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Katharina Anton-Erxleben
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
[download CV]

E-mail: katharina.antonerxleben at nyu.edu

Phone: (212) 998-8233

Hails From: Germany

Academic Appointment:

2009-present
Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Profs. Marisa Carrasco and Laurence Maloney, Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University
Feodor-Lynen Research Fellowship of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation

Education:

2004-2008
PhD, "summa cum laude", Graduate Program of the International Max Planck Research School for Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany

Thesis: Psychophysics and physiology of attentional influences on visual motion processing, German Primate Center

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue

2002-2004
M. Sc. Neurosciences, Graduate Program of the International Max Planck Research School for Neuroscience, Göttingen, Germany

Thesis: Psychophysics and functional brain imaging of attentional modulation, German Primate Center

Advisors: Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue and Prof. Dr. Jens Frahm

2001-2002
Undergraduate studies in psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

1999-2001
Undergraduate studies in psychology, Universität Konstanz, Germany

Research Interests:
Visual perception is not a veridical representation of our physical environment. Instead, processing of the visual scene is affected by the selective allocation of attention: Vision at an attended location is faster, more accurate, and of higher spatial resolution. This is typically correlated to enhanced neuronal responses to an attended stimulus, but is also accompanied by a change in neuronal selectivity in the spatial domain.

Previously, I have studied the mechanisms of attention at the single-neuron and behavioral level. I have investigated how single-neuron spatial tuning curves are modulated by attention so that effectively the neuronal processing of spatial information is altered. This has consequences for the perception of spatial information, demonstrated by a change of apparent object size with attention.

My current research will further investigate influences of attention on visual perception using psychophysical and functional imaging methods. Specifically, I am interested in the mechanisms and neuronal correlates of attentional influences on subjective appearance. An adaptation paradigm will be employed in which neuronal populations tuned to specific stimulus features can be selectively targeted, so that a potential interaction of adaptation and attention will reveal if these neurons are involved in the attentional modulation of appearance.