Event ANT Neuromeeting 2027 - Berlin
starts on
Jan 14, 2027, 8:00:00 AM
(Europe/Berlin)
Zakaria Djebbara
(30 minutes)
Dr. Zakaria Djebbara
Professor & Head of Brain, Behavior, and Architecture Research (BBAR)
at Aalborg University
Dr. Zakaria Djebbara
Professor & Head of Brain, Behavior, and Architecture Research (BBAR)
at Aalborg University
Zakaria Djebbara is Associate Professor at Aalborg University and founder of the Brain, Behavior, Architecture Research Lab (BBAR). His research lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, architecture, and embodied cognition, with a particular focus on how the built environment shapes brain, body, and behavior. He uses Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI), virtual reality, high-density EEG, physiological measurements, and computational modelling to study perception and action during naturalistic interaction with space. His work examines topics including spatial transitions, affordances, sensorimotor dynamics, predictive processing, and the temporal organization of experience. His broader aim is to develop a neuroscientifically grounded account of how cognition emerges through continuous interaction between brain, body, and environment.
The built environment is structured by patterns: repetitions, intervals, edges, openings, textures, and spatial sequences. Yet these patterns are not necessarily rhythmic until we move through them. Movement transforms spatial regularities into temporal input, producing rhythms that can couple with the dynamics of the body and brain. Such built rhythms form part of the ongoing sensorimotor language through which organisms coordinate perception and action. To test this, participants were passively transported through a virtual corridor containing either regular or irregular visual patterns while performing a simple attention task. Concurrent EEG allowed us to examine whether periodic environmental stimulation altered neural phase organization and whether this coupling was accompanied by changes in behavioral performance. More broadly, the experiment tests whether spatial structure can become temporally embedded in neural processing through movement.