Stanislas Dehaene is a French cognitive neuroscientist. He holds the Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology at Collége de France in Paris and is the director of NeuroSpin, France's advanced brain-imaging research center.
Stanislas Dehaene's research uses behavioral and brain-imaging techniques to probe how the human brain acquires new capacities through language and education. Focusing on how we learn to read words and numbers, he has demonstrated that many of these processes can unfold unconsciously, and he proposed a precise theory of the brain mechanisms for conscious processing. By comparing the abilities of human adults, children, and non-human primates, as well as contrasting literate and non-literate people, his research attempts to separate evolutionarily ancient cognitive computations versus recent, possibly human-specific ones.
In 2018, Stanislas Dehaene became the president of the newly created French Scientific Council for Education, which advises the French government on scientific approaches to learning and teaching. He is the author of multiple books including Reading in the Brain (2009) and How We Learn (2020), which were translated into more than fifteen languages.
Professional position
- Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology, Collège de France
- Director, NeuroSpin Brain Imaging Center, CEA Saclay
- Director, INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, NeuroSpin Brain Imaging Center
Subject groups
- Computer sciences
Artificial intelligence, machine learning, vision
