At the O’BRAIN Lab, we assume that individual weight status is the result of a complex interaction of (at least) these different factors:
- individual behaviour (e.g. eating behaviour, decision-making)
- characteristics of the environment (e.g. food supply, possibilities for physical activity)
- individual predisposition (such as genetic susceptibility)
The goal of the O’BRAIN Lab is to disentangle these interactions by drawing upon multiple scientific disciplines such as neurobiology, psychology, cognitive science, mathematics and medicine. Our interdisciplinary research is conducted in two places:
1. Leipzig (Germany), at the Max-Planck-Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in cooperation with the University of Leipzig
2. Helsinki (Finland), Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki
Check us out on the Open Science Framework (OSF) where we bundle all of our OSF projects.
We publish all ouf or our publicly available code on github.
RESOURCES & INFRASTRUCTURE
The O’BRAIN Lab has access to a range of methodological devices:
With the help of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) the O’BRAIN Lab aims to go one step further and explore neural correlates of these obesity-related behavioural differences. All MRI-techniques use strong but harmless magnetic fields to image the human brain. Studies of the O’BRAIN Lab make use of MR-scanners at magnetic field strengths of 3 and 7 Tesla.
In basic terms, eye tracking is the measurement of eye activity. An eye tracker is a device that uses projection patterns and optical sensors to gather data about eye position, gaze direction or eye movements.
Our studies combine data from questionnaires with other behavioural and biological measures from our participants. We use digital tools to collect this information which in turn is stored securely on European GDPR-compatible servers.
COLLABORATIONS
PARTNERS & FUNDING
We are grateful for the support and ongoing funding by these partners: