Research areas of the faculty

The participating faculty members are all leaders of active research groups of international reputation in specialist areas of experimental cognitive psychology, clinical malfunctioning of mental processes, or in developing specific neuroscientific methods. All have an interest in tracing the neural substrate of mental functioning with either hemodynamic neuroimaging and/or electrophysiological methods. This internationally renowned cluster of expertise in studying cognitive processes has optimal access to neuroscientific equipment in form of the  Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience (CCNS). The Centre offers an exceptional set of up-to-date neuroscientific equipment dedicated exclusively to research purposes: 3T-MRI scanner, compatible EEG, TMS/navigation, eye tracking, and somatic physiology systems.
Its group of members comprises experts in EEG (i) developing novel methods of analysis (Klimesch: Fellinger, Gruber, Doppelmayr) or (ii) working in the more applied field of sleep and consciousness research (Hoedlmoser, Schabus,  www.sleepscience.at). Another established team at the linguistic department is investigating psycholinguistic processes with the EEG (Haider, Röhm, Hummer).
There are four teams of established neuroimagers (Kronbichler: Bergmann; Perner: Aichhorn; Wimmer: Hutzler, Kronbichler), and a member of the Department of Cell Biology (Kerschbaum: Pletzer) provides expertise in the hormonal basis of brain and mental functioning, e.g., sex-dependent number processing. Two teams offer expertise in eyetracking (Wimmer: Hutzler, Hawelka; Haider: Hummer, Röhm) that can be combined with brain imaging techniques.
One expert group in social psychology (Jonas: Klackl) have recently started to use neuroimaging methods for their areas of investigation. Finally, Prof. Wilhelm’s research group offers a physiologically oriented clinical and emotion regulation perspective.
The CCNS is jointly supported by the Department of Psychology at the Paris-Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) and the Neuroscience Institute at the Christian Doppler Clinic (CDK). The Centre´s equipment is exclusively dedicated to research, which provides a unique opportunity for graduate students to have unusually generous access to such equipment for their training and for use of these modern techniques in their thesis research. The faculty members of the DK enjoy excellent worldwide international connections and collaborations. Moreover, the Department of Psychology has an established weekly colloquium series with largely international guest speakers. External contribution to this series will be expanded by the DK and be adjusted to the interests and needs of the DK.