With a background in neurology, experimental psychology and mathematics we focus our research interests on the following topics:

• attention mechanisms in the human visual system using psychophysical, neuroimaging (fMRI) and causal modelling methods
• developing a computational model of visual attention and couple it closely with our experimental results
• cortical areas and mechanisms which control attention during search
• physiological and anatomical basis as well as functional relevance of interhemisheric connections between both primary motor cortices
• physiological basis of the neurovascular signal in functional imaging
• functional connectivity of the motor system
• application and further development of a dynamical systems approach to movement coordination
• detection, resolution and behavioral consequences of conflicts at different levels of information processing investigated in psychophysical, EEG, fMRI and lesion studies

CURRENT PROJECTS

Divided attention + Visual search (Antje Kraft, Manuel Olma, Sein Schmidt, Wieland Sommer)

Computational Modelling

Inhibition + Connectivity (Jan Brocke, Radek Cichy, Sein Schmidt)

Conflict processing (Kerstin Irlbacher, Stefanie Kehrer)

Finger tapping (Martin Köhnlein)

Collaborators

Manfred Fahle Institute of Biology, University of Bremen

Herbert Hagendorf Cognitive Psychology, Humboldt University

Hans-Jochen Heinze Neurology II, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

Norbert Kathmann Institute of Psychology, Humboldt University

Torsten Schubert Institute of Psychology, Humboldt University

Birgit Stuermer Institute of Biological Psychology / Psychophysiology, Humboldt University

Werner Sommer Institute of Biological Psychology / Psychophysiology, Humboldt University

Laurenz Wiskott Institute of Theoretical Biology, Humboldt University

Kathrin Finke Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Alumni/ Associates

Oliver Bartelt

Joan Camprodon

Tobias Donner

Notger Mueller

Nele Pape

Mark Schira

Martin Voss

Elena Yago

Support

BMBF Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

NaFoeG Nachwuchsfoerderung des Landes Berlin

BMBF Berlin NeuroImaging Center

DFG Forschergruppe FOR 778/1

International Leibniz Fellowships in Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences

Else Kröner Fresenius Stiftung

Contact Info

Prof. Dr. med. Stephan A. Brandt
Leitender Oberarzt
Berlin NeuroImaging Center & Dept. of Neurology, Charité
Charitéplatz 1
10117 Berlin
fon: ++49 30 450 560 111
fax: ++49 30 450 560 952

Selected Publications

Sommer WH, Kraft A, Schmidt S, Olma MC, Brandt SA (2008). Dynamic spatial coding within the dorsal frontoparietal network during a visual search task. PLoS ONE 3(9):e3167. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003167.

Brocke J, Schmidt S, Irlbacher K, Brandt SA (2007). Transcranial cortex stimulation and fMRI: Electrophysiological correlates of dual-pulse BOLD signal-modulation. Neuroimage (in press).

Stelzel C, Kraft A, Brandt SA, Schubert T (2007). Dissociable Neural Effects of Task Order Control and Task Set Maintenance during Dual-task Processing. J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Dec 4; [Epub ahead of print].

Stürmer B., Redlich M, Irlbacher K, Brandt SA (2007). Executive control over response priming and conflict: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Exp Brain Res. 183(3):329-39.

Olma MM, Donner TH, Brandt SA (2007). Control of visual selection during visual search in the human brain. Journal of Eye Movement Research: www.jemr.org.

Irlbacher K, Brocke J, Mechow JV, Brandt SA (2007). Effects of GABA(A) and GABA(B) agonists on interhemispheric inhibition in man. Clin Neurophysiol. 118(2):308-16.

Kraft A, Pape N, Hagendorf H, Schmidt S, Naito A, Brandt SA (2007). What determines sustained visual attention? The impact of distracter positions, task difficulty and visual fields compared. Brain Res. 1133(1):123-35.

Irlbacher K, Kuhnert J, Roricht S, Meyer BU, Brandt SA (2006). Central and peripheral deafferent pain: Therapy with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Nervenarzt 77(10):1196-203.

Irlbacher K, Voss M, Meyer BU, Rothwell JC (2006). Influence of ipsilateral transcranial magnetic stimulation on the triphasic EMG-pattern accompanying fast ballistic movements. J Physiol 574(Pt 3):917-28.

Thut G, Nietzel A, Brandt SA, Pascual-Leone A (2006). {alpha}-Band electroencephalographic activity over occipital cortex indexes visuospatial attention bias and predicts visual target detection. J Neurosci. 26(37):9494-9502.

Brocke J, Irlbacher K, Hauptmann B, Voss M, Brandt SA (2005). Transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation compared: Does TES activate intracortical neuronal circuits? Clin Neurophysiol, 116(12):2748-56.

Kraft A, Schira MM, Hagendorf H, Schmidt S, Olma M, Brandt SA (2005). fMRI localizer-technique: Efficient acquisition and functional properties of single retinotopic positions in the human visual cortex. NeuroImage, 28(2):453-63.

Kraft A, Mueller NG, Hagendorf H, Schira MM, Dick S, Fendrich RM, Brandt SA (2005) Interactions between task difficulty and hemispheric distribution of attended locations: implications for the splitting attention debate. Cog Brain Res, 24(1), 19-32.

Kühn AA, Brandt SA, Kupsch A, Trottenberg T, Brocke J, Irlbacher K, Schneider GH & Meyer B-U (2004). Comparison of motor effects following subcortical electrical stimulation through electrodes in the globus pallidus internus and cortical transcranial magnetic stimulation. Exp Brain Res 155: 48-55.

Schira MM, Fahle M, Donner TH, Kraft A, Brandt SA (2004) Differential contribution of early visual areas to the perceptual process of contour processing. J Neurophysiol, 91, 1716-1721.

Mueller NG, Donner TH, Bartelt OA, Brandt SA, Villringer A, Kleinschmidt A (2003) The functional neuroanatomy of visual conjunction search: a parametric fMRI study. NeuroImage, 20, 1578-1590.

Mueller NG, Bartelt OA, Donner TH, Villringer A, Brandt SA (2003) A physiological correlate of the ‘zoom lens’ of visual attention. J Neurosci 23(9), 3561-3565.

Donner TH, Kettermann A, Diesch E, Villringer A, Brandt SA (2003) Parietal activation during visual search in the absence of multiple distractors. Neuroreport, 14(17), 2257-2261.

Brandt SA, Gothe J, Sabel B, Roericht S, Kasten E, Meyer BU (2002) Changes of visual cortex excitability in blind subjects as demonstrated by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Brain 125, 479- 490.

Donner TH, Kettermann A, Diesch E, Villringer A, Brandt SA (2002) Visual feature and conjunction searches of equal difficulty engage only partially overlapping frontoparietal networks. NeuroImage 15, 16-25.

Gothe J+, Brandt SA+, Sabel B, Roericht S, Kasten E & Meyer B-U (2002). Changes of visual cortex excitability in blind subjects as demonstrated by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Brain 125: 479-490 +(equal contribution).

Irlbacher K, Meyer B-U, Voss M, Brandt SA & Roericht S (2002). Spatial reorganization of motor output maps of stump muscles in human upper-limb amputees. Neursci Lett 321: 129-132.

Irlbacher K, Brandt SA & Meyer B-U (2002). In vivo study indicating loss of intracortical inhibition in tumour-associated epilepsy. Ann Neurol 52: 95-99.

Brandt SA, Brocke J, Roricht S, Ploner CJ, Villringer A, Meyer BU (2001) In vivo assessment of human visual system connectivity with transcranial electrical stimulation during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Neuroimage 14: 366-375.

Donner T, Kettermann A, Diesch E, Ostendorf F, Villringer A, Brandt SA (2000) Involvement of the human frontal eye field and multiple parietal areas in covert visual selection during conjunction search. Eur J Neurosci 12, 3407-3414.

Brandt SA, Ploner CJ, Meyer BU, Leistner S, Villringer A (1998) Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal cortex on memory-guided saccades. Exp Brain Res 118, 197-205.

Culham JC, Brandt SA, Cavanagh P, Kanwisher NG, Dale AM, Tootell RBH (1998) Cortical fMRI activation produced by attentive tracking of moving targets. J Neurophysiol 80(5), 2657-2670.

Brandt SA, Stark LW (1997) Spontaneous eye movements during visual imagery reflect the content of the visual scene. J Cogn Neurosci 9, 27-38.

Brandt SA, Davis TL, Obrig H, Meyer BU, Belliveau JW, Rosen BR, Villringer A (1996) Functional magnetic resonance imaging shows localized brain activation during serial transcranial stimulation in man. Neuroreport 7: 734-736.