I recently obtained my PhD at the University of Amsterdam. On this site you can find information about me and the project. Below is a short description of the
project and a biography:
Phenomenal and Access Awareness
Using psychophysical experiments one can differentiate between
two stages of conscious visual perception. The early stage is characterised
by bare 'phenomenal' awareness. A later stage, mediated by attention,
is characterised by access awareness, meaning the ability report
about a stimulus. Using a combination of psychophysical methods,
EEG and functional MRI it is attempted to determine on which cortical
areas of the brain these two stages depend. In particular, the hypotheses
will be tested that (1) phenomenal experience is caused by recurrent
interactions between early and late visual areas, while (2) access
awareness requires activation of so-called executive areas in the
frontal cortex.
Biography
Johannes Fahrenfort obtained his M.Sc. in psychology at
the University of Amsterdam in 1999. His Masters research project
concerned the ability of normal subjects to exhibit behaviour akin
to blindsight, which is the ability of some people with damage to
their primary visual cortex to guess right about certain features
of objects in the blind part of their visual field. After graduation
he went on to the University of Eindhoven, where he obtained a professional
doctorate in engineering in the field of human computer interaction.
As part of his final project he worked at Trilogy in Austin, Texas,
a software company delivering software solutions to Fortune 500
companies. Upon return to the Netherlands he obtained a PhD in
the Cognitive Neuroscience Group of Prof.Dr. V.A.F. Lamme, where
he now researches visual perception and visual awareness using modern
imaging techniques.
Contact info:
Johannes Fahrenfort
Cognitive Neuroscience Group
Room A6.21, Department of Psychology
Roetersstraat 15
1018 WB Amsterdam