Jens Schwarzbach

Jens Schwarzbach is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences at the University of Trento and Co-Director of the MRI laboratory at the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory (CIMeC).

Work Description

How are stimuli selected for awareness? What is the functional relation between awareness and behavioral effects of visual stimuli? The methodological spectrum includes psychophysics, eye tracking, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).

Research Areas and Projects

Psychophysics of masking and priming: We were able to show that stimulus visibility and its motor-effects are entirely dissociable (Vorberg, Mattler, Heinecke, Schmidt, & Schwarzbach, PNAS, 2003). Furthermore, we have collected evidence that response priming of eye movements effects depend gradually on the similarity of prime and target (Schwarzbach & Vorberg, 2006). From there we moved to the neural signature of masking using MEG (van Aalderen-Smeets, Oostenveld, & Schwarzbach, 2006, Advances in Cognitive Psychology) and TMS (Sack, van der Mark, Schuhmann, Schwarzbach, & Goebel, 2008, Neuroimage). Current projects: FMRI signatures of visual awareness and response priming (with Angelika Lingnau).

Visual attention: We investigated the role of parietal cortex in space-based and object-based attention using fMRI (fMRI) (Yantis, Schwarzbach, Serences, Carlson, Steinmetz, Pekar, 2002, Nature Neuroscience; Serences, Schwarzbach, Courtney, Golay, & Yantis, 2004, Cerebral Cortex) and how this modulates visual cortex (Slotnick, Schwarzbach, Yantis, 2003, Neuroimage). Current projects: FMRI studies on the modulation of perceived motion coherence (with Michele Furlan). FMRI studies on modulating luminance contrast (with Francesca Perini). TMS studies on the timecourse of parietal involvement in attention shifts (with Marco Sandrini and Steve Yantis). FMRI studies on the role of parietal cortex in the generation of performance fields (with Angelika Lingnau). The role of the default mode network in distributed attention (with Anne Schobert and Alfonso Caramazza).

Representation of Objects and Concepts
Current projects: With Brad Mahon, Stefano Anzellotti, Massimiliano Zampini, and Alfonso Caramazza, we investigate the representation of objects, animals and tools in the sighted and in the blind. Assessment of multivoxel pattern classification (with the NILab and Angelika Lingnau).

For the full list of publications, please CLICK HERE (available graphs about publications, collaborations network and citing articles network) or visit the U-Gov catalogue.