Our ability to learn new skills and vast amounts of facts over the entire life-time is one of the most defining human characteristics. Moreover, learning deficits related to early as well as late life stages have a very negative impact on life style and individual autonomy. In a number of different projects, we investigate many different facets of learning. The projects run the gamut from neurofeedback, neuroimaging to rehabilitation, as well as from motor learning to learning of higher cognitive function such as in mathematics.

Our aim is to elucidate the neural basis of different types of learning to gain more understanding of specific learning disabilities and the consequences of degenerative brain diseases. As our ability to learn is strongly dependent on maturation and aging, we also investigate and compare the development of learning over the life span, in children as well as in young and old adults.

Selected Publications

Enzinger C., Ropele S., Fazekas F., Loitfelder M., Gorani F., Seifert T., Reiter G., Neuper C., Pfurtscheller G., & Müller-Putz G. (2008). Brain motor system function in a patient with complete signal cord injury following extensive brain-computer interface training. Experimental Brain Research, 190, 215-223.

Kaufmann L., Vogel S.E., Starke M., Kremser C., Schocke M., & Wood, G. (2009). Developmental dyscalculia: compensatory mechanisms in left intraparietal regions in response to nonsymbolic magnitudes. Behavior and Brain Function, 5, 35.

Wood, G., Ischebeck, A., Koppelstaetter, F., Gotwald, T., & Kaufmann, L. (2009). Developmental trajectories of magnitude processing and interference control: an FMRI study. Cerebral Cortex,19, 2755-2765.