Neuropsychologist
Coma Science Group
Postdoctoral researcher
Charlotte Martial
BIOGRAPHY
PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Pharmaceutics “Characterization of near-death experiences and their experiencers”, University of Liège, Belgium. Graduated April 2018.
MSc in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences, Psychological Sciences, University of Liège, Belgium. Graduated June 2014.
BSc in Psychological Sciences, University of Liège, Belgium. Graduated June 2012.
ABOUT
Charlotte leads the projects on the phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs). More generally, Charlotte studies conditions in which people are outwardly unresponsive such as during general anesthesia or cardiac arrest, but ‘disconnected’ or ‘connected’ to the world, as testified by the detailed subjective reports upon awakening. After joining the Centre for Psychedelic Research (Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, UK) in 2019, she has work more extensively on the comparison between (a)typical psychedelic experiences and NDEs, suggesting that the former may model the latter in laboratory settings. To broaden her exploration of human consciousness, she has delved into a comprehensive spectrum of physiological (e.g., hypnosis, cognitive trance), pathological (e.g., disorder of consciousness), and pharmacological (e.g., anesthesia) conditions, demonstrating that unresponsiveness cannot be considered as a surrogate of unconsciousness employing state-of-the-art multimodal functional neuroimaging techniques. Her research is embedded within a unique intellectual framework beyond the classical disciplinary perspectives in science and medicine.
She has published more than 75 papers in international peer-reviewed journals such as Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Critical Care, Sciences Advances and NeuroImage, and several book chapters. Her contributions have been recognized with awards such as the prestigious International Brain Injury Association (IBIA) Young Investigator Award. She has been invited in numerous international conferences as a (keynote) speaker and moderator, and has served on scientific organizing committees of several conferences such as at the New York Academy of Sciences. She has been Guest Associate Editor for special issues for peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. Currently, she supervises several PhD students, with a long-term aim of advancing the understanding of NDE, while promoting education and public awareness about this captivating clinical and research field.
Charlotte is also affiliated to the Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit (PsyNCog) from the University of Liège (Belgium).