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ABOUT JOHANNES

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ABOUT ME

After finishing the Bachelor’s programme of Biological Sciences at Goethe University, I decided to focus on neuroscience. Hence (and because I am a big fan of Frankfurt), I started the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Master’s programme, also at Goethe University, which allowed me to gain new experiences in a variety of topics while working for several different labs. For my Master’s thesis, I joined the AC lab under supervision of Prof. Kössl and had a great year studying those fascinating bats in an environment of super friendly colleagues. Afterwards, I took the chance to stay in the AC lab and continue my work in context of a PhD project which is where I am now.

ABOUT MY PROJECT

The main part of my project is the investigation of deviance detection in the lowest stations of the ascending auditory pathway of the bat Carollia perspicillata. For this, I am using only minimally and non-invasive recording techniques, as DPOAE and ABR recordings, which provide a very high spatial resolution and thus allow to accurately localise the origins of potential deviance detection effects. In particular, I am interested in how deviance detection behaves in behaviourally relevant contexts and how it might be related to oscillatory activity of the brain. Additionally, a translational approach with human subjects might shed light on evolutionary stages of deviance detection in the lowest structures of the auditory system, possibly even related to our ability to learn and comprehend speech.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  1. Wetekam, J., Hechavarría, J., López‐Jury, L., & Kössl, M. 2021. Correlates of deviance detection in auditory brainstem responses of bats. European Journal of Neuroscience.

  2. Wetekam J, Reissig C, Hechavarria JC, Kössl M. 2019. Auditory brainstem responses in the bat Carollia perspicillata: threshold calculation and relation to audiograms based on otoacoustic emission measurement. Journal of Comparative Physiology A.

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