M&B doctoral alumni (former M&B doctoral candidates)

The project investigates the neural correlates of nonconscious tactile stimuli localization. An EEG experiment is designed to observe whether specific EEG oscillations correlates with the ability to correctly localize undetected tactile stimuli. A TMS study will be designed to observe a possible pathway bypassing primary somatosensory cortex and allowing participants to localize undetected tactile stimuli. Finally, an fMRI experiment will be performed to understand the role of prestimulus functional connectivity on the localization of undetected stimuli.

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

The neuronal correlates of somatosensory awareness, in comparison to those of visual awareness, remain largely unknown. The intended research offers an extensive investigation into the spatiotemporal characteristics of the cortical processing underlying our being aware of somatosensory stimuli. EEG and fMRI studies using a masking paradigm should uncover the detailed time course of activation flow between relevant cortical areas. A parallel EEG study in somatosensory illusions should better our understanding of the involvement of primary and higher somatosensory areas in perceptual awareness. These experiments can lead to a follow-up TMS study investigating the causal role of interactions between lower and higher processing stages giving rise to somatosensory awareness. (Institut für Psychologie, Freie Universität Berlin)

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Peter Frensch

In everyday life, e.g. in a traffic situation, it is necessary to perceive changes in our environment reliably. But sometimes we fail, maybe by instability of our visual processing system. Using the change blindness paradigm, I am investigating differences and similarities of consciously and unconsciously processed changes and how different types of awareness are linked to changes of simple visual feature and semantic context. Additionally, I will use EEG as well as behavioral methods, to reveal new information on neural mechanisms behind change blindness and visual scene perception.

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

When gossiping with colleagues, reading news, or browsing social media, we constantly encounter verbal information about other people that may or may not be true and meaningful. I investigate how unreliable affective information about a person influences how we perceive and morally judge them. I use electrophysiological correlates of brain activity (ERPs) to study how perceiving their face and appraising their character is shaped by what we’ve heard about them.

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

The influence of emotions on visual word processing not only becomes obvious in behavioural responses, but also in event-related potentials and other psychophysiological parameters. This dissertation aims to investigate distinct influences of emotional and cognitive factors on these emotion effects, as well as possible interactions between these variables, trying to create a clearer picture of the underlying processes in emotional word processing.

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka

Prof. Dr. Annekathrin Schacht

Whisking is essential for rat somatosensation; in our lab it has been observed that it is also performed in social contexts. In the behavioral part of the project I am planning to describe in more detail its characteristics and investigate possible functions in communication. These paradigms are to be adopted for electrophysiological single-unit recordings, with the short-term goal of finding social whisking-related somatosensory signals. In the long run, the aim is to find in the rat brain the neuronal representations of other rats on the somatosensory or multisensory level.

Prof. Dr. Michael Brecht

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

The project has two main objectives, both based in the field of competition in language production. First, I investigate whether interference effects take place at an early or a late processing stage of the language production process, i.e. when the word is being retrieved from the mental lexicon or when the response has to be selected, prior to articulation. Furthermore, by comparing two different cognitive core systems – object recognition and numeral cognition - I investigate whether these findings are domain- and task-specific.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Spalek

Prof. Dr. Angela Friederici

Prof. Dr. Katharina von Kriegstein Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Language interacts with the context in which it occurs, meaning that a same linguistic expression can be used by a speaker to communicate different things. In other words, the communicative action of an utterance and its physical form can be considered independent to a certain degree. The aim of my doctoral project is to understand how the brain encodes different communicative intentions (speech act types) conveyed by the same physical utterance and to elucidate whether certain brain regions play a causal role in disambiguating between different possible interpretations of the same utterance (for example in the case of indirect speech acts).

Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

M&B doctoral student 2007-2011 - Doctoral project: Our visual experience of objects can be described by two types of information: the content, i.e. the identity of the object we see, and the location of the content in the visual field, i.e. where the object is to be seen. Prior studies have indicated the high-level ventral visual cortex as the prime region underlying visual object recognition. The three studies presented here investigated systematically to which extent high-level ventral visual cortex processes both types of information, i.e. location and content. For this, perceptual paradigms and a visual imagery paradigm were used, combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivariate pattern classification. The results indicate that high-level ventral visual cortex encodes object location as well as object identity in a way that is tolerant to changes in object location in the visual field. Moreover, imagery and perception share representations of object identity and object location in high-level ventral visual cortex. The extent to which distinct portions of high-level ventral visual cortex encodes particular object identity tolerant to changes in object location indicates a partly distributed object representation in high-level ventral visual cortex.

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

My project is situated at the interface of syntax, semantics and the lexicon, and focuses on the interplay between different syntactic and semantic factors in the processing of transitive sentences. Transitive sentences describe situations involving two or more participants, and the animacy status of the participants is known to give important cues for sentence parsing. I will investigate how the use of this animacy-related information interacts with the verb's syntactic and semantic properties, using a number of psycholinguistic techniques such as reading time studies, eye tracking and EEG measurements.

Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka

Prof. Dr. Katharina Spalek

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

Prof. Dr. Michael Brecht

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Curio

Prof. Dr. Jan Slaby

Prof. Dr. Jesse Prinz

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

My research project addresses questions concerning the conditions of moral responsibility in an interdisciplinary framework. Philosophical accounts typically spell out these conditions in terms of normative capacities, i.e. capacities such as “being able to grasp moral reasons” and “being able to control one’s behaviour in accord with moral reasons”. My work circles mainly around the two following questions: First, in how far is it possible to come up with empirical criteria for the presence or absence of these capacities? Second, in how far is it possible, in general, to spell out these capacities in empirical terms, i.e., in terms of psychology or neuroscience?

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schmidt

Prof. Dr. Hans-Ludwig Kröber

I am interested in studying the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying the sense of agency and its disorders. My research will focus on the experience of agency for actions, that is the sense the agent has that he or she is the author of an action and its consequences. I am currently working on a project designed to investigate the role of action effect attribution in higher order motor control. I plan to explore the mechanisms of agency in both healthy individuals and individuals suffering from psychophathology.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Dr. Simone Schütz-Bosbach

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Decision-making under uncertainty is one of the central research areas in both economics and neuroscience. I combine methods from experimental economics with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neural bases of risk aversion and of social learning in asset markets. I thereby aim to contribute to the development of descriptively more accurate models of human decision-making under incomplete information.

Prof. Lutz Weinke

Ph.D. Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

(Prof. Harald Uhlig, Ph.D.)

Using fMRI and DTI with language stimuli, I will try to disentangle functional processing streams for language. Different parcellations within the dorsal stream, as well as different underlying functions will be investigated in a within-subject design. Syntactically complex and simple structures serve as stimuli in comprehension and repetition.

Prof. Dr. Angela Friederici

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

The predictive coding framework suggests that the brain resolves situations of perceptual uncertainty by continuously updating a generative model of the world. The implementation of predictive coding may be studied via a detailed investigation of the functional architecture of human somatosensation and the asymmetry between bottom-up and top-down signalling. This will be accomplished through a series of two experiments using fMRI while applying somatosensory stimuli. First, 3 Tesla fMRI will allow for whole brain coverage, which will be followed up with high resolution 7 Tesla fMRI to study layer-specific connectivity. Computational modelling based on predictive coding will be employed to study the connectivity.

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Angela Friederici

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Prof. Dr. Radoslaw Cichy

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

...

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Shu-Chen Li

Prof. Dr. Angela D. Friederici

Prof. Dr. Tania Singer

My project is concerned with the relation of feedforward and feedback processing in the hierarchy of the somatosensory cortex to tactile stimulation. Using electrophysiological measures like EEG and/or ECoG, combined with computational modelling approaches the project aims to identify neuronal processes involved in conscious somatosensory perception. Hierarchical recurrent processing is an important feature of predictive coding accounts of perception which can thus provide an interesting explanatory framework for putative findings of neuronal interactions in the somatosensory system.

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Deter

When we look around us, what we see is translated into signals that are processed in the occipital part of our brain, the visual system. Previous research has shown, that the core regions responsible for the recognition of objects are organized in a hierarchical fashion in the so-called ventral visual stream. However, how exactly these areas represent objects remains ill understood. While topography (how neurons are arranged on the cortical sheet) is relatively well understood in lower and middle visual areas, specificity (what aspects of the visual information do neurons respond to) is not. This pattern is reversed for higher visual areas. During my PhD I aim to further deepen this understanding in both low and high visual areas, using a combination of EEG, fMRI and Deep Neural Networks.

Prof. Dr. Radoslaw M. Cichy

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

My thesis investigates which neuroscientific experiments would help researchers to develop concepts that describe the human more adequately. Drawing on history and philosophy of science case studies, I argue that exploratory experiments at the mesoscopic scale of neuronal assemblies could provide new concepts that link microscopic to macroscopic principles of brain organization. I use my account of exploratory experiments in neuroscience to assess the data-driven methods of resting state functional connectivity and connectomics approaches, and recent advances in mesoscopic intervention techniques such as optogenetics.

Prof. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Holger Lyre

The investigation of the neural correlates of visual consciousness has received considerable attention in the last decade, mainly due to the rise of functional imaging and the development of new psychophysical techniques to isolate consciousness-related processes. Nevertheless, these approaches rely on underlying presumptions that remain elusive: How is conscious processing different from unconscious processing? Does the correlated brain signal actually encode the identity of the presented stimuli? To what degree are "consciousness paradigms" reliable? Masking paradigms will be combined with signal detection theory and multivariate pattern decoding in functional imaging to approach these questions.

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

The role of Broca’s area and motor/premotor areas in language comprehension remains a controversial and much debated issue. For example, it has been argued that motor cortex involvement in speech perception seen in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies is limited to artificial tasks, degraded stimuli or that TMS affects not perception but task-related decision processes or other secondary post-understanding processes. In my thesis I will address some of these criticisms through further TMS experiments investigating the involvement of the LIFC in speech perception and comprehension. In addition to this, I will also conduct computational modelling, based on an existing neuroanatomically grounded neural network model of the perisylvian language cortex.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller

Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

My research focuses on subjective duration perception and its underlying mechanisms. As humans lack a sensory organ for the perception of time, duration judgements are highly influenced by the sensory content of the relevant time interval. In my research project I am exploring the interplay between mechanisms related to conscious and pre-conscious perception of visual stimuli and the perception of stimulus duration. Throughout my PhD work, different methods (behavioral, psychophysics, EEG) will be used to gain insights on the nature of subjective time perception and its underlying neural mechanisms.

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

My research integrates cognitive psychology with computational neuroscience in order to understand the relation between motor cognition and brain activity, in order to optimize brain-computer interfacing. A BCI provides a non-muscular communication channel between the subject and the environment, based on the detection of intention-related brain signatures, for instance in electroencephalography. My main research interests are neural correlates of action intention, movement inhibition, motor imagery, and quasi-movements.

Prof. Dr. Arthur Jacobs

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Curio

When we are shopping for clothes and are too lazy to try on another t-shirt, we often just imagine how it looks on us. This everyday task as well as many others, is mediated by feedback signals, that alter the incoming feedforward signals. The current project will study the spatiotemporal dynamics of feedforward and feedback information flows in the human brain using high-resolution 7-Tesla fMRI and M/EEG. We will use an imagery paradigm to induce feedback signals and multivariate pattern analysis to explore neural feedforward and feedback information separately. Furthermore, merging the data from the fMRI and M/EEG experiments using representational similarity analysis, we will obtain a complete spatiotemporal mapping for both processes.

Prof. Dr. Radoslaw M. Cichy

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Andrea Kühn

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Katharina von Kriegstein

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

An optimal choice among alternative behavioral options requires precise anticipatory representations of their possible outcomes. This raises the fundamental question how such expected outcomes are represented in the human brain. Reward coding at the level of single cells in the orbitofrontal cortex follows a more heterogeneous coding scheme than suggested by studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans. Specifically, in contrast to average signal increases, as suggested by such fMRI studies, equally prevalent populations of neurons increase and decrease their firing rate with increasing reward value. This dissertation contains two experiments that use a combination of multivariate pattern classification and fMRI to shed light into this discrepancy. The results of the first experiment (Kahnt et al., 2010b) demonstrate that the reward value of sensory cues can be decoded from spatially distributed fMRI patterns in the medial orbitofrontal cortex and that a similar neural code is used to represent reward value during anticipation and during receipt of reward. This distributed representation is compatible with reports from animal electrophysiology, which suggest the presence of different neural populations with opposing coding schemes. For most behavioral options, more than one attribute can be relevant in order to predict the expected reward. Thus, to make choices the reward predictions of multiple attributes need to be integrated into a combined expected value. The second experiment (Kahnt et al., 2010a) addresses the question where in the brain this combined reward prediction (averaged across attributes) and where the variability of the reward predictions is encoded. The results provide evidence that the combined value is encoded in distributed fMRI patterns in the medial orbitofrontal cortex. Additionally, the variability of value predictions of the individual attributes is encoded in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In summary, the results of both experiments elucidate the neural coding of expected reward and narrow the gap between conflicting results from animal electrophysiology and human fMRI studies.

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Heinz

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Daniel Senkowski

Experience might effectively modulate our choice if prior stimulation reveals some information about future reward. For example, experience might accumulate to an expected reward at different target locations. Following Pascal (1670) the expected reward is given as the predictability of the reward and the amount of reward associated with each location. In the first study, we modulated the expected reward in a simple binary choice task in order to test rational decision making in the context of complex expected value functions. We found that the subjects likely match, but do not maximize the expected reward and likely implement a short‐term average over stimulus appearances, but not the true generative model. In the second study, our aim was to gradually modulate the endogenous orientation of attention with the expected value of distributed reward in the environment. Shifts in attentional focus were induced by linking one location with a higher expected reward than other locations. Larger expected values should then increase the likelihood that subjects would focus their attention on one location rather than distribute it across the entire display. The discrimination performance at a target location is a close indicator of attention. Therefore we setup a discrimination task and measured the behavioral discrimination performance. In fact, we found that subjects increasingly discriminate the target status with a larger expected value. The models proposed in the first study account quite closely for basic properties of the behavioral results. However, a close analysis on a trial‐by‐trial basis showed that the true generative model cannot account for subjects’ behavior, which is however well explained by short‐term average over stimulus appearances. In the third study, we measured the event‐related potential (ERP) during the discrimination task introduced in the second study and compared the ERP modulations to the decision making models proposed in the first study. Grand average ERP waveforms showed an increase in components as early as the N1 component with increasing expected reward of the stimulus location. In fact, the performance in the discrimination task and the rewardmodulation are closely reflected in the amplitude of these early‐visual, attention‐related EEG‐responses. We therefore conclude the processing of expected rewards in early‐visual components of EEG. Thesis: opus.kobv.de/tuberlin/volltexte/2009/2267/pdf/kallerhoff_philipp.pdf

Prof. Dr. Klaus Obermayer

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

I am interested in the relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior. I want to investigate this relationship by modeling the psychometric link between emotion recognition abilities, including their physiological underpinnings such as emotion-specific ERPs and facial EMG (mimicry), and prosocial tendencies, such as cooperation in economic games, on a latent level (for example with techniques as structural equation and latent change models). Later on, I would like to look at the role of ecological validity when assessing these interpersonal abilities and their physiological correlates.

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Prof. Dr. Oliver Wilhelm

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Prof. Dr. Henrik Walter

Every day, our senses are bombarded with stimuli, which can be from the same or from different modalities. Much research focuses on the question how we become conscious of these stimuli, especially in the visual domain. However, not much is known about how stimuli from different sensory modalities are integrated to give rise to a conscious percept. In my project, I will use behavioural methods and fMRI to investigate the influence of tactile stimuli on conscious visual perception, to contribute to our knowledge of the neural mechanisms behind multisensory integration.

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sterzer

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Dr. Martin Voss

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Humans make many everyday decisions in a social context. While a substantial amount of literature has given insight into the brain mechanisms underlying decisions in non-social settings, the processing of social information is less well understood. Using novel behavioural tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), I want to address how information about the surrounding social world is incorporated into the decision process. Specifically, I am interested in how humans process self-related feedback from their peers. In a first step, I want to investigate how feedback valence (i.e. whether participants receive desirable or undesirable social feedback) impacts on self-perception. In a second step, I would like to look into cultural differences in social feedback processing.

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

When people read, they make saccadic eye-movements to specific words in order to bring them into our central (foveal) field of vision where acuity is highest. As our perceptual field usually spans more words than the one fixated, the question arises whether all words that we perceive are processed in parallel (but to different degrees) or the processing is serial and mostly constrained to the foveal field of vision. I use co-registration of eye-tracking and EEG to assess the amount of information that is extracted from words in the parafoveal field of vision. The results are used to evaluate and refine current computational models of oculomotor movement in reading.

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kliegl

Prof. Dr. Niko A. Busch

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Our project aims to investigate how visual stability is established despite object motion and eye-movement induced shifts of the retinal image. We hope to demonstrate that visuospatial attention plays a major role in establishing stability and optimizing oculomotor behavior. Specifically, we intend to show that before a saccade to a moving target, attention shifts (i) to the target’s predicted spatiotopic position at saccade landing, and (ii) to its predicted retinal location, thereby alerting neuronal cells of an incoming stimulus. We hope to derive a computational model in which saccade and object motion vectors are integrated to enable a predictive shift of neuronal activation as evidenced by single-cell recordings.

Prof. Dr. Martin Rolfs

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Is bodily self-representation purely a process of primary sensorymotor, bottom-up learning processes, or are there additional, possibly innate, top-down influences? The goal of this research project is to investigate the dynamic nature of the so-named body model, focusing on the number, function, and dynamics of different body representations. Of particular interest are somatosensory illusions like the Rubber Hand Illusion, and their neural mechanisms and behavioral correlates. These will be investigated using EEG and fMRI data, and shall be characterized by probabilistic (Bayesian) models. In addition, explicit self-reports shall shed light on the subjective experience of owning and acting a body.

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

In dialogues, interlocutors come to align their global representations, or so-called situation models, of the topic under discussion. I investigate what consequences an established situation model may have for lexical access during subsequent word production. Specifically, I examine whether a thematic context introduced by the narrative of a task partner can create a transient semantic space, where objects, perceived as unrelated without the thematic context, are treated as semantically-related. In my project, the flexibility of human semantic system in a dialogue-like situation is first tested via reaction time measurement. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) will also be applied to pinpoint the underlying brain mechanisms.

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Prof. Dr. Jesse Prinz

In everyday life we often need to resist short-term rewards in order to obtain long-term benefits. For example, we might have to resist the temptation of eating chocolate if we want to lose weight: we need willpower. In my PhD project I investigate the neural mechanisms involved in willpower by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). For this, I will use hypnosis as a research tool to influence the strategies participants use to successfully resist temptations.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sterzer

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller

Prof. Dr. Christine Mooshammer

While “task-based” functional neuroimaging has generated remarkable knowledge regarding the roles of specific brain regions and their impact on various psychopathologies, several longstanding research questions remain a significant challenge to its methodological scope. This dissertation presents a series of studies which describe advances in task-independent “resting state” functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) aimed at addressing three specific challenges: (1) defining functional subdivisions within complex regions; (2) whole-brain analysis of lateralized function; and, (3) probing developmental and/or clinical populations not easily amenable to task participation in the scanner environment. The studies presented here address these challenges by demonstrating the ability of resting-state functional connectivity to: (1) assess functional subdivisions within the complex regions of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; Margulies et al., 2007), striatum (Di Martino et al., 2008), amygdala (Roy et al., 2008) and precuneus (Margulies et al., under revision); (2) quantify interhemispheric specialization by addressing synchronization across the whole-brain between corresponding contralateral regions (Stark et al., 2008); and (3) track developmental changes in ACC functional connectivity from childhood to early adulthood (Kelly et al., 2008), and also address a clinically-related question by analyzing functional connectivity in regions related to attentional lapses in a population with attention deficits (Castellanos et al., 2008). Finally, the test-retest reliability of resting-state functional connectivity was demonstrated to be significant (Shehzad et al., 2009). In summary, resting-state functional connectivity has been shown to be effective at addressing questions regarding functional neuroanatomy, as well as neurodevelopmental and clinical questions, thereby offering a novel methodology for settings where task-based approaches are inherently limited.

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

The aim of my project is to better understand how individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) process social non-verbal cues (facial expressions, gestures, and body posture). To address this issue, I will design a paradigm suitable for measuring both neural (ERPs) and other psychophysiological indicators of social and non-social reward processing (e.g. eye-tracking measures). Furthermore, I will investigate whether motion (videos instead of static pictures) and complexity (all of, or one of the following: facial, hand and posture cues) of social stimuli aid or impede feedback responsiveness in individuals with ASD.

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Soyoung Q Park

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kliegl

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Can your plan reveal what you intend to do a minute later while you’re currently engaged in performing a different task? To address this question, time based prospective memory tasks executed under endogenous task-switching conditions are examined with fMRI and decoding technologies. Philosophical implications concerning distal intentions, long term planning and the link between temporal agency and responsibility comprise the philosophical body of this interdisciplinary thesis.

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Christine Heim

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Prof. Dr. Claudia Buß

My project’s aim is to develop a philosophical theory of the development of self-consciousness. In particular, my aim is to develop a model of self-consciousness that can make intelligible the transition from primitive, possibly nonconceptual forms of self-consciousness to a full-fledged concept of a self by drawing on philosophical considerations as well as on insights from empirical research in developmental psychology, ethology and cognitive neuroscience. One of my central hypotheses is that the development of self-consciousness is in important respects dependent on the development of an awareness of other minds. In other words, self-consciousness arises only in the context of intersubjectivity.

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Ulman Lindenberger

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Matthew Larkum

My doctoral project examines the development and plasticity of empathy looking at both the construct’s behavioral and neuronal correlates. Mental health problems in children have dramatically increased. A first indicator of dysfunctional, psychological, and behavioral patterns are deficient social and emotional competences. Continuous fostering of these competences should therefore already start at a very young age to prevent, correct, or compensate problematic thoughts and behaviors. Therefore, the computer-assisted program Zirkus Empathico will be employed in a longitudinal study design within my PhD project, with children’s behavioral and neuronal variables measured before and after the training to examine if improvements in empathic responses can be achieved.

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

My dissertation project deals with conflicts as signals in cognitive systems. Conflicts in cognitive systems appear if at least two incompatible tendencies or motivations of action are present. The project is situated between the investigation of distinct cognitive control networks engaging in conflict and error monitoring, inhibition and immediate behavioural adaptation processes. Their functional neuroanatomic correspondents in prefrontal areas like the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or parietal structures will be analyzed using electroencephalography (EEG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) techniques.

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Prof. Dr. Stephan Brandt

My project is concerned with the ability to stop unwanted actions. I will focus on inhibitory control of eye movements (saccades and microsaccades). Examining the neural implementation of inhibitory control in the oculomotor system is also a main goal. This will be explored by the simultaneous use of TMS and eyetracking.

Prof. Dr. Reinhold Kliegl

Prof. Dr. Stephan Brandt

During my doctorate, I will examine the dysfunction of cortical hubs in patients following ischemic stroke with restricted local lesions. Using a resting-state functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging paradigm, alterations in spatial coherence of spontaneous activity as well as correlation with behavior will be assessed. Understanding this impact will provide insight into the role of cortical hubs, the impact of hub damage on network connectivity and function, and may provide information useful for the understanding of the severity of symptoms, the rehabilitation and prognosis of these patients.

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Delusion is a core symptom in schizophrenia. The aim of my project is to collect high frequent delusional topics and to transform them into stimulus material usable in neuroimaging experiments. This will allow combining subjective experience and neural correlates of psychopathology.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Heinz

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Everyday, we are confronted with numerous situations in which we have to decide. It is assumed that individuals choose the option with the highest value. Since options in the real world situations are not single dimensional and distinct, the computation of the diverse components is required, upon which the decision can be based. The goal of my PhD project is to investigate neural mechanisms that underlie complex decision making processes in human, especially reward based decision making.

Prof. Dr. Hauke R. Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Jörg Rieskamp

Motivation is a fundamental feature that enables us to pursue our goals. It strengthens our cognitive control which again helps us to maintain our intentions and protect them against competing distractors. However, little is known about how motivation affects cognitive and affective control on the systemic level. In my PhD project, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the effect of motivation on control of cognitive and affective conflicts will be investigated using fMRI. Further, the role of different motivational personality traits, i.e. approach and avoidance related motivation, will be examined in relation to genetic polymorphisms, that are known to predict cognitive control performance and motivation.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Torsten Schubert

Prof. Dr. Angela D. Friederici

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

Prof. Dr. Felix Bermpohl

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

I am interested in finding out how different mathematical tasks are processed in the brain. With a combination of neuroimaging (FMRI) and behavioral techniques (accuracy and eye-movements) I study performance and strategy-use in math-gifted and averagely gifted students solving mathematical and cognitive tasks. Also, I examine longitudinal training effects of full-scale furtherance. Another question I try to elucidate is how mathematical giftedness is related to processing speed, fluid intelligence, working memory abilities and attention. Beside functional differences in processing various tasks, there may also be structural or connectivity differences in the brains of math-gifted and averagely gifted students. I aim to provide evidence-based educational research results that help implementing new and effective educational strategies to classrooms.

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

Different groups of psychiatric patients (e.g. ADHD patients, pathological gamblers, alcoholics) share at least one core feature: impulsivity. Impulsive behavior is characterized by low self-control. Difficulties in overcoming a temptation in connection with excessive gambling, alcohol and nicotine abuse can be caused by low self-control competencies. Hence, my aim is to investigate neuronal correlates of impulsivity and self-control with the help of different methods (e.g. fMRI) in order to not only improve the comprehension of impulsive and uncontrolled behavior but also help to direct research into more effective ways of treatment such as specific medication and new approach for behavior therapy.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Heinz

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

I am interested in how perceptual inputs evoke meaning within the brain. I have used EEG to track the time course of meaning access in visual word perception, and to examine influences of semantic variables on implicit word learning. Prospectively, I aim to investigate whether and how meaning access in reading depends on attention and conscious perception.

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Ulman Lindenberger

Dr. Yee Lee Shing

Prof. Dr. Christine Heim

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

In my project, I look at how we use natural language to talk about different kinds of events and the participants involved in these events. Specifically, I focus on the question if an event implies that one of its participants changes in its course: In 'The doctor cured the boy', the verb 'cured' automatically allows to make the inference that something about the boy's state has changed – he underwent a change of state from sick to healthy. In 'The doctor treated the boy', on the other hand, the verb 'treated' leaves quite open if the boy's state has actually changed. Such semantic properties of words referring to events often have quite interesting repercussions on the syntactic level, i.e. on sentence structure. I use different methods like questionnaires, reading times and event related potentials to find out more about how such factors may influence how we process sentences online.

Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka

Prof. Dr. Werner Sommer

In my project, I want to investigate the effects of positive reappraisal on stress resilience. Specifically, I postulate that a quick and complete psychological, cardiovascular, and endocrine recovery from a laboratory stressor can be seen as an index for resilient stress processing, and I hypothesize that this recovery can be enhanced by setting participants into a state of positive reappraisal before they undergo the stress test. Moreover, using resting state fMRI, I plan to investigate how this relates to flexible interactions between neural networks during the recovery phase.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Deter

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Shu-Chen Li, Ph.D.

Individuals differ in their ability to keep important information in mind for a brief period of time (a faculty referred to as ‘working memory’) as well as their ability to select relevant information for maintenance. Cortical development and aging might have differential impact on these abilities. By means of behavioural and electrophysiological indicators, the aim of my project is to investigate the underlying cortical mechanisms that determine interindividual differences in working memory and selective attention across the lifespan.

Prof. Dr. Ulman Lindenberger

Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer

General theories of brain function assert that the brain works like an inference machine, whereby prior expectations are used to derive perceptual experiences from the sensory inputs. Impaired perceptual inference has been suggested as one possible causal factor underlying positive symptoms, and in particular delusions, in schizophrenia. According to this framework, delusional explanations are thought to reflect the attempt to cope with unusual percepts resulting from such impaired perceptual inference. During my PhD, we conducted a series of clinical studies testing this theoretical model. Methods: psychophysics, EEG, fMRI.

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sterzer

Prof. Dr. Andreas Heinz

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

For her dissertation project Uta was interested in the relationship between gestures that are produced while speaking and thinking. In her empirical work she asked several questions: (1) how task demand affects gesture production, (2) vice versa: how gesture production affects the performance in a task, and (3) what the relationship is between cognitive skills, brain structure, and gesture production (individual differences).

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

Prof. Dr. Felix Bermpohl

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Hellmuth Obrig

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

From which age on do German children rely on case marking and not only on word order in identifying objects in sentences? Are there neural correlates of the behavioral development in different age groups? Children between 3.0 and 6.0 years, as well as adults, will be tested employing behavioral methods, eyetracking, and ERPs.

Prof. Dr. Angela Friederici

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Susanne Erk

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

Prof. Dr. Martin Rolfs

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

What is autonomous agency? I take autonomy to be a natural capacity. My discussion will take into account philosophical analyses as well as empirical research. The capacity to intentionally control one's own performances is understood to be essential for autonomy. I elaborate a conception of intentions as executive mental states, which functioning constitutes the agent's control. Data regarding the neural correlates of intentional control will be examined and used to develop the conception of natural autonomy in more detail. This will contribute to an understanding of autonomous agency and close a gap in the existing theories of natural agency and natural autonomy.

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sterzer

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Perceiving tension in music is a multi-faceted process integrating multiple sensory and cognitive aspects that results in a highly personal, often emotional experience in the listener. My PhD project investigates this process by relating neural concomitants of perceived musical tension in EEG to its subjective behavioral assessment and related autonomous vegetative reactions. Approximating a veridical musical experience, my approach aims at identifying a neural signature of perceived tension in a complex musical context and, eventually, tries to track it in real-time closely following the musical flow.

Prof. Dr. Gabriel Curio

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Blankertz

Prof. Dr. Ulman Lindenberger

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

I am examining disruptions of agency in schizophrenia using eye tracking tasks, and comparing this to anomalies of self-experience. I am interested in the relationship between the feeling of agency and the experience of pre-reflective self.

Prof. Dr. Norbert Kathmann

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Prof. Dr. Dave Hemsley

Prof. Dr. Isabel Dziobek

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Torsten Schubert

Prof. Dr. Stephan Brandt

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Niko Busch

I will investigate the relationship between working memory and selective attention. Why is there a difference between the memory capacity of individuals? Using fMRI I will examine the correlation between the individual storage capacity of the dopamine dependent working memory and the more cholinergic dependent ability to ignore irrelevant information by means of selective attention. Additionally I will relate different storage and filtering abilities to various polymorphisms. The effect of higher Dopamine and Acetylcholine levels on these abilities will be investigated by drug administration. Young and old healthy people as well as people suffering from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease will be tested.

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Notger Müller

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

In my PhD-project I want to investigate if previously established effects of sensorimotor simulations on language comprehension can be extended to speech production. Behavioural as well as electrophysiological measures shall be used to investigate this issue. First, I want to see if stimuli sharing experimental dimensions with a presented picture influence the accessability of the picture’s name measured by means of naming latencies. Based on these results, I want to explore the temporal characteristics of these effects by measuring participants´ EEGs during speech production. Thereby, I want to extend the database for the role of sensorimotor processes during speech production and include embodiment and the role of sensorimotor simulations into current models of speech production.

Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdel Rahman

Prof. Martin Fischer

Ph.D. Prof. Dr. Barbara Kaup

Why do people become addicted to alcohol and why is this behaviour so persistent? Both a genetic predisposition and neural changes in motivational and reflective systems of the brain after long-term drug use influence the pathological behaviour of alcoholism. On a molecular level, more and more research reveals that drugs of abuse modulate gene expression in the brain, leading to long lasting epigenetic changes. In my PhD project I study the neural and neurochemical substrates of attention biases that alcoholic patients have for alcohol cues in their environment, and take a closer look at how long-term drinking can modulate genetic make-up. I am also interested in the clinical and neural effects of behavioural treatments - such as emotion regulation strategies -, how neuroimaging techniques can be of use for treatment, and in conceptual shifts in mental health due to neuroscientific research.

Prof. Dr. Felix Bermpohl

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Felix Bermpohl

Prof. Dr. Tania Singer

The vast majority of choices we make every day are self-regulated. We need to decide in environments that change constantly and are often unpredictable; additionally, there are no strong external cues guiding our behavior. Therefore there is a need for self-regulation. We need to monitor changes in relevant environmental variables, like reward contingencies or different task difficulties, and endogenously adapt our behavior in order to perform well. Despite this fact, research in the past has focused on fully determined situations, in which subjects were told precisely which option to choose. In this PhD, we will investigate the interplay of changing environmental variables and endogenous, self-regulated choices in a modified task-switching paradigm. Using fMRI we will investigate the neural correlates of self-regulated choices, and their relation to the representations of task-relevant environmental factors.

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Dr. Carlo Riverebi

Prof. Dr. Michael Pauen

Investigating the role of the left and right TPJ in social cognitive tasks. This will involve the use of non-invasive brain stimulations techniques to elucidate neural correlates of social behavior.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Henrik Walter

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Felix Blankenburg

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

The aim of the project is the better understanding of the cognitive impairments and the underlying neural mechanisms in patients with Parkinson’s disease regarding event segmentation and temporal event sequencing. Both processes are highly important for remembering and executing daily activities and thus, for the patients quality of life. The project includes behavioural tasks, e.g. the event segmentation task where participants segment movies into meaningful events. Furthermore, the project includes a neurophysiological measurement (ERP) where participants identify contentual or temporal errors in event sequences (event triplet task). The long-term objective of the project is the development of specific rehabilitative training programs that aim to improve the daily competence of the patients.

Prof. Dr. Elke van der Meer

Prof. Dr. Fabian Klostermann

Effort investment is critical for optimal decision-making and is typically regarded as a type of cost. However, an item may become more rewarding when more effort is invested for it, suggesting that the effort investment could also be valuable. In my project, I will systematically examine the role of effort investment in valuation and the underlying neural mechanisms, using a combination of behavioural experiment, fMRI, and computational modelling.

Prof. Dr. Hauke Heekeren

Prof. Dr. John-Dylan Haynes

Central aspect of my research is the investigation of the neural substrates of syntactic processing and thematic organization in human sentence comprehension. Using both fMRI and behavioral techniques with non-canonical structures, the (temporo)frontal cortex - and its potential interplay with other annexed subcortical regions showing related operational roles - will be functionally disentangled.

Prof. Dr. Angela Friederici

Prof. Dr. Isabell Wartenburger