The CNSR has launched a new project in partnership with the Czech Academy of Sciences. Building on our ongoing joint research into the relationship between language, emotion, and the brain, this initiative will explore the early acquisition of emotion-related vocabulary from a cross-linguistic perspective. More details to follow soon.
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Sleep research investigates how and why we sleep, focusing on brain activity, sleep stages, and the impact of sleep on health and cognition. Our new laboratory is equipped with a state-of-the-art 64-channel EEG system (actiCHamp Plus), an infrared monitoring system, and a stimulus presentation setup. The room is air-conditioned, darkened for optimal sleep conditions, and specifically designed to support precise and controlled sleep experiments.
A heartfelt thank you to all participants and to everyone from MES Forschungssysteme (especially Lydia Timm!) who helped make this year’s Brain Day a resounding success. As many attendees shared, the event offered a dynamic mix of networking, learning, and inspiration.
A clear highlight was the Multimodality Workshop: EEG & Eye-Tracking (hands-on), where participants worked directly with cutting-edge tools and techniques. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many praising the workshop’s practical value.
The keynote by Gordon Feld, “An Open and Reproducible Research Program on Sleep and Memory,” sparked thoughtful discussion and offered valuable insights into the future of open and transparent research.
The day also featured a symposium with eight brief talks, showcasing current projects from researchers across the greater Heidelberg area working with EEG and encouraging exchange across disciplines.
Thanks again to all who took part—we’re already looking forward to the next Brain Day!
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The latest issue of BlackBox, the magazine published by the Psychology Student Council at Heidelberg University, features a detailed article about the CNSR! You can access the full issue for free here.
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We are excited to welcome Johannes Gerwien as the latest addition to our CNSR team! Johannes’ research focuses mainly on language processing, conceptual representation, and learning. He is well-experienced in psycholinguistic research methods, including reading paradigms (self-paced reading, eye tracking, RSVP), the visual world paradigm (online language comprehension), real-time language production, and EEG paradigms.
Johannes’ latest publication is from January 2025: Liang, M., Gerwien, J., Gutschalk, A. (2025). A listening advantage for native speech is reflected by attention-related activity in auditory cortex. Communications Biology 8, 180 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-07601-2
Besides being a dedicated researcher and lecturer, he is the coordinator of the Certificate of Advanced Studies "Cognitive Science“ at Heidelberg University.
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