Sanne ten Oever (S.J.G.)
I am an assistant professor interested in how our brain can process the continuously temporally changing dynamics in our environment and store this information in an efficient manner. I use EEG, ECoG, brain stimulation, and computational modelling to answer these questions.
I am leading the the Temporal Dynamics lab in which we investigate how our brain can track temporal structure and how temporal dynamics in the brain are relevant for various cognitive functions such as memory, speech, and attention. See our website for more information.
Oscillations
Temporal processing
Temporal prediction
Working memory
tACS
EEG
I have a Master Degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Maastricht University. During my PhD (2012-2016; link to my thesis) I have studied how rhythm and temporal information is used to optimize perception. I used primarily EEG, but also MEG and EcoG. I found that on the one hand we use temporal structure to optimally predict when something is going to happen. The brain pro-actively uses this temporal structure to adapt processing. However, temporal information also provides information about the exact content of information, that is temporal information does not only provide cues for when, but also for what.
During my first PostDoc (2016-2020) I have dived deeper into fundamental principles of storing information that might have a temporal context. How can the brain track continuously incoming information but use the same temporal dimension to code information?
During my second PostDoc (2020-2022) I worked in the Language and Computation in Neural Systems group headed by Andrea Martin. I focused my research on the integration of temporal information in a language context. Speaking requires the continuous integration of information as a speech stream evolves. However, temporal cues in speech provide in parallel a rich source of content information. How does the brain exploit this temporal structure to optimally process this type of signal?
Currently, I am working as an assistant professor at the Cognitive Neuroscience department at Maastricht University. I am part of the Brain Stimulation and Cognition and heading the Temporal Dynamics Lab. Here, I focus on the role of oscillations for temporal coordination between brain regions, specifically during ongoing dynamical sensory processing. I make use of EEG, computational modelling and closed-loop brain stimulation approaches.
