Dr. rer. nat. Niki Katerina Vavatzanidis

Niki Katerina Vavatzanidis started establishing electrophysiological infant studies at the Cochlear Implant Center in 2010, the early days of Dr. Anja Hahne’s research lab at the University Hospital Dresden, now part of the ERCD. As a neuropsychologist with a strong background in EEG, she is interested in the dynamics of the plastic infant brain that goes from deaf to hearing after cochlear implantation. Her research questions currently focus on the implications the implant and a delayed hearing onset have for language acquisition.

Research priority

Scientific career

Since 2018	Research fellow, Technische Universität Dresden, Cochlear Implant Center Dresden, Dresden, Germany
2018	Doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in Psychology, University of Leipzig, Germany Doctoral thesis at the Cochlear Implant Center Dresden and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany: “From syllables to words: Language perception and language acquisition of young children with cochlear implants”
2009	Master of Science (MSc) in Medical Neuroscience, Charité Berlin, Germany Master thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany: “Identifying the neural correlates of prediction errors during reinforcement learning using single-trial EEG
2006	Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Germany Bachelor thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany: “Externally Induced Errors During Piano Performance: Error-Related ERPs Within a Complex Motor Task”

Research profiles

Selected publications

Vavatzanidis, N.K. (2019). From syllables to words: language perception and language acquisition of young children with cochlear implants (Vol. 196). Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. ISBN: 9783941504820
Vavatzanidis, N. K., Mürbe, D., Friederici, A. D., & Hahne, A. (2018). Establishing a mental lexicon with cochlear implants: An ERP study with young children. Scientific Reports, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18852-3
Vavatzanidis, N. K., Mürbe, D., Friederici, A. D., & Hahne, A. (2016). The Perception of Stress Pattern in Young Cochlear Implanted Children: An EEG Study. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 68. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00068
Vavatzanidis, N. K., Mürbe, D., Friederici, A., & Hahne, A. (2015). The Basis for Language Acquisition: Congenitally Deaf Infants Discriminate Vowel Length in the First Months after Cochlear Implantation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27(12), 2427–2441. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00868
Maidhof, C., Vavatzanidis, N., Prinz, W., Rieger, M., & Koelsch, S. (2010). Processing expectancy violations during music performance and perception: An ERP study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(10), 2401–2413. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21332
Philiastides, M. G., Biele, G., Vavatzanidis, N., Kazzer, P., & Heekeren, H. R. (2010). Temporal dynamics of prediction error processing during reward-based decision making. NeuroImage, 53(1), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.05.052

Selected awards and scholarships

DAAD scholarship to give a talk at Prof. Corina’s lab at theUniversity of California Davis, July 2017 “The N400 as neural marker of language development in young cochlear implanted children”
Rehder poster award at the 31. Annual Meeting of the German Society of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology, 2014, Lübeck: Vavatzanidis, N., Hahne, A. & Mürbe, D.: „Development of auditory discrimination in children in the first year after CI fitting - a longitudinal study with EEG“
Award for Young Scientists for the talk: “Development of language specific discriminative abilities of children after an early cochlear implantation” at the Annual Meeting of the German Society for Audiology 2013. Awarded at the
Annual Meeting of the German Society for Audiology 2014, Oldenburg. Annelie Frohn Foundation Award (€5,000) for scientific achievements in the field of hearing and speech development of hearing impaired children. Awarded at the 30th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology 2013, Bochum.