My interest focuses on the interaction between brain areas. Interaction is needed for context information to reach behavioural relevance. If the interplay between thalamus and cortex is disturbed, diseases like Parkinson or neurogenic pain may occur. Our research aims to improve the understanding and treatment of theses diseases.

Brief curriculum vitae:

· 1990, MS (Diplom) in experimental physics, TU Wien

· 1995, PhD in computational physics, TU Wien

· 1996, Postdoctoral fellow, Salk Institute, San Diego

· 1997, Postdoctoral fellow, Neuroinformatics, ETH Zurich

· 2000, Oberassistent, University Hospital Zurich

The methods we employ are mainly from neurophysiology and sometimes from psychophysics. We record EEG in the lab and Single Units and Local Field Potential in patients during neurosurgery.

Selected publications:

J. Sarnthein, A. Morel, A. von Stein and D. Jeanmonod, "Thalamic theta field potentials and EEG: high thalamocortical coherence in patients with neurogenic pain, epilepsy and movement disorders" , Thalamus&Related Systems 2 (2003) 231-238.

A. von Stein and J. Sarnthein, "Different frequencies for different scales of cortical integration: from local gamma to long range alpha/theta synchronization" , International Journal of Psychophysiology 38 (2000) 301-313.

A. von Stein, P. Rappelsberger, J. Sarnthein and H. Petsche "Synchronization between temporal and parietal cortex during multimodalobject processing in man" , Cerebral Cortex 9 (1999) 137-150.

J. Sarnthein, H. Petsche, P. Rappelsberger, G.L. Shaw and A. von Stein "Synchronization between prefrontal and posterior association cortex during working memory tasks in humans", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (1998) 7092-7096.

J. Sarnthein, H. Abarbanel, H. Pockberger, "Nonlinear analysis of epileptic activity in rabbit neocortex" , Biological Cybernetics 78 (1998) 37-44.

J. Sarnthein, A. von Stein, P. Rappelsberger, H. Petsche, F.H. Rauscher and G.L. Shaw, "Persistent patterns of brain activity: an EEG coherence study of the positive effect of music on spatial-remporal reasoning", Neurological Research 19 (1997) 107-116.

J. Sarnthein, A. Pasquarello, R. Car, "Dynamic structure factor of vitreous silica from first principles: comparison to neutron inelastic scattering experiments", Physical Review B 47 (1998) 14133-14140.

J. Sarnthein, A. Pasquarello, R. Car, "The origin of the high-frequency doublet in the vibrational properties of vitreous SiO₂" , Science 275 (1997) 1925-1927.

M. Boero, A. Pasquarello, J. Sarnthein, R. Car, "Structure and hyperfine parameters of E1 centers in quartz and vitreous SiO₂", Physical Review Letters 78 (1997) 887-890.

J. Sarnthein, K. Schwarz, P. Blöchl, "An ab initio molecular dynamics study of diffusion and defects in Li₃N", Physical Review B 53 (1996) 9084-9091.

J. Sarnthein, A. Pasquarello, R. Car, "Liquid, glassy and crystalline SiO₂ in an ab-initio molecular dynamics study", Physical Review B 52 17 (1995) 12690-12695.

J. Sarnthein, A. Pasquarello, R. Car, "Structural and Electronic Properties of Liquid and Amorphous SiO₂: an ab-initio Molecular Dynamics Study", Physical Review Letters 74 23 (1995) 4682-4686.

P. Wurz, J. Sarnthein, W. Husinsky, G. Betz, P. .Nordlander, Y. Wang, "Electron - Stimulated Desorption of Neutral Ground-State Lithium Atoms from LiF due to Excitation of Surface Excitons", Physical Review B 43 8 (1991) 6729-6732.

J. Sarnthein, P. Wurz, W. Husinsky, G. Betz, "Electron-Stimulated Desorption of Lithium from LiF and the Influence of Metal Islands on the Surface", Surface Science 241 (1991) 6-10.

Theses

J. Sarnthein, Doktorarbeit (Ph.D. Thesis), "Ab-initio molecular dynamics of SiO₂ glass and Li₃N crystal", Technische Universität Wien, Austria (1995).

J. Sarnthein, Diplomarbeit (Master's Thesis) "Elektronenstimulierte Desorption an LiF und anderen Alkalihalogeniden", Technische Universität Wien, Austria (1990).

Code

Sarnthein,J., Sternberg's Working Memory Task . Archives of Neurobehavioral Experiments and Stimuli. Vol. 1: 66. (2003) Link To: http://nbs.neuro-bs.com/ex_files/expt_view?id=66