Research & Methods

Topics

The long-term goal of our research program is to understand the neural mechanisms underlying normal and impaired visual awareness and decision making. Projects are addressing two main questions:

1. What patterns of activity in the brain accompany the awareness of visual stimuli and what kind of activity is causal, the actual substrate or rather a consequence of conscious perception? A special focus lies on the possible causal influence of neural oscillations in thalamo-cortical circuits on visual perception.
2. What are the neural mechanisms underlying deficits and recovery of spatial awareness and visually-guided behavior? In this line of research, we comparatively study the influence of reversible and structural lesions on network activity in non-human primates and in neurological patients, respectively.

In particular, we are employing intracranial recordings, pharmacological inactivation and fMRI in macaque monkeys. In humans, we combine non-invasive brain perturbation methods (tACS, tDCS and TMS) and fMRI in healthy subjects and neurological patients. Our research is aimed at bridging the gap between basic neuroscience and clinical research.