Suitabilty

Open to Master students

Background

Wie das Gehirn räumliche Informationen aus den verschiedenen Sinneskanälen integriert lässt, sich durch Konfliktsituationen untersuchen. Beispielsweise bei der bekannten Bauchredner-Illusion wird der wahrgenommene Ort der Stimme fälschlicherweise in Richtung des visuellen Ortes der Lippenbewegung verschoben. Kurzzeitige Darbietung solcher Konfliktsituationen über mehrere Minuten führt darüber hinaus zu einer anhaltenden Rekalibrierung der auditiven räumlichen Wahrnehmung. Aufbauend auf vorangegangenen Studien werden die neuronalen Grundlagen solch schneller Formen der cross-modalen Plastizität im erwachsenen Gehirn untersucht.

Scope of the thesis

Empirische Arbeit inkl. eigener Datenerhebung und Auswertung unter Anleitung. Der Umfang des Experiments sowie die Methode (Verhaltensstudie, EEG) werden mit den Studierenden gemeinsam festgelegt.

Literature

Bruns, P. (2019). The ventriloquist illusion as a tool to study multisensory processing: an update. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 13, 51.
Bruns, P., Liebnau, R., & Röder, B. (2011). Cross-modal training induces changes in spatial representations early in the auditory processing pathway. Psychological Science, 22, 1120-1126.
Bruns, P., & Röder, B. (2015). Sensory recalibration integrates information from the immediate and the cumulative past. Scientific Reports, 5, 12739.
Bruns, P., & Röder, B. (2019). Repeated but not incremental learning enhances cross-modal recalibration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45, 435-440.

Supervisor

PD Dr. Patrick Bruns (patrick.bruns"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Suitability

Bachelor and Master students

Background

We perceive the world through different senses and need to integrate them into a unified representation (e.g., in the well-known ventriloquist illusion the perceived location of a sound is shifted towards the visual location). When the information coming from the two senses have a consistent conflict (e.g., the visual stimulus always being perceived on the right side of the auditory stimulus), our brains recalibrate the auditory spatial processing to reduce this conflict in a process known as crossmodal recalibration (or the ventriloquist aftereffect). In this project, it will be tested whether crossmodal recalibration is influenced by contextual cues (e.g., three-dimensional immersive environments in virtual reality).

Scope of the thesis

Your responsibilities in the project will be to recruit participants, to collect and analyze the data, to interpret the results, to present the findings in the science seminar and to write up your thesis.

Your profile

• Knowledge of a statistical software like R or jamovi and basic inferential statistics (regression, t-test, ANOVA)
• Interest in participant recruitment and data collection using virtual reality equipment
• Motivation to learn a new area of research and go through a literature review

Literature

Bruns, P., & Röder, B. (2019). Repeated but not incremental training enhances cross-modal recalibration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45(4), 435-440. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000642

Chen, L., & Vroomen, J. (2013). Intersensory binding across time and space: A tutorial review. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75, 790-811. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-013-0475-4

Van der Burg, E., Alais, D., & Cass, J. (2015). Audiovisual temporal recalibration occurs independently at two different time scales. Scientific Reports, 5, Article 14526. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep14526

Supervisor

Batuhan A. Koçak (batuhan.kocak"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Suitability

Open to Master students

Background 

The "face diet" refers to the variety and frequency of different faces a person is exposed to in their daily life, and strongly relates to how proficient a person is at face perception. Little is known on younger individuals face diets and how it could impact their cognitive development.

In addition, studies have shown that young infants rely particularly on smells while their visual development is protracted over several years, and that they combine olfactory and visual cues to better understand their world. Altogether, this leaves a gap in understanding which factors contribute most to learning of one’s environment.

This project is based on the development of a parent-reported scale to estimate the daily sensory exposure to sights and odors of their child (0-12 yo) and explore individual vs. age-related changes (e.g., entering Kita / school). The thesis can be done on a subset of the preselected items, depending on the advancement of the project. It can be associated with additional EEG or behavioral data.

Your profile

• Proficiency in English (required for thesis writing)
• Willingness to develop and apply coding skills for data management and analysis
• Curiosity and attention to detail to ensure high-quality data analysis
• Ability to work independently on data analysis tasks, with guidance as needed
• Strong self-management skills, including task and timeline organization
• Interest in research and analytical work, particularly in psychology, social sciences, or related fields

Literature

Balas, B., Saville, A., 2015. N170 face specificity and face memory depend on hometown size. Neuropsychologia 69, 211–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.02.005 

Cecchetto, C.*, Leleu, A.*, Calce, R.P., Arnhardt, S., Parma, V., de Groot, J.H.B., Freiherr, J., Gentili, C., Zou, L., Thunell, E., Fischmeister, F.P.S., Rekow, D.*, Dal Bò, E.*, 2024. Consistent social odor representation across 7 languages: the Social Odor Scale translation and validation. Chemical Senses 49, bjae035. https://doi.org/10.1093/chemse/bjae035 * equal contributions

Rekow, D., Baudouin, J.-Y., Kiseleva, A., Rossion, B., Durand, K., Schaal, B., Leleu, A., 2024. Olfactory-to-visual facilitation in the infant brain declines gradually from 4 to 12 months. Child Development 95, 1967–1981. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14124 

Schaal, B., Saxton, T.K., Loos, H., Soussignan, R., Durand, K., 2020. Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 375, 20190261. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0261 

Supervisor

Dr. Diane Rekow (diane.rekow"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

(Correspondence in English)

Suitability

Open to Master students

Background

Studies have evidenced that smell take part in visual perception. In particular, social chemical cues emanating from the mother can drive the categorization of conspecifics from visual inputs in the developing human brain, in other words: when infants smell their mother, they are perceiving faces better. Comparable effects have been found in young adults, whereby odors helped disambiguate emotional expression, or perceive illusory faces. Little is yet known on whether children use such olfactory cues to support their still-developing visual perception.

The current project aims to examine this question. Several directions are possible within the framework of the larger projects ongoing in the lab.

Your profile

• Proficiency in English (required for thesis writing)
• Willingness to develop and apply coding skills for data management and analysis
• Curiosity and attention to detail to ensure high-quality data analysis
• Ability to work independently on data analysis tasks, with guidance as needed
• Strong self-management skills, including task and timeline organization
• Interest in research and analytical work, particularly in psychology, social sciences, or related fields

Literature

Düfeld, A., Jessen, S., 2026. How Does Paternal Odor Influence Perception of Fearful and Happy Faces in Infancy? Infancy 31, e70081. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.70081

Düfeld, A., Nehler, R., Peplies, E., Jessen, S., 2025. Social odor as a source of learning in human infants. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 29, 502–504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.010

Rekow, D., & Leleu, A. (2023). Tips from the Nose: Odor-Driven Visual Categorization in the Developing Human Brain. In B. Schaal, M. Keller, D. Rekow, & F. Damon (Éds.), Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 15 (p. 361‑395). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35159-4_18

Schaal, B., Saxton, T.K., Loos, H., Soussignan, R., Durand, K., 2020. Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 375, 20190261. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0261

Supervisor

Dr. Diane Rekow (diane.rekow"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

(Correspondence in English)

Suitability

Bachelor and Master students

Background and scope of the thesis

Previous studies have suggested strong dependency of the EMREO on eye movement direction. That is the phase of the eardrum oscillation changes by 180° as the direction of the eye movements in the horizontal plane changes. This project aims to investigate how anti-saccadic eye movements affect EMREO characteristics. In a visual task, in half of blocks, participants will move their eye to the visual target appearing on the horizontal plane (saccadic blocks). In the other half of block, participant move their eyes to the opposite side of the visual target referenced to the vertical meridian (anti-saccadic blocks). Your tasks in this project are reading the relevant literature, participant recruitment, eardrum and eye tracker data collection, data analysis, presenting the results in our science seminars, and writing up your thesis.

Your profile:

• Basic knowledge in statistical analysis in SPSS or R (t-test and ANOVA) is required
• Basic knowledge in MATLAB and Psychtoolbox is required
• Interest in participant recruitment and data collection is required
• Motivation to learn new methods and research field through literature research

Literature

Abbasi, H., King, C. D., Lovich, S., Röder, B., Groh, J. M., & Bruns, P. (2025). Eye movement-related eardrum oscillations do not require current visual input. Hearing Research, 465, 109346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2025.109346

Gruters, K. G., Murphy, D. L. K., Jenson, C. D., Smith, D. W., Shera, C. A., & Groh, J. M. (2018). The eardrums move when the eyes move: A multisensory effect on the mechanics of hearing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 115(6), E1309–E1318. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1717948115

Lovich, S. N., King, C. D., Murphy, D. L. K., Abbasi, H., Bruns, P., Shera, C. A., & Groh, J. M. (2023). Conserved features of eye movement related eardrum oscillations (EMREOs) across humans and monkeys. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 378(1886), 20220340. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0340

Supervisor

Dr. Hossein Abbasi (hossein.abbasi@uni-hamburg.de(Hossein.abbasi"AT"uni-hamburg.de))

 

Suitability

Open to both Bachelor and Master students

Background

Face perception is a complex neural function which takes years to fully develop. It has been a core interest in developmental cognitive psychology and neuroscience for decades but recent technical advances allow to tackle deeper into subtle face perception abilities (gender, identity, ethnicity), already in young infants.

A former study conducted in the lab and investigating the early neural development of face perception, differentiated between faces from men and women. Data showed that before 6 months of age, the neural responses to each sex appeared similar. The current project aims to investigate the later development of this ability, in infants between 8 and 12 months, to uncover when the neural differentiation between faces of men and women emerges in the human brain.

Your profile

• Proficiency in English (required for thesis writing)
• Willingness to develop and apply coding skills for data management and analysis
• Curiosity and attention to detail to ensure high-quality data analysis
• Ability to work independently on data analysis tasks, with guidance as needed
• Strong self-management skills, including task and timeline organization
• Interest in research and analytical work, particularly in psychology, social sciences, or related fields

Literature

de Heering, A., Rossion, B., 2015. Rapid categorization of natural face images in the infant right hemisphere. eLife 4, 14. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.06564

Rekow, D., Baudouin, J.-Y., Rossion, B., Leleu, A., 2020. An ecological measure of rapid and automatic face-sex categorization. Cortex 127, 150–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.02.007

Rennels, J.L., Kayl, A.J., Langlois, J.H., Davis, R.E., Orlewicz, M., 2016. Asymmetries in infants’ attention toward and categorization of male faces: The potential role of experience. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 142, 137–157.

Supervisor

Dr. Diane Rekow  (diane.rekow"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Correspondence in English

Suitability

Bachelor students only

Background and scope of the thesis

Contrast sensitivity function (CSF) describes how visual sensitivity varies as a function of grating spatial frequency. This function provides a comprehensive measure of the visual system over a wide range of spatial frequencies. The traditional approach to measure CSF requires many trials (e.g., 100 trials) at a fixed spatial frequency while the contrast of the stimulus changes depending on the participant’s performance. This approach detects the threshold contrast sensitivity at a certain spatial frequency. To achieve a complete CSF, participants need to repeat the above-mentioned procedure for several spatial frequencies (e.g., 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 18, 24, 36 cycles-per-degree), resulting in a long, time-consuming experimental session. To speed up the CSF measurement, we use a Bayesian adaptive method that estimates the CSF in less than 10 minutes (qCSF). The aim of this project is to validate the accuracy of the qCSF method by comparing the calculated CSFs between the traditional and quick method of the CSF calculation in different groups with different vision. Your tasks in this project are reading the relevant literature, participant recruitment, behavioral data collection, data analysis, presenting the results in our science seminars, and writing up your thesis.

Your profile

• Basic knowledge in statistical analysis in SPSS or R (t-test and ANOVA) is required
• Basic knowledge in MATLAB and Psychtoolbox is a plus
• Interest in participant recruitment and data collection is required
• Motivation to learn new methods and research field through literature research

Literature

Kalia, A., Lesmes, L. A., Dorr, M., Gandhi, T., Chatterjee, G., Ganesh, S., Bex, P. J., & Sinha, P. (2014). Development of pattern vision following early and extended blindness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(5), 2035–2039. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1311041111

Leek M. R. (2001). Adaptive procedures in psychophysical research. Perception & Psychophysics, 63(8), 1279–1292. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03194543

Lesmes, L. A., Lu, Z. L., Baek, J., & Albright, T. D. (2010). Bayesian adaptive estimation of the contrast sensitivity function: the quick CSF method. Journal of Vision, 10(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1167/10.3.17

Supervisor

Dr. Hossein Abbasi (hossein.abbasi@uni-hamburg.de(Hossein.abbasi"AT"uni-hamburg.de))

Suitability

Bachelor students only

Background and scope of the thesis:

Different measure can estimate how good our vision is. Visual acuity quantifies the eye's ability to resolve fine details. Vernier acuity, on the other hand, quantifies the eye’s ability to detect small positional differences between elements. Using the Vernier acuity, one can detect very small resolution which are below the distance between photoreceptors in the eye (e.g., 3-5 arcseconds). While visual acuity measures the basic image processing and resolution at the level of the retina, Vernier acuity involves higher-level neural processing, as it depends on the brain's ability to integrate and interpret small positional differences between visual stimuli. Another measure, namely contrast sensitivity function (CSF), describes how visual sensitivity varies as a function of grating spatial frequency. The aim of this project is to investigate the relationship between these three measures. Your tasks in this project are reading the relevant literature, participant recruitment, behavioral data collection, data analysis, presenting the results in our science seminars, and writing up your thesis.

Your profile

• Basic knowledge in statistical analysis in SPSS or R (t-test and ANOVA) is required
• Basic knowledge in MATLAB and Psychtoolbox is a plus
• Interest in participant recruitment and data collection is required
• Motivation to learn new methods and research field through literature research

Literature

Barollo, M., Contemori, G., Battaglini, L., Pavan, A., & Casco, C. (2017). Perceptual learning improves contrast sensitivity, visual acuity, and foveal crowding in amblyopia. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 35(5), 483–496. https://doi.org/10.3233/RNN-170731

Lesmes, L. A., Lu, Z. L., Baek, J., & Albright, T. D. (2010). Bayesian adaptive estimation of the contrast sensitivity function: the quick CSF method. Journal of Vision, 10(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1167/10.3.17

Supervisor

Dr. Hossein Abbasi (hossein.abbasi@uni-hamburg.de(Hossein.abbasi"AT"uni-hamburg.de))

Suitability

Master students only (this project can be undertaken by a group of two master students)

Background and scope of the thesis

In the figure below, all three small (central) circles are identical, but the one on the right side appears to have much less contrast, appearing almost washed out compared to the one on the left. This phenomenon, known as surround modualtion, demonstrates that visual processing in the brain depends on context. In this case, a surround with similar orientation (right) decreases the visual response compared to a surround that is oriented orthogonally (left). This decrease in visual response can be o measured non-invasively by electroencephalographic (EEG) methods (Vanegas, Blangero, & Kelly, 2015). The neural mechanisms likely involve increased inhibition (I) as well as reduced excitation (E) (Angelucci et al., 2017). The goal of this master thesis is to further understand the role of E-I balance by evaluating electrophysiological and behavioral measures of surround modualtion after short-term visual deprivation, a manipulation that usually increases the excitability of visual cortex (Boroojerdi, 2000). The work is experimental, involving EEG and behavioral data collection and analysis.

Fig. 1: Surround suppression, caused by a similarly oriented background (on the right side), can decrease the apparent contrast of a visual stimulus. All small (central) circles are identical. Copyright: Sourav/CC-BY-4.0

Surround suppression might have resulted from our brains evolving to process natural stimuli optimally, and might facilitate the segmentation of object boundaries (Angelucci et al., 2017; Coen-Cagli, Dayan, & Schwartz, 2012).

The goal of this master thesis is to uncover neural mechanisms of subjective perception and visual behavior. Thus, you will have the chance to both replicate electrophysiological findings related to surround suppression, and to link it to visual behavioral measures. The work is experimental, involving EEG and behavioral data collection and analysis.

Your profile

• Strong interest in quantitative experimental research involving participants
• Passion in learning new things
• Ability to work independently
• Nice to have: Basic programming skills in MATLAB/R.

Literature

Angelucci, A., Bijanzadeh, M., Nurminen, L., Federer, F., Merlin, S., & Bressloff, P. C. (2017). Circuits and mechanisms for surround modulation in visual cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 40(1), 425–451. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-072116-031418

Boroojerdi, B., Bushara, K. O., Corwell, B., Immisch, I., Battaglia, F., Muellbacher, W., & Cohen, L. G. (2000). Enhanced excitability of the human visual cortex induced by short-term light deprivation. Cerebral Cortex, 10(5), 529–534. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/10.5.529

Vanegas, M. I., Blangero, A., & Kelly, S. P. (2015). Electrophysiological indices of surround suppression in humans. Journal of Neurophysiology, 113(4), 1100–1109. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00774.2014

Supversisor

Dr. José Ossandón (jose.ossandon"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Suitability

Master students only (this project can be undertaken by a group of two master students)

Background and scope of the thesis

In the figure below, all three small (central) circles are identical, yet the one on the right appears to have less contrast compared to the one on the left. This illustrates how visual processing of a stimulus depends on context — a phenomenon known as surround modulation (SM). SM can be measured both at the neural level using EEG (Vanegas, Blangero, & Kelly, 2015) and at the perceptual level through contrast detection thresholds.

A key characteristic of SM is that the degree of modulation depends on the relationship between center and surround properties — including distance, orientation (as demonstrated in the figure below), contrast, and their interactions. Mechanistic models have linked these effects to the structure and function of neural circuits (Angelucci et al., 2017).

SM in motion processing has already been observed in infants (Nakashima et al., 2019); however, the underlying neural mechanisms continue to undergo refinement beyond early developmental stages (Doron, Spierer, & Polat, 2015; Li, Hagan, & Kiorpes, 2013).

The goal of this master’s thesis is to better understand how neural mechanisms involved in visual processing develop by investigating various characteristics of SM in elementary school children, using both EEG and behavioral contrast perception tasks.

Fig. 1: Surround suppression, caused by a similarly oriented background (on the right side), can decrease the apparent contrast of a visual stimulus. All small (central) circles are identical. Copyright: Sourav/CC-BY-4.0

Your tasks in this project include reviewing relevant literature, recruiting elementary school children from our database, learning and conducting EEG and behavioral data collection using a pre-established experimental paradigm, performing data analysis with guidance and support from your supervisor, presenting your results in our science seminar, and writing your thesis.

Your profile

• Strong interest in experimental neuroscience research (behavioral and EEG)
• Confident and friendly in interacting with elementary school children and their parents
• Basic programming skills in MATLAB and/or R are a plus, along with a willingness to learn data analysis techniques for EEG and behavioral data
• Good English skills (spoken and written), as the thesis will be in English
• Passion for learning new skills and the ability to work independently

Literature

Angelucci, A., Bijanzadeh, M., Nurminen, L., Federer, F., Merlin, S., & Bressloff, P. C. (2017). Circuits and mechanisms for surround modulation in visual cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 40(1), 425–451. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-neuro-072116-031418 

Doron, R., Spierer, A., & Polat, U. (2015). How crowding, masking, and contour interactions are related: A developmental approach. Journal of vision, 15(8), 5. https://doi.org/10.1167/15.8.5 

Li, D. P., Hagan, M. A., & Kiorpes, L. (2013). Linking structure and function: development of lateral spatial interactions in macaque monkeys. Visual neuroscience, 30(5-6), 263–270. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952523813000394 

Nakashima, Y., Yamaguchi, M. K., & Kanazawa, S. (2019). Development of Center-Surround Suppression in Infant Motion Processing. Current biology, 29(18), 3059–3064.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.07.044 

Vanegas, M. I., Blangero, A., & Kelly, S. P. (2015). Electrophysiological indices of surround suppression in humans. Journal of Neurophysiology, 113(4), 1100–1109. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00774.2014 

Supervisor

Dr. José Ossandón (jose.ossandon"AT"uni-hamburg.de) 

Suitability

Open to Bachelor's and Master's Students

Background

We can measure brain activity using fMRI as a time series, a signal that changes over time. These time series can show different temporal structures depending on what a person is doing. For example, while reading a book or watching a movie, brain activity may show a more structured pattern, compared with periods of rest or more spontaneous thought. The organization of these temporal patterns also varies across space. Signals from nearby cortical areas may show different degrees of similarity compared with signals from more distant regions. Studying these patterns is one way to understand how brain activity is organized across different parts of the brain.

Scope of the thesis

This thesis will use an existing, preprocessed fMRI dataset to investigate these spatial and temporal patterns. The student will examine how similarity in brain signals changes across space and compare different ways of measuring these relationships. The project is primarily methods- and analysis-oriented. There is no participant recruitment or data collection involved. The main work will consist of analysing the data, visualizing the results, comparing analysis approaches, and interpreting the findings. Previous experience with these methods is not required. All relevant analysis techniques and neuroimaging tools will be taught during the thesis. A basic conceptual understanding of fMRI and some programming experience is sufficient to get started.

Your profile

•  Strong inclination towards learning new analyses
• Familiarity with data analyses in Python, MATLAB, R
• Motivation and competency to do literature research
• Ability to work independently
• Fluent communication in English

Literature

Murray, J. D., Bernacchia, A., Freedman, D. J., Romo, R., Wallis, J. D., Cai, X., Padoa-Schioppa, C., Pasternak, T., Seo, H., Lee, D., & Wang, X.-J. (2014). A hierarchy of intrinsic timescales across primate cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 17(12), 1661–1663. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3862

 Raut, R. V., Snyder, A. Z., & Raichle, M. E. (2020). Hierarchical dynamics as a macroscopic organizing principle of the human brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(34), 20890–20897. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003383117

Supervisor

 Dr. Gargi Majumdar (gargi.majumdar"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Suitability

Open to Master's students only

Background and scope of the thesis

Perceptual experience is shaped by prior expectations, yet how visual priors are acquired during development remains poorly understood. Studying individuals with bilateral congenital cataracts who later gained their sight can provide key insights to this problem.

Visual perception under the predictive coding framework, has seen a transition from being a passive filtering of stimulus to active form of inference. According to this, well-tuned top-down predictions impose prior expectations which interact with the bottom-up feedback information for optimal perception. This orchestration of top-down and bottom-up processing is of particular importance for scene perception, where feedback information from higher-order visual cortices carry the contextual priors for the primary visual cortex. This study will apply computational modeling to investigate neural representations from ultra-high-field fMRI dataset from normally sighted and congenitally cataract reversal individuals while they passively watched partially occluded scenes, for which a filling in process by higher-order cortical feedback has been demonstrated. This “omission” paradigm has been validated to successfully disambiguate feedforward and feedback signals within the visual processing hierarchy.

This study aims to investigate the neural representations in extrastriate areas such as V2 and V3 for top-down representations and bottom-up representations from V1.

Your profile

• Strong inclination towards computational modelling and learning new techniques
• Familiarity with data analyses in Python, MATLAB, R
• Motivation and competency to do literature research
• Ability to work independently
• Fluent communication in English

Literature

Heitmann, C., Zhan, M., Linke, M., Hölig, C., Kekunnaya, R., van Hoof, R., Goebel, R., & Röder, B. (2023). Early visual experience refines the retinotopic organization within and across visual cortical regions. Current Biology: CB, 33(22), 4950-4959.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.010

Röder, B., & Kekunnaya, R. (2021). Visual experience dependent plasticity in humans. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 67, 155–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2020.11.011

Knill, D. C., & Pouget, A. (2004). The Bayesian brain: The role of uncertainty in neural coding and computation. Trends in Neurosciences, 27(12), 712–719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2004.10.007

Muckli, L., De Martino, F., Vizioli, L., Petro, L. S., Smith, F. W., Ugurbil, K., Goebel, R., & Yacoub, E. (2015). Contextual Feedback to Superficial Layers of V1. Current Biology, 25(20), 2690–2695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.057

Supervisor

Dr. Gargi Majumdar (gargi.majumdar"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Suitability

Bachelor students only (this project must be undertaken by a group of at least two bachelor students).

Background and scope of the thesis

Visual search is a core visual skill that depends on both on cover attentional scanning (looking for something without moving the eyes) and overt exploration (via eye movements) (Eckstein, 2011). In this project we will evaluate in adults with normal vision how the corresponding attentional and exploratory functional visual fields (Wu & Wolfe, 2022) – how far we can scan covertly or overtly – change in shape and extent as a function of targets’ discriminability.  The results of the project will serve as a basis for the study of the funcitonal visual fields in individuals with reduced vision and abnormal eye movements. This work is experimental, involving behavioral eye-tracking data collection and analysis.

Your profile

• Strong interest in quantitative experimental research involving participants
• Passion in learning new things
• Ability to work in group.
• Nice to have: Programming skills.

Literature

Eckstein, M. P. (2011). Visual search: A retrospective. Journal of Vision, 11(5), 14–14. https://doi.org/10.1167/11.5.14

Wu, C.-C., & Wolfe, J. M. (2022). The Functional Visual Field(s) in simple visual search. Vision Research, 190, 107965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2021.107965

Supervisor

Dr. José Ossandón (jose.ossandon"AT"uni-hamburg.de)