Project Details
Projekt
Coordination Funds
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Ileana L. Hanganu-Opatz
Subject Area
Molecular Biology and Physiology of Neurons and Glial Cells
Term
from 2016 to 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 322093769
The mammalian brain accounts for complex sensory, motor, and cognitive abilities by processingenvironmental and internal information within neuronal networks. These dynamically assembledgroups of neurons organize the brain at different levels of spatial complexity ranging frommicrocircuits to large-scale networks. Their patterns of activity, such as oscillatory rhythms, createa precise temporal order within the brain by timing the neuronal firing. It is thought that thespatiotemporal orchestration of neuronal activity in neuronal networks is essential for generatingdefined behavioral outputs.A fundamental aim of systems neuroscience is to decipher the mechanisms by which sensoryperception and cognitive abilities are encoded onto activity patterns of single neurons and neuronalnetworks. However, experimental achievement of this aim has proven notoriously difficult andmostly descriptive and correlative evidences accumulated during the last decades. Thus, severalcrucial questions remain to be addressed: What is the contribution of single neurons or neuronalnetworks of different complexity to a specific behavior? What are the mechanisms by whichneurons are recruited for assembling into networks that generate behaviorally relevant output?How does the activity of developing networks contribute to network refinement and maturation ofcognitive abilities? What is the behavioral impact of abnormal network activation?Until very recently, appropriate methods to monitor and selectively manipulate the activity of singleor groups of neurons in behaving animals were lacking. The impressive development of newrecording and imaging techniques as well as of electrical nanostimulations and optogenetic toolsduring the last two-three years had a profound impact on neuroscience. Thus, time has now cometo bind experimental systems physiology with neurotechnology and analysis/modeling of networkdynamics in an interdisciplinary and seminal collaborative endeavor.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
