Wouter Schellekens | Post doc
After finishing his Master’s degree in Cognitive Artificial Intelligence, Wouter started his PhD at the UMC Utrecht on predictive coding models for visual motion stimuli, using high-field 7 Tesla functional MRI (fMRI). During his first Post-Doctoral assignment, he developed population Receptive Field models for sensorimotor activity, using 7T fMRI as well as intracranial Electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings. During the last couple of years, Wouter has been a Post-Doc within a Brain Initiative project, disentangling neuronal from vascular components that occur as a consequence of the neurovascular coupling mechanism, underlying the fMRI BOLD signal. Since both neuronal and vascular properties change across cortical layers, these studies were performed using depth-resolved (laminar) 7T fMRI measurements.
Currently, Wouter is working on modeling input- and output-gating of pre-frontal cortex (PFC) during working-memory tasks. The project entails laminar fMRI and dopamine intervention, as input/output gating processes are believed to occur in PFC at different cortical depth levels, coinciding with differentiable dopamine receptor characteristics. In his spare time, you can find Wouter on a squash court or behind a chess board.