Dr. Lucia Melloni
Research Group Leader
Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics
Grüneburgweg 14, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
E-Mail: lucia.melloni@ae.mpg.de
Scientific Focus
My lab is broadly interested in understanding the neural underpinnings of how we see (perception), how and why we experience what we see (consciousness) and how those experiences get imprinted in our brain (learning and memory) – as well as the interplay between these processes. We used multiple methods to get at those questions, ranging from invasive and non-invasive electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods over behavioral techniques to online surveys. Answering those questions in humans also needs methods advancement, which is another focus of the lab. The most recent one focus is on laminar electrophysiology in humans. Finally, we are committed to team-science and open science practices and are leading a large-scale adversarial collaboration, involving 11 international collaborators to learn more about the footprints of consciousness and what makes us humans. If you are interested, you can read more about this project from and article in Science and the Financial Times.
Methods
Invasive and non-invasive electrophysiology, neuroimaging, psychophysics and surveys.
Selected Publications
Henin S, Turk-Browne NB, Friedman D, Liu A, Dugan P, Flinker A, Doyle W, Devinsky O, Melloni L (under review) Learning hierarchical sequence representations across human cortex and hippocampus. bioRxiv 583856; doi: 1101/583856.
Leszczyński M, Barczak A, Kajikawa Y, Ulbert I, Falchier AY, Tal I, Haegens S, Melloni L, Knight RT, Schroeder CE (2020) Dissociation of broadband high-frequency activity and neuronal firing in the macaque neocortex. SCI. ADV., in press.
Peviani V, Melloni L*, Bottini G*. (2019). Visual and somatosensory information contribute to distortions of the body model. SCI REP, 9;9(1):13570. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49979-0 *shared last authorship.
Schwiedrzik CM, Sudmann SS, Thesen T, Wang X, Groppe DM, Mégevand P, Doyle W, Mehta AD, Devinsky O Melloni L (2018). Medial prefrontal cortex supports perceptual memory. CURR BIOL, 28(18):R1094-R1095. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.066.
Auksztulewicz R, Schwiedrzik CM, Thesen T, Doyle W, Devinsky O, Nobre AC, Schroeder CE, Friston KJ, Melloni L (2018). Dissociable neural processing of “what” and “when” predictability in the auditory system. J NEUROSCI, pii: 0369-18. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0369-18.2018