The Effects of Autocorrelation on Overlap Corrected rERPs
for Felix Schröder
This thesis investigates the challenge of dealing with autocorrelation in brain activity: if signals at 103 ms and 104 ms are almost identical, how does this affect statistical analysis? The surprising result — it’s not as problematic as expected! The Thesis Art piece visualizes this concept through an intricate plotting technique inspired by mathematical functions.
The Creation Process
This was the first Thesis Art piece where interactive sliders were used to fine-tune visualization parameters. The biggest technical challenge was text placement along plotted lines — without dedicated functions, coordinates had to be manually adjusted for even spacing. Some areas worked seamlessly, while others required creative problem-solving.
Artistic Concept
The design choice was influenced by the thesis’ second supervisor, René Skukies. Different time series were plotted against each other, replicating how an autocorrelation function is calculated. The structure also pays homage to the Möbius band sculptures of P. Ariane Ehinger, reinforcing the theme of continuity and infinite patterns in brain activity.
“Felix took this work seriously — and so seriously, in fact, that he continued with a PhD in England! A perfect example of how research leads to more questions and deeper explorations.”
Benedikt Ehinger
Personal Reflection
Balancing the text alignment with the visualization proved tricky. “At that time, I hadn’t yet developed proper functions for text placement, so I had to get creative with subsampling the coordinates. It worked well in some areas, less so in others”, Benedikt notes.
