From 31.1. – 2.2.2024 the CoBeNe Doctoral School organised the third annual PhD Academy which our PhD students took as an opportunity to present their work.
After a visit to the Haidlhof Research Station (where some of the Biology PhD students of CoBeNe do their research on Corvids and Keas) on the first day, our lab’s students kicked off their presentations in one of the, fittingly, very aesthetic rooms of the University:
Max Kathofer presented his work on how Ketamine may alter synergistic information processing through its anti-anhedonic properties.
Next, Young Ah Kim presented work on how emotions may be perceived through art differently in people with high autistic traits than those with low autistic traits.
Anna Fekete talked about how self-selected works of art (a visual art piece and a music piece) may reduce our experience of pain and stress.
Paula Angermair and Franz Schmid, two of our newest PhD students, presented their individual work within the ‘Unlocking the Muse’ project which aims to investigate how creativity is linked to Parkinson’s Disease. While Paula focuses on the role of Dopamine through administration of Dopamine Agonists in a healthy population, Franz will use non-invasive brain stimulation in the form of ultrasound stimulation to investigate the neural mechanisms of creative cognition.
Lakshmi Kalathinkunnath talked about the how people’s circadian biology is linked to performance in psychological tasks, and particularly how this is influenced if our circadian rhythm is disrupted through adrenal insufficiency.
Srestha Chakraborty introduced their decolonial, collaborative, and transdisciplinary framework for research in empirical aesthetics as an important step in combating prejudice and discrimination.
Stephanie Miller presented a large scale study that identifies art experience profiles based on network and latent profile analysis of phenomenal, emotional, and cognitive responses to art.
In matching jumpers, Margot Dehove and Kirren Chana gave a joint talk on a scoping review exploring Urban Aesthetics and the (rather tedious) process of performing such a review.
Tristan Barrière and Anna Lena Knoll presented their work within the FWF project ‘The Function of Aesthetics in our Lives’. While Tristan is running a series of eye-tracking studies in environments (Donaukanal, Belvedere Museum, Palmenhaus at Schönbrunn) featuring different aspects of aesthetics we encounter in everyday life (nature, street art, art in museums), Anna Lena presented a series of experience sampling — or BeReal with extra steps — studies aimed at investigating how beauty is experienced in everyday life (pre-print of the corresponding paper here). 
We ended where we started, in the very fancy room, with our visiting PhD student Eduardo Naddei Grasso talking whether beauty and material (e.g., wood, plastic) of objects can serve as a nudge for pre-environmental behaviour.
Photos by Christian Haider (except Kea photo which was taken by Anna Lena)
Full program of the PhD Academy here.