Susan G. Wardle, PhD

I’m a Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA.

The aim of my research in cognitive neuroscience is to understand how the human brain processes visual information. I’m particularly interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying our ability to recognize faces and objects. Towards this goal, I use neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, MEG), behavioral experiments, and computational tools to understand how brain activity gives rise to human behavior.

Before moving to Washington D.C. in 2018 to work at the NIH, I was based in Australia and completed my PhD at The University of Sydney followed by a postdoctoral position at UNSW Sydney and an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship at Macquarie University.

You can watch a recent talk I gave on my research on face pareidolia here on YouTube.

Or, watch a short 5 min animated video I created in collaboration with TED-Ed about the science of face pareidolia– available on the TED-Ed website or on YouTube.