Peter Tse, PhD

Dr. Peter Ulric Tse is a distinguished Full Professor and the current Chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. With a PhD in Experimental Cognitive and Perceptual Psychology from Harvard University and extensive post-doctoral research, including at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Dr. Tse has established himself as a leading authority in cognitive neuroscience. His research focuses on the neural basis of perception, attention, and consciousness, with particular expertise in how visual perception and attention mechanisms can influence outcomes.

Dr. Tse’s profound understanding of these areas is supported by a prolific record of peer-reviewed publications, authored books on topics including free will and the human brain, and numerous prestigious grants and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and multiple Humboldt Foundation grants. As an expert for Quantify Engineering, Dr. Tse brings this deep, scientifically grounded knowledge to bear on complex legal cases requiring nuanced understanding of human cognition and perception.

Post-Doc in fMRI monkey lab of Dr. Nikos Logothetis, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany 1/1999 – 9/2001

Ph.D. in Experimental Cognitive and Perceptual Psychology, Harvard University (December, 1998), Advisors: Drs. Patrick Cavanagh and Ken Nakayama, Thesis: “Volumes and visual completion”, 9/1993 – 12/1998

Special Student in Psychology, Harvard University (preparatory courses for graduate school), 1/1992 – 8/1993

“Studium ohne Abschluss” in Philosophy of Mind, University of Konstanz, Germany, 1987

B.A. and Sr. Fellowship in Physics and Mathematics, Dartmouth College, Advisor: Prof. Joe Harris, Sr. Fellowship Thesis: “Time, complexity, and randomness in nature”, 1980 – 1984

2001-Present, Faculty, Full Professor, and Department Chair of the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department at Dartmouth College

1988-1991 Kobe Steel Corporation, Kobe, Japan

1984-1986 Peace Corps Volunteer school teacher in eastern Nepal

1983 Salmon troller deckhand out of Sitka, Alaska

Books:

2024, A Neurophilosophy of Libertarian Free Will. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198876953.001.0001

2024, Free Imagination. This is about how human free will arises from imagination. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198901181.001.0001

2014, Criterial Causation offers a neural basis for free will. MIT Press Bits book. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262019101.003.0003

2013, The Neural Basis of Free Will: Criterial Causation. MIT Press is an authored, not edited book, 480 pages long. It is about the neural code, attention and volition, and argues that the neural code is most fundamentally a rapid synaptic reweighting code. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262019101.001.0001

2006, Progress in Brain Research: Visual Perception Part 1: Fundamentals of Vision, Low and Mid-level processes in Perception’ Edited by S. Martinez-Conde, S.L. Macknik, L.M. Martinez, J.-M. Alonso and P.U. Tse. This is vol. 154 of the book series.

2006, ‘Progress in Brain Research: Visual Perception Part 2: Fundamentals of Awareness, Multi-Sensory Integration and High-Order Perception’ Edited by S. Martinez-Conde, S.L. Macknik, L.M. Martinez, J.-M. Alonso and P.U. Tse. This is vol. 155 of the book series.

Teaching:

Dartmouth College
PBS 1: Intro Psych (chair) 08 FW, 13WS, 14WS, 15WS, 25F
PBS 10: Experimental design, methodology, and data analysis procedures 03S, 04S, 05S
PBS 21: Perception 02S, 06F, 09F, 10F, 13S, 14S, 16S, 17F, 18F, 19F, 20F, 21F, 24F, 25F
PBS 51: The Frontal Lobes 11S
PBS 51: The neural basis of consciousness 14W,15S,15F
PBS 51: The mind-body problem 17S, 20W, 21F
PBS 64 Perception Lab 10W
PBS 81: The evolution of the human mind and brain, senior seminar 03F
PBS 81: The neural basis of consciousness, senior seminar 04F, 07W, 19W
PBS 81: Neural Basis of Volition and Mental Causation 10S
PBS 81 Mind/Body problem 16S, 20W
PBS 81 Neural basis of human imagination 17W
PBS81 “Mind Control” Persuasion 23S
PBS 84: Attention and the Brain, senior seminar 02W,18W
PBS 85: The Symbolic Mind 09W
PBS 111: Visual Processing 02F, 07S graduate seminar
PBS 111: The neural basis of consciousness, graduate seminar 08W
PBS 112: Graduate proseminar (team taught)
PBS 121: Graduate Perception Core Course 13W, 15W, 17W
PBS 128: Graduate Cognitive Neuroscience Core Course 19S, 21S
COCO 28 with Mikhail Gronas: The history of attention 20S, 21S, 23F

Harvard University
1995 and 1996 Teaching Fellow for Dr. Ken Nakayama, “The Rediscovery of Consciousness” undergraduate seminar
1995, Teaching Fellow for Drs. Patrick Cavanagh and Ken Nakayama. “Vision and Brain” undergraduate core course
1994, Teaching Fellow for Drs. Patrick Cavanagh and Ken Nakayama. “Vision and Brain” undergraduate core course

Other
1988 – 1991, Language Teacher, Kobe Steel Corporation, Japan
1984 – 1986 Elementary School Science Teacher, Peace Corps volunteer, rural Nepal

Recent scientific journal publications:

Maechler, M. R., Choe, E., Cavanagh, P., Kohler, P. J., Tse, P. U. (2025). Hemifield Specificity of Attention Response Functions During Multiple Object Tracking. J Neuroscience, e1340242025. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1340-24.2025.

Lytchenko T. K., Maechler, M., Heller, N., Saleki, S., Tse. P. U., Caplovitz. G.P. (2025). Invalid Trials Are Not Required to Observe Neural Correlates of Object-based Attention in Retinotopic Visual Cortex. J Cogn Neurosci. 1-18. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_02313.

Tse, P. U. (2025). The Disencapsulated Mind: A Premotor Theory of Human Imagination. Psychological Review. doi: 10.1037/rev0000535.

Tse, P. U. (2024) Ontological conceptions of information cannot account for consciousness. Consciousness & Cognition,126:103772. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103772.

Cavanagh, P., Caplovitz, G. P., Lytchenko, T. K., Maechler, M. R., Tse, P. U., and Sheinberg, D. R. (2023). The Architecture of Object-Based Attention. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. doi: 10.3758/s13423-023-02281-7.

Frank, S. M., Maechler, M. R.,Fogelson, S. V., & Tse, P. U. (2023). Hierarchical categorization learning is associated with representational changes in the dorsal striatum and posterior frontal and parietal cortex. Human Brain Mapping,1–16.https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.2632316

Tse, P. U. & Hayward, V. (2023). The Knobby Ball Illusion. i-Perception, 14(2), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695231165182

Harris, C., Finn, K., Kieseler, M., Maechler, M., Tse, P. U. (2023). DeepAction: A MATLAB toolbox for automated classification of animal behavior in video. Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29574-0

Saleki, S., Ziman, K., Hartstein, K. C., Cavanagh, P., & Tse, P. U. (2022). Endogenous attention biases transformational apparent motion based on high-level shape representations. Journal of Vision, 22(12):16, 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.22.12.16.

Frank, S. M., Otto, A., Volberg, G., Tse, P. U., Watanabe, T. and Greenlee, M. (2022). Transfer of tactile learning from trained to untrained body parts supported by cortical coactivation in primary somatosensory cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 42(31):6131-6144. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0301-22.2022.

Liu, S. Tse, P. U. and Cavanagh, P. (2022). The perceived position of a moving object is reset by temporal, not spatial limits. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.14.472615 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.14.472615v1.full.pdf

Hartstein, K. C., Saleki, S., Ziman, K., Cavanagh, P. and Tse, P. U. (2021). First- and second-order transformational apparent motion based on processing of common shape representations. Vision Research, 188:246-250. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.07.013.

Maechler, M. R., Heller, N. H., Lisi, M., Cavanagh, P., and Tse, P. U. (2021). Smooth pursuit operates over perceived not retinotopic positions of the double-drift illusion. Journal of Vision. 0(0):08011, 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.0.0.08011.

Saleki, S., Cavanagh, P. and Tse, P. U. (2021). A position anchor sinks the double-drift illusion. Journal of Vision. Journal of Vision, 21 (6): 3, 1-7. doi: 10.1167/jov.21.6.3

Finn, K. R. and Harris, C., Kieseler, M.-L., Atkisson, C., Maechler, M. R., Edelman, D. and Tse, P. U. (2021). Octopus bimaculoides Activity Depends on Who Their Neighbor is. Submitted.

Sun, L., Frank, S. M., Epstein, R. A. and Tse, P. U. (2021). The Parahippocampal Place Area and Hippocampus Encode the Spatial Significance of Landmark Objects. Neuroimage. 236:118081. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118081.

Heller, N. H., Patel, N., Faustin, V. M., Cavanagh, P., & Tse, P. U. (2021). Effects of internal and external velocity on the perceived direction of the double-drift illusion. Journal of Vision, 21(8):2, 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.21.8.2.

Frank, S., Forster, L., Pawallek, M., Malloni, W., Ahn, S., Tse, P. U. and Greenlee, M. (2021). Visual attention modulates glutamate-glutamine levels in vestibular cortex: Evidence from magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Journal of Neuroscience. 41(9):1970-1981. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2018-20.2020.

Maechler, M., Cavanagh, P., and Tse, P. U. (2021). Attentional tracking takes place over perceived rather than veridical positions. Atten Percept Psychophys. doi: 10.3758/s13414-020-02214-9

Özkan, M., Tse, P. U., and Cavanagh, P. (2020). Pop-out for illusory rather than veridical trajectories with double-drift stimuli. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, doi: 10.3758/s13414-020-02035-w.

Hui, J., Wang, Y., Peng, Z.,Tse, P. U. and Cavanagh, P. (2020). Apparent motion is computed in perceptual coordinates. I-Perception, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2041669520933309