About us
Our centre explores the full range of human sensory experience across development, cultures, neurotypes, and both typical and atypical minds.
Our research
The Sussex Centre for Sensory and Perceptual Diversity (SPeD) brings together researchers across the School of Psychology to explore the full spectrum of human sensory and perceptual experience. We study how people sense and perceive the world across development, cultures, different neurotypes, and typical and atypical minds.
How do we experience the outside world through our senses; seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching? How do we sense our body’s internal state, from heartbeat to lung stretch? What happens when sensations become overwhelming, unusually intense, or disappear completely? Why do some people avoid certain sensations while others seek them out? And how do senses interact—integrating in everyday life or blending strikingly in synaesthesia, where sounds may have colours or tastes?
These questions frame the basis for our research.
Our research covers:
- vision
- hearing
- taste
- smell
- touch
- interoception
- multisensory integration
- sensory preferences and aversions
- sensory loss
- synaesthesia
- misophonia
- hyperacusis
- aphantasia.
Research methods
We use a wide range of innovative and complementary methods which include:
- psychophysics
- EEG
- neuroimaging
- infant and child testing
- cross-cultural fieldwork
- VR
- eye-tracking
- participatory and qualitative approaches
- genetic analysis
- questionnaires and open-science frameworks.
We also develop diagnostic tools, research platforms and sensory-focused technologies to match the diversity of experiences we study.
We combine basic science with applied research and real-world impact. Working in partnership with lived-experience groups, schools, clinical services, community organisations and industry, we aim to deepen scientific understanding while creating practical tools, resources and environments that support sensory wellbeing, inclusion and accessibility.