A few weeks ago, we had two scientifically very intense days where we retreated to Cornelius Borck’s lovely University outpost in the pittoresque city center of Lübeck (thanks for having us!) and re-visited and re-thought out current and future research agenda. Thanks to all current (and future!) lab members who contributed so thoughtfully to this. I enjoyed it immensely. After a few years without proper lab retreats and now the pandemic behind us, we will certainly do more of this later in the year.
Category: Editorial Notes

Our two senior researchers, Sarah Tune and Malte Wöstmann, are happy to each announce the opening of a three-year PhD position in the Obleser lab. The positions are part of two recently funded DFG grants, and will feature really exciting combinations of behaviour modelling and neural dynamics!
Sarah’s project will look into how perceptual inference changes with age, using speech perception as a model system. It will bring together behavioural speech perception experiments and functional neuroimaging, and apply computational modelling to link between the two.
For full details, see the official job ad.
Malte’s project will focus on auditory attention and its neural bases. It will combine behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) data in younger and older adults to investigate the neuro-cognitive mechanisms underlying capture of attention and suppression of distraction.
For full details, see the official job ad.
The application deadline (as single PDF to the email address named in the ad!) is Nov 19, 2023!
Please don’t hesitate to contact Sarah or Malte if you have any informal questions about PhD positions and projects. Sarah will also be at APAN and SfN soon, if you feel like chatting with her about the position.
We are looking forward to many interesting applications!
We are delighted to be a founding member of the Hörhanse, a Lübeck consortium of all players researching, teaching, selling, or treating hearing.Hearing acoustics is a focal point at the Hanse Innovation Campus Lübeck. Unique in Germany is the large number of institutions that work together with renowned players to advance the topic of hearing around the campus: Hearing, acoustics and communication are advanced in their most diverse facets in research projects, study programmes, the nationwide training of hearing care professionals, in the clinical area and through interdisciplinary cooperation.
The founding project partners of HörHanse are the three universities in Lübeck: our host institution University of Lübeck, plus the Lübeck University of Technology, Musikhochschule Lübeck (MHL), as well as the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, the German Hearing Aid Institute (DHI), the Federal Guild of Hearing Aid Acousticians (biha), the Academy of Hearing Aid Acoustics, the State Vocational School for Hearing Aid Acousticians, and the company hear concept.
See the German press release here.
I am happy and honoured that one of the leading hearing aid developers and manufacturers, Widex Sivantos Audiology (WSA), has agreed with University of Lübeck to fund 3 more exciting years of research at the Obleser lab! We will be jointly looking at the intricacies of how ageing listeners navigate a noisy world and its communication challenges.
Details are to follow, but we and our many colleagues in the Hoerhanse Lübeck [hanseatic hearing] are very pleased to have secured substantial funds to kick-start our communication and cross-fertilization platform for hearing research, training, and treatment here in Lübeck. The project will be hosted at our partner, Hanse Innovation Campus (HIC) Lübeck. HIC will also be hiring soon for this poject. Stay tuned for all the details!

Check out this new job ad (deadline Dec 16), if you are interested in working on the complexity of high-dimensional neural data (and how to ensure its anonymity) in this exciting new project with many colleagues from Uni Lübeck and companies around us.
This post is especially suited for talents looking for slight changes in their career trajectory (psychologists going data science, IT specialists going neuro/health, or such).
Holding already a doctoral degree is nice but not a strict must-have at this stage.
Hit me up with any questions you might have. — Jonas
Six years in our lab with the ageing, adapting, listening brain and mind center-stage have come to a successful close. Jonas’ ERC Consolidator grant had been granted during the Auditory Cognition lab’s tenure at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig originally, and it has shaped our start and settling-in at the University of Lübeck ever since 2016.
Jonas: “In total almost 500 sessions of behaviour, EEG and fMRI recorded; more than 160 brave Lübeck folks and their brains followed longitudinally over two years; 25 publications put out; and not least two PhDs finished and five postdoc careers kickstarted — I am very grateful for the help of all these people, my host Institution University of Lübeck and the European Research Council (ERC) having made this all happen. Thank you all.”
All data will be or are already publicly available on OSF, and we will update our dedicated “AUDADAPT” project page once the final report is in.
Here’s a brand new PhD training opportunity, @dfg_public-funded, joint project of @ObleserLab at @UniLuebeck Germany, supervised by me, with star collaborator @GesaHartwigsen (@MPI_CBS) — starting next spring. Please be in touch. Please distribute widely. https://t.co/oTUEVVgQSG pic.twitter.com/L4DtFaqRJl
— Jonas Obleser (@jonasobleser) October 19, 2021