Spierer Research Group

Laboratory for Neurorehabilitation Science

We are a clinical neuroscience lab investigating how cognitive training reshapes brain function and behaviour. Our research combines neuroimaging, computational modelling, and large-scale app-based clinical trials to understand training-induced plasticity and translate it into digital interventions that improve health outcomes.

Our current programme is organised around three integrated lines: the affective learning mechanisms that shape individual responses to reward-related cues, the response training interventions that can modify those responses, and the digital behavioural biomarkers that allow us to measure them objectively from a smartphone.

We translate our findings into application through BeweLab SA, our award-winning university spin-off, and are committed to open science: all confirmatory studies follow the Registered Report format with publicly available data and code.

Profile

From Lab to Clinic

Our research is translated into real-world applications through BeweLab SA, an accredited University of Fribourg spin-off.

The platform: A gamified smartphone-based cognitive training app and a patented behavioural biomarker, delivering neuroscience-based interventions at scale without specialised infrastructure. Already deployed in many clinics and supported by the main health insurers.

What's next: Randomised clinical trials as companion to GLP-1 pharmacotherapy, and to reduce alcohol and tobacco consumption

Supported by: Venture Kick (all 3 stages) · Future of Health Grant (CSS/EPFL) · Fribourg Innovation Award 2022

Visit BeweLab

Highlights

 

Pfizer Research Prize 2026 - Awarded for our digital health solution to reduce unhealthy cravings. Read more

Featured on RTS 36.9 - Our science and app showcased on Swiss national television. Watch

New publication in Imaging Neuroscience - Role of affective learning in our cognitive training interventions (January 2026). Readmore

See all lab news

News

January 2026 : We won the prestigious Pfizer Prize for Medical research!

January 2026: New publication in Imaging Neuroscience on the role of affective learning in our interventions!

November 2025: our science is featured in the RTS 36.9 TV show, here:  36.9 show

September 2025: We welcome Dhwani Shah as a PhD student

June 2025: We welcome Marie Pittet as a senior researcher in data science

January 2025: The lab welcomes two new PhD students: M. Bisson and A. Hamam-Mechkour.

June 2024: New paper by Alex in Brain Topography on the impact of strokes on executive control!News

February 2024: Congratulations MD PhD Marco on your successful PhD defense!