Dr. Marieke Schölvinck

Research Statement

Imagine, for a moment, doing grocery shopping. Even a simple task like this requires a lot of simultaneous thought processes: spatial navigation through the aisles, working memory to remember the shopping list, attention to spot the right food items, and so on. 

Typically, neuroscience studies these processes separately, and very differently in different species. In my research, I study multiple simultaneous, naturally occurring cognitive processes in mice, monkeys, and humans. To do so, I engage these three species in the same natural behaviour in an identical virtual reality environment. I then infer cognitive states from detailed measures of behaviour, and relate them to electrophysiological recordings from the mice and monkeys, and MEG recordings from the humans. My approach thus allows for a rare, direct comparison between these three species.