Our Team - Lab Members

Team Members

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Prof. Annette Horstmann

Principal Investigator

Research Interests

Computational neuroscience, obesity, decision-making, neuroimaging

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Nadine Herzog

PhD Candidate

Joined: 2018

In 2015, Nadine Herzog completed her Bachelor in psychology at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. She finalized her masters program in neuroscience—at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam—with a semi-annual research project at the Tel Aviv University in Israel. During this project, she investigated the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on aberrant EEG signatures in ADHD and dyslexic adults. In January 2018, Nadine started her PhD project at the O’BRAIN Lab, examining shared and differential neurocognitive mechanisms in obesity and binge eating disorder during different stages of brain maturation. Here she utilizes behavioral as well as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigms.

Nadine Herzog

PhD Candidate

Linda Grasser

MD Candidate

Joined: 2021

Researching ...

Linda Grasser

MD Candidate

Kathleen Wiencke

PhD Candidate

Joined: 2014

Kathleen Wiencke studied mathematics (major) and Geoecology (minor) at the University of Postdam. In 2013 she finished her diploma thesis “A Bayesian Mixed Model For InSAR Timeseries Analysis” in collaboration with the Volcanotechtonics group of the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ Postdam). After she has worked on a project on the designation of forest plant seeds with respect to climate change (NW-FVA, Hann. Münden) she joint the Lab in Nov 2014 as a PhD candidate. Her focus is on computational modelling of dopamine transmission and cognition in reinforcement learning.

Kathleen Wiencke

PhD Candidate

Arsene Kanyamibwa

PhD Candidate

Joined: 2021

Arsene earned a B.Sc. in Cellular Biology and Physiology from the University Clermont Auvergne (UCA) in France, followed by an M.Sc. in Biology and Health Sciences from the University of Nantes. For his Master’s thesis, he investigated how modern macronutrient combinations influence food valuation. Inspired by previous research from Canada and Germany, he joined the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center in New Haven, USA, to replicate earlier findings and examine how macronutrient content and composition (carbohydrates and fats) affect food choice, reward processes, and their underlying neural mechanisms, with a particular focus on the U.S. population. After completing his studies, Arsene pursued a Master's-level degree in clinical research and worked as a clinical research associate trainee, contributing to several international clinical trials.

Arsene Kanyamibwa

PhD Candidate

Manon Chédeville

PhD Candidate

Joined: 2024

Manon Chédeville earned her Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Bordeaux in 2021 and then focused on the neurosciences field during her Master’s program at the University of Caen (France). Her Master’s thesis focused on the cerebral correlates of odor and taste integration, combining neuroimaging (EEG) and psychology. In 2024, Manon began her Ph.D. project at the O’BRAIN Lab, as part of the ICAN Doctoral Education Pilot. Her research focuses on Cancer-Related Cognitive Impairments and their connections to obesity, aiming to deepen our understanding of these complex interactions.

Manon Chédeville

PhD Candidate

Sherwin Nedaei Janbesaraei

PhD Candidate

Joined: 2025

Sherwin obtained a B.Sc. in Information Technology Engineering from Islamic Azad University (Zanjan, Iran) and an M.Sc. in Cognitive Science (Mind, Brain and Education) from the Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (Tehran, Iran). For his master’s thesis, he developed a biologically plausible framework that combined spiking neural networks with a neurally inspired diffusion model to investigate lexical decision making, linking neural firing patterns to behavioral measures such as response time and confidence. He later joined the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM, Tehran) to work on novel kernel methods for support vector machines and continued his research in computational modeling of decision making at the Computational & Mathematical Psychology Lab of Shahid Beheshti University. Most recently, he examined reinforcement-learning accounts of the Iowa Gambling Task, using simulations and parameter-space-partitioning to test whether human choice patterns can be reproduced by existing models. In 2025, Sherwin began his PhD at the O’BRAIN Lab, where he applies brain-inspired spiking neural networks to study how binge-eating disorder alters connectivity and temporal dynamics in reward and control circuits, and whether distinct spatio-temporal activation signatures can differentiate BED from obesity and healthy controls.

Sherwin Nedaei Janbesaraei

PhD Candidate

Anna Krasikova

Msc Student

Joined: 2025

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Anna Krasikova

Msc Student

Katharina Marekwia

Research Assistant

Joined: 2025

Katharina description text: Katharina is a second-year psychology student at the University of Helsinki. She is particularly interested in the psychology of eating behavior and is also pursuing nutrition science as her minor to broaden her understanding of the field. Since January 2026, she has been working at O’Brain Lab as a research assistant. Currently, she is involved in the LUMINA project, where she plays an active role in coordinating study procedures and supporting the smooth conduct of the research.