
RESOURCES
For many years now, we’ve been sharing useful resources and media stories related to our research projects. As a leading Science Laboratory in the San Francisco area, it’s important for us to engage with the community and keep them informed about the incredible work and developments they’re helping to support.

RESOURCES
For many years now, we’ve been sharing useful resources and media stories related to our research projects. As a leading Science Laboratory in the San Francisco area, it’s important for us to engage with the community and keep them informed about the incredible work and developments they’re helping to support.

BJÖRN HERRMANN
Principal Investigator
I am interested in how our brains support hearing in younger and older adulthood. We use a wide range of behavioral, physiological, and brain recording tools (including psychophysics, pupillometry, EEG, MEG, fMRI). Before starting my Scientist and Assistant Professor position at the Rotman Research Institute and University of Toronto, I was a postdoc in the CONCH lab at Western University (Canada) and a postdoc in the Auditory Cognition lab at the Max Planck Institute CBS (Germany). I enjoy traveling, hanging out with good people, and playing squash.
FRAN COPELLI
Graduate student
Personal Webpage
Fran is a PhD student in Psychology at the Rotman Research Institute and UofT. She completed a Bachelor’s in Psychology at X (Ryerson) University, and an honour’s thesis in Dr. Russo’s SMART Lab. Fran’s research explored auditory, visual, and audiovisual activations of the human mirror neuron system. Before beginning the PhD program, Fran worked as the lab manager of the SMART Lab for five years. Her current research aims to better understand the physiological changes associated with listening engagement. In addition to working on research, Fran performs and composes music on the piano.
ERIC CUI
Graduate student
Eric (twitter: @mecui22) is a graduate student in psychology at the Rotman Research Institute and UofT, co-supervised by Björn and Dr. Allison Sekuler. He is interested in the interactions between bottom-up and top-down processing in humans, especially in the aging population, by using both behavioural and neuroimaging methods. He completed his HBSc at the Mississauga campus, where he studied age-related differences in visual perception and listening effort at the human communication lab. In addition to being an active researcher, he enjoys exploring new hiking trails around the GTA.
FRAUKE KRAUS
Graduate student
Frauke received her BSc in Medical Technology from the Universities of Tübingen and Stuttgart and her MSc in Auditory Technology from the University of Lübeck. During her master thesis in the Auditory Cognition group of Jonas Obleser at the University of Lübeck, she developed a fascination for the field of auditory neuroscience. Frauke is currently working on her PhD (supervised by Jonas and Björn). She is interested how different levels of attentional resource recruitment affect neural oscillations during listening, and the extent to which this oscillatory activity can be used as a marker of listening effort.
CHRISTIE TSAGOPOULOS
Co-op student
Christie is a HBSc student at University of Toronto specializing in Cognitive Neuroscience. Throughout her three years at UofT, she has studied advanced research and data analysis methods. She is enthusiastic about working on hearing-related projects in the Auditory Aging Lab. In addition to studying at UofT, Christie also spent the past year working at Scarborough Health Network’s Mass Vaccination Clinic. She gained first-hand experience in helping her community to combat Covid-19. Apart from her strong interest in research, Christie enjoys spending time outdoors with her beloved dog and travelling with her family.
TAZEEN ATIF
Co-op student
I just finished my second year toward my HBSc degree at the UofT specializing in Psychology. I am interested in cognitive and clinical psychology to see how mental processes and cognition can be applied to improve mental wellness, especially for marginalized communities. I am excited to learn more about this at the Auditory Aging Lab. As an External Relations Project Assistant at UofT, I have gained computer experience in data collection and analysis. Apart from this, in my free time, I enjoy reading fantasy books, going on walks, and eating out at Pakistani restaurants with my family.
Research volunteers
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Naman Sharma
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Garima Sharma
Previous team members
Postdocs
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Aysha Motala: Mai 2019 - Mai 2022
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Tysen Dauer: Sep 2020 - Sep 2021