SFB 1436:  Neural resources of cognition

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: since 2021
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 425899996

Neuroscientists are making considerable progress in delineating neural circuits governing cognitive functions. Building on these advances, our CRC addresses one of the most pressing questions in cognition research: what are the neurobiological principles that can limit or unlock the neural resources of neurocognitive circuits. This question gains particular relevance when considering how brain circuits adapt to pathology that silently accumulates with aging in so many seemingly healthy individuals. Concepts like reserve and maintenance attempt to explain interindividual variability in cognitive performance in these individuals. These concepts operate on the premise that neural resources are finite and susceptible. However, despite their central role, we still lack a neurobiological understanding of the limitations of neural resources and the constraints they impose on reserve and maintenance. Additionally, there is no established mechanistic framework for translational research aimed at unlocking the reserve potential of these circuits. Powerful tools and technology have recently become available to unravel the neurobiology of neural resources across multiple scales ranging from molecular pathways, submillimeter meso-scale circuits to distributed macro-scale networks in both humans and animals. Together with recent progress in cognitive neuroscience, these advances pave the way to systematically investigate key defining properties of neural resources. One is their ability to accommodate increased cognitive demands through short and long-term plasticity (i.e. brain reserve) or processes related to cognitive reserve. A major obstacle to understand how neural resources change over the lifespan in vivo has been that preclinical neurodegenerative and vascular pathology in seemingly healthy older adults remained hidden (subclinical and undiagnosed). Recent advances in biomarker assessment, Positron-Emission-Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging now allow for the first time to quantify this hidden pathology and thus discover causes for neural resource limitations and develop interventions to overcome these limitations. In this CRC, we will harness these recent developments, together with new technology for targeted brain stimulation, to unravel the physiological principles governing neural resources of cognition at micro-, meso- and marco- scale. Our CRC will thus help to develop overarching theories explaining individual variability in animal and human cognition and in the capability to preserve or enhance cognitive performance over the lifespan as well as in the face of manifest pathology. Over the course of the CRC, we want to develop a comprehensive and multi-scale cognitive medicine framework to be able to individually tailor interventions to protect or enhance specific cognitive functions.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

• A01 - NMDA receptor-dependent prefrontal circuits critical for cognitive flexibility (Project Heads Dieterich, Daniela C. ;  Fendt, Markus ;  Nickl-Jockschat, Thomas )
• A02 - Shaping neuronal engram ensembles through excitation-transcription coupling (Project Heads Grochowska, Katarzyna ;  Karpova, Ph.D., Anna ;  Kreutz, Michael R. )
• A03 - Unraveling Theta: Decoding Inhibitory Circuits in Alzheimer's Mouse-Human Research (Project Heads Dürschmid, Stefan ;  Remy, Stefan )
• A04 - Cognitive enhancement by the anti-aging protein Klotho – From molecular mechanisms to interventions (Project Heads Andres-Alonso, Maria ;  Düzel, Emrah ;  Kreutz, Michael R. )
• A05 - Extracellular matrix integrity as neural resource of memory precision and cognitive flexibility (Project Heads Dityatev, Ph.D., Alexander ;  Schott, Björn Hendrik ;  Seidenbecher, Constanze )
• A07 - Mobilising cognitive resource through orexinergic modulation of hippocampal circuits (Project Heads Albrecht, Anne ;  Stork, Oliver )
• A09 - Mnemonic resources of the mammillary body (Project Heads Barnstedt, Oliver ;  Petzold, Anne )
• B02 - Mobilizing reserve in episodic memory in individuals with Alzheimer`s disease pathology (Project Heads Cichy, Radoslaw Martin ;  Düzel, Emrah )
• B03 - From Alzheimer’s Disease to SuperAgeing: A Cross-Species Study on Grid Cells as a central resource for Memory and Navigation (Project Heads Allen, Kevin ;  Monyer, Hannah ;  Segen, Vladislava ;  Shine, Ph.D., Jonathan ;  Wolbers, Thomas )
• B04 - Synaptic density, MTL circuit function and microvascular plasticity in aging and SuperAging (Project Heads Barthel, Henryk ;  Kühn, Ph.D., Esther ;  Maass, Anne ;  Schreiber, Stefanie )
• B05 - Mobilisation of attentional resources in multiple object and feature tracking: training and perturbation of circuits (Project Heads Hopf, Jens-Max ;  Schoenfeld, Mircea Ariel )
• B06 - Deployment of neural resources for temporal attention across the senses (Project Heads Budinger, Ph.D., Eike ;  Noesselt, Tömme ;  Pakan, Janelle )
• B07 - Circuit-specific improvements of mnemonic discrimination in the rodent and human entorhino-hippocampal subnetworks (Project Heads Angenstein, Frank ;  Ciliberti, Ph.D., Davide ;  Sauvage, Magdalena )
• C01 - Embodied cognitive reserve in the cortico-subcortical premotor network (Project Heads Lehmann, Nico ;  Taubert, Ph.D., Marco ;  Ziegler, Ph.D., Gabriel )
• C03 - Parallel planning as a resource for human skill learning and memory (Project Heads Azañon, Elena ;  Stenner, Max-Philipp )
• C04 - Restoring neural resources perturbed by sleep deprivation (Project Heads Tegelbeckers, Jana ;  Ullsperger, Markus )
• C05 - Wavelike dynamics in neocortical networks for cognitive control (Project Heads Krug, Kristine ;  Ritter, Petra )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Heads Albrecht, Anne ;  Noesselt, Tömme ;  Stork, Oliver )
• Z - Central tasks of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Head Düzel, Emrah )
• Z01 - Functional neural circuit analysis of the rodent brain (Project Heads Angenstein, Frank ;  Kreutz, Michael R. ;  Nickl-Jockschat, Thomas ;  Stork, Oliver )
• Z02 - Mesoscopic imaging of human brain structure, function and neurofluids (Project Heads Berron, David ;  Hanke, Michael ;  Kühn, Ph.D., Esther ;  Mattern, Hendrik ;  Speck, Oliver )
• Z03 - Human molecular imaging ageing and SuperAgeing cohort (Project Heads Düzel, Emrah ;  Kreissl, Michael ;  Maass, Anne )

Completed projects

• A06 - Neural resource mediated by BDNF-dependent neuroplasticity of cortico-hippocampal interactions (Project Heads Leßmann, Volkmar ;  Ohl, Frank W. )
• A08 - The noradrenergic system´s contribution to neural resource in aging (Project Heads Betts, Ph.D., Matthew ;  Hämmerer, Dorothea )
• B01 - Medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex connectivity as a neural resource for recognition memory (Project Heads Prigge, Ph.D., Matthias ;  Sauvage, Magdalena )
• C02 - Exploratory attentional resource allocation by the anterior prefrontal cortex (Project Heads Happel, Max Fabian ;  Pollmann, Stefan )

• Applicant Institution: Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
• Participating University: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Freie Universität Berlin; Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; Universität Leipzig
• Participating Institution: Leibniz-Institut für Neurobiologie (LIN); Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE); Standort Magdeburg
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Emrah Düzel