Fleur Bouwer
Assistant professor
- Name
- Dr. F.L. Bouwer
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- f.l.bouwer@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-7064-7481
Fleur Bouwer is a cognitive neuroscientist. In her research, she combines a fascination for human behaviour and the brain with a passion for music. Her research focuses on auditory perception in general, and on processes associated with rhythm in music in particular.
Fleur Bouwer is a cognitive neuroscientist. In her research, she combines a fascination for human behaviour and the brain with a passion for music. Her research focuses on auditory perception in general, and on processes associated with rhythm in music in particular.
Research
In her research, Bouwer combines behavioural tasks with computational modelling and neuroimaging techniques like EEG and fMRI, to examine how humans process different aspects of rhythm in music. In addition, Bouwer is involved in projects aimed at understanding what musicality is, and how we can measure and explain differences in musicality between individuals. She is also involved in projects aimed towards applications of her fundamental research question: how can we benefit from music?
Short CV
Before starting her PhD research, Bouwer spent over a decade on stage, as a performing clarinettist. She studied the clarinet at the Amsterdam Conservatory (Mmus, 2009), and appeared on stage as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. During her studies and career as a clarinettist, she became more and more fascinated by the human brain. After obtaining a master's degree in psychology (2011) at the University of Amsterdam, she pursued a PhD supervised by Prof. Henkjan Honing at the University of Amsterdam, examining the role of attention and expertise in musical rhythm processing
After her PhD, Bouwer worked as a postdoctoral researcher at both the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), supervised by Prof. Heleen Slagter. During her time as a postdoc, Bouwer examined the relationship between expectations in time and rhythm and beat perception in the brain. Since 2023, Bouwer is an assistant professor in the Cognitive Psychology Unit at Leiden University.
In addition to her work as a researcher, Bouwer is an enthusiastic teacher. She teaches courses at the bachelor and master level and is asked as a public speaker on a regular basis to bring science about the exceptional bond between humans and music to a wider public.
Grants and Awards
Research Grants:
- 2023 Impact Grant (UvA Psychology) - Pilot study examining music in dementia
- 2020 VENI Grant (NWO) - Rhythm processing
- 2020 ABC Project Grant (Amsterdam Brain and Cognition) - Rhythm processing (Co-applicant)
- 2016 ABC Talent Grant (Amsterdam Brain and Cognition) - Rhythm processing
Other grants and awards:
- 2023 NWA WECOM (NWO) - Snaartjes, an interactive festival about science and music
- 2021 Science Communication By Scientists: Rewarded! (KNAW) - Toontjehoger (Co-applicant)
- 2017 Distinguished Women Scientists Fund (LNVH) - Research visit to Brain & Mind Institute, London, ON, Canada
- 2014 Best Pitch Award, Night of the Brain
Assistant professor
- Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen
- Instituut Psychologie
- Cognitieve Psychologie
- Háden G.P., Bouwer F.L., Honing H. & Winkler I. (2024), Beat processing in newborn infants cannot be explained by statistical learning based on transition probabilities, Cognition 243: 105670.
- Bouwer F.L., Háden G.P. & Honing H. (2024), Probing beat perception with Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) in human adults, newborns, and nonhuman primates. In: Merchant H. & Lafuente V. de (Eds.), Neurobiology of interval timing. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology no. 1455 227-256.
- Fiveash A., Ferreri L., Bouwer F.L., Kösem A., Moghimi S., Ravignani A., Keller P.e. & Tillmann B. (2023), Can rhythm-mediated reward boost learning, memory, and social connection? : Perspectives for future research, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 149: 105153.
- Bouwer F.L., Fahrenfort J.J., Millard S.K., Kloosterman N.A. & Slagter H.A. (2023), A silent disco: differential effects of beat-based and pattern-based temporal expectations on persistent entrainment of low-frequency neural oscillations, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 35(6): 990-1020.
- Bouwer F.L. & (2022), Neural entrainment to auditory rhythms:: automatic or top-down driven?, The Journal of Neuroscience 42(11): 2146-2148.
- Slagter H.A. & Bouwer F.L. (2021), Qualitative versus quantitative individual differences in cognitive neuroscience, Journal of Cognition 4(1): 49.
- Bouwer F.L., Nityananda V., Rouse A.A. & Cate C. ten (2021), Rhythmic abilities in humans and non-human animals: a review and recommendations from a methodological perspective, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376: 20200335.
- Bouwer F.L., Honing H. & Slagter H.A. (2020), Beat-based and memory-based temporal expectations in rhythm: : similar perceptual effects, different underlying mechanisms, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 32(7): 1221–1241.
- Honing H. & Bouwer F.L. (2019), Rhythm. In: Rentfrow J. & Levitin D. (Eds.), Foundations of music psychology: theory and research. Foundations of Music Psychology: Theory and Research. Cambridge: Mass: MIT Press.
- Honing H., Bouwer F.L., Prado L. & Merchant H. (2018), Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) sense isochrony in rhythm, but not the beat: additional support for the gradual audiomotor evolution hypothesis, Frontiers in Neuroscience 12: 475.
- Bouwer F.L., Burgoyne J.A., Odijk D., Hong H. & Grahn J.A. (2018), What makes a rhythm complex?: The influence of musical training and accent type on beat perception, PLoS ONE 13(1): e0190322.
- Roncaglia-Denissen M.P., Bouwer F.L. & Honing H. (2018), Decision making strategy and the simultaneous processing of syntactic dependencies in language and music, Frontiers in Psychology: Cognitive Science 9: 38.
- Bouwer F.L., Werner C.M., Knetemann M. & Honing H. (2016), Disentangling beat perception from sequential learning and examining the influence of attention and musical abilities on ERP responses to rhythm, Neuropsychologia 85: 80-90.
- Bouwer F.L. & Honing H. (2015), Temporal attending and prediction influence the perception of metrical rhythm:: evidence from reaction times and ERPs, Frontiers in Psychology 6: 1094.
- Bouwer F.L., Zuijen T.L. van & Honing H. (2014), Beat processing is pre-attentive for metrically simple rhythms with clear accents: an ERP study, PLoS ONE 9(5): e97467.
- Honing H., Bouwer F.L. & Háden G.P. (2014), Perceiving temporal regularity in music: the role of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in probing beat perception. In: Merchant H. & Lafuente V. de (Eds.), Neurobiology of interval timing. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology no. 829. New York: Springer.