Birgit Nierula is a researcher at Fraunhofer HHI's Interactive & Cognitive Systems Group, which is part of the Vision and Imaging Technologies department.
Her research and development activities are centered around human-computer interaction, emotion recognition, electrophysiology, and brain-machine interfaces.
Biography
Birgit Nierula is a neuroscientist working at Fraunhofer HHI since 2023. She obtained her degree in Physiotherapy in 2002 from the Berufsgenossenschaftliche Unfallklinik Tübingen (Germany) and worked in the field of neurologic rehabilitation for several years. In order to pursue a career in research, she obtained a B.Sc. degree in Psychology from the University of Mannheim (Germany) and a M.Sc. degree in Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience from the Free University Berlin (Germany). She earned her Ph.D. degree in neuroscience (with distinction) from the University of Barcelona (Spain) in 2017.
Birgit's research interests focus on the fields of emotion, pain perception, somatosensory and motor systems, body representation, brain-computer interfacing, and neurorehabilitation. She has conducted research in various institutions, including the Psychophysiology Laboratory at University of Mannheim, the Neurophysics Group at Charité Berlin, the EVENTlab in Barcelona, and the Pain Perception Group at Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig.
Publications
Publikation list outside Fraunhofer HHI
International Journals
Stephani, T., Nierula, B., Villringer, A., Eippert, F., & Nikulin, V. V. (2022). Cortical response variability is driven by local excitability changes with somatotopic organization. NeuroImage, 264, 119687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119687
Matamala-Gomez, M., Nierula, B., Donegan, T., Slater, M., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2020). Manipulating the Perceived Shape and Color of a Virtual Limb Can Modulate Pain Responses. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(2), 291. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9020291
Nierula, B., Spanlang, B., Martini, M., Borrell, M., Nikulin, V. V., & Sanchez‐Vives, M. V. (2019). Agency and responsibility over virtual movements controlled through different paradigms of brain−computer interface. The Journal of Physiology, JP278167. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP278167
Nierula, B., Martini, M., Matamala-Gomez, M., Slater, M., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2017). Seeing an embodied virtual hand is analgesic contingent on colocation. The Journal of Pain, 18(6), 645–655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2017.01.003 M4
Nierula, B., Hohlefeld, F. U., Curio, G., & Nikulin, V. V. (2013). No somatotopy of sensorimotor alpha-oscillation responses to differential finger stimulation. NeuroImage, 76, 294–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.03.025
Preprints
Nierula, B., Stephani, T., Kaptan, M., Mouraux, A., Maess, B., Villringer, A., Curio, G., Nikulin, V. V., & Eippert, F. (2022). Non-invasive multi-channel electrophysiology of the human spinal cord – assessing somatosensory processing from periphery to cortex [Preprint]. Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.05.519148
Stephani, T., Nierula, B., Villringer, A., Eippert, F., & Nikulin, V. V. (2022). Cortical response variability is driven by local excitability changes with somatotopic organization [Preprint]. Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.04.26.489557
Nierula, B., Spanlang, B., Martini, M., Borrell, M., Nikulin, V. V., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2019). Agency and responsibility over virtual movements controlled through different paradigms of brain–computer interface [Preprint]. Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1101/735548
Book chapters
Sanchez-Vives, M. V., Slater, M., & Nierula, B. (2022). Agency and Responsibility While Controlling Movement Through Brain-Computer Interfaces for Neurorehabilitation. In D. Torricelli, M. Akay, & J. L. Pons (Eds.), Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation IV (Vol. 28, pp. 557–561). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70316-5_89
Nierula, B., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2019). Can BCI Paradigms Induce Feelings of Agency and Responsibility Over Movements? In C. Guger, N. Mrachacz-Kersting, & B. Z. Allison (Eds.), Brain-Computer Interface Research (pp. 103–114). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05668-1_10
Posters
Stephani, T., Hodapp, A., Jamshidi Idaji, M., Nierula, B., Eippert, F., Villringer, A., & Nikulin, V. V. (2023). P-1 Cortical excitability shapes somatosensory perception with spatiotemporally structured dynamics. Clinical Neurophysiology, 148, e9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2023.02.018
Bailey, E., Nierula, B., Stephani, T., Nikulin, V., & Eippert, F. (2022). Cardiac artefact removal in non-invasive electrophysiology of the human spinal cord. 11th IMPRS NeuroCom Summer School, Leipzig, Germany. 11th IMPRS NeuroCom Summer School, Leipzig, Germany.
Pohle, L.-M., Horn, U., Nierula, B., & Eippert, F. (2022). Expectation effects on repetition suppression in nociception. 11th IMPRS NeuroCom Summer School, Leipzig, Germany.
Stephani, T., Nierula, B., Villringer, A., Eippert, F., & Nikulin, V. V. (2022). Cortical response variability is driven by local excitability changes with somatotopic organization. 28th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Nierula, B., Stephani, T., Kaptan, M., Mouraux, A., Maess, B., Curio, G., Nikulin, V. V., & Eippert, F. (2021a). Cleaning electrophysiological spinal-cord data from artifacts. CuttingEEG: 5th Symposium on Cutting-Edge Methods for EEG research, Aix-en-Provence, France.
Nierula, B., Stephani, T., Kaptan, M., Mouraux, A., Maess, B., Curio, G., Nikulin, V. V., & Eippert, F. (2021b). Mixed nerve and purely sensory somatosensory evoked potentials along the neuraxis. 8th MindBrainBody Symposium, Virtual.
Stephani, T., Hodapp, A., Jamshidi Idaji, M., Nierula, B., Eippert, Villringer, A., & Nikulin, V. V. (2021). Cortical excitability shapes somatosensory perception with spatiotemporally structured dynamics. 27th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Virtual.
Nierula, B., Stephani, T., Kaptan, M., Mouraux, A., Maess, B., Curio, G., Nikulin, V. V., & Eippert, F. (2020). Somatosensory evoked potentials along the neuraxis. LiveMEEG, Virtual.
Nierula, B., Stephani, T., Kaptan, M., Mouraux, A., Maess, B., Curio, G., Nikulin, V. V., & Eippert, F. (2019). Somatosensory evoked potentials in the human spinal cord. 49th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL.
Nierula, B., Maselli, A., Jamschidi Idaji, M., Villringer, A., Soto-Faraco, S., Sanchez-Vives, M. V., & Nikulin. (2018). Processing of visual and tactile stimuli during high and low body ownership illusion. 6th Mind, Brain & Body Symposium, Mind Brain Body Institut, Berlin, Germany.
Nierula, B., Martini, M., Spanlang, B., Borrell, M., Guger, C., Nikulin, V. V., Slater, M., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2017a). Inducing agency over body movement through brain-computer interfaces. 35th European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology, Bressanone, Italy.
Nierula, B., Martini, M., Spanlang, B., Borrell, M., Guger, C., Nikulin, V. V., Slater, M., & Sanchez-Vives, M. V. (2017b). Inducing agency over body movement through brain-computer interfaces. 5th Mind, Brain & Body Symposium, MindBrainBody Institute, Berlin, Germany (2017). 5th Mind, Brain & Body Symposium, Berlin, Germany.
Nierula, B., Trojan, J., Becker, S., Kleinböhl, D., & Hölzl, R. (2010). Experimentelle Veränderungen der Körperrepräsentation beeinflussen die Schmerzwahrnehmung. Schmerz, 24, Suppl. 1, 145–146.