Katharina Anton-Erxleben 6 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003 Phone: (212) 998-8233, email: kae258@nyu.edu I have a strong interdisciplinary background in Psychology and Neuroscience. My research interests focus on how cognitive states, such as attention, influence processing and perception of visual information. I have used electrophysiological recording of single-unit activity in awake behaving monkeys and psychophysical methods with human observers to study the mechanisms of visual spatial attention at the single-neuron and behavioral level. I have experience in a variety of techniques, including electrophysiology, psychophysics, brain imaging, and mathematical modeling. Additionally, I have strong skills in statistics and data analysis as well as science communication. Besides conducting research, I have always enjoyed teaching and mentoring. Education 2008 PhD, summa cum laude, Graduate Program of the International Max Planck Research School for Neuroscience, Göttingen, Thesis: Psychophysics and physiology of attentional influences on visual motion processing, German Primate Center Advisor: Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue 2004 M. Sc. Neurosciences, Graduate Program of the International Max Planck Research School for Neuroscience, Göttingen, Thesis: Psychophysics and functional brain imaging of attentional modulation, German Primate Center Advisors: Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue and Prof. Dr. Jens Frahm 2001 Pre-diploma (B.Sc. equivalent) in Psychology, Universität Konstanz, Research and professional experience Since 2011 Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Prof. Marisa Carrasco, Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, NYU, New York, USA National Research Service Award of the National Institutes of Health (National Eye Institute) 2009 2011 Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Profs. Marisa Carrasco and Laurence Maloney, Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, NYU, New York, USA
Feodor-Lynen Research Fellowship, Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation 2003 Several lab rotation projects in the Graduate Program of the International Max Planck Research School for Neuroscience, Göttingen: Attentional modulation of receptive field structure within motion sensitive area MT an extracellular recording approach, German Primate Center Advisors: Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue, Thilo Womelsdorf Functional neuroimaging of humans: Retinotopic organization of human V1, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry Advisor: Prof. Dr. Jens Frahm Experience-dependent synaptic plasticity in the Drosophila neuromuscular junction, European Neuroscience Institute Advisors: Dr. Stefan Sigrist, Tobias Rasse Regulation of TGF-β in the developing chick retina, Institute for Neuroanatomy, Universität Göttingen Advisors: Dr. Nicole Dünker, Dr. Astrid Baur 2002 Research assistant, Department of Psychology and Ergonomics, Technische Universität Berlin Project: Representation of time-related text information Advisor: Prof. Dr. Stephanie Kelter Additional courses & workshops Nov 2011 Advanced Science Communication Workshop at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University Instructor: Stephen S. Hall Nov 2010 Jun 2010 Oct 2005 Sep 2005 Science Communication Workshop at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University Instructor: Stephen S. Hall Course Computational Neuroscience: Vision at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories Organizers: Profs. Geoffrey Boynton, Gregory Horwitz, Stefan Treue Workshop "Analysis and Models in Neurophysiology" in Freiburg organized by the German Society for Neuroscience (NWG) Computational Neuroscience Course in Göttingen, organized by the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) and the German Society for Neuroscience (NWG)
Sep 2004 Summer School Visual Neuroscience in Rauischholzhausen, organized by the Universities of Giessen und Marburg Poster: Attentional modulation of neural activity in different stages of the visual hierarchy Teaching and mentoring experience 2009 2011 Supervision of two doctoral students at New York University, New York, New York 2011 Class on attention in Exploring the Brain: From Molecules to Circuits & Behavior, Science Honors Program at Columbia University, New York 2009 Supervision of a student in the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at New York University, New York, New York 2006 2007 Supervision of a diploma thesis project on the physiology of attentional modulation, German Primate Center, Göttingen, 2004 2007 Several tutorials on visual perception and attention for students in the Graduate Program Neurosciences, Göttingen, 2004 2006 Supervision of several lab rotation projects in the Graduate Program Neurosciences, Göttingen, 2001 Weekly tutorial for undergraduate students in Biological Psychology, Universität Konstanz, Reviewing experience Ad-hoc reviewer for: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance; Journal of Vision, Vision Research Other relevant experience 2004 2008 Presentations for high school students ( Girl s Day ) and other visitor groups at the German Primate Center, Göttingen 2002 2003 Student representative in the Graduate Program of the International Max Planck Research School for Neuroscience, Göttingen Professional memberships Since 2009 Since 2007 Vision Sciences Society (VSS), USA Society for Neuroscience (SFN), USA
Journal articles In press Attention enhances spatial resolution: Integrating behavioral and neurophysiological evidence Anton-Erxleben K, Carrasco M, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2012 Independent effects of adaptation and attention on perceived speed Anton-Erxleben K, Herrmann K, Carrasco M, Psychological Science, doi: 10.1177/0956797612449178 2011 Equality judgments cannot distinguish between attention effects on appearance and criterion: A reply to Schneider (2011) Anton-Erxleben K, Abrams J, Carrasco M, Journal of Vision 11(13): 8 2010 Evaluating comparative and equality judgments in contrast perception: Attention alters appearance Anton-Erxleben K, Abrams J, Carrasco M, Journal of Vision 10(11): 6 2009 Attention reshapes center-surround receptive-field structure in macaque cortical area MT Anton-Erxleben K, Stephan VM, Treue S, Cerebral Cortex 19: 2466-2478 2008 Receptive field shift and shrinkage in macaque area MT through attentional gain modulation Womelsdorf T, Anton-Erxleben K, Treue S, Journal of Neuroscience 28(36): 8934-8944 2007 Attention changes perceived size of moving visual patterns Anton-Erxleben K, Henrich C, Treue S, Journal of Vision 7(11):5 2006 Dynamic shifts of visual receptive fields in cortical area MT by spatial attention Womelsdorf T, Anton-Erxleben K, Pieper F, Treue S, Nature Neuroscience 9(9): 1156-1160 Conference abstracts May 2012 May 2011 Attention distorts reach space Anton-Erxleben K, Westendorff S, Treue S, Gail A, Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting in Naples, Florida, USA J Vis August 13, 2012 12(9): 421; doi:10.1167/12.9.421 Independent effects of adaptation and attention on speed perception
Oct 2010 May 2010 Oct 2008 Sep 2007 Mar 2007 Oct 2006 Anton-Erxleben K, Herrmann K, Carrasco M, Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting in Naples, Florida, USA J Vis September 23, 2011 11(11): 230; doi:10.1167/11.11.230 Influence of spatial attention on the receptive field shape of neurons in monkey area MT Fix J, Schroll H, Anton-Erxleben K, Womelsdorf T, Treue S, Hamker F, Computational Neuroscience, Lyon, France Attention does alter apparent contrast: Evaluating comparative and equality judgments Anton-Erxleben K, Abrams J, Carrasco M, Vision Sciences Society Annual Meeting in Naples, Florida, USA J Vis August 2, 2010 10(7): 273; doi:10.1167/10.7.273 Attention reshapes center-surround receptive-field structure in macaque cortical area MT (4 th prize poster award) Anton-Erxleben K, Stephan VM, Treue S, Proceedings of the 4 th Bernstein Symposium of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Munich, Attention modulates receptive field structure in macaque area MT Anton-Erxleben K, Proceedings of the 3 rd Bernstein Symposium of the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Göttingen,, p. 18 Attention changes perceived size of moving visual patterns Anton-Erxleben K, Henrich C, Tzvetanov, T, Treue S, Proceedings of the Göttinger Neurobiologentagung in Göttingen,, p. 1055 Attention changes perceived size of moving visual patterns Anton-Erxleben K, Henrich C, Treue S, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, abstract 567.5/JJ4 Volunteer work TReND (Teaching and Research in Neuroscience for Development) In Africa: New York City contact, coordination of equipment donations, and development of a behavioral neuroscience branch. Southstreet Seaport Museum: Maintenance work and crew on sailing excursions with traditional sailing ships. Languages German (native), English (fluent), Spanish (intermediate), French (beginner), Russian (beginner).