Benjamin Jainta and Francesca Righetti both successfully defended their thesis on Sept. 6th 2024! Benjamin in Münster and Francesca in Bochum. 

Francesca, whose thesis was titled "Embodied Remembering: Exploring the Subject in Episodic Recollection", delved into the philosophical aspects of memory. Her research was conducted at the Ruhr University Bochum under the supervision of Markus Werning (PI of P03).

Benjamin, on the other hand, focused on the psychological underpinnings of memory. His thesis, "The Effects of Encoding, Retrieval, and Modification on Episodic Memory - Neural Substrates and Behavioral Consequences of Prediction Errors", investigated the neural mechanisms involved in memory formation and retrieval. Benjamin's research was supervised by Ricarda I Schubotz (PI of P01) at the University of Münster.

They published multiple articles that helped increase our understanding of scenario construction: 

• Righetti, F. (2024). Re-enactment and embodied resonance in episodic memory: reconciling phenomenological approaches and constructive theories. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-024-10026-7
• Righetti, F. (2021). The pre-reflective roots of the madeleine-memory: a phenomenological perspective. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-021-09774-7
• Jainta, B., Zahedi, A., & Schubotz, R. I.. (2024). Same Same, But Different: Brain Areas Underlying the Learning from Repetitive Episodic Prediction Errors. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 36(9), 1847–1863. http://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02204
• Siestrup, S., Jainta, B., Cheng, S., & Schubotz, R. I.. (2023). Solidity Meets Surprise: Cerebral and Behavioral Effects of Learning from Episodic Prediction Errors. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 35(2), 291–313. http://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01948
• Siestrup, S., Jainta, B., El-Sourani, N., Trempler, I., Wurm, M. F., Wolf, O. T., et al. (2022). What Happened When? Cerebral Processing of Modified Structure and Content in Episodic Cueing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(7), 1287–1305. http://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01862
• Jainta, B., Siestrup, S., El-Sourani, N., Trempler, I., Wurm, M. F., Werning, M., et al. (2022). Seeing What I Did (Not): Cerebral and Behavioral Effects of Agency and Perspective on Episodic Memory Re-activation. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 15. http://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.793115

Photos courtesy of Ricarda Schubotz and Sen Cheng