will take place on Tuesday, 14 March 2017 from 17:15 to 18:15 hours in CBBM Research Building, EG, Room 50/51.
Host: Prof. Jonas Obleser
Institute of Psychology
University of Lübeck
Abstract
There is a growing number of studies demonstrating a temporal reorganization of human brain oscillations in response to complex quasi-rhythmic stimuli such as speech. The reorganization is characterized by a temporal alignment of frequency-specific brain activity to stimulus features. However, the differential contributions of bottom-up and top-down processes to this alignment have remained largely unknown. Furthermore, we are just beginning to understand what physical stimulus features and what linguistic structures are entraining brain activity. Recent studies suggest that this entrainment reflects cognitive processes of temporal coding, segmentation and prediction that are orchestrated by hierarchically organized brain oscillations. In my presentation I will give an overview of our recent studies in this field and present new developments. I will discuss how rhythmic brain activity could support the processing of complex, naturalistic stimuli and, ultimately, facilitates human communication.
Biosketch
Joachim Gross is Professor of Systems Neuroscience, Director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging and Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator. His group investigates the functional role of brain oscillations using Neuroimaging and computational methods. His main goal is to understand how brain oscillations support perception and action. He obtained his M.Sc in Physics and Mathematics in San Angelo, USA in 1993 and his degree in Physics in Hannover, Germany in 1995. He was Ph.D. student at the Institute of Medicine, Research Center Juelich and the MPI for Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig. In 1998 he started working as a PostDoc in the Clinic of Neurology at the University of Duesseldorf on pathological oscillatory brain processes in movement disorders and pain. In 2006 he was appointed Professor at Glasgow University.
