Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences GSN-LMU
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Jessica Freiherr

Prof. Dr. Jessica Freiherr

GSN associate faculty

Responsibilities

Group Manager MultiSense

Contact

Sensory Analytics
Fraunhofer Institute for Process Technology and Packaging IVV
Giggenhauser Straße 35
D-85354 Freising

Phone: +49 (0) 8161 491-302

Website: http://www.ivv.fraunhofer.de/

Further Information

Research focus: My research is dedicated to the neuroscientific aspects of sensory perception. I am especially fascinated by the human chemical senses (olfaction, gustation and trigeminal perception) and the processes mediating chemosensation in the human brain. Further, the interaction of the chemical senses with other sensory systems are of interest. Within this scope I am using multimodal stimulation scenarios to study multisensory integration both on a perceptual as well as on a cerebral processing level. The aim of my research is to understand how the different senses interact to form a unique percept. Within my studies I am examining traditional odors that are of interest during food consumption, but also are considered important warning signals, as well as odors that are used as chemosensory signals to communicate e.g. the emotional situation of a human being. My research group focuses on behavioral and psychophysiological measures as well as functional imaging methods (EEG/ERP, fMRI). Our work contributes to a better understanding of the perception and cortical processing of chemosensory stimuli in healthy subjects but also psychiatric and neurological patient populations.

Selected publications:

Ripp I, zur Nieden Anna-Nora, Blankenagel S, Franzmeier N, Lundström JN, Freiherr J (2018) Multisensory integration processing during olfactory-visual stimulation – an fMRI graph theoretical network analysis. Human Brain Mapping 39(9): 3713-27 | doi: 10.1002/hbm.24206.

Ohla K, Höchenberger R, Freiherr J, Lundström JN (2017) Superadditive and subadditive neural processing of dynamic auditory-visual objects in the presence of congruent odors. Chem Senses, 43(1): 35-44 | doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjx068.

Hoffmann-Hensel S, Sijben R, Rodriguez-Raecke R, Freiherr J (2017) Cognitive load alters neuronal processing of food odors. Chem Senses, 42(9): 723-36 | doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjx046. A comment on the paper was provided by Veldhuizen M (2017) Distracted sniffing of food odors leads to diminished behavioral and neural responses. Chem Senses, 42(9): 719-22 | doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjx060.

Mutic S, Brünner YF, Sijben R, Rodriguez-Raecke R, Wiesmann M, Freiherr J (2017) Chemosensory danger detection in the human brain: Body odor communicating aggression modulates limbic system activation. Neuropsychologia, 99: 187-198 | doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.02.018.

Seubert J, Freiherr J, Djordjevic J, Lundström JN (2013) Statistical localization of human olfactory cortex. Neuroimage, 66: 333-42 | doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.10.030.