You are here: Home → Users → Femke Maij → Research Interests
 

Research Interests

Femke

Research

It is amazing how good the brain is in combining different sources of information. For instance when we are watching television we combine what we see with we hear. In the brain visual information is processed in the visual cortex whereas auditory information is processed in the auditory cortex. Both signals need to be combined in order to be perceived originating from one event. We all know examples in which we notice that the sound is not synchronized with vision (for instance we see someone talking, but the sound is not at the same time). This example shows that it is important for the brain to combine those signals in time in order to be perceived to be originated from one source. Despite the fact that our brain is very good at combining signals that are originated from one event, it is known that we make mistakes in some occasions. For instance when we make fast eye movements, saccades, we have to combine the information from our retina with the information from the extra-retinal (eye muscles) signals. When we present a brief flash near the time of a saccade, Matin and Pearce in 1965 have shown that the location of the flashes are systematically mislocalized. By investigating the origin of those errors, we hope to further gain insight in the processes that are involved in how does the brain combine different sources of information.

Full publications

  • Maij F., Brenner E., and Smeets J.B.J. Temporal uncertainty separates flashes from their background during saccades (Journal of Neuroscience, in press).
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2011) Peri-saccadic mislocalization is not influenced by the predictability of the saccade target location. Vision Research 51, 154-159
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Li H.O., Cornelissen F. W. and Smeets J.B.J. The use of the saccade target as a visual reference when localizing flashes during saccades. Journal of Vision, 10(4): 7, 1–9.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2009) Temporal informationcan influence spatial localization. Journal of Neurophysiology, 102: 490-495.
  • van Elswijk G., Maij F., Schoffelen J.M., Overeem S., Stegeman D., Fries P. Rhythmic neuronal synchronization entails rhythmic gain modulation. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(12): 4481-4488.

Fellowship

A personal Rubicon fellowship that was awarded to become a postdoctoral researcher at Prof. Alan Wing’s lab at the University of Birmingham for a two year period.

Awards

  • A scholarship ($800,-) to attend the Neural Control of Movement conference 2011.
  • Fully sponsored visit by the Volkswagen Stiftung to the European Summer School for Visual Neuroscience (31 August – 12 September 2008
  • Student award of European Conference for Visual Perception 2010
  • Travel grant to visit two foreign labs: the ‘École Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne’ (EPFL) and the University of Geneva. Granted by the Dutch Society for Biophysics and Biomedical Technology (VVB-BMT) 2010

Symposia

  • Organiser of a member initiated ECVP 2010 symposium: ‘The complexity of visual stability’.
  • Co-organiser of a nanosymposium at the Society for Neuroscience meeting 2010: ‘Movements and perceptual mislocalisation’.

Committees

  • 2010. Member the PhD-day committee to organize a PhD-day for all human movement related PhD-students from The Netherlands.
  • 2008-2010. Advisory member of the Works Council of the faculty of Human Movement Sciences at VU University Amsterdam.
  • 2003-2005. Member of the student association ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ of the study Natural Sciences at Radboud University.
  • 2003-2005. Member of Program Committee of the study Natural Sciences at Radboud University.

Teaching

  • 2009 – 2010 Supervised a master student of Human Movement Sciences on her thesis project.
  • 2008 and 2009. Assistant of course ‘Mathematics’ for bachelor students of Human Movements Sciences.
  • 2007. Assistant of course ‘linear systems and dynamics’ for master students of Human Movements Sciences.

Summerschool

European Summer School on Visual Neuroscience: ‘From Spike to Awareness’ (Rauischholzhausen Castle, Germany, 31 August – 12 September 2008)

Autumnschool

NWO Cognition Autumn School: ‘From Stimulus to Understanding in Perception and Language’ (Doorwerth, The Netherlands, 9-11 October 2009)

Invited speaker

  • July 2010. Invited speaker at the sensory motor neuroscience lab of the University of Birmingham (Birmingham, UK).
  • October 2010. Invited speaker at the Donders Discussions conference of 2010 (Nijmegen, Netherlands).

Abstracts and conference proceedings

  • Maij F., de Grave D.D.J., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. Misjudging where you felt a light switch in a dark room. Neuroscience Annual Meeting (San Diego, USA, 13-17 November 2010). Oral presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. Temporal uncertainty and the localisation of flashes that are presented around the time of saccades. ECVP 2010 Annual Meeting. (Lausanne, Switzerland, 22-26 August 2010). Oral presentation.
  • Maij F., Matziridi M., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2010). Borders between areas with different colors influence peri-saccadic mislocalization. VSS 2010 Annual Meeting. (Naples, Florida, 7-12 May 2010). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2009). An irrelevant sound can change peri-saccadic mislocalisation. Day of Biophysics. (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 13 November 2009). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2009). Pre-saccadic mislocalization and the post-saccadic target. Dutch Perception Meeting. (TNO, Soesterberg, The Netherlands, 6 November 2009). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2009). Pre-saccadic mislocalization and the post-saccadic target. NWO Cognition Autumn School: ‘From Stimulus to Understanding in Perception and Language’ (Doorwerth, The Netherlands, 9-11 October 2009). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2009). Error in localising a target that is flashed near the time of an isolated saccade is not identical to the error found near the time of the last of a sequence of saccades. VSS 2009 Annual Meeting. (Naples, Florida, 8-13 May 2009). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2008). Pre-saccadic mislocalization and the post-saccadic target. Neuroscience Annual Meeting (Washington D.C., USA, 15-19 November 2008). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2009). An irrelevant sound can change peri-saccadic mislocalisation. European Summer School on Visual Neuroscience: ‘From Spike to Awareness’ (Rauischholzhausen Castle, Germany, 31 August – 12 September 2008). Poster presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2008). Post-saccadic target influences pre-saccadic compression. ECVP 2008 Annual Meeting. (Utrecht, Netherlands, 24-28 August 2008). Oral presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2008). An irrelevant sound can change peri-saccadic mislocalisation. Dutch Perception Meeting. (TNO, Soesterberg, The Netherlands, 20 June 2008). Oral presentation.
  • Smeets J.B.J., Maij F., Brenner E. (2008). An irrelevant tone can influence peri-saccadic mislocalisation, 9th International Multsensory Research Forum, (Hamburg, Germany, July 16-19, 2008). Oral presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2008). An irrelevant sound can change peri-saccadic mislocalisation. VSS 2008 Annual Meeting. (Naples, Florida, 9-14 May 2008). Oral presentation.
  • Maij F., Brenner E., Smeets J.B.J. (2007). Peri-saccadic mislocalisation: spatial or temporal inaccuracy? ESF conference: ‘Three Dimensional Sensory and Motor Space: Perceptual Consequences of Motor Action’. (Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain, 6-11 October 2007). Poster presentation.
  • van Elswijk G, Maij F, Schoffelen JM, Overeem S, Stegeman D, Fries P. (2007). Rhythmic gain changes through rhythmic synchronization. Neuroscience Annual Meeting (San Diego USA, November 2007)
  • Kleine B., van Elswijk G., Maij F., Gijtenbeek M., Zwarts M. (2006). Readiness potential and EMG-polygraphy reveal the non-neurological origin of segmental myoclonus. ICCN (Edinburgh UK, 2006)

Memberships

  • Vision sciences society (2008, 2009, 2010)
  • Society for Neuroscience (2008, 2010, 2011)
  • American Physiological Society (2009)

 

Document Actions