Mattias Nilsson

My research focuses on how human gaze and eye movements reflect brain function. It encompasses the role of gaze in both health and disease, and across the lifespan, from childhood to old age. A central goal is to better understand the relationship between eye movements and brain function and to develop models and applications that can contribute to the early detection of neurological diseases and disorders. Our studies are primarily based on eye-tracking recordings, but we are interested in all types of physiological data that can be linked to human sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processes.

One research strand focuses on reading development in children and adolescents, and how eye movements during reading can reflect language-based reading difficulties, commonly known as dyslexia. More recently, we have also investigated how voluntary and involuntary eye movements are affected by changes in the nervous system and the degeneration of nerve cells, for example in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Can subtle changes in eye movements and gaze behavior serve as early markers of these conditions?

To address these questions, we develop computational models and analyses using machine learning and artificial intelligence. These methods provide new opportunities to map the interplay between vision, eye movements, and brain function, and to translate this knowledge into clinically relevant applications that benefit society.

Awards and Distinctions

• 2022 – Award from The Swedish Dyslexia Association and the Marianne Bernadotte scholarship fund for "Important contributions to reading  research".
• 2019 – IVA-award for "Research with prominent potential for trade and industry in the field of digitization". Awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Kungl. Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien - IVA).
• 2016 – EiNAR award (Excellence in Neuroscience Annual Reward). Awarded by the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet.

• 2018 – Present: Course coordinator and teacher in Statistics and Scientific Methods, Optometry Programme, Karolinska Institutet
• 2016 – 2017: Teacher in Statistics and Scientific Methods, Optometry Programme, Karolinska Institutet
• 2007– 2012: Teacher in computational linguistics at the Language Technology Programme, Uppsala University

Supervision to doctoral degree

• Andrea Strandberg, Gaze into literacy: the potential of eye movement analysis for assessing children's word reading skills in ecological contexts