimulus
complexity and frequency swapping on stabilization of binocular rivalry, Journal of Vision, 11, 6,
1-10.
Overgaard, M. (2011): Visual experience and blindsight: A methodological review, Experimental
Brain Research, 209, 4, 473-479.
Lou, H. Thomsen, K. Overgaard, M. Lau, H. Mouridsen, K. & Roepstorff, A. (2011): Making sense
– dopaminergic stimulation enhances confidence and accuracy in seeing rapidly presented
words, Journal of Vision, 11, 15, 1-6.
Timmermans, B. Sandberg, K., Cleeremans, A. & Overgaard, M. (2010): Partial awareness
distinguishes between conscious perception and conscious content, Consciousness and Cognition,
19, 1081-1083
Sandberg K, Timmermans B, Overgaard M, Cleeremans A (2010): Measuring consciousness: Is one
measure better than the other? Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 1069-1078
Overgaard, M & Overgaard, R. (2010): Neural correlates of states and levels of consciousness,
Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 1-3
Overgaard, M. (2010): How consciousness will change our view on neuroscience, Cognitive
Neuroscience, 1, 3, 224-225
Overgaard M, Timmermans B, Sandberg K, Cleeremans A (2010): Optimizing subjective measures
of consciousness, Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 682-684
Overgaard M, Jensen M, Sandberg K (2010): Methodological pitfalls in the “objective” approach to
consciousness. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22, 9, 1901-1902
Overgaard, M. & Timmermans, B. (2010): How unconscious is subliminal perception? In: D.
Schmicking & S. Gallagher: Handbook of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Springer
Verlag, pp 501-519
Lapitskaya, N. Gosseries, O. Delvaux, V. Overgaard, M. Nielsen, J.F. de Noordhout, AM. 17.
Moonen, G. Laureys, S. (2009): Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in disorders of consciousness,
Reviews in the Neurosciences, 20, 3-4, 235-250
Overgaard M (2009): How can we know if patients in coma, vegetative state or minimal conscious
state are conscious? Progress in Brain Research, 177,11-19
Overgaard, M., Sandberg, K. & Jensen, M. (2008): The neural correlate of consciousness? Journal
of Theoretical Biology, 254, 713-715
Overgaard, M., Fehl, K., Mouridsen, K. & Cleeremans, A. (2008): Seeing without seeing?
Degraded conscious vision in a blindsight patient, PLoS ONE, 3, 8, 1-4
Seth A, Dienes Z, Cleeremans A, Overgaard M, Pessoa, L (2008): Measuring Consciousness:
Relating Behavioural and Neurophysiological Approaches. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12:8, 314321.
Overgaard, M. (2008): Introspection, Scholarpedia, 3, 5, 4953
Overgaard, M., Gallagher, S. & Ramsøy, T.Z. (2008): Integration of first-person methodologies in
cognitive science, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 15, 5, 100-120
Overgaard, M. (2007): Bevidstheden [Consciousness], in: B. Karpatschof & B. Katzenelson:
Klassisk og Moderne Psykologisk Teori, Hans Reitzel
Overgaard, M. (2006): Introspection in science, Consciousness and Cognition, 15, 629-633
Overgaard, M., Rote, J., Mouridsen, K. & Ramsøy, T.Z. (2006): Is conscious perception gradual or
dichotomous? A comparison of report methodologies during a visual task, Consciousness and
Cognition, 15, 700-708
Overgaard, M. (2006). Consciousness – the view from psychology, British Journal of Psychology,
97, 425-438
Overgaard, M, Koivisto, M., Sørensen, T.A., Vangkilde, S. & Revonsuo, A. (2006): The
electrophysiology of introspection, Consciousness and Cognition, 15, 662-672
Gallagher, S. & Overgaard, M. (2005): Introspection without Introspeculations, in Aydede, M.
(ed.): On the Nature of Pain and the Methodology of Its Study, MIT Press, pp 277-291
Overgaard M, & Sørensen T.A. (2004): Introspection distinct from first order experiences, Journal
of Consciousness Studies, 11 (7-8), 77-95.
Overgaard M, Nielsen JF, Fuglsang-Frederiksen A. (2004): A TMS study of the ventral projection
streams from V1 with implications for the finding of neural correlates of consciousness, Brain and
Cognition, 54 (1), 58-64.
Overgaard M, & Sørensen T.A.. (2004): Introspection distinct from first order experiences, in: Jack,
A. & Roepstorff, A. (eds): Trusting the Subject vol. 2: Trust or Interaction? Imprint Academic
Overgaard, M. (2004): On the naturalising of phenomenology, Phenomenology and the Cognitive
Sciences, 3, 4, 365-379
Overgaard, M. (2004): Confounding factors in contrastive analysis, Synthese, 141, 2, 217-231
Ramsøy TZ, Overgaard M.(2004) Introspection and subliminal perception, Phenomenology and the
Cognitive Sciences;3(1):1-23.
Overgaard M & Willert S. (2003): On the encompassing of the nature of man, commentary on
Anderson & Lebiere, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26(5), 614-616.
Overgaard M. (2003): On the theoretical and methodological foundations for a science of
consciousness, Journal of Anthropological Psychology, 13, 6-31.
Overgaard M. (2003): Reply to the commentators, Journal of Anthropological Psychology, 13, 7285
Overgaard M, & Kauffmann O. (2003): Bevidsthedens subjektivitet: Definitoriske og
metodologiske problemer, in: D. Zahavi & G. Christensen (eds.): Bevidsthedsforskning i det 21.
århundrede, Roskilde Universitetsforlag.
Overgaard, M. (2001): The place for phenomenology in experiments on consciousness, Psycoloquy,
12(29), 1-13
Proceedings with peer review
Gebauer, L. Overgaard, M. & Vuust, P. (2012): A tDCS-study of lateralization of rhythmic and
melodic competence in musicians and non-musicians, The Neurosciences and Music IV – Leaning
and Memory, New York Academy of Sciences, 1252
Vinding, M. Jensen, M. & Overgaard, M. (2012): Electrophysiological study of intention-to-act
opposed to intention-in-action, In: 16th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of
Consciousness, Brighton, UK, Book of Abstracts, p. 168
Sandberg, K. Overgaard, M. & Rees, G. (2012): Are the neural correlates of consciousness stable or
plastic? In: 16th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness,
Brighton, UK, Book of Abstracts, p. 145
Overgaard, R. Overgaard, M. Blicher, J. & Sandberg, K. (2012): Hypnotizability and prefrontal
GABA concentration, In: 16th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of
Consciousness, Brighton, UK, Book of Abstracts, p. 130
Cleeremans, A. Overgaard, M. Timmermans, B. & Scott, A. (2012): Behavioural methods to assess
awareness, In: 16th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness,
Brighton, UK, Book of Abstracts, p. 39
Sandberg, K. Overgaard, M. & Rees, G. (2012): Are the neural correlates of contents stable or
plastic? Vision Sciences Society, Naples, Italy
Gebauer, L. Overgaard, M. & Vuust, P. (2011): A tDCS-study of lateralization of rhythmic and
melodic competence in musicians and non-musicians, The Neurosciences and Music – IV: Learning
and Memory, Edinburgh, UK
Sandberg, K. Bahrami, B. Kanai, R. Barenes, G. Overgaard, M. Rees, G. (2011): Predicting the
conscious experience , Vision Sciences Society 2011 Meeting, Florida, USA
Sandberg, K., Bahrami, B., Kanai, R., Barnes, G. R., Overgaard, M., Rees, G. (2010). Mapping the
time course of binocular rivalry and percept stabilization using MEG. Association for the Scientific
Study of Consciousness’ 14th annual meeting, Toronto, Canada
Overgaard, M., Jensen, M. & Bibby, B. (2010): Is the neglected side of the visual field stationary or
movable in visuospatial neglect? Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of Neurorehabilitation, 7981
Overgaard, R., Lindeløv, J. & Overgaard, M. (2010): Rehabilitation of attention and working
memory deficits using hypnosis, Proceedings of the 6th World Congress of Neurorehabilitation, 8385
Overgaard, M. (2010): Preserved visual consciousness in a blindsight patient, Proceedings of the 6th
World Congress of Neurorehabilitation, 75-78
Sandberg, K. Bahrami, B. Barnes, GR. Overgaard, M. & Rees, G. (2009): Localization of cortical
areas involved in conscious processing during binocular rivalry using MEG, Consciousness and its
Measures, Limassol, Cyprus
Seth A, Dienes Z, Cleeremans A, Overgaard M, Pessoa, L (2008): Measuring Consciousness, ASSC
12, Taipei, Taiwan
Overgaard M, Sandberg K, Timmermanns B, Cleeremans A (2008): Measuring conscious mental
states, Measuring Behavior, 6th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in
Behavioral Research, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Aadal, L. Kirkevold, M. Overgaard, M. & Borg, T. (2009): Rehabilitation of targeted daily life
competences as situated learning – Intensive rehabilitation of patients with severe traumatic brain
injury, International Council of Nurses, Durban, South Africa
Timmermans, B., Sandberg, K., Bibby, B.M., Cleeremans, A. & Overgaard, M. (2009). Three
awareness scales predict performance in a visual identification task, and suggest no performance
without awareness. The XVIth ESCoP Conference, Krakow, Poland.
Overgaard, M. & Cleeremans, A. (2007) "Measuring consciousness": Combining objective and
subjective data, and what it may all mean. In: 11th annual meeting of the Association for the
Scientific Study of Consciousness, Las Vegas, USA, Book of Abstracts, p. 27
Overgaard, M. & Kriegel, U. (2006): The place for ACC and dlPFC in phenomenal Consciousness,
ASSC 10, Oxford
Ramsøy, T.Z., Overgaard, M. & Christensen, M.S. (2005): The perception awareness scale – a
method for studying consciousness empirically, Towards a Science of Consciousness, Copenhagen
Sørensen TA, Vangkilde S, Koivisto M, Overgaard M. (2004): Introspection and non-introspection:
An EEG study, the Third Meeting of The Nordic Network for Consciousness Studies, Aarhus
Overgaard M. (2004): Confounding issues in neuroscientific approaches to consciousness, the Third
Meeting of The Nordic Network for Consciousness Studies, Aarhus
Overgaard M.(2004): Operationalising first person states, the Third Meeting of The Nordic Network
for Consciousness Studies, Aarhus
Roepstorff A, Hohwy J, Vuust P, Overgaard M. & Gjedde A. (2004): Interaction between visual
imagery and perception, the 10th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping,
Budapest
Overgaard M. (2003): First order experiences and second order awareness: A distinction with a
difference, the Second Meeting of The Nordic Network for Consciousness Studies, Turku
Overgaard M. (2003): TMS-induced subliminal perception: A case of accessibility without
phenomenality? Conceptual and Empirical Issues in Contemporary Consciousness Research,
Odense.
Ramsøy T.Z. & Overgaard M. (2002): Breaking the dichotomy: Introspective reports and
subliminal perception, ASSC 6: Consciousness and Language, Barcelona
Overgaard M. (2002): The neural processing time necessary for visual consciousness, the First
Meeting of The Nordic Network for Consciousness Studies, Skövde.
Overgaard M, Kauffmann O & Ramsøy T.Z. (2001): Consciousness and introspection, Journal of
Consciousness Studies: Consciousness Research Abstracts, 182.
Research monographs and edited volumes
Overgaard, M. (in contract): Behavioural Methods in Consciousness Research, Oxford University
Press
Overgaard, M. & Jensen, M. (2012): Consciousness and Neural Plasticity, Frontiers Books
Overgaard, M. (2010): Measuring Consciousness – Bridging the Mind-Brain Gap, Report to the
European Commission
Overgaard, M. (2006): Introspection, edited special issue of Consciousness and Cognition
Overgaard M. (2003): Theoretical and Empirical Studies of Consciousness, Ph.D.-thesis, University
of Aarhus.
Overgaard M, Nielsen J.F. & Johansen DH (2002): Visual consciousness and re-entrance from the
ventral stream: A TMS study with implications for the finding of neural correlates of consciousness,
Research Report, Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona and The Fetzer Institute
Publications without peer review
Overgaard, M. (2013): Bevidstheden, Hjernen, Systime
Overgaard, M. (2011): Bevidsthed og hjerneskade, Tidsskriftet Specialpædagogik, 31, 2, 13-15
Overgaard M (2009): Bevidsthed og hjerneskade. Hjernesagen, 4, 18-20
Overgaard, M (2009). Unravelling the human mind. Public Service Review: European Union, 18
Overgaard M (2005): "Qualitative" neuropsychology: Integrating first person data in quantitative
research, Nyhedsbrev fra Center for Kvalitativ Metodeudvikling, Aarhus Universitet 38, 26-40.
Overgaard, M. Ramsøy, T.Z. & Skov, M. (2005): Psykologi og neurovidenskab, PsykologNyt, 6,
20-27.
Overgaard M. (2003): Voluntary Action, Science and Consciousness Review, 8, 1-4.
Overgaard M. (2002): Automaticity, unconsciousness and speech production, Science and
Consciousness Review, 7, 1-2.
Overgaard, M. (2001): Introspection as object for qualitative research, Nyhedsbrevet, Center for
Kvalitativ Metodeforskning, 31, 27-30.