John Iversen is a cognitive neuroscientist with a background in physics developing tools to study dynamic mechanisms of cognition and development. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University in Canada.

Iversen’s work involves the study of the cooperation between perceptual and motor systems in shaping our perception of the world. A focus is on the perception and production of temporal rhythms in music and language and potential therapeutic and educational applications of music. Rhythm provides a well-defined test case for the hypothesis that the motor system plays a causal role in auditory perception, and that the development of this system is important for learning to temporally guide attention. Iversen approaches research questions using behavior and EEG/MEG recording and analysis, including recordings of the complex auditory brainstem responses. He is also involved in the development of new algorithms to analyze multimodal EEG/MEG data, including the integration of motion capture data with EEG analysis, and new approaches to connectivity analysis.