Curriculum Vitae of Melanie Wilke

Education:

2001- 2005       PhD (Dr. rer. nat) in Neural and Behavioral Sciences (grade: summa cum laude), Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Dept. Cognitive Neurophysiology); Advisors: Prof. Dr. N.K. Logothetis and Dr. D.A. Leopold 

Topic: ‘Neuronal underpinnings of perceptual suppression’

1997-2001       M.A. in Psycholinguistics, Neuropsychology and Neurobiology (grade: ‘very good’), Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany 

Master Thesis at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig; Advisor: Dr. E. Ferstl

Topic: ‘Effects of encoding perspective on recognition of textual information following damage of the frontal lobe’

1995-1997       Study of Political Sciences and Literature at the University of Leipzig and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Munich (LMU)

 

 

 

Working experience:

 

 

2008 – present. Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory of Prof. R. Andersen. Caltech. Division of Biology.

 

 

2005-2008 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory of Dr. D.A. Leopold., Bethesda, MD, USA

 

·        Simultaneous recordings in LGN/Pulvinar and visual cortex in awake monkeys reporting subjective visibility

·        Functional imaging in awake monkeys to investigate the discrepancy between BOLD and   single cell studies in respect to perceptual modulation in early visual cortex

·        Neurotransmitter microinjections during awake monkey fMRI

 

2001-2005 PhD student at Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen; Advisors: Prof. N.K. Logothetis, N.K. & Dr. D.A. Leopold 

·        Human psychophysics to develop a paradigm to investigate  perceptual visibility in monkeys

·        Single unit and Local field potential recordings in striate and extrastriate visual areas in monkeys reporting stimulus visibility

 

 

 

Publications:

 

 

Journal Articles:

 

  • Maier, A., Wilke, M., Aura, C., Zhu, C., Ye, F.Q. & Leopold, D.A. Divergence of electrical and fMRI signals in primary visual cortex during perceptual suppression. Nat. Neurosci. 2008 (in press).
  • Wilke, M., Logothetis, NK., Leopold DA. Local field potentials reflect perceptual suppression in monkey visual cortex. PNAS. 2006. Nov 14; 103(46):17507-12.
  • Wilke M, Logothetis NK, Leopold DA. Generalized flash suppression of salient visual targets. Neuron. 2003 Sep 11;39(6):1043-52.
  • Maier A, Wilke M, Logothetis NK, Leopold DA. Perception of temporally interleaved ambiguous patterns. Curr Biol. 2003 Jul 1;13(13):1076-85.
  • Leopold DA, Wilke M, Maier A, Logothetis NK. Stable perception of visually ambiguous patterns. Nat Neurosci. 2002 Jun;5(6):605-9.

 

Reviews/Book chapter:

  • Leopold, DA & Wilke, M. Neuroimaging: seeing the trees for the forest. Curr Biol. 2005 Sep 20; 15(18):766-8.
  • Leopold, D.A., A. Maier, M. Wilke and N.K. Logothetis: Binocular rivalry and the illusion of monocular vision. Binocular rivalry and perceptual ambiguity. 2005. (Eds.) David Alais and Randoph Blake, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

 

Submitted/in preparation:

 

  • Cui, J., Wilke, M., Logothetis, N., Leopold, D. , Liang, H. Visibility states modulate microsaccade rate and direction. submitted.
  • Wilke, M, Mueller, K-M., Leopold, D.A. Visibility related modulation of neural responses in visual thalamic nuclei. In preparation.
  • Wilke, M, Turchi, J., Smith, Leopold, D.A. The contribution of the primate pulvinar to the selection of movement targets: a reversible inactivation study. In preparation.


Recent Conference Abstracts:

 

  • Wilke, M, Turchi, J., Smith, Leopold, D.A. Disruption of visual target selection following inactivation of the Pulvinar. Cosyne. (2008).
  • Schmid, M , Wilke, M. Turchi, J., Smith, K., Mrowka, S, Zhu, C., Ye. F, Leopold, D.A. Inactivation of LGN strongly suppresses fMRI activity in macaque areas V1, V2, V3, but not in areas V4 and V5/MT. Soc.Neurosci.Abstr.Program (2008).
  • Wilke, M, Turchi J, Zhu C, Müller KM, Ye F, Leopold DA (2007) Effects of Reversible Inactivation of Pulvinar on Neural and BOLD Responses in Visual Cortex. Society for Neuroscience Abstr. 2007.

·        Wilke, M, Mueller, K-M., Leopold, D.A. Visibility related modulation of neural responses in visual thalamic nuclei. Soc.Neurosci.Abstr.Program (2006).

·        Maier, A., Wilke, M., Aura, C., Zhu, C., Ye, F.Q., Leopold, D.A. Stimulus invisibility uncouples BOLD from neuronal responses in monkey primary visual cortex. Soc.Neurosci.Abstr.Program (2006).

·        Mueller, K-M., Wilke, M., Leopold, D.A. Neural responses in monkey area V4 and pulvinar following visual shape adaptation. Soc.Neurosci.Abstr.Program (2006).

·        Wilke M., Logothetis N.K., and Leopold D. A. Local field potential modulation  during generalized flash suppression in the monkey. Soc.Neurosci.Abstr.Program (2005).