About me
I obtained a doctoral degree in Neurobiology at the University of Freiburg, Germany, while carrying out my thesis project at the University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Bern, Switzerland. Now, I am joining the team at the Karolinska Institute as a postdoctoral guest researcher to conduct synergistic projects at the interface between psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
Research description
Aside from distinct brain regions being critically involved in specific functions, the importance of connectivity between these regions, which ensures global communication and functional integration, should not be neglected. Schizophrenia has long been recognized as a ‘disconnection’ syndrome as characterized by the failure of proper functional integration on different levels of neural building blocks. Similarly, network-based patterns of pathology propagation have been identified in different types of dementia.
In my current projects, I am employing functional and structural MRI data to investigate network changes in psychiatric disorders, healthy, and pathological ageing in relation to psychopathological assessments. In doing so, I aim to characterize disease-specific subtypes while also tracing transdiagnostic network vulnerabilities.
Teaching portfolio
Seminar Series on "Multimodal Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation". Spring semester 2018 & 2019. University of Bern, Switzerland
Workshop on "Closing Loops in Cognitive Neuroscience". January 2019. University of Bern, Switzerland.
Education
PhD. December 2020. University of Freiburg, Germany Thesis: Factors underlying the (heterogeneous) benefits of transcranial direct current stimulation in age-related cognitive decline | Advisor: Prof. Dr. Stefan Rotter
M. Sc. in Biology. December 2015. University of Freiburg, Germany Thesis: Event-related potentials and electrodermal activity as markers of visual perception | Advisor: PD Dr. Sven P. Heinrich
B. Sc. in Biological Sciences. July 2013. University of Constance, Germany Thesis: Representation of familiar odors in the antennal lobe of honeybees | Advisor: Dr. Christoph J. Kleineidam