KFO 163:  Cognitive Control of Memory Functions: From Basic Research to Clinical Practice

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: from 2006 to 2009
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 21480453

Storage and retrieval of information from memory is organised by certain cognitive rules and concepts. As a result, humans are able, to a certain degree, to intentionally store as well as forget information in memory, to avoid false memories, overcome memory blockades, and to develop strategies for the contextual reconstruction of events. Neurobiological correlates of these control processes are reflected by interactions between frontal and temperomesial brain areas.While in the first funding term of the Clinical Research Unit elementary mechanisms of these interactions were examined applying combined functional imaging techniques (magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography), the second term concentrates on neuromodulatory processes. These are processes that modify neuronal reactions, without representing information themselves, for example by scaling neuronal output, regulating information flow, or modifying synaptic plasticity.In a common neurobiological model of memory control, the six projects focus on the following neuromodulatory processes: active representation (maintenance of targets in prefrontal cortex), selective prediction of upcoming memory-relevant events, motivation relating to positive and negative results as well as adaptive coding (context dependant scaling of neuronal response). The latter especially focuses on the role of dopamine as a neuromodulator. The sample group to be tested will include healthy subjects as well as patients with defined brain lesions, with schizophrenia, and with neuropsychiatric disorders (OCD or ADHD).

• DFG Programme: Clinical Research Units

Projects

• Bedeutung von Interferenz, Salienz und Motivation für die Gedächtnisbildung bei Patienten mit Aufmerksamkeitsdefizit-/Hyperaktivitätsstörung (ADHD) (Applicant Hinrichs, Hermann )
• Cholinerge und dopaminerge Neuromodulation der aktiven Repräsentation und adaptiven Kodierung von Neuheit (Applicant Düzel, Emrah )
• Exekutive Kontrolle von Gedächtnisabruf bei Gesunden und Patienten mit Zwangserkrankungen (Applicant Münte, Thomas F. )
• Koordination der Klinischen Forschungsgruppe 163 (Applicant Düzel, Emrah )
• Repräsentation im Arbeitsgedächtnis und Kodierung von Neuheit bei der paranoid-halluzinatorischen Schizophrenie (Applicant Schiltz, Kolja )
• Selektive Enkodierung in emotionalem Kontext: Wechselwirkung präfrontaler Kontrolle und noradrenerger Neuromodulation (Applicant Fenker, Daniela )
• Steuerung der frühen Detektion von Neuheit durch Prädiktion und Motivation (Applicant Schott, Björn Hendrik )

• Leader: Professor Dr. Emrah Düzel
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Hans-Jochen Heinze