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Current position:
PhD student at the Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, and research assistant at DRCMR. Supervisor: Prof. H.R. Siebner.
Education:
PhD (Dr. rer. nat.), University of Hamburg, Germany
MSc in Psychology (Cognitive and Brain Sciences), University of Basel, Switzerland
BSc in Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
Research groups:
Multisensory integration & plasticity group
Functional activation/fMRI group
Diffusion imaging group
Main research interest:
The aim of my PhD-project is to map the structural and functional connectivity in brain systems contributing to higher order perception such object recognition within and across sensory modalities (vision, audition, touch). In order to do this, I integrate different methodological approaches such as functional MRI and diffusion-weighted MRI. Another part of my project entails the shaping of the neuronal activity in the identified brain areas with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and then measure the compensatory functional reorganisation with fMRI.
Other research interest(s):
Besides the neural implementation of perceptional processes, I am also interested in the psychological principles of perception, e.g. how we regain information about the 3rd dimension when we see something, and how all the pieces of visual information are structured into larger units of perceived objects and their inter-relations (perceptual organization). I am further fascinated by the conscious, phenomenological component of perception (awareness) and the subjective impression a sensation gives (qualia).
Curriculum vitae:
PhD student
Department of Psychology, University of Hamburg, Germany
Apr. 2008 – Jan. 2012
(Dec. 2007 – July 2009 affiliated at Neuroimage Nord, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, and since July 2009 at DRCMR)
Teaching
Session on TMS, Seminar "Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience", University of Hamburg, Germany
January 2012
SPM course for PhD students, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Winter semester 2010
Biopsychology Seminars, Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Germany
Summer semester 2007 and winter semester 2007/2008
Statistic tutorials, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
2003 - 2005
Research assistant
Department of Psychobiology, University of Trier, Germany
Dec. 2006 – Dec. 2007
Service contract for indexing and abstracting psychological scientific papers
Centre for Psychological Information and Documentation, University of Trier, Germany
2006 - 2007
Service contract as Biostatician
Daacro GmbH & Co.KG (Contract Research Organization), Trier, Germany
2006 - 2007
MSc in Psychology (Cognitive and Brain Sciences)
Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
Sept. 2006
BSc in Psychology
Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
Oct. 2004
Research assistant
Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland
2003 - 2006
Scholarships/Awards
2012-2014 Postdocstipend of the Swiss National Science Foundation
2007 Scholarship of the Janggen-Pöhn Stiftung, St. Gallen, Switzerland
2007 Award for scientific excellence of the Jubiläumsstiftung BLKB, Liestal, Switzerland
Publications
Articles:
Kassuba, T., Klinge, C., Hölig, C., Menz, M.M., Ptito, M., Röder, B., & Siebner, H.R. (2011).
The left fusiform gyrus hosts trisensory representations of manipulable objects.
Neuroimage, 56(3), 1566-1577.
Kupers, R., Beaulieu-Lefebvre, M., Schneider, F.C., Kassuba, T., Paulson, O.B.,
Siebner, H.R., & Ptito, M. (2011).
Neural correlates of olfactory processing in congenital blindness.
Neuropsychologia, 49(7), 2037-2044.
Siebner, H.R., Hartwigsen, G., Kassuba, T., & Rothwell, J. (2009).
How does transcranial magnetic stimulation modify neuronal activity in the brain? - Implications for studies of cognition.
Cortex, 45(9), 1035-1042.
Reijnen, E., Wallach, D., Stöcklin, M., Kassuba, T., & Opwis, K. (2007).
Colour similarity in visual search.
Swiss Journal of Psychology, 66, 191-199.
Book chapter:
Hartwigsen, G., Kassuba, T., & Siebner, H.R. (2010).
Combining transcranial magnetic stimulation with (f)MRI.
In S. Ulmer & O. Jansen (Eds.), FMRI: Basic and clinical applications (pp. 155-167). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Conference contributions:
Kassuba, T. (2010).
Measuring the functional effects of rTMS on visuo-tactile object representations with fMRI: an offline rTMS-fMRI combination approach.
Invited talk, Donders Discussions, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Kassuba, T., Klinge C., Hölig C., Menz M.M., Ptito M., Röder B., & Siebner H.R. (2010).
Left fusiform gyrus integrates visual, auditory, and tactile cues of manipulable objects.
Oral presentation, Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.
Kassuba T., Klinge C., Hölig C., Menz M.M., Ptito M., Röder B., & Siebner H.R. (2010).
Sehen, Hören, und Ertasten von Objekten konvergieren im linken fusiformen Gyrus.
Oral presentation, Tagung 'Psychologie und Gehirn' der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie (DGP) und der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychophysiologie und ihre Anwendung (DGPA), Greifswald, Germany.
Kassuba T., Klinge C., Hölig C., & Siebner H.R. (2009).
The left fusiform gyrus processes visual, tactile, and auditory features of manipulable objects.
Poster, Annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, San Francisco, CA.
Kassuba T., Klinge C., Hölig C., Siebner H.R. (2009).
The left fusiform gyrus processes visual, tactile, and auditory features of manipulable objects.
Poster, International Multisensory Research Forum, New York, NY.
Balslev, D., Nielsen, F.A., & Kassuba, T. (2010).
Eye-position dependent functional connection from somatosensory to visual cortex involved in visuospatial attention.
Oral presentation by DB, Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.
Balslev, D., Kassuba, T., Nielsen, F.A., Siebner, H.R. (2010).
Non-retinotopic representations of egocentric space in visual cortex are modulated by internal representations of eye position in somatosensory cortex.
Oral presentation by DB (poster award), TMS summer school, Oxford, UK.
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