How does the brain respond to the rich, ever-changing soundscapes of real life?

In this project, we investigate how natural, multi-source sound environments shape neural activity across listeners. Participants are seated in a room surrounded by multiple loudspeakers and listen passively to a ten-minute immersive soundscape composed of spatially distributed sounds.

 

Using inter-subject correlation (ISC) of EEG signals, we explore how strongly the soundscape drives synchronized brain responses across individuals. Unlike classical ERP paradigms, which assume identical responses to discrete events, ISC allows us to capture sound-dependent perturbations—moments when the auditory scene evokes shared or divergent patterns of neural activity across people.

 

This project is conducted within the Translational Psychology Group at the University of Oldenburg. Our group investigates how people perceive and adapt to complex, natural sound environments — both in and beyond the laboratory. To achieve this, we develop novel experimental setups, hardware solutions, and analysis methods that bridge auditory neuroscience, psychology, and engineering.

 

This project serves as a pilot study for future large-scale research on neural processing of real-world soundscapes.

 

We are looking for a motivated Master’s student with: