Ulrike Zimmer is a postdoctoral researcher in the Woldorff Lab where she is using functional resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to reveal human brain activity correlated to behavioral effects of spatial visual and auditory processing. Specifically, she is interested in the effects of multisensory enhancement and distraction, with an emphasis on attention and perception. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Hans-Otto Karnath (Tubingen/Germany), Zimmer studied auditory attention and perception in patients with visual neglect and used also fMRI in healthy subjects. From 2004 to 2006, she did her first postdoctoral research in the NeuroImaging Laboratory of Emiliano Macaluso and Richard Frackowiak at Rome/Italy. There, Zimmer focused on sound localization performance, but expanded her multisensory knowledge further on the topics of visual and tactile attention. She has already published several articles related to her work (e.g. Neuron, 2005). Here at the Woldorff Lab, Zimmer is investigating not only the cerebral location, but also the temporal dynamics of multisensory attention using EEG and fMRI techniques.

Email: ulrike.zimmer@duke.edu

Representative Publications:

Zimmer U, Macaluso E. (2007) Processing of multisensory spatial congruency can be dissociated from working memory and visuo-spatial attention. Eur J Neurosci. 26:1681-91. PDF

Zimmer U, Macaluso E. (2005). High Binaural Coherence Determines Successful Sound Localisation in Posterior Auditory Areas. Neuron 47: 893-905. PDF

Zimmer U, Lewald J, Karnath H.O. (2006). Processing of auditory spatial cues in human cortex: an fMRI-study. Neuropsychologia 44: 454-61. PDF

Zimmer U, Lewald J, Grodd W, Karnath H.O. (2004). Is there a role of visual cortex in spatial hearing? Eur J Neurosci 20: 3148-56. PDF

Zimmer U, Lewald J, Karnath H.O. (2003). Disturbed sound lateralization in patients with spatial neglect. J Cogn Neurosci 15: 694-703. PDF

Karnath H-O, Zimmer U, Lewald J. (2002). Impaired perception of temporal order in auditory extinction. Neuropsychologia 40: 1977-1982. PDF