Research Project

During observation of everyday actions, people are able to predict upcoming action steps. These predictions depend on factors as knowledge of the overarching action goal or previous experiences with the particular action. Expectations based on frequency of experience can be investigated in statistical learning paradigms. In my research, I focus on the usage of statistical regularities which differ in their complexity and possible different neural correlates of those. To do this, I use functional resonance imaging and EEG.

PhD Committee

Prof. Dr. Ricarda Schubotz
Prof. Dr. Pienie Zwitserlood
PD Dr. Christian Dobel

Publications

Schiffer, A. M., Ahlheim, C., Wurm, M.F., Schubotz, R.I. (2012). Surprised at all the Entropy: Hippocampal, Caudate and Midbrain Contributions to Learning from Prediction Errors. PLoS ONE.

Schiffer, A. M., Ahlheim, C., Ulrichs, K., Schubotz, R. I. (2012). Neural changes when actions change: Adaptation of strong and weak expectations. Human Brain Mapping.

Conference Contributions

Ahlheim, C., Stadler, W., Schubotz R. I. (2011). Neural reflections of statistical structure in observed actions. Poster Presentation at the Donders Discussions, Nijmegen, Netherlands.

Ahlheim, C., Stadler, W., Schubotz R. I. (2012). Neural reflections of statistical structure in observed actions. Poster Presentation at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, Chicago, Illinois.

Ahlheim, C., Stadler, W., Kleinböhl, D., Schubotz, R. I. (2011). Lernen von Handlungsmodellen auf Basis probabilistischer Verknüpfungen. Poster presented at the 53. TeaP (Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen), Halle a.d. Saale, Germany.

CV

*1986 Bensheim, Germany
2006–2011 studies in Psychology at the University of Mannheim
2010-2011 Diploma thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for neurological research, Cologne (Title: Neural reflections of statistical structure in observed actions – an fMRI study.)
since 2011 PhD student at the University of Münster