Research Areas

Cognitive Science

Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary research field to study the mind, intelligence and the brain.

Within the hexagon of the main research fields Psychology, Neuroscience, Linguistics, HumanitiesPhilosophy, Education, Anthropology, Artificial Intelligence and Economics, research in Cognitive Science deepens the understanding from mind to brain, from behaviour to neurophysiological phenomena, from culture, art and social thinking to their brain based underpinnings. 

Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience combines different scientific research areas in which the structure and functioning of nervous systems are examined.

Due to the variety of methods used, neuroscientific research is conducted by scientists from many different disciplines such as physiology, psychology, medicine, biology, computer science, or mathematics together with related scientific fields such as information technology or robotics.

Current Research Projects

We are the host institution to many research projects funded by the University of Vienna and (inter-)national third-party funding agencies.

Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien

A2I - Assist to Include

Start: March 2023

Principal investigator: Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Ing. Sebastian Schlund

Co-Principal investigators: Dipl.-Ing. David Kostolani, BSc; Jozsef Arato, BSc MSc PhD; Karolina Gasparovski

Funding agency: Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien

External partners: Vienna University of Technology, Wien Work integrative Betriebe und AusbildungsgmbH

Horizon Europe

RESONATE: Building individual and community RESilience thOugh NATurE-based therapies

Start: June 2023

Principal investigator: Mathew White, BSc MSc PhD

Funding agency: Horizon Europe

FWF

Following the Festaiuolo. How Do Deictic Gestures in Painting Influence the Beholder's Gaze?

Start: December 2022

Principal investigator: Dr. Temenuzhka Dimova

Funding agency: FWF - Austrian Science Fund

Involved Fields: Art History, Gesture Studies, Eye tracking, Deaf Studies, Cognitive Science

Horizon Europe

GOLIAT: 5G expOsure, causaL effects, and rIsk perception through citizen engAgemenT

Start: June 2022

Principal investigator: Mathew White, BSc MSc PhD

Funding agency: Horizon Europe

FWF

Unlocking the Muse: Artistic Creativity and Parkinson's Disease

Start: June 2022

Principal investigator: Ass.-Prof. Matthew Pelowski, PhD

Co-Principal investigators: Mag. Dr. Julia Crone; Mag. Dr. Blanca Spee, BSc MSc

Funding agency: FWF - Austrian Science Fund

WWTF

Urban intervention with art in public space - cognitive attraction, resilience, orsimply positive emotions?

Start: October 2021

Principal investigator: Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Psych. Dr. Helmut Leder

Co-Principal investigator: Mag. Dr. Elisabeth Oberzaucher

Funding agency: WWTF - Vienna Science and Technology Fund

Involved fields: Cognitive Science, Evolutionary Anthropology

Project website: Urban Art & Green

Interdisciplinary Clusterprojekte UniVie & MedUni Vienna

UNRAVELING THE AESTHETIC MIND IN ANHEDONIA: Insights from pharmacological imaging of the human brain

Start: 2021

Principal investigators: Mag. Dr. Julia Crone; Univ.-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dr.med. Rupert Lanzenberger

Funding agency: University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna

External partners: Medical University of Vienna

FWF

The micro-phenomenology of interpersonal synergy practices

Start: May 2020

Principal investigator: Mag. Dr. Michael Kimmel

Funding agency: FWF - Austrian Science Fund

WWTF

Convergent evolution of the social brain? A comparative dog-human fMRI approach | EVOSOCBRAIN

Start: October 2019

Principal investigator: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Claus Lamm

Co-Principal investigators: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Ludwig Huber; Assoz. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Christian Windischberger, Privatdoz.

Funding agency: WWTF - Vienna Science and Technology Fund

External partners: University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna

Involved fields: Cognitive Science, Cognitive Biology, Neuroscience

WWTF

A novel approach to investigate multi-modal attractiveness in humans and animals

Start: June 2019

Principal investigator: Univ.-Prof. Dott. Leonida Fusani, MPhil PhD

Co-Principal investigators: Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Psych. Dr. Helmut Leder; Dr. Cliodhna Quigley, BSc MSc

Funding agency: WWTF - Vienna Science and Technology Fund

External partners: University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Involved fields: Cognitive Science, Empirical Aesthetics, Cognitive Biology

Project Website: Comparative Aesthetics

FWF

Unravelling the role of the opioid system in pain empathy

Start: May 2019

Principal investigator: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Claus Lamm

Funding agency: FWF - Austrian Science Fund

Involved fields: Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology