Faculty member

Research Interests

How does brain structure support human cognition? To answer this question the cognitive neurogenetics groups studies:

• the genetic basis of human brain organization by combining MRI imaging with twin-designs, transcriptomics, and GWAS approaches, as well as cross-species comparisons
• the relationship between brain structure and behavior using individual differences
• plasticity of macro- and meso-scale brain structure as a function of development/ageing and behavioral intervention.
   

Available PhD projects

Potential PhD projects encompass one or more of these research pillars.

In particular, we would be happy to (1) further study how social cognition relates to brain structure and function leveraging computational and big data approaches and high resolution in-vivo imaging. A second part of this project would involve studying the role of social interaction in neuropsychiatric disorder, to further understand the neuroanatomical basis of the interrelation of social behavior and mental health.

A different project would involve studying (2) structure-function associations in the human brain, uncover evolutionary alterations in primates, and how it relates to abstract cognition in humans. Last, we would also very much welcome individuals with interest in machine learning or related approaches to classify and investigate static and dynamic brain data and help us further develop our methodological approaches to study how the structure of the human brain supports cognition.