Research Area

Every day I ride my bicycle through Amsterdam from Central Station to the university building, and every day it's a little miracle I survive the trip. While listening to music through my earphones, I mostly depend on my vision to avoid pedestrians, tourists unaware of the many bikers in Amsterdam or taxi drivers who seem to stop for nothing or nobody. To arrive safely, it is of great importance that my brain quickly transforms the many visual inputs into the appropriate motor outputs. Interestingly, it seems that it's not always necessary to become fully aware of all available information to take the right action. Sometimes we make a stop and realize there was danger after we came to a hold. 

During my PhD I mainly focused on the processes leading up to the emergence of (conscious) visual experiences,making use of fMRI, TMS and EEG.  Recently, the main focus of my studies has shifted towards decision-making and how expertise modulates the decision process and its neural correlates. Through extensive training and experience decisions can often become highly sophisticated and adept, without becoming fully conscious (i.e., pre-reflective decision-making). In settings when a quick and complex decision is crucial to a successful outcome people often rely on intuition. For instance, in crisis situations or in tennis ('a game of emergencies') a quick and intuitive response to a complex situation is critical for saving lives or, less dramatic, for winning a match. In different experiments I will try to address different aspects of the intuitive (vs. the more deliberate) decision process using functional connectivity measures.         

• Cognitive Neuroscience Group

Combining TMS and EEG

Bilateral stimulation of Lateral Occipital area and HMT+/V5.

Werktijden

Martijn is ma t/m vr te vinden op Nieuwe Achtergracht 129-131. Zaterdag en zondag is hij (meestal) elders. 

Willem de hond

No known ancillary activities