Servicenavigation

Project Details

Back

Projekt Print View

SFB 936:  Multi-Site Communication in the Brain

Subject Area Medicine
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Term from 2011 to 2023
Website Homepage
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 178316478
 
Cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, attentional control, emotion, decision making, action planning, or conscious awareness, are based on the activation of highly distributed networks involving numerous interacting neuronal assemblies in multiple regions of the central nervous system. The essence of a normally functioning brain is proper connectivity. Neurological and psychiatric disorders causing disturbances in any of these cognitive domains, accordingly, involve malfunctions in distributed networks. Current concepts of brain function are still largely based on the notion of local processing and specialization of brain areas. The overarching hypothesis pursued by the SFB 936 is that the crucial determinant of behavior is neuronal network interaction and not local processing. In the first funding period, the SFB has successfully applied a multi-level approach for the analysis of large-scale networks, combining different methods such as psychophysics, electro-/magnetoencephalography, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, multi-site microelectrode recordings, morphological-structural analyses and computational modeling. In the second funding period, the SFB 936 has extended its activities by complementing network investigation and analysis with approaches for modulation of networks, such as optogenetics, electrical stimulation, magnetic stimulation, pharmacology, and behavioral training interventions. Furthermore, computational modeling of networks has been strengthened in the second funding period. While pursuing the same overarching theme, the SFB 936 will move in the third funding period from analyzing, modulating and modeling networks towards functional and behavioral relevance of distinct network components and their spatiotemporal dynamics in health, development, and disease. Moreover, the SFB will consolidate its integrated perspective on large-scale brain networks by working towards closing gaps that have been identified, such as bridging between different scales of network investigation and integrating results across different subnetworks that have been studied. Research of the SFB is structured in three thematic areas: A. Multi-site communication as a basis of cognition; B. Multi-site interactions during development, plasticity and learning; C. Altered multi-site communication in brain disorders. The overall structure of the SFB with these three thematic areas has proven effective and will remain stable, and open questions regarding network properties, structures and dynamics will be pursued further. Projects in each area will now put particular effort on network function and its relation to behavior in their respective domains.
DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

Applicant Institution Universität Hamburg
 
 

Additional Information

© 2024 DFG Disclaimer / Copyright / Privacy Policy

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung