SFB 1436:  Neural resources of cognition

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

Neuroscientists have made considerable progress in delineating neural circuits governing cognitive functions. These conceptual advances now pave the way to systematically address one of the most pressing and obvious questions in cognition research: What are the neurobiological principles that constitute and limit neural resources of cognition and constrain the potential to fully utilise or to even increase these resources?The notion that neural resources are limited and vulnerable is central to major concepts that seek to explain individual variability in cognitive performance, changes across the lifespan and in age-related cognitive decline (i.e. reserve, resilience, resistance, maintenance). Despite this central role, a neuro-biological understanding of neural resources is still lacking. 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. Another is to flexibly provide these plasticity-related benefits to different cognitive demands, a phenomenon referred to as transfer. 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 to scientists. 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 to unravel the physiological principles govern-ing neural resources of cognition at micro-, meso- and marco-scales in young and older adults. We will harness individual variability by including high performing individuals such as Superagers. 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 pathology. Over the course of the CRC, we will develop a comprehensive and multi-scale cognitive medicine framework to be able to individually tailor interventions to protect or enhance specific cognitive functions and optimise the transfer potential and minimise trade-offs of these interventions.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

• A01 - The NMDA receptor complex - a signalling hub at the origin of cognitive flexibility? (Project Heads Dieterich, Daniela C. ;  Fendt, Markus )
• A02 - Shaping neuronal engram ensembles through excitation-transcription coupling (Project Heads Karpova, Ph.D., Anna ;  Kreutz, Michael R. )
• A03 - Neural resource allocation by spatial memory circuits facing progressive pathological challenges (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 cognitive flexibility (Project Heads Dityatev, Ph.D., Alexander ;  Schott, Björn Hendrik ;  Seidenbecher, Constanze )
• A06 - Neural resource mediated by BDNF-dependent neuroplasticity of cortico-hippocampal interactions (Project Heads Leßmann, Volkmar ;  Ohl, Frank W. )
• A07 - Orexinergic modulation of neural resource (Project Heads Albrecht, Anne ;  Stork, Oliver )
• 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 )
• B02 - Neural resources of mnemonic discrimination and their interaction with hidden pathology in older adults and SuperAgers (Project Heads Cichy, Radoslaw Martin ;  Düzel, Emrah )
• B03 - Grid cell integrity as a neural resource for navigation and episodic memory? (Project Heads Allen, Kevin ;  Monyer, Hannah ;  Segen, Vladislava ;  Shine, Ph.D., Jonathan ;  Wolbers, Thomas )
• B04 - Effects of hippocampal vascularization patterns on the neural resources of MTL neurocognitive circuits (Project Heads Kühn, Ph.D., Esther ;  Maass, Anne ;  Schreiber, Stefanie )
• B05 - Structural and functional determinants of attentional resource allocation in multiple object and feature tracking (Project Heads Hopf, Jens-Max ;  Schoenfeld, Mircea Ariel )
• B06 - Mobilization of neural resources for temporal attention (Project Heads Budinger, Ph.D., Eike ;  Noesselt, Tömme ;  Pakan, Janelle )
• C01 - Dynamic modelling of training-induced, response-optimised mobilisation of neural resources (Project Heads Taubert, Ph.D., Marco ;  Ziegler, Ph.D., Gabriel )
• C02 - Exploratory attentional resource allocation by the anterior prefrontal cortex (Project Heads Happel, Max Fabian ;  Pollmann, Stefan )
• C03 - Monitoring vs. Automatisation: Neural Resource Allocation for Human Skill Learning (Project Heads Azañon, Elena ;  Stenner, Max-Philipp )
• C04 - Restoring neural resources perturbed by sleep deprivation (Project Head Ullsperger, Markus )
• C05 - Intervening in circuits for cognitive resource allocation in primates (Project Heads Krug, Kristine ;  Ritter, Petra )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Heads Noesselt, Tömme ;  Stork, Oliver )
• Z - Central tasks of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Head Düzel, Emrah )
• Z01 - Functional neural circuit analysis and small animal imaging in vivo (Project Heads Angenstein, Frank ;  Kreutz, Michael R. ;  Stork, Oliver )
• Z02 - Human imaging at meso-scale (Project Heads Hanke, Michael ;  Kühn, Ph.D., Esther ;  Speck, Oliver )
• Z03 - Human molecular imaging ageing and SuperAgeing cohort (Project Heads Düzel, Emrah ;  Kreissl, Michael ;  Maass, Anne )

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