Mandy Bartsch

I am interested in the form and neural implementation of visual expectations. Do they encode a clear picture of the anticipated input or just a rough sketch? Funded by a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship, I try to unravel this mystery for color: Where and when in the brain are color expectations formed and how do they look like? To track cortical color expectations with high spatiotemporal precision, I combine electro- and magnetoencephalography with anatomical brain scans and computational decoding techniques.

Coming from attention research, my previous doctoral and postdoctoral work under supervision of Prof. Dr. Jens-Max Hopf (RG Visual Attention, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology in Magdeburg, Germany) dealt with the spatiotemporal cortical dynamic of feature-based selection processes where I employed event-related potentials (EEG) and event-related magnetic fields (MEG) to focus on determinants of global feature-based attention as well as mechanisms of color tuning (inspired by the selective tuning model of John K. Tsotsos). In collaborative work, I also investigated neural signatures of visual search (N2pc, also to control a BCI), working memory, and the influence of reward and mind wandering on attentional selection processes.

In addition, I am really interested in improving science communication to the public (e.g., in form of science slams, midnight lectures, long night of science, etc.)