Oculomotor Lab

Dr. Miriam Spering

Current Collaborators


Deborah Giaschi, PhD (Ophthalmology & Psychology, UBC)
Chrystalina Antoniades (Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford)
Silke Cresswell (Neurology & Pacific Parkinson’s Research Centre, UBC)
Jody Culham (Psychology, University of Western Ontario)
Anthony Herdman (Audiology, UBC)
Nicola Hodges (Kinesiology, UBC)
Martin McKeown (Neurology & Pacific Parkinson's Research Centre, UBC)
Tony Movshon (Center for Neural Science, New York University)
Andreas Sprenger (Neurology, University of Lübeck)
Dinesh K. Pai (Computer Science, UBC)
Anna Montagnini (Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives)

Recent lab visitors (hosted by M. Spering)


Julio Martinez-Trujillo (Western)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on March 16, 2018 on "Probing memory circuits in the primate brain: from single neurons to neural networks"

Clay Curtis (NYU)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on March 2, 2018 on "Mapping spatial priority in the human frontoparietal cortex"

Richard Andersen (Caltech)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on May 6, 2016 on "Decoding imagined movements from the posterior parietal cortex of tetraplegic humans"

Jody Culham (Neuroscience, Western University)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on September 26, 2014 on "Human neuroimaging of real objects and real actions"

Dan Javitt (Psychiatry, NYU)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on June 20, 2014 on "What can the study of schizophrenia tell us about about the role of NMDA receptors in normal cognition?"

Marisa Carrasco (Psychology & Neural Science, NYU)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on April 11, 2014 on "Attention: where perception and cognition meet"

Douglas Crawford (Neuroscience, York University)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on October 18, 2013 on "How vision becomes action in the gaze control system"

Michael Goldberg (Neuroscience, Columbia University)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on September 20, 2013 on "Attention and arousal in the parietal cortex"

Dennis Levi (Optometry, UC Berkeley)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on May 31, 2013 on "Removing the brakes on plasticity in the adult visual system"

Mel Goodale (Neuroscience, Western University)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on April 5, 2013 on "Blindsight in action: What patients with damage to primary visual cortex tell us about the neural substrates of visually guided actions"

Doug Munoz (Neuroscience, Queen's University)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on November 9, 2012 on "Using eye movements to probe brain function and dysfunction"

Stephen Lisberger (Neurobiology, Duke University)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on March 2, 2012 on "How the brain gets its notion of motion"

Tony Movshon (Center for Neural Science, NYU, New York)

Neuroscience Colloquium talk on Nov 4, 2011 on "Brain mechanisms of visual perception"

Alain Berthoz (College de France, Paris)

Visual Cognitive Neuroscience Colloquium talk on August 20, 2011 on "A selection of ideas on gaze"

Spering Lab 2023

Lab Photo Fall 2023

Jessica Chalissery, Angela Czarina Mejia, Jeremy Thomas, Abibat Abiodun Akande, Miriam Spering, Philipp Kreyenmeier, Mathew Gian

Lab Summer 2017

Lab Photo Spring/Summer 2017

Jean-Bernard Damasse (visiting from Marseille, France), Andy Liu, Austin Rothwell, Pearson-Wyder Hodge, Miriam Spering, Rose Shannon, Jolande Fooken, Kiran Mann
(in the centre: our binocular Dual-Purkinje image eye tracker)

Miriam Spering

Dr. Miriam Spering

Associate Professor
UBC Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
Peter Wall Faculty Associate
Member of the Center for Brain Health
Graduate Program in Neuroscience
International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries

MA (Diplom) in Psychology, Heidelberg/Germany (2002)
PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Psychology with Karl Gegenfurtner, Giessen/Germany (2006)
Postdoc in Psychology & Neuroscience with Marisa Carrasco, NYU (2008-2010)
Download NIH biosketch [pdf]
Contact: miriam.spering[at]ubc.ca


Current Lab Members

Philipp Kreyenmeier

Philipp Kreyenmeier

Graduate student (PhD Neuroscience)

Abibat Abiodun Akande

Abibat Abiodun Akande

Graduate student (PhD Neuroscience)

Angela Czarina Mejia

Angela Czarina Mejia

Graduate student (PhD Neuroscience)

Jeremy Thomas

Jeremy Thomas

Graduate student (PhD Neuroscience)

Jessica Chalissery

Jessica Chalissery

Graduate student (MSc Neuroscience)



Current Summer Students & Undergraduate RAs

Mathew Gian

Undergrad RA, UBC, 2021-present


Lab Alumni


Juana Ayala Castañeda

MSc student, UBC, 2021-2023

Leah Kuzmuk

MSc student, UBC, 2021-2023

Xiuyun Wu

PhD student, UBC, 2017-2022

Doris Chow

Postdoctoral Fellow, UBC, 2018-2022 (funding: CIHR/Michael Smith)

Anna Schröger

Visiting Research Student, University of Jena, 2021-2022 (funding: DAAD)

Ishmam Bhuiyan

Undergrad RA, UBC, 2020-2021 (funding: NSERC-USRA)

Jolande Fooken

PhD student/Postdoctoral Fellow, 2015-2020

Vriti Bhagat

Undergrad RA, UBC, 2020 (funding: NSERC-USRA)

Jane Kim

Lab Manager, UBC, 2019-2020

Pooja Patel

Undergrad RA, UBC, 2018-2020

Luca Kaemmer

Research Intern, Maastricht, 2020

Anouk de Brouwer

Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-19

Hikari Kinjo

Visiting Professor, 2018-19
[Faculty of Psychology, Meja Gakuin University, Japan]

Hannah Brown

Undergraduate, UBC, 2018-19
[Directed Studies, UBC]

Matt Madsen

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2018-19 (funding: SSRP)
[FLEX student, UBC]

Kiran Mann

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2016-18 (funding: SSRP)
[Medical Undergraduate student, UBC]

Christian Schlappner

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2018 (funding: NSERC-USRA)
[Bachelor in Psychology, UBC]

Svea Meyer

Bachelor's thesis student, Munich, Germany, 2018 (funding: Studienstiftung)
[Bachelor in Psychology, Munich]

Andy Liu

FLEX student, UBC Medicine, 2017-18
[Medical Undergraduate student, UBC]

Rose Shannon

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2017-18
[in transition]

Jean-Bernard Damasse

Visiting student from Marseille, France, 2017
[Medical School, Marseille]

Nicolas Isla

COGS Directed Studies, UBC, 2017
[VR industry]

Pearson-Wyder Hodge

Undergraduate RA & Masters, UBC, 2016-18
[Masters in Neuroscience, UBC]

Austin Rothwell

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2016-17 (funding: NSERC-USRA)
[Masters in Computer Science, UBC]

Dimitrios Palidis

Graduate RA, 2015-16
[PhD in Neuroscience at Western Univ.]

Eric Chu

Directed Studies, 2016
[Masters in Neuroscience, UBC]

Philipp Kreyenmeier

Bachelor's thesis student, Munich, Germany, 2015-16 (funding: Studienstiftung)
[PhD in the lab]

Kathryn M. Lalonde

Master's student, UBC, 2013-15 (funding: NSERC)
[Medical Undergraduate student, UBC]

Sumeet Mutti

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2015 (funding: NSERC-USRA)
[Masters in Psychology, UBC]

Armaan Malhotra

Undergraduate volunteer, UBC, 2013
[Medical Undergraduate student, UBC]

Alex Tao

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2013
[Deloitte Ltd., Canada]

Melissa Wan

Undergraduate volunteer, UBC, 2013
[Medical Undergraduate student, UBC]

Jeff Wang

Medical undergraduate RA, UBC, 2013 (funding: SSRP)
[Residency Family Medicine]

Aenne Brielmann

Undergraduate RA, Konstanz, Germany, 2012 (funding: Studienstiftung)
[PhD Psychology, NYU]

Janick Edinger

Undergraduate RA, Mannheim, Germany, 2012 (funding: Studienstiftung)
[Postdoc Univ. Mannheim, Germany]

Jolande Fooken

Undergraduate volunteer, Aachen, Germany, 2012
[PhD in the lab]

Sally Ke

Medical undergraduate RA, UBC, 2011-12 (funding: SSRP)
[Residency Family Medicine]

Elsie Wang

Undergraduate RA, UBC, 2012 (funding: SSRP)
[Dental school, Melbourne]

Jessica Lam

Undergraduate volunteer, UBC, 2011
[Dental school, NYU]