Nora`s short Bio

Hi you all!!

We are using the brain to analyze the brain…Funny actually, if you think about it. And what if the brain has secrets that it simply doesn’t want us to know???

I am Nora Karsten, I am from Hamburg, Germany, which is pretty much in the North of our country and only a six-hour-train-trip from Amsterdam. I have been living in Amsterdam for the last three years now. I did my Bachelor already here at the UvA. We started out with general Psychology but I soon understood that I wouldn’t find my happiness only in that domain. So, the first chance I got I specialized on clinical neuropsychology and did the basis program “Brain and Cognition”. And I got happy!!! No, seriously I realized that learning how mechanisms in the brain can effect normal behavior as well as create pathology really seems to be the most interesting thing to study.
What I am specially interested in, at least so far, is the pathology of Parkinson`s Disease. So, of course, in my Bachelor thesis I wrote about that. I wrote a review about the long term effects of globus pallidus and subthalamic nucleus stimulation (deep brain stimulation) for Parkinson`s patients. Actually I am trying to do my internship in Parkinson’s domain. So, if you have any suggestions or advices, let me know please!
What I also find very interesting, even though it is not so strongly related to cognitive neuroscience (that s the track I am in by the way), are the effects of stroke on behavior and specially brain functions. In the summer two years ago I did one of my many internships in a stroke-unit in a hospital in Hamburg and that was definitely a very precious experience for me. I learned a lot about strokes and their consequences, but I also realized that I really could enjoy working close with patients. So, what I imagine for the future is to combine research with clinical settings. Well, it is still a long way to go!


See you guys around!