Dr Cruse is a Psychologist, Cognitive Neuroscientist, and expert in the fields of consciousness, neuro-electrophysiology, and severe brain injury.
His research focuses on understanding how the human brain generates conscious experiences, and the ways in which these experiences are affected by the most severe types of brain injury.
Dr Cruse's research has helped to identify residual conscious abilities in patients who are entirely unresponsive after a brain injury, thereby directly helping to improve clinical practice and the accuracy of patient diagnoses and prognoses. His research has been covered by BBC TV and Radio, The Guardian, and The New York Times, among others.
Dr Cruse studied undergraduate Applied Psychology at Cardiff University before completing his PhD in the Cognitive Neuroscience of human episodic memory. He has since worked in the electrophysiology of consciousness disorders at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Cambridge, UK) and the Brain and Mind Institute of The University of Western Ontario (London, Canada) before taking up his current role as an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK.