Dr. Thomas Christophel
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' |
Selected publications
- Yan C, Christophel TB, Allefeld C, Haynes JD. Categorical working memory codes in human visual cortex. Neuroimage. 2023 Jul 1;274:120149. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.120149.
- Pereira Seabra J, Chopurian V, Gui AM, Christophel TB. Categorical Biases Emulate Verbal Coding in Visual Working Memory. J Vis. 2022 Dec;22(14):3914. doi: 10.1167/jov.22.14.3914.
- Christophel TB, Iamshchinina P, Yan C, Allefeld C, Haynes JD. Cortical specialization for attended versus unattended working memory. Nat Neurosci. 2018 Apr;21(4):494-496. doi: 10.1038/s41593-018-0094-4.
- Christophel TB, Klink PC, Spitzer B, Roelfsema PR, Haynes JD. The Distributed Nature of Working Memory. Trends Cogn Sci. 2017 Feb;21(2):111-124. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.12.007.
- Coventry KR, Christophel TB, Fehr T, Valdés-Conroy B, Herrmann M. Multiple routes to mental animation: language and functional relations drive motion processing for static images. Psychol Sci. 2013 Aug;24(8):1379-88. doi: 10.1177/0956797612469209.
- Christophel TB, Hebart MN, Haynes JD. Decoding the contents of visual short-term memory from human visual and parietal cortex. J Neurosci. 2012 Sep 19;32(38):12983-9. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0184-12.2012.