Dr. Nicolas Burra obtained his PhD in Neuroscience in 2013 from the University of Geneva. His thesis, which focused on cognitive psychology, was entitled "Interaction between top-down and bottom-up attentional capture in visual search". This research was conducted using electroencephalography (EEG) as the main analysis tool.  

After completing his doctorate, Dr. Burra received an independent Early.postdoc Mobility grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for a postdoctoral project at the Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière in Paris. There, he expanded his knowledge of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and established a solid scientific network in the field of social cognition. On his return to Geneva, he continued his research as a post-doctoral fellow, then as a lecturer at the University of Geneva. He was awarded an SNSF grant for a project entitled 'The role of top-down mechanism in gaze perception'. 

Dr. Burra intends to study and extend theoretical models of gaze perception. He plans to use techniques such as EEG and MEG to study the temporal dynamics of social interactions. In an innovative move, he wants to measure brain activity during authentic social interactions outside the laboratory. He is currently working with Professor Guillaume Dumas (U. Montréal) to set up a hyperscanning EEG facility at the UNIGE. This pioneering system will make it possible to study behaviour and brain synchronisation in social cognition in a natural context. Dr. Burra is also preparing grant proposals to study the impact of social interactions as a function of context.