Former Labs
Former ESI Research Groups
Group Leader
Prof. Dr. David Poeppel
Research statement
The overall goal of my research program is to develop a theoretically motivated, computationally explicit, and biologically realistic perspective on auditory cognition (including music), speech perception, and language comprehension. The work proceeds on three fronts:
(i) basic physiological properties of human cortex (non-invasive studies of neural encoding);
(ii) hearing and speech perception (psychophysical and neurobiological approaches); and
(iii) neurobiological foundations of language.
These three areas of inquiry are closely related, although not all of the work is necessarily of an interdisciplinary nature. The lab uses all available cognitive neuroscience tools. The main methods employed include electrophysiological recordings using magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), and electrocorticography (ECoG), as well as imaging studies using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
Group Leader
Prof. Dr. Pascal Fries
Research statement
Networks of neurons typically engage in rhythmic, synchronized activity. Neuronal synchronization likely affects neuronal processing. If so, evolution has probably selected functional synchronization and mechanisms for its adaptive modulation. I study neuronal synchronization’s mechanisms, its consequences and its cognitive functions.
Group Leader
Prof. Dr. Ilka Diester
Research Statement
We investigate the interaction between brain areas involved in tactile perception (somatosensory input), cognitive processing, and movement generation (motor output) to understand the basic principles of the brain and ultimately advance the design of neural prostheses. We address these research goals with behavioral tests and electrophysiological and optogenetic tools in the mammalian brain.
Current affiliation
Group Leader
Dr. Michael C. Schmid
Research Statement
Work in the Schmid lab is centered on investigating the fundamental brain principles that lead to visual perception. We are particularly interested in understanding how visibility arises from the communication of neurons in different brain areas, how processes that occur during attention might support it, and how it is affected after neural injury. We aim to describe these functions with a specific focus on the thalamus, one of the brain’s major relay systems. To delineate the dynamics by which the thalamus and cortex interact with each other we combine parallel electrophysiological recording methods in the mammalian brain with complementary techniques ranging from psychophysics and fMRI to pharmacology and optogenetics.