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Dr. Thomas Christophel

Portrait of Thomas Christophel

Distributed Cognition and Memory Group

The Distributed Cognition and Memory Group aims to combine neural and behavioral data with machine learning to best understand the wonder that is human cognition. Recent work focuses on the study of the neural correlates of working memory. The work is funded by an Emmy Noether research group grant by the German research foundation (DFG).

Their work is driven by the hypothesis that short-term information storage is a distributed cortical process. The  Distributed Cognition and Memory Group uses neuroimaging methods (predominantly fMRI) and multivariate pattern analysis techniques (‘machine learning‘) to identify brain regions which store contents held in working memory, study the representational architecture of these brain regions, and ask how memory storage is elicited and maintained in these areas.

Data Acquisition

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)         
  • Structural and diffusion imaging (sMRI)
  • Online behavioral experimentation and surveys
  • Eye tracking 
  • Electroencephalography (EEG)

Experimental Design

  • Design for multivariate decoding       
  • Stochastic stimulus generation
  • Multivariate pattern simulations 
  • Data generation using encoding models         
  • Psychtoolbox, JsPsych, Cogent

Data Analysis 

  • Matlab, Python, R, JavaScript 
  • SPM, fieldtrip, EEGLAG
  • Multivariate pattern analysis
  • Machine learning, SVM, SVR
  • cvMANOV, TDT, IEM 
  • Feature selection, searchlights
  • ICA, PCA, MDS, Spline filtering

Current position

2021 - present Junior Research Group Leader of Distributed Cognition and Memory Group, Institute for Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)

Positions held 

2019 - 2020 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin (DE)
2018 - 2019 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin (DE)
2013 - 2018 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin (DE)

Academic Education

1990 - 1994 Doctoral Degree in Psychology at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Berlin (DE)
2003 - 2008 Diploma in Psychology at the Universität Bremen (DE)

Honors/Awards/Fellowships

2021 - 2026 Adaptive Cortical Organization for Distributed Working Memory Storage, Emmy Noether Award of the DFG

DFG-funded projects

2020 - present Independent Junior Research Group - 'Adaptive Cortical Organization for Distributed Working Memory Storage'