New Lab members, Marie Low and Frida Smids!

Warm welcome to the new addition to our team – Marie Low!

She is our new Research Assistant to Malina Szychowska and her project on memory navigation: ”Navigating the Sensory Landscape: How Our Senses Shape Spatial Memories”

Marie just got her Masters degree in Psychology, at the Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, with the thesis titled: ”Emotion Recognition and Adult Aging: No Effect of Intranasal Oxytocin, but Sensory Modality Matters” (Supervisor: Håkan Fischer).

We’re happy to announce that our new research assistant, Frida Smids,

will join the lab. Frida will work with data collection in an ongoing study testing the effects of different sensory modalities in working memory training for older adults.

Frida has a Masters degree in Psychology from Lund’s University, titled Resting-state Functional Connectivity in Anhedonia: Exploring the Effects of Pramipexole (Supervisor Johannes Björkstrand. She is currently affiliated with Äldercentrum at the Karolinska Institute.

 

Thank you Arianna and Francesca!

During the spring, we have had two guest interns from Università ”Magna Græcia” di Catanzaro. Arianna Spatafora and Francesca Vozzo have been assisting us in our research projects and data collection – we wouldn´t have made it without them!

We wish them the best and great fortune in whatever they do next!

Guest researcher Samet Albayrak joins the Lab.

Samet Albayrak is a Turkish PHD-student, who visits SCI-LAB for a year.

Here they will bring gustation research to us and do a multisensory perception project, which consider olfaction’s and vision’s interaction on taste and flavour integration!

Samet Albayrak

Murathan’s presents at ECRO symposium

Murathan Kurfali held a presentation titled Investigating the relation between Semantic Space and Olfactory Perceptions using Language Models. He was choosen to be part of the Young Investigators symposium.

”In this presentation, Murathan explored how various language models, including ChatGPT, capture olfactory-semantic relationships. Findings reveal that large language models like ChatGPT tend to resemble human imagination of odors rather than human odor perception. This research not only sheds light on the capabilities of Natural Language Processing in understanding olfaction but also highlights the potential use of AI models as valuable resources for researchers and practitioners in the field of olfaction.”

– Summary of abstract by ChatGPT-3.5

The abstract for the talk can be found here: https://coms.events/ecro2023/data/abstracts/en/abstract_0151.html

Murathan Karfali explained chatGPT and AI at the Psychology department´s conference!

The Department of Psychology at Stockholm University had a two-day conference where AI was one of the themes.

Murathan introduced the AI seminar with his talk on What is ChatGPT!

 

Marta Zakrzewska awarded best PhD thesis award!

Marta Zakrzewska, who defended her PhD thesis last year, was selected for the best PhD thesis award at the Department of Psychology. Marta is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Karolinska Institute and the lab of professor Mats J. Olsson. Congratulations Marta!

Jonas Olofsson awarded AChemS Young Investigator Award!

The PI of the SCI-lab, Jonas Olofsson was awarded the AChemS Young Investigator Award for Research in Olfaction or Nasal Chemoreception by the Association for Chemoreception Sciences! The award is given to “an outstanding junior scientist whose research record should provide evidence of excellence and contributions that have had or are likely to have a major impact on research in the field of olfaction”. Jonas would like to thank all members of the SCI-lab, past and present for their excellent research contributions.

Nira Cedres, from our Lab, had her paper highlighted as ”editor´s choice” in the Journals of Gerontology!

”Nira Cedres’ paper; Subjective Impairments in Olfaction and Cognition Predict Dissociated Behavioral Outcomes, was highlighted as editor’s choice in the Journals of Gerontology” (link to paper)!

The study aimed to investigate the relationship and co-occurrence of self-rated subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and subjective olfactory impairment (SOI) and the results suggest that SOI and SCD occur independently and are associated with different cognitive and olfactory outcomes. The study highlights the need for further investigation into the underlying causes and the risk of future cognitive impairment. With a growing aging population, understanding the relationship between SCD and SOI is crucial for early detection and intervention of cognitive decline and dementia.

Marta Zakrzewska nailed her PhD thesis to the wall of the Psychology department!

On Thursday, June 2, Marta Zakrzewska nailed her PhD thesis to the wall of the Psychology department; a long-standing tradition that symbolizes that the thesis is finalized and publicly available. Martas public defense is planned for August 25 at Stockholm University. Information about the defense seminar, and the thesis, can be found here: https://www.su.se/department-of-psychology/calendar/dissertation-olfaction-and-prejudice-1.614672

Arrivederci to our Erasmus students!

This spring, we had the pleasure of hosting Maria Laura Gidari and Sharon Cannataro, students at the University of Catanzaro in Italy, who visited us via the Erasmus program. Maria Laura and Sharon learned about and participated in smell testing in the SCI-Lab. Good luck with your future studies and arrivederci!