CSHC - Center for the Study of Human Cognition

Phd student

My PhD project investigates the role of the cerebellum in cognition, and I approach this question by studying the cognitive effects of focal cerebellar lesions. Importantly, lesion studies might allow firmer conclusions to be drawn with regard to the necessity of a brain structure than many other methods, such as neuroimaging studies of healthy participants. That is, the systematic study of patients with focal brain lesions provide a powerful method for identifying the brain areas critical for a given cognitive function and – conversely – the cognitive functions selectively impaired by a lesion to a given brain area. In my PhD-project, I primarily focus on basic attentional mechanisms, such as sensory prediction, expectancy and priming and use a range of different methods, such as clinical neuropsychological testing, experimental cognitive psychology and measurements of brain structure (MRI & DTI) and function (fMRI & EEG).