Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group

The Brainlab, led by Carles Escera, belongs to the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona and the Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu. We are located at the Faculty of Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology.

We are a small, multinational, interdisciplinary group, including psychologists, biologists, engineers, and physicists. We seek to unravel the brain mechanisms of cognitive functions, including attention, auditory and speech perception, motor-sensory interactions, and executive control. Also, we are interested in emotional and musical processing, and in cognitive dysfunction in a broad spectrum of neurological, neurodevelopment and mental disorders.

To achieve our goals, we combine the recording of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) to analyze evoked and event-related brain potentials (such as the Frequency-Following Response – FFR, the Middle Latency Response –MLR, or the Mismatch Negativity –MMN) and oscillatory brain activity, with magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and neurogenetic analysis. Part of our research is conducted in collaboration with labs located worldwide, such as the University of Helsinki and University of Jyväskylä (Finland), the Fukushima Medical University (Japan), the University of Leipzig (Germany) and the University of Salamanca (Spain). We are committed to higher-education training, at Master (Neuroscience and Research in and Behavior and Cognition programs) and PhD (Biomedicine/Neurosciences) levels.

Research lines

  • Cognitive auditory neuroscience

    Carles Escera

  • Predictive processes in motor-sensory interactions

    Iria SanMiguel

  • Neural dynamics of affective processing

    Judith Domínguez-Borràs

  • Coherent oscillations at pitch rates in sensorimotor integration and voice production

    Jordi Costa Faidella

  • Cognitive neurogenetics

    Marc Via

  • Numerical cognition and math anxiety

    Maria Isabel Nuñez-Peña

News

  • Open Call for a 3+1 Year PhD Position in Cognitive Neuroscience

    The Brainlab – Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group (University of Barcelona) invites applications for a 3+1 year fully funded PhD position, expected to commence in Spring 2027. The successful candidate will join the project “Interindividual variability in the Sense of Agency: contributing factors, underlying neurobiology, and measurement tools (VariSoA)”, funded through the Spanish FPI program. Principal Investigators: Dr. Iria SanMiguel and [...]

    31/07/2026

  • Postdoctoral Opportunities at Brainlab through the “la Caixa” Junior Leader Fellowships 2026

    The Brainlab – Cognitive Neuroscience Research Group at the University of Barcelona invites outstanding early-career researchers to express their interest in applying for the “la Caixa” Foundation Junior Leader Postdoctoral Fellowships 2026 with Brainlab as the host research group. The Junior Leader programme supports excellent researchers from all nationalities who wish to develop an ambitious postdoctoral research project at leading [...]

    17/07/2026

  • Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences links rhythmic drumming and trait absorption to nonordinary states of consciousness

    A new study by Raquel Aparicio-Terrés, Samantha López-Mochales, Margarita Díaz-Andreu, and Carles Escera has been published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. The paper, entitled “Rhythmicity and Trait Absorption Are Linked to Nonordinary States of Consciousness”, investigates how rhythmic auditory stimulation influences subjective experiences associated with nonordinary states of consciousness (NSCs), and whether these effects are related [...]

    18/06/2026

Latest publications

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