News
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Open House Presentation at the HIH
The brain is one of the last great mysteries of mankind. It helps us to perceive, think and act. What happens when it becomes affected by illnesses? How can we recognize, treat or even avoid disorders? These questions will be answered at the Open House Presentation of the Hertie Institute on Sunday, 13 October 2019, 3 to 6 PM. The motto is "The fascination of the brain - What we think makes us think". A broad program of experiments, presentations and lectures will give you exciting insights into the world of clinical brain research.
We are looking forward to your visit!
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Call for Application: HIH Junior Research Group
The HIH is currently seeking young and highly motivated scientists from all over the world who wish to set up their own independent junior research group. Interested applicants should want to pursue a career in any field of basic, translational or clinical neurosciences that complements and enriches the existing strengths at the HIH. The research group will have full access to cutting-edge scientific infrastructure, state-of-the-art equipment, the University Hospital of Neurology, and the rich collaborative opportunities.
For more information, please see the job vacancy.You can find more open positions in our career section.
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AI and Medicine
Artificial intelligence has become an integral part of medical research - but what role does it really play in the race for the future? Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Thier, head of the Department of Cognitive Neurology at the HIH, met with the Hertie Foundation and Professor Dr. Philipp Berens, expert in data science in visual research at the Research Institute of Ophthalmology at the University of Tübingen. In an interview, the neuroscientist and bioinformatician talk about the opportunities and risks involved in the interaction between humans and machines.
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HIH researchers identify four different neuronal cell types based on their activity pattern in the cortex
Nerve cells communicate with each other by means of electrical signals. Notably, these electrical signals, so called action potentials, seem to differ characteristically between distinct types of neurons. Researchers led by Professor Dr. Markus Siegel used fine microelectrodes to measure neuronal activity in different areas of the cerebral cortex. They found out that action potentials showed very distinct shapes. Based on these shapes, the scientists succeeded in classifying neurons into four different groups. These groups of neurons differed in their activity patterns and in the information that they encoded. “This opens a new window to study cell type-specific mechanisms and functions of neuronal circuits in the cerebral cortex,” explains Siegel. The study has been published in the current issue of the journal Current Biology.
Copyright: AdobeStock
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More than a twich: microsaccades are voluntary eye movements
Microsaccades are not involuntary, spontaneous eye movements, as it has been assumed. Instead, we can perform them at will. A team led by Professor Dr. Ziad Hafed provide evidence against the prevailing view in the current issue of Nature Communications. They demonstrate that the tiny, rapid eye movements show different characteristics of voluntary behavior. “The results completely change the role we attribute to these eye movements in vision, cognition, and memory. Now, one has to consider microsaccades as genuine, purposeful movements,” Hafed says. As a consequence, neuroscientists need to pay more attention to them in the future: microsaccades occur in every experiment in which eye movements are fixated.
Departments
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Neurology and Stroke
The Department of Neurology and Stroke has the main focuses in neurovascular medicine (vessel diseases of the brain, cerebral stroke), neuro-oncology (brain tumors, brain metastases), neuro-immunology (e.g., multiple sclerosis) and neuro-intensive medicine. ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
The Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases treats in-patients on a ward of about 20 beds and in several out-patient clinics. The clinical focus lies on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, the ataxias, spastic paraplegias, and dementias. ...more information
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Neurology and Epileptology
The Department of Neurology and Epileptology has a focus on epilepsy and other paroxysmal neurological disorders. In these diseases, the excitability of nerve cells temporarily changes either due to genetic or acquired defects. ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
The Department of Cognitive Neurology provides consultant and outpatient neuropsychological care. Another clinical focus is the treatment of chronic dizziness in the interdisciplinary dizziness center “Südwestdeutsches Schwindelzentrum” operated in conjunction ..more information
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Cellular Neurology
The focus of the Department of Cellular Neurology lies on cellular and molecular mechanisms in the aging brain and age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Special emphasis is placed on Alzheimer's disease, the most common and severe form of senile dementia. ...more information
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Independent Research Groups
The independent research group at the HIH focuses on the physiology of learning and memory ...more information
Research groups
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Neurology and Stroke
Brain Networks and Plasticity
The human brain possesses the remarkable capacity of reorganization, which is the basis for adapting to constantly changing environmental conditions. This plasticity is of paramount importance ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Neuropsychology of Action
The Research Group "Neuropsychology of Action" is dedicated to investigations of human action control. We study clinical impairments of action control and their neural substrates in patients with brain damage ...more information
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Cellular Neurology
Experimental Neuroimmunology
An immune response is part of most neurological diseases, and the development of late-onset Alzheimer's Disease (AD) has been linked to immune related genes and most recently also to epigenetic modifications. ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Genetics of Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's syndrome (PS) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer's dementia. The vast majority of patients are ill with no apparent cause. ...more information
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Cellular Neurology
Section for Dementia Research
The Section for Dementia Research of the Department of Cellular Neurology and the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy is headed by Prof. Dr. Christoph Laske. The section consists ...more information
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Neurology and Epileptology
Clinical Genetics of Paroxysmal Neurological Diseases
Paroxysmal neurological disorders include a broad spectrum of clinical entities such as migraine, episodic ataxia or myotonia. The research group is focussed on the clinical genetics ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Neuro-Vestibular Diagnostics
The complaint of dizziness is highly prevalent but remains often an enigma to the physician in daily practice. Serious diseases potentially accompanied by dizziness like stroke, multiple sclerosis ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Oculomotor Laboratory
Playing video-games is a widely distributed leisure activity in our society. In order to estimate the consequences of video-game play, we study the details of eye movements and pupil light responses ... more information
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Cellular Neurology
Experimental Neuropathology
Cerebral proteopathy is a unifying term for cerebral neurodegenerative diseases in which aggregated proteins are abnormally deposited in the brain. The hallmark proteopathy is Alzheimer's disease (AD) ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Functional Neurogenomics
Neurodegenerative disorders are associated in a proportion of cases with genetic risk and gene mutations. However, the vast majority of cases of Parkinson’s disease are sporadic and the disease is altogether heterogeneous in symptoms and pathology. ...more information
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Independent Research Group
Molecular Brain Development
The mammalian neocortex is a highly complex and spatially heterogeneous structure, which has expanded significantly in mammalian evolution. Neocortical network function is at the heart of cognitive function ...more info
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Neurology and Stroke
Neurological B cell Immunology
The research group “Neurological B cell Immunology” is focused on the role of B cells in neuro-inflammatory diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS) and ...more information
Research groups
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Clinical Parkinson's Disease Research
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most frequent neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and affects about 1 to 2 % of individuals over the age of 65. The number is steadily increasing due to demographic changes in Western countries. ...more information
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Cellular Neurology
Molecular Imaging Unit
The Molecular Imaging Unit focuses on the visualization of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) related changes in model systems using in vivo multiphoton microscopy ...more information
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Neurology and Stroke
Molecular Neurooncology
Three to five of 100.000 people are annually diagnosed with a glioblastoma (GBM), the most malignant brain tumor in adults. Despite aggressive multimodal treatment including surgical resection and ...more information
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Unit
Cellular Neurology
Molecular Biomarkers Unit
Processes related to Alzheimer ́s disease (AD) and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases start many years before the onset of the first clinical symptoms. At the moment of the first clinical complaints, the disease has already caused ...more information
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Neurology and Stroke
Interdisciplinary Section of Neuro-Oncology
The projects of the lab are focusing on the biology of brain tumors, especially with targeted individualized therapies, molecular mechanisms in the development of resistance and cell based therapy approaches ...more information
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Neurology and Epileptology
Translational Imaging
The focus of our research group is the structural and functional imaging of neurological diseases with a particular focus on epileptology. We use multi-modal imaging techniques to improve the understanding of disease development ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Dystonia
Dystonia is the third most common movement disorder, and mutations in a growing number of genes have been identified as causes for hereditary forms in many cases. The aim of the group, which brings together clinical experience ...more information
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Neurology and Stroke
Neurophonetics and Translational Neurorehabilitation
The work group Neurophonetics and Translational Neurorehabilitation is based on a cooperation between the University of Tübingen and a neurological rehabilitation clinic (Fachkliniken Hohenurach). ...more information
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Neurology and Stroke
Stroke and Neuroprotection
The research focus of our Stroke and Neuroprotection Laboratory is to find new and to optimize existing neuroprotective strategies ...more information
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Neurology and Epileptology
Experimental Epileptology
Our research group is interested to unravel the mechanisms of well defined, mainly genetic, neurological, paroxysmal diseases, to understand correlations with clinical symptoms and to find new treatment options. ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Active Perception Lab
Humans are tremendously reliant on the sense of vision to interact with their environment. Such interaction often involves the generation of motor outputs ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Mitochondrial Biology of Parkinson’s Disease
Neurodegenerative disorders are associated in a proportion of cases with genetic risk and gene mutations. However, the vast majority …more info
Research groups
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Neurology and Epileptology
Migraines and Primary Headache Disorders
Our group aims at unraveling the molecular pathophysiology of migraine and other primary headache disorders. ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Section for Clinical Neurogenetics
Neurogenetic diseases like cerebellar ataxia, hereditary spastic paraplegia and leukodystrophy are rare disorders. ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Systems Neurodegeneration
Our research focuses on the investigation of the genetic basis, systems neuroscience and paradigmatic therapy approaches in ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Sensorimotor Lab
The lab addresses a variety of topics that, at first glance, may look disparate. Yet, there is a common denominator ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Genomic of Rare Movement Disorders
Our group specializes in rare diseases. A disease is called rare, when it affects no more than 5 of 100,000 people. However, in the grand-scheme of things, rare diseases are not quite so rare ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Section for Computational Sensomotorics
The Section for Computational Sensomotorics investigates theoretical principles in the perception and control of motor actions. Research is organized around three main topics ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Genetics and Epigenetics of Neurodegeneration
The recent advances in high-throughput genomic technologies have provided an unprecedented amount of genotype, expression and epigenetic data for many human disorders. ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Section for Neuropsychology
The Section for Neuropsychology focuses on the investigation of spatial cognition and object recognition in humans. The current issues of our work comprise the action control and sensorimotor coordination ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Functional Neurogenetics
Age-related neurodegenerative diseases are a severe and increasingly worrisome burden for our aging population. Most of the chronic neurodegenerative diseases ...more information
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Independent Research Groups
Learning and Memory
All organisms continuously have to adapt their behavior according to changes in the environment in order to survive. This is particularly important when learning to predict threatening or dangerous situations. ...more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Systems Neurophysiology Lab
The overarching goal of our work is to understand the operating principles of the neocortex, a unique brain structure, which mainly evolved in mammals. There is clear evidence that the neocortex, in the broadest sense, endows the subject with cognitive capabilities. ...more information
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Neurodegenerative Diseases
Deep Brain Stimulation
The working group aims to uncover mechanisms of action of deep brain stimulation therapy and to translate the pathophysiological insights into future developments. …more information
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Cognitive Neurology
Motor Control Modeling
The research group „Multi-Level Modeling in Motor Control and Rehabilitation Robotics“ focuses on the generation and control of active biological movements. We develop ...more information
Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Regina Ammicht-Quinn (University of Tübingen)
Prof. Dr. Markus Frings (Evang. Klinikum Niederrhein)
Dr. Christoph Peylo (Robert Bosch GmbH)
Prof. Dr. Michael Sedlmair (University of Stuttgart)
Presentation: Carsten Knop (FAZ)
6 pm
Location: University of Stuttgart, M 17.02 Tiefenhörsaal
More infos: www.ghst.de/GehirnDerZukunft (in German only)
DW-MRI reveals rapid formation of memory engrams in the neocortex
19:00 Anuck Sawangjit (Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neuropsychology)
The hippocampus is crucial for forming long-term memory during sleep
Location: Children´s Hospital, Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 1, Ebene C3, Großer Hörsaal
Non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation in psychiatry: basic and clinical research
Location: Children Hospital, Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 1, 3rd Floor, Lecture Hall
Combining excellent research and patient care
Click on the image to watch the video
An exemplary connection between research and clinical care
The German Council of Science and Humanities recognizes the performance and academic excellence of theHertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research. The recommendation of the council is an excellent basis for the further development of the HIH.
Press release by the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat)
