Effects of virtual reality in the augmentation of neuronal network plasticity (C07)

• Subject Area: Biological Psychiatry
• Term: from 2015 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 178316478

A main finding of the previous funding period was that brain-plasticity effects in the hippocampal-prefrontal network in response to a video game intervention are primarily induced by demanding spatial navigation (training of a 3D versus 2D version of the same video game). Clinical data of schizophrenia patients show a significant decrease in general psychopathology in the 3D training condition. Based on this encouraging evidence our goal for the next funding period is to (1) maximize the plasticity effects by using virtual-reality technology in the game, (2) unravel the time course and sequence of network plasticity effects and (3) to search for predictors of long-term plasticity in functional connectivity measures prior to training.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 936: Multi-Site Communication in the Brain
• Applicant Institution: Universität Hamburg
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Jürgen Gallinat, since 2/2019; Professorin Dr. Simone Kühn, since 2/2019