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Real brains in virtual worlds
11/4/22, 3:50 PM - 11/4/22, 4:20 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) (30 minutes)
Prof. Klaus Gramann
Professor, Head of Biological Psychology and Neuroergonomics – Technische Universität Berlin Director – Berlin Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Labs (BeMoBIL)
http://www.bpn.tu-berlin.de
Prof. Klaus Gramann
Professor, Head of Biological Psychology and Neuroergonomics – Technische Universität Berlin Director – Berlin Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Labs (BeMoBIL)
http://www.bpn.tu-berlin.de

Klaus Gramann received his Ph.D. in psychology from RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany. He was a postdoc with the LMU Munich, Germany, and the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience, University of California at San Diego. After working as a visiting professor at the National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan he became the chair of Biopsychology and Neuroergonomics with the Technical University of Berlin, Germany in 2012. He has been a Professor with the University of Technology Sydney, Australia and is an International Scholar at the University of California San Diego. His research covers the neural foundations of cognitive processes with a focus on the brain dynamics of embodied cognitive processes. He directs the Berlin Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Labs (BeMoBIL) that focus on imaging human brain dynamics in actively behaving participants.

Virtual reality (VR) enables controlled experiments beyond standard laboratory protocols. In combination with Mobile Brain/ Body Imaging (MoBI), VR offers new opportunities in cognitive neuroscience research introducing hitherto unknown possibilities for mapping out human brain function in ecological valid scenarios. While a combination of virtual reality, motion capture, and brain imaging can assess the most important aspects of embodied cognitive processes, it further provides unprecedented opportunities for systematically manipulating the constituent factors of sensory-motor integration underlying natural cognitive processes with protocols that would not be possible without VR. Experiments conducted at the Berlin Mobile Brain/Body Imaging Labs reveal striking differences in brain dynamics underlying active behavior as compared to stationary desktop protocols. The results give new insights into human brain activity during active behaviors and a critical perspective on problems arising from the combination of new technologies as well as problems when comparing new results from mobile protocols with established physiological parameters stemming from traditional desktop-based and movement-restricted protocols.