Marta Kutas

Marta Kutas (born September 2, 1949) is a Professor and Chair of cognitive science and an adjunct professor of neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. She also directs the Center for Research in Language at UCSD. Kutas is known for discovering the N400, an event-related potential (ERP) component typically elicited by unexpected linguistic stimuli, with her colleague Steven Hillyard in one of the first studies in what is now the field of neurolinguistics.

Education and career Kutas received a B.A. in 1971 from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in 1977 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego in 1980. She then accepted a position as a research neuroscientist in the Department of Neurosciences at UCSD, and she has been a member of the Department of Cognitive Science at UCSD since its founding in 1988. In 2018, Kutas was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Research Kutas' research interests are focused in language comprehension/production, specifically how meaning (from all sorts of sensory inputs) is organized, accessed, and constructed. Kutas examines these cognitive processes in both healthy and clinical populations throughout the adult lifespan. Her principle technique used to study these cognitive processes in electroencephalography and ERPs.

Awards and honors 2023- Revelle Medal Award, UC, San Diego, CA 2015- Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Distinguished Career Contributions Award 2007- Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology