Ole Jensen conducts research into the functional role of neuronal oscillations in tasks involving attention and working memory. His research group has found that alpha oscillations play an important role in how the working memory allocates processing resources. As such, attention deficit disorders can be attributed to an inability to control alpha activity. Whereas this particular line of research is being carried out with human subjects, tests on animals are still needed in order to better understand the mechanisms involved in generating such neuronal oscillations. As professor by special appointment of Human Cognition, Jensen will seek to bridge the gap between testing on humans and on animals in order to gain greater insight into the psychological basis of neuronal oscillations and their role in cognition. In this work, he will be collaborating with animal electrophysiologists at the UvA’s Faculty of Science.

Jensen is the principal researcher of the Neuronal Oscillations group at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen. He has previously worked at the Helsinki University of Technology (Finland) and Brandeis University (Waltham, US). Jensen has received both a Vidi and a Vici grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and has published extensively in professional journals, including Nature, PNAS, Current Biology, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and Trends in Cognitive Sciences.