How learning shapes immunity (A18)

• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316803389

The project explores the extinction dynamics of taste-immune engrams by integrating cellular and systems-level analyses. Learned aversive taste memory depends on dopamine activity in the insular cortex, and the study will investigate the reward system’s role in extinction using chemo-genetic manipulation of VTA projections. To visualize brain-wide network changes, fMRI-based analyses will be used and compared with neuronal manipulations, considering sex as a biological variable. The project also examines whether the metformin-induced taste-immune responses can be preserved, highlighting its context-dependent immunosuppressive or immunoenhancing effects. By blocking extinction, the study aims to prolong taste-immune engrams to influence immune responses in arthritis (immunosuppression) and glioblastoma (immunoenhancement).

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1280: Extinction Learning
• Applicant Institution: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Martin Hadamitzky; Professor Dr. Manfred Schedlowski, until 12/2025