Contact
Email: ethrom01@mail.bbk.ac.uk
Supervisors
Prof Emily Jones
Prof Robert Leech (KCL)
Research Interests
I am interested in human social cognition, how it changes with development, and which neural mechanisms drive this change. I am particularly interested in infancy, the period of life in which these changes are greatest and fastest.
In my PhD, I aim to identify which aspects of their social environment are most important for infants to help them build up a social brain network. This is important in order to develop early behavioural interventions for infants at risk of atypical social development.
To get there, I will investigate which characteristics of auditory and visual social stimuli elicit the strongest activation in the social brain network in 4-8 months old infants. By combining real-time neuroimaging data analysis (EEG, fNIRS, fMRI) with novel machine learning methods (Neuroadaptive Bayesian optimisation), we will be able to identify the individual’s preferred stimulus characteristics among thousands of possibilities based on his/her individual brain responses to a very limited subset of stimuli.
My project is part of the SAPIENS Innovative Training Network. It is supported by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral fellowship of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program (grant agreement No 814302). You can read more about the aims, sites and actions of the SAPIENS Network here: http://sapiens-itn.eu
Education
PhD in Psychology, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK (2019 – present)
M.Sc in Psychology, programme focus: Mind and Brain, University of Vienna, Austria (2017 – 2019)
B.Sc in Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria (2013 – 2017)
Research Experience
2018-2019 – MSc thesis
University of Vienna, Austria, Department of Psychology, Institute for Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods. Cognitive Psychology Lab. Supervisor: Prof Ulrich Ansorge. University of Zurich, Switzerland, Department of Philosophy, Institute for Psychology. Cognitive Psychology Lab. Supervisor: Prof Klaus Oberauer. The role of cognitive load / free time on working-memory capacity.
2019 – Research assistance
University of Zurich, Switzerland, Department of Philosophy, Institute for Psychology. Cognitive Psychology Lab, Dr Alessandra de Souza.
2016-2018 – Research assistance
University of Vienna, Austria, Department of Psychology, Institute for Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods. Cognitive Psychology Lab, Prof Ulrich Ansorge.
2016 – 2017 – Junior Researcher Programme (JRP)
European Federation of Psychology Students Association (EFPSA). Project: Factors underlying parents’ decision against child-vaccination. Supervision: Dr Phil Brüll.
2015 – Research Internship
University of Vienna, Austria, Department of Psychology, Institute for Basic Psychological Research and Research Methods. Empirical Visual Aesthetics Lab, Dr Manuela Marin.
Conference presentations / posters
Throm, E., Ansorge, U., & Oberauer, K. (2019). The Effect of Free Time in Memory Tasks: Comparing Complex-Span, Brown-Peterson and Simple-Span Paradigm. Poster presented at the yearly congress for postgraduate students 2019 (Masterstudierenden- und Doktorierenden-Kongress) of the Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich, May 28, Zurich, Switzerland.
Awards and funding
2019-2022 - Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral fellowship of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program (grant agreement No 814302)
2018 - Scholarship for outstanding academic achievements, University of Vienna