Labs

MRI facilities

Together with the Departments of Neurology and Neuroradiology, we have access to a 1.5 Tesla clinical whole-body MR scanner Sonata and a research-dedicated 3 Tesla head scanner Allegra (both Siemens AG, Erlangen). The research scanner was founded by Bayerische Forschungstiftung.

Our MR scanners are equipped with fast EPI acquisition protocols for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In both scanners healthy participants and/or patients perceive visual and auditive stimuli via a mirror system and headphones while T2*-weighted echo-planar images are acquired. High-resolution structural MRI and diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) studies are also conducted.

Our MRI equipment includes

• two audio systems from MRconfon and Sensimetrics
• EEG systems
• MRI compatible eyetrackers (Cambridge Research Systems)
• a prototype version of MRI-live!, a combined display-eyetracking system (Cambridge Research Systems)
• and various custom-built solutions for the presentation of vestibular, tactile, and olfactory stimuli.

Booking the 3T MRT scanner via the booking form (access with your NDS-account)

• in the first field of the form please enter Project name, the day you want to book the scanner, and the booking time (from / until)
• please choose an entry from the drop down menue or fill in the fields marked with a little red star
• here is the link to the calendar, clicking on "Neue Buchung" there will take you to the booking form.

EEG laboratory

Our EEG laboratory is equipped with a 64-channel acquisition amplifier from Brain Products.

The data are analyzed with various Matlab-based programs.

Eyetracking laboratories

We currently have two eyetracking facilities equipped with high-speed video oculography (Cambridge Research Systems).  We explore how participants execute saccadic and pursuit eye movements to visual stimuli.

This system is also used to train patient with central scotoma to establish eccentric fixation as part of the DFG Research Unit 1075.

Psychophysical laboratory

Our group uses psychophysical techniques to describe the relationship between stimulus qualities (i.e., intensity, contrast, color, spatial frequency, noise level, etc.) and the resulting perceptual performance levels (i.e., detection thresholds, discrimination thresholds, d’ as an index of sensitivity, scaling of supra-threshold intensity, etc.).

This laboratory is regularly used to prototype experiments for fMRI and/or EEG studies.