Welcome to the lab

We are a group of scientists with a deep curiosity about how the brain works. We study human cognition using behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging (fMRI and M/EEG) approaches. Our Max Planck research group is located at the Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the lab, we study how the interplay between sensation and cognition give rise to the rich experience that is human perception. Present work investigates how images briefly held in mind can be remembered in a robust & flexible way. For example, when you’re actively looking at your surroundings while simultaneously holding an image in mind - how can your brain best represent both percept and memory? And what happens if you need to pay close attention to your surroundings?

In addition to perception, working memory, and attention, we’re also interested in how motor output impacts visual processing, how contexts can bias perception, computational neural principles, and much more. Importantly, we think that science should be a fun and collaborative form of intellectual entertainment for anyone who’s passionate about it!

 
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Announcements

February 2024 Michael & Rosanne posted a preprint (& tweeprint) with some critical ideas about certain modeling approaches, and a cool hypotheses to explain some puzzling EEG data.

Noa is flying to Portugal at the end of this month, and will present a poster at Cosyne!

Happy 2024 Here's to another year of great science and much joy!

December 2023 The lab went on excursion to the Free Universty in Amsterdam, where 4 of our PhD's will graduate. Next in Egmond aan Zee, 5 lab members presented at the Dutch society for brain and cogntion meeting (NVP)!

left-to-right: Giuliana, Tan, Nursima, Maria, Noa, Lea, Rosanne, Amit

November 2023 After the 1st year of her PhD in Toronto, we now get to welcome Nursima in Frankfurt! Looking forward to continue this scientific journey with Nursima and Kei.

September 2023 Mishal Qubad was awarded a "Junior Clinician Scientist"-program grant to invesitgate visual maps in Schizophrenia, a collaboration with Dr. med. Robert Bittner. Very well deserved Mishal, and we're excited to work with you this coming year!

August 2023 We are SO HAPPY to have Lea Kerciku join our lab as a research assistant this month. Welcome Lea!

Also, Chaipat is back for a month-long visit, sciencing the days & nights away, and presenting at ECVP in Cyprus with Rosanne!

Meanwhile, Noa and Maria are off to Tübingen for 2 weeks, attending the Systems Vision Summer School.

July 2023 A busy month for Rosanne, who lectures at a the 5-day Riken CBS summer school in Tokyo, only to visit Salzburg straight after to speak at the lovely "SAMBA" meeting.

Shibuya crossing, Tokyo

Rosanne at Riken CBS

Salzburg, Austria


June 2023 We welcome Kanathip Jongmekwamsuk, an amazing Thai MD/ neuroscientist who is visiting with us until March 2024!

May 2023 The lab visited the Vision Sciences Society (VSS) in Florida, and presented no less than 5 posters! Great work by some great folks.

left-to-right: Amit, Maria, Noa, Giuliana, Rosanne, Michael

also, early May brought a 2-day joint workshop with the Disco lab to Frankfurt!

left-to-right: Giuliana, Zhiki, Damla, Andreea, Rita, Thomas, Joanna, Rosanne, Maria, Michael, Noa, Amit, Vivian, & Leonie

and as if that wasn't enough, the lab put out its very first preprint on the representational geometry of simple visual stimuli that are either perceieved or temporarily held in memory!

April 2023 On April 27th 2023 we participated in Girls Day, and showed 24 girls around our institute for an introduction to neuroscience! We had so much fun.

March 2023 We are looking to hire a Research Assistant for our lab! Check out all the details in the advertisement posted here. Update: This position has beel filled, we are looking forward to having Lea join us this coming August!

And some simultaneously sad though good news - Yulia is leaving us to join the lab of Simon Eickhoff, where she will better be able to work on the network analyses she's excited about.

 

left-to-right: Michael, Rosanne, Yulia, Maria, Johanna, Amit.

Happy 2023 & a wonderful holiday season. Stay healthy & enjoy the snow!

 
 
 

November 2022 Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in San Diego – Chaipat presents our work on veridical and categorical representational formats (w/ Meike, Michael, & Rosanne).

Chaipat at SfN in San Diego


September 2022 The lab hosts a second extraordinary Thai neuroscientist, Sirawaj Itthipuripat. It's a little UCSD reunion with Sirawaj, Chaipat, & Rosanne (all formerly Serences lab).

 

left-to-rigth: Amit, Michael, Sirawaj, Chaipat, Rosanne, Giuliana, Maria, Yulia.

More good new is that Noa and Yulia will both officially join the lab as PhD students! And all the way in Toronto, Nursima starts the first year of her joint Max Planck & U of T graduate program under the supervision of Keisuke Fukuda and Rosanne.

Amit is at the European Summer School for Eye Movements (ESSEM) preseting the very first poster from our lab!

August 2022 The Rauischholzhausen summer school "From spikes to awareness" was back and in person again this year! With Michael in attendance and Rosanne as a lecturer.

Chaipat Chunharas arrived in Frankfurt for a 3-week lab visit! Chaipat & Rosanne drove straight to Nijmegen to give a symposium talk on inter-item biases at ECVP 2022, which you can watch here.

July 2022 Noa won the GUF-100 prize for the department of Science and Engineering at the University of Groningen! This award recognizes the best student of each department across the whole of Groningen University. Way to go Noa!!!

June 2022 The lab organized its very own V-VSS in Bavaria. Six days of rolling hills with cows, and of course many great (online) talks!

May 2022 Maggie's paper on the flexible implementation of spatial working memory codes is now out at eLife.

Nicolás won an EMBO scolarship to finance his research stay in our lab.

 

Left-to-right: Yulia, Rosanne, Maria, Michael, Giuliana, Amit

 
 

And our first annual ESI retreat was almost… too much fun. It was at a castle. With science. And drones, thanks to Michael Wolff who joined our lab as a postdoc. Excited to have you on the team, Michael!

April 2022 So many exciting things happening: Noa (our amazing MSc thesis student) is collecting the labs' first MEG data (see picture); Nicolás Pollán Hauer is a visiting PhD student from the Wimmer lab for the next 3 months; and Yulia Nurislamova starts a rotation as part of the Max Planck school of cognition!

Welcome Nicolás and Yulia :)

March 2022 After a long pandemic, Chaipat Chunharas' epic paper on attraction & repulsion biases in working memory is now finally published at JEP:GEN! Take home message: Biases are adaptive. Read the tweeprint for a quick & dirty summary of this work done back at UCSD with Rosanne, Tim Brady, & John Serences.

left-to-right: Rosanne, Amit, Giuliana, Maria

Very happy 2022 from our lab! Wishing everyone out there good data, enjoyment of science, and lots of opportunitites for learning.

 


November 2021 The lab's third grad student has arrived! Welcome Amit :)

September 2021 We went to Berlin for a joint retreat with the cool folks from the Disco lab headed by Thomas Christophel. Pancakes, corona tests, and lots of fun and interesting science chats.

August 2021 This month the lab welcomes its first two PhD students on-site at the ESI. To mark the occasion, we had our very first lab dinner! We also ran our very first scan at the Brain Imaging Center. Getting ready for some cool new science!

left-to-right: Meike, Polina, Maria, Rosanne, Giuliana

left-to-right: Meike, Polina, Maria, Rosanne, Giuliana

 
Lab’s first scan!

Lab’s first fMRI scan!


July 2021 Maggie Henderson scanned many brains, analyzed data & wrote beautifully until this great new preprint was a fact! Via a clever manipulation within a single paradigm, participants used either a "sensory-like" code in visual areas, or a "motor-like" code in motor areas, to best solve a classical spatial working memory task. Work from UCSD with Rosanne & John Serences.

June 2021 Kirsten Adam, John Serences, and Rosanne wrote a book chapter on sensory recruitment theory that is now available as a preprint.

More great news is that Amit Rawal accepted a position as PhD student in the lab. We're thrilled to have you join this November!

May 2021 New paper with the wonderful Polina Iamshchinina, Thomas Christophel, and Surya Gayet! We highlight the importance of analysis choices when investigating visual working memory. Find the paper here, check out the tweeprint, or visit Polina's poster which she presented at V-VSS 2021!

April 2021 On April 19th, Rosanne joined the "Growing up in Academia" series for an informal chat about the unofficial story behind the CV. Hosted by the MPI for Empirical Aesthetics

March 2021 The lab is super excited to accept its first 2 PhD students: Giuliana Giorjiani & Maria Servetnik! So great to have you both on board starting this coming August!

November 2020 Rosanne signs her contract with the Max Planck Society & the Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Frankfurt. The lab will have its official start in July 2021.

 

Get in touch!

We’re always interested in collaborations & cool science. We also do outreach at local schools & organize lab tours. So get in touch if you have ideas about the work we do, or want to organize an event!