Staff profile

About me

I investigate how children and adults use sensory information to ground the sense of bodily self, and to guide movement. My current projects examine plasticity in the developing sensorimotor system.

I lead an ESRC-funded grant (2022-25), in collaboration with Profs Gillies & Pan at Goldsmiths. We use combined motion capture and virtual reality to study how children can accept virtual bodies which are different from their own. Together with Prof Tamar Makin, at Cambridge, I examine how children with limb differences learn to interact with their environments.

For more detail, please check out my website or follow me on Twitter (@dcowiedurham).

Recent Funding:

2022-25 ESRC, £608,382. The plasticity of the bodily self: how function and age shape the acceptance of virtual bodies. (PI).
2022 British Psychological Society bursary to I Castelow under my supervision.
2022 Durham Doctoral Studentship to E Grimshaw under my supervision.
2020 British Psychological Society bursary to E Grimshaw under my supervision.
2020 Guarantors of Brain, £3000. Workshop grant (CoI).
2017-21 ESRC, £500,131. The development of own-body representation in childhood. (PI).

• Embodied virtual reality
• Limb differences
• Sensorimotor development
• Body representation

• 2022: Action Editor: Multisensory Research.:
• 2022: External Examiner, Summer School, UCL Centre for Languages and International Education:
• 2022: External Examiner, Psychology BSc, UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences:

Chapter in book

• Bremner, A., & Cowie, D. (2013). Developmental origins of the hand in the mind, and the role of the hands in the development of the mind. In Z. Radman (Ed.), The hand: An organ of the mind. What the manual tells the mental (27-55). Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press
• Nardini, M., & Cowie, D. (2012). The development of multisensory balance, locomotion, orientation and navigation. In A. Bremner, D. Lewkowicz, & C. Spence (Eds.), Multisensory development (137-159). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780199586059.003.0006

Journal Article

• Allen, K. R., Smith, K. A., Bird, L.-A., Tenenbaum, J. B., Makin, T. R., & Cowie, D. (online). Lifelong learning of cognitive styles for physical problem-solving: The effect of embodied experience. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 31, 1364–1375. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-023-02400-4
• Hanson, L. N., Gott, A., Tomsett, M., Useh, E., Yeadon-Caiger, E., Clay, R., Fan, J., Hui, K., Wang, H., Evans, E. H., Cowie, D., & Boothroyd, L. G. (2024). Examining body appreciation in six countries: The impact of age and sociocultural pressure. PLoS ONE, 19(7), Article e0306913. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306913
• Clode, D., Dowdall, L., da Silva, E., Selén, K., Cowie, D., Dominijanni, G., & Makin, T. R. (2024). Evaluating initial usability of a hand augmentation device across a large and diverse sample. Science Robotics, 9(90), Article eadk5183. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adk5183
• Dewe, H., Sill, O., Thurlbeck, S., Kentridge, R., & Cowie, D. (2024). The role of visuomotor synchrony on virtual full‐body illusions in children and adults. Journal of Neuropsychology, https://doi.org/10.1111/jnp.12372
• Dewe, H., Gottwald, J., Bird, L.-A., Brenton, H., Gillies, M., & Cowie, D. (2022). My virtual self: the role of movement in children's sense of embodiment. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 28(12), 4061-4072. https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2021.3073906
• Keenaghan, S., Polaskova, M., Thurlbeck, S., Kentridge, R. W., & Cowie, D. (2022). Alice in Wonderland: The effects of body size and movement on children’s size perception and body representation in virtual reality. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 224, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105518
• Cowie, D., Gottwald, J. M., Bird, L.-A., & Bremner, A. J. (2022). The role of hand size in body representation: a developmental investigation. Scientific Reports, 12(1), Article 19281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23716-6
• Mathew, R., Collaboration, T. I. H., & Mushtaq, F. (2021). Three principles for the progress of immersive technologies in healthcare training and education. BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning, 7(5), 459-460. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjstel-2021-000881
• Dayal, V., Rajabian, A., Jahanshahi, M., Aviles-Olmos, I., Cowie, D., Peters, A., Day, B., Hyam, J., Akram, H., Limousin, P., Hariz, M., Zrinzo, L., & Foltynie, T. (2021). Pedunculopontine Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinsonian Disorders: A Case Series. Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, 99(4), 287–294. https://doi.org/10.1159/000511978
• Gottwald, J., Keenaghan, S., Zampieri, E., Tosodduk, H., Bremner, A. J., & Cowie, D. (2021). The developing bodily self: How posture constrains body representation in childhood. Child Development, 92(1), 351-366. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13425
• Mowbray, R., & Cowie, D. (2020). Mind your step: learning to walk in complex environments. Experimental Brain Research, 238(6), 1455-1465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05821-y
• Keenaghan, S., Bowles, L., Crawfurd, G., Thurlbeck, S., Kentridge, R. W., & Cowie, D. (2020). My body until proven otherwise: Exploring the time course of the full body illusion. Consciousness and Cognition, 78, Article 102882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2020.102882
• Thaler, L., Zhang, X., Antoniou, M., Kish, D., & Cowie, D. (2020). The flexible Action System: Click-based Echolocation may replace certain visual Functionality for adaptive Walking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 46(1), 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000697
• Mowbray, R., Gottwald, J., Zhao, M., Atkinson, A., & Cowie, D. (2019). The development of visually guided stepping. Experimental Brain Research, 237(11), 2875-2883. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05629-5
• Knight, F. L. C., Bremner, A. J., & Cowie, D. (2019). Does the language we use to segment the body, shape the way we perceive it? A study of tactile perceptual distortions. Cognition, 197, Article 104127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104127
• Mora, L., Cowie, D., Banissy, M. J., & Cocchini, G. (2018). My true face: Unmasking one's own face representation. Acta Psychologica, 191, 63-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.08.014
• Cowie, D., McKenna, A., Bremner, A., & Aspell, J. (2018). The development of bodily self-consciousness: Changing responses to the Full Body Illusion in childhood. Developmental Science, 21(3), Article e12557. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12557
• Le Cornu Knight, F., Cowie, D., & Bremner, A. (2017). Part-based representations of the body in early childhood: evidence from perceived distortions of tactile space across limb boundaries. Developmental Science, 20(6), Article e12439. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12439
• D'Souza, H., Cowie, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Bremner, A. (2016). Specialization of the motor system in infancy: From broad tuning to selectively specialized purposeful actions. Developmental Science, 20(4), Article e12409. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12409
• Cowie, D., Sterling, S., & Bremner, A. (2016). The development of multisensory body representation and awareness continues to 10 years of age: evidence from the rubber hand illusion. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 230-238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.10.003
• Bremner, A., Ali, J., & Cowie, D. (2014). The origins of ability and automaticity in tactile spatial perception. Developmental Science, 17(6), 946-947. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12185
• Begum Ali, J., Cowie, D., & Bremner, A. (2014). Effects of posture on tactile localization by 4 years of age are modulated by sight of the hands: evidence for an early acquired external spatial frame of reference for touch. Developmental Science, 17(6), 935-943. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12184
• Cowie, D., Makin, T. R., & Bremner, A. J. (2013). Children’s Responses to the Rubber-Hand Illusion Reveal Dissociable Pathways in Body Representation. Psychological Science, 24(5), 762-769. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612462902
• Cowie, D., Limousin, P., Peters, A., Hariz, M., & Day, B. (2012). Doorway-provoked freezing of gait and its treatment in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders, 27(4), 492-499. https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.23990
• Cowie, D., Braddick, O., & Atkinson, J. (2012). Visually guided step descent in children with Williams Syndrome. Developmental Science, 15(1), 74-86. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01104.x
• Aviles-Olmos, I., Foltynie, T., Panicker, J., Cowie, D., Limousin, P., Hariz, M., Fowler, C., & Zrinzo, L. (2012). The surgical anatomy of the pedunculopontine nucleus cannot be disputed, buried or exhumed. Acta Neurochirurgica, 154(8), 1531-1533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-012-1375-4
• Aviles-Olmos, I., Foltynie, T., Panicker, J., Cowie, D., Limousin, P., Hariz, M., Fowler, C., & Zrinzo, L. (2012). Uncertainty, misunderstanding and the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus - Response to letter by Mazzone et al. Acta Neurochirurgica, 154(5), 839-841. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-012-1315-3
• Aviles-Olmos, I., Foltynie, T., Panicker, J., Cowie, D., Limousin, P., Hariz, M., Fowler, C., & Zrinzo, L. (2011). Urinary incontinence following deep brain stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus. Acta Neurochirurgica, 153(12), 2357-2360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-011-1155-6
• Cowie, D., Limousin, P., Peters, A., & Day, B. (2010). Insights into the neural control of locomotion from walking through doorways in Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychologia, 48(9), 2750-2757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.05.022
• Cowie, D., Atkinson, J., & Braddick, O. (2010). Development of visual control in stepping down. Experimental Brain Research, 202(1), 181-188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-009-2125-6
• Cowie, D., Smith, L., & Braddick, O. (2010). The development of locomotor planning for end-state comfort. Perception, 39(5), 661-670. https://doi.org/10.1068/p6343
• Nardini, M., Braddick, O., Atkinson, J., Cowie, D., Ahmed, T., & Reidy, H. (2008). Uneven integration for perception and action cues in children’s working memory. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 25(7-8), 968-984. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290701866028
• Cowie, D., Braddick, O., & Atkinson, J. (2008). Visual control of action in step descent. Experimental Brain Research, 186(2), 343-348. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-008-1320-1
• Curnow, T., Cowie, D., Henning, G., & Hill, N. (2007). Some observations on the masking effects of Mach Bands. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 24(10), 3233-3241. https://doi.org/10.1364/josaa.24.003233

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Cowie, D. (online). Own-Body Perception