News

We congratulate our team member Dr. Hanna Öhlmann (A12) on receiving the DGVS (German Society for Gastroenterology, Digestive and Metabolic Diseases) Neurogastroenterology Award! Hanna Öhlmann received the award during the Visceral Medicine 2026 Congress at the Congress Center Hamburg (CCH).

On September 25, 2026, downtown Bochum became a hub for science, research, and exchange: At the first “Geistesblitz Bochum – The Knowledge Festival Around the House of Knowledge,” more than 30 partners from the worlds of science, the city, and

On September 16, 2026, the world of neuroscience once again took center stage at Ruhr University Bochum: At BRAIN DAY, visitors gained insights into current research and had the opportunity to get involved through lectures, informational sessions, and hands-on activities.

We are delighted to invite female scientists from SFB 1280 to the annual Berlin-Bochum Memory Alliance Women’s Networking Retreat! The event is organized by SFB 1315 and offers a valuable opportunity to get to know each other and network in

At the 54th DGPs Congress in Luxembourg, a symposium led by Prof. Dr. Christian Merz (project lead A09) and Prof. Dr. Adriane Icenhour (project lead A10) will explore how findings on extinction learning can be translated into clinical practice. The

The German Research Foundation (DFG) funds the CORE (Collaborative Open and Reproducible Research on Emotion Regulation) scientific network. The network brings together researchers and clinicians from various disciplines to strengthen open and reproducible research on emotion regulation and to deepen

We congratulate our team member Prof. Dr. Marcella Woud (Georg-August University of Göttingen) on receiving the DGPS/DGPA (German Society for Psychology & German Society for Psychophysiology and Its Applications) Betreuer:innenpreis (award for the best supervisor)! Marcella Woud received the award

RUBIN, the RUB’s science magazine, together with the SFB 1280, is publishing a new issue for anyone interested in memory in January 2026 – RUBIN Extinction Learning 2026. All articles printed in it will appear online in advance on the

In May, Nature Reviews Psychology published the paper “Connecting Extinction Learning in the Laboratory and the Wild” by Patrick Anselme and Onur Güntürkün. The paper examines how findings on extinction learning from controlled laboratory studies can be linked to learning

Prof. Dr. Sigrid Elsenbruch has published a new standard reference work on the gut-brain axis. Her work highlights new findings and applications of cognitive behavioral therapy from her research at our institution and at SFB 289. We congratulate her on

Prof. Dr. Harald H. Quick (Project Leader A05, F02) conducts research on new methods and technical solutions for ultra-high-field MRI (UHF-MRI) and, in particular, develops new hardware and radiofrequency coils for 7-tesla magnetic resonance imaging. These developments have expanded the

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Onur Güntürkün (Project Lead A01, F01, Z, Ö) studies the connections between the brain and behavior, combining biological and psychological perspectives. He is particularly fascinated by birds, whose evolutionary path diverged from that of mammals some

As a clinical neuroscientist, Prof. Dr. Dagmar Timmann (Project Leader A05, F02) studies the diverse functions of the human cerebellum and also focuses on disorders such as ataxias. For a long time, the cerebellum was regarded primarily as the center

Prof. Dr. Nikolai Axmacher (Project Lead for A02, A03, and F03) studies the neural basis of memory and navigation. His research focuses on so-called grid cells, which play an important role not only in spatial orientation but also in the

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Bingel (Project Leader A11) studies the interplay between pain processing in the central nervous system and cognitive processes. A key challenge in her research is the question of why acute pain becomes chronic in some people while

The founding symposium of the Center for Medical Psychology and Translational Neuroscience will take place on May 13th. The organizers, Sigrid Elsenbruch, Adriane Icenhour, and Dirk Scheele, invite you to a day filled with engaging presentations and fascinating topics. For

We are pleased to announce that ReproducibiliTea is back in the new year with an exciting session! In the upcoming round, Zefan Zheng, who recently joined Ruhr University Bochum, will present his doctoral project. He addresses the question of how

The Cerebellum Club of SFB 1280, founded by Prof. Dr. Dagmar Timmann-Braun (A05, F02) and Prof. Dr. Melanie Mark (A21), provides a forum for regular exchange on topics related to the cerebellum and extinction processes. As part of this series,

It’s been quite a while since the last episode on sleep. But there are some interesting new developments in sleep research that we definitely want to discuss. And along the way, we’ll touch on the importance of citizen science in

We are delighted to invite female scientists from SFB 1280 to the annual Berlin-Bochum Memory Alliance Women’s Networking Retreat! The event is organized by SFB 1315 and offers a valuable opportunity to get to know each other and network in

People with ataxia often experience stress-related motor coordination disorders. Researchers from SFB 1280 have now discovered which receptor is responsible for this. Dr. Pauline Bohne and Prof. Dr. Melanie Mark (Project A21) from the Bochum Beha vioral Neurobiology Working Group

Together with the Erwin L. Hahn Institute, we are pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. med. Dr. h.c. Katrin Amunts (Jülich Research Center, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) to a talk as part of our SFB 1280 invites colloquium series! Prof. Dr.

Science communication is more important than ever—but it comes with challenges. Anyone who communicates publicly is confronted with hate speech, personal attacks, and disinformation in the scientific context. How can we as researchers deal with this—and actively combat it? Kristin

The Conference on Research Data Infrastructure (CoRDI) is the central conference of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). The NFDI’s goal is to sustainably secure, network, and make research data available in Germany – a key contribution to open and future-oriented

Null hypothesis significance tests (NHST) only allow the null hypothesis to be rejected without ever addressing practical significance. Three-sided tests (TST) can solve this problem—they make it possible to formally test whether results are practically significant, practically zero, or inconclusive.

Learning and memory arise from the activity of anatomically specialized brain structures, each processing specific cognitive features. However, the brain is highly networked and cognition emerges from dynamic interactions between structures rather than from isolated activity. Recent advances in brain

Congratulations on his re-election! The German Psychological Society (DGPs) is an association of psychologists working in research and teaching in Germany. Prof. Dr. Christian Merz has been a member of the Ethics Committee since 2016 and an active member of

The next session in the SFB 1280 ReproducibiliTEA is entitled “Harking, Sharking and Tharking: Makig the case for post-hoc data analysis”. Which methods are hidden behind the names, why one undermines scientific integrity while the other could save it and

We congratulate and are pleased to announce that Martin Hadamitzky (PI A18)Franziska Labrenz Postdoc A10, A12)Christian Merz (PI A09)Roland Pusch (PI A01)Katharina Schmidt (PI A11)Katharina Spoida (PI A07) have been granted permanent positions! Robert Kumsta (F02) is moving from RUB

The SFB 1280 ReproducibiliTea is back with a new session titled “Paper Mills: A Threat to Academic Integrity.” The existence of paper mills has affected scientific practices on many levels. What are paper mills? Why do they exist? Are we

Pupil size is an autonomic measure that is influenced by both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity, making it a promising physiological marker for fear learning. Results from previous studies show that pupil dilation serves as an indicator of both

Tobias Glasmacher, professor for the theoretical foundations of machine learning at the Ruhr University Bochum, will convey the goals and requirements of machine learning in a compact and practical way in his upcoming workshop. He will explain the fundamental conditions

Every year, Stanford University and the publisher Elsevier publish a list of the top two percent of highly cited scientists worldwide. The list is based on the Elsevier database Scopus. The influence of scientific publications is evaluated by combining citation

The RUB news portal reports: A learning experiment with test subjects of different ages yielded surprising results. Linking events and their consequences – experts speak of associative learning – is a crucial ability for adapting to the environment. It has

Lana Inoue from project A05 has successfully completed her doctorate – congratulations! The aim of the dissertation was to investigate the interaction between cerebellar and amygdala-dependent learning in healthy male subjects in relation to the “Two-Stage Theory of Learning”. In

The RUB news portal reports: The locus coeruleus and the ventral tegmental area compete for influence on the formation of memory content. This has been demonstrated by a team of neuroscientists using light-controlled nerve cells. Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum

RUBIN, the RUB’s science magazine, together with the SFB 1280, is publishing a new issue for anyone interested in forgetting in January 2025 – RUBIN Extinction Learning 2025. All articles printed in it will appear online in advance on the

Behnam Ghazinouri from the A14 project has successfully completed his doctorate – congratulations! His dissertation deals with the topic “Modeling spatial navigation and learning with spiking neural networks”.

RUBIN, the RUB’s science magazine, together with the SFB 1280, is publishing a new issue for anyone interested in forgetting in January 2025 – RUBIN Extinction Learning 2025. All articles printed in it will appear online in advance on the

RUBIN, the RUB’s science magazine, together with the SFB 1280, is publishing a new issue for anyone interested in forgetting in January 2025 – RUBIN Extinction Learning 2025. All articles printed in it will appear online in advance on the

We are pleased to congratulate Vuk Marković from project A06 on his doctorate! His dissertation deals with the topic “Investigating effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on fear extinction: role of serotonin and rem sleep”.

The 23rd Research Day of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) offered nearly 170 doctoral students the opportunity to present their research. Seventeen of them were honored for their poster presentations, including Patrick Pais Pereira from

The IfADo news portal reports: Prof. Dr. Michael Nitsche, Head of the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, is one of the most frequently cited scientists in his field worldwide. The neuroscientist has once again been included in the annual “Highly

Sandhiya Vijayabaskaran from project A14 has successfully completed her doctorate – congratulations! Her dissertation deals with the topic “Emergent spatial representations in reinforcement learning”.

Congratulations! Together with Helena Hartmann (SFB/TRR 289), Julian Packheiser (Alumni A01) received the award for pain research in the category “Clinical Research” during this year’s Pain Congress 2024 of the German Pain Society. Detailed information on the award ceremony at

Congratulations on the appointment! The news portal of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute reports: On 5 September 2024, ELH-PI Prof Dr Ulrike Bingel was elected as a member of the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Medicine at the University

The RUB news portal reports: The brain constantly memorizes new experiences, which it has to integrate into the jumble of previous memories. Surprisingly, no old memory traces are overwritten in the process. The first day at school: entering the classroom

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved the Collaborative Research Center (SFB)/Transregio (TRR) 289 “Treatment Expectation” for another four years. In this interdisciplinary collaborative research center, scientists are addressing two central questions: How do expectations arise? What role do positive

The “eigen.” initiative by photographer Tim Kramer, who also works as a photographer for the Ruhr University Bochum, is portrayed in a new WDR radio report. The SFB 1280, in particular Project Ö, is also involved in the initiative as

Congratulations! The IfADo news portal reports: Prof. Michael Nitsche, Scientific Director of the Leibniz Institute for Human Factors Research Dortmund (IfADo), was awarded an honorary doctorate for his research work by the University of Hasselt (Belgium) on May 28. He

On 22.05.2024 at 17:00, Sandra Jurado Sánchez and Onur Güntürkün (A01, F01, Z, Ö) addressed this question in an online panel discussion hosted by the Insituto Cervantes Hamburg and moderated by Marta Méndez López. From the Insituto Cervantes Hamburg: As

Congratulations to Jaël Caviola! Jaël Caviola was awarded a poster prize at the 49th annual conference “Psychology and Brain, PUG” at the University of Hamburg from 29.5. – 1.6.24. Dana Huvermann from Experimental Neurology at the University of Duisburg-Essen under

We are very pleased to be able to support the lecture “ Kognition & Gehirn” at the Ruhr-University Bochum with four contributions about the research in the SFB 1280 in this year’s summer semester. From 11.06.2024 to 02.07.2024, four of

The RUB news portal reports: Researchers at the University Alliance Ruhr have gained insights into how an acute feeling of illness affects empathy. Their study reveals complex relationships between the two. When people are ill, they feel less empathy for

Congratulations to: Oliver Wolf (A09) and Lianne Wolsink (A09) on their DFG-funded project in cooperation with Lisa Wirz (RUB). The project is entitled “Stress effects on Memory Accuracy versus Generalisation” and deals with the effects of stress on memory consolidation.

The third joint Girls’ Day of the Berlin-Bochum Memory Alliance finally took place on April 25, 2024, not remotely via zoom, but on site at the Charité in Berlin. After an extensive tour of the Charité campus, the more than

Congratulations! The News-Portal of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute reports: For more than three decades, Prof Dr Dagmar Timmann has been working on deciphering the function of the human cerebellum, about whose influences on the other areas of the brain

The RUB news portal reports: Researchers at Ruhr-Universität explain why the brains of pigeons, parrots and corvids can perform similarly to mammalian brains, despite the major differences. Since the end of the 19th century, researchers have agreed that high intelligence

The ELH news portal reports: The Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ELH) at the UDE is offering two awards: the International Erwin L. Hahn Institute Award and the Erwin L. Hahn Institute Award for Young Scientists. Nominations

Congratulations! Tamás Spisák (F02) is the new Professor of Predictive Neuroscience at the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen! His work focuses on research into brain-based biomarkers. The UDE news portal reports in detail (German): >>

Congratulations! The News-Portal of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute reports: ELH-PI Prof Dr Dagmar Timmann has been elected as one of twelve scientists to the review board of the German Research Foundation (DFG) at the University of Duisburg-Essen. As a representative of

The RUB news portal reports: Jackdaws improve their memory performance by classifying continuous stimuli into categories. The so-called attractor dynamics opens up new insights into the functioning of the brain. Working memory is crucial for higher cognitive functions both in

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a non-invasive brain imaging technique that plays an important role in understanding the role of metabolites and neurotransmitters in cognition and clinical conditions. Unlike functional imaging, obtaining MRS data requires first selecting a region specific

The IfADo News-Portal reports: Prof. Dr. Michael Nitsche, Head of the Department Psychology & Neurosciences, is one of the most frequently cited scientists worldwide in his field. The neuroscientist is thus once again on the annual „Highly Cited Researchers“ list

Congratulations on the POSTER AWARD! Enzo Nio, PhD student from the Experimental Neurology group of Prof. Dr. Dagmar Timmann-Braun, has won one of the six poster awards at this year’s Cerebellum Gordon Research Conference (GRC)! A total of 111 posters

Franziska Labrenz (A10, A12) provides insights into her work on the gut-brain axis, her fascination with neuroscience, and her involvement in the SFB 1280 Equal Opportunity Council in the RUB News Portal interview series “Why I do research”. Franziska Labrenz

Congratulations! Since September 2023, Adriane Icenhour (A10) is the new Professor of Affective Neuroscience at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. In the interview series “Newly appointed” of the RUB News Portal, she provides insights into her work with multimodal imaging and the science

The RUB Brain News report: “It has won over many fans since 2011: The BRAIN DAY! This year, the day dedicated to Bochum’s neurosciences at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) once again delighted around 500 curious guests with a variety of lectures,

Valerie Jentsch (A09) provides insights into her research on the human stress response, her fascination with cognitive neuroscience, and her work on the Early Career Researcher Council of SFB 1280 in the RUB News-Portal interview series “Why I do research”.

We congratulate! Martin Hadamitzky (A18) was awarded an adjunct professorship in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) in August 2023. Announcement of the UDE: >>

Congratulations! On 25.08, Erhan Genç (A03) was appointed Professor of “Neuroscientific Foundations of Differential Psychology” at the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Educational Research by the Rector of the TU Dortmund. Within the framework of the “Jülich Model”, he remains

Congratulations! With her translational research approach and significant contribution to the optimization of psychotherapy in anxiety disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Marcella Wod (A13) convinced the jury of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Award. The Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, awarded by the

The SFB 1280 is strongly committed to Open Science in the spirit of good research practice – transparency, collaboration and free circulation of data and knowledge are important to us. So far, this is already expressed in our Research Data Management Policy and our efforts for Open Access, Open Data and Open Software as principles of our research practice.

We congratulate! The news portal of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute reports: 26 years of involvement in the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and numerous contributions to MRI research and application – that is certainly worthy of a distinction.

We’re looking forward to a cold beer after work. But suddenly we are struck by a pain – a toothache! We all know the feeling. We’ve all had a toothache before. And yet each of us would tell the story

In subproject A 13 of the SFB 1280 Extinction Learning, study leader M.Sc. Beray Macit has started an innovative study to investigate fear of heights. The special feature: The unconventional research design makes it possible to combine psychotherapy research and

The news-portal of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute reports: ELH-PI Prof. Dr. Timmann from the University Medical Centre Essen has been awarded honorary membership of the German Heredo-Ataxia Society e.V. on 23.4.2023 “in recognition of her dedicated work since the establishment of the

The RUB news portal reports: “The new, nationwide center has a foothold in the middle of the Ruhr region. The aim is to sustainably improve mental health. Closing gaps in care, strengthening prevention services, sustainably improving therapies: With these goals

The news portal of the RUB reports: Genes influence different brain structures and function. These in turn explain differences in behavior. Analyzing all three aspects at once is a challenge – but now succeeded. Intelligence is partly genetically determined. There

Transcranial direct current stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial temporal interference and targeted ultrasound therapy are promising methods for neuroscientific research. They allow the targeted stimulation of even deep-seated areas of the brain and may also have prospective applications in medicine.

The RUB news portal reports: How does the brain learn spatial information? Neuroinformaticians are on the trail of this question with an artificial intelligence. Researchers at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have constructed a computer model that learns

On February 8, 2023, the SFB 1280 will put its experiments to rest for a short time in order to concentrate on data maintenance for one day. All subprojects receive professional support from experts from project INF in order to

Frederik Schlitt (A11) is awarded the “Förderpreis der Schmerzforschung der Deutschen Schmerzgesellschaft” in the category clinical research (2nd prize) for “Impaired pain-related threat and safety learning in patients with chronic back pain”, which will be presented during the opening ceremony

We would like to congratulate Dr. Stephan Leisengang (University Hospital Essen) and are pleased to announce that he was awarded first place in the 2022 Animal Welfare Award on January 8. The award is given to projects that help reduce

On the winding tower of the Deutsches Bergbaumuseum at over 50 meters, Rainer Holl welcomes his guest Beray Macit in episode 8 of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?”. The doctoral student and behavioral therapist is conducting research on exposure therapy in

Congratulations to him! Christian Merz was awarded an adjunct professorship in the Faculty of Psychology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) in December 2022. Announcement of the RUB: >>

Congratulations! On 23.11.2022 Michael Nitsche (A06) received his membership certificate for the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina from Leopoldina President Gerald Haug. We are very happy to welcome the fourth member of the Leopoldina , besides Onur Güntürkün (A01, F01,

Dagmar Timmann, together with Johannes Felsenberg and Bertram Gerber, will hold a symposium on “Cerebellum and mushroom body: common circuit motifs for learning and adaptive behavior?” on 22.03.2023. Part is the symposium of the 15th Göttingen Meeting of the German

The RUB news portal reports: The absence of a certain serotonin receptor helps to unlearn fear faster. The neurotransmitter serotonin plays an important role in the development, but also in the unlearning of fear and anxiety. A research team from

Congratulations! Marie Jakobs (3rd from left) received the Science Slam Award with her presentation “Sitz, Immunzelle. Sit!”, Marie Jakobs received the Science Slam Award of the Faculty of Medicine with the support of the University Medicine Foundation as part of

Unfortunately a bit late, but all the more interesting! A day in our lab – in episode 7 of our podcast ” Kannste vergessen?” Rainer Holl takes a look behind the scenes of everyday scientific life at the SFB 1280.

Congratulations! At the minisymposium with the topic “Cerebellar contribution to fear learning”, Giorgi Batsikadze (A05) will hold a presentation on his work in the Collaborative Research Center 1280 at this year’s meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in San

Adriane Icenhour will receive the prize of the Neurogastroenterology Foundation at this year’s meeting of the German Society of Gastroenterology, Digestive and Metabolic Diseases (DGVS) in Hamburg. Among other things, the basis is the paper “When gut feelings teach the

Laura Ricarda Lanters (née Koenen) is awarded the “Förderpreis der Schmerzforschung der Deutschen Schmerzgesellschaft” in the category basic research (2nd prize) for “Associative learning and extinction of conditioned threat predictors across sensory modalities” (joint work of A10 and A12 in

Scrolling through social networks, surfing the Internet, shopping online or playing games – when a passionate use of the Internet becomes addictive behavior and what happens in the brain in the process – that’s what Oliver Wolf and Matthias Brand

  Since September 28, it is binding for all researchers of the SFB 1280: the Research Data Management Policy. This makes the SFB 1280 one of the first cross-institutional research areas to adopt such a policy. The project leaders of

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. The RUB news portal reports: Closing time.

The RUB news portal reports: Compared to the energy efficiency of bird brains, we mammals can pack our bags. Bird brain cells require only about one-third of the energy that mammals must expend to power their brains. “This partly explains

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. The RUB news portal reports: Becoming happier

“Pain has an element of Blank” – Rainer Holl shares his love of Emily Dickinson’s poetry with his guest in episode 5 of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?”. For the halftime of this season, our host welcomes the established learning and

Congratulations! With her election to the Leopoldina, Denise Manahan-Vaughan is already the third member of SFB 1280 in the National Academy of Sciences. The news portal of the RUB reports: Prof. Dr. Denise Manahan-Vaughan was elected to the National Academy

“What is mind?” – In episode 4 of “Kannste vergessen?” podcast host Rainer Holl asks the big questions about the human mind. Guests are the great thinkers and knowledge mediators Albert Newen, professor of philosophy with a focus on philosophy of

The RUB news portal reports: How aggressive behavior develops is still poorly understood. Researchers have now discovered a crucial piece of the puzzle. Researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), together with colleagues from Bonn, have found a connection in the

PhD student Hanna Öhlmann won the presentation award at this year’s German Endocrine-Brain-Immune-Network (GEBIN) conference in late March for her presentation on “Altered brain structure in chronic visceral pain: Specific differences in gray matter volume and associations with visceral symptoms

The Research Department of Neuroscience (RDN), together with SFB 1280, ReThink and FOR 2698, presents another movie night at Endstation.Kino (Bahnhof Langendreer), this time with the film “TICS” by Thomas Ostwald on July 01, 2022. From the RDN press release:

Congratulations! Sen Cheng (A14, F01) is the new Vice Dean for Research Infrastructure at the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum! As group leader of the “Computational Neuroscience” research group, his work focuses on computational modeling of learning

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) news portal reports: The FENS Communication Committee and the European Journal of Neuroscience (EJN) are delighted to announce that the winner of the FENS-EJN Image Competition 2022 is Sandra Süß with the image “Hidden Species”. 

The new Data Management Board of the SFB 1280 deals with all issues related to research data management (RDM). For the first meeting on June 28, 2022, the committee consisting of Fatemeh Yaravi (A06), Robert Reichert (A01), Jaël Caviola (A09),

In episode three of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?” Rainer Holl welcomes an (immune) strong research team from the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Immunology at Essen University Hospital. Martin Hadamitzky and Laura Heiß-Lückemann are researching our immune system in a subproject of SFB

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. We are pleased to announce that the

Science-Online.org reports: A traumatic experience can haunt victims for a long time and affect their entire lives. New studies are investigating the effect of computer training, among other things, as an adjunct to therapy to treat trauma sequelae such as

In episode 2 of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?” a tired host welcomes two bright sleep experts. Rainer Holl’s guests are: Michael Nitsche, professor and head of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Leibniz Institute for Human Factors Research

The RUB news portal reports: Researchers from Bochum have gained new insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of absence epilepsy and a potential therapy. Stimulation of certain cerebellar areas could counteract absence epilepsies. However, what happens at the cellular

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. The RUB news portal reports: In many

Finally, the brand new, first podcast episode of the second season of “Kannste vergessen?”, the podcast of the SFB 1280, is online! Rainer Holl’s guest in episode 1 is postdoc Valerie Jentsch. She explains to us why stress is not

The SFB 1280 is part of the seminar series of the RUB Worldfactory “How to transfer”, under the topic “Podcast planen und erstellen – Tipps aus dem SFB 1280” an insight into the background processes of the podcast series “Kannste

Two researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have come up with a new theory of consciousness. They have long been concerned with the question of what the nature of consciousness is, how and where the brain generates consciousness, and whether

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. The RUB news portal reports: Working memory

We warmly congratulate Adriane Icenhour on her habilitation on December 9, 2021 at the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Congratulations! After his admission to the National Academy of Sciences in March 2020, Oliver Wolf received his certificate of appointment personally from the President of the Leopoldina Gerald Haug on 03.11.2021. The news portal of the RUB psychology faculty reports:

For the brilliant season finale of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?!”, Rainer Holl welcomes the young researchers Carolin Konrad and Lina Neuhoff from the Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. And there’s also a party! Rainer and Onur Güntürkün, podcast regular and headmaster of

This is already the fifth award for pain research that has been granted within the working group of Ulrike Bingel (A11)! We congratulate the entire working group and especially Katharina Schmidt on this great success! The news portal of the

The RUB news portal reports: When the brain stores memories of objects, it generates a characteristic activity pattern for each of them. Stress changes these memory traces. Stressful experiences are usually better remembered than neutral experiences. Researchers at the Ruhr

In the ninth episode of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?”, Rainer Holl goes on a mental journey to a very special region of the brain: the hippocampus. His travelling companions? Two experienced scientists who have been researching this at the Ruhr

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. The RUB news portal reports: How could

“I’m a fan of the cerebellum” – In episode eight, presenter Rainer Holl lets researchers Melanie Mark, Professor of Behavioural Neurobiology, and Dagmar Timmann-Braun, Professor of Experimental Neurology, inspire him about a very special region of our brain: the cerebellum.

In our series “Thinking outside the box” you will find articles about the world of neuroscience, bioinformatics, memory research and other exciting research fields that are not directly related to the SFB 1280. The RUB news portal reports: Some people

The news portal of the RUB reports: The teams led by Melanie Mark from the RUB Behavioural Neurobiology group and Stefan Herlitze from the RUB Department of General Zoology and Neurobiology published their new discovery in the journal Nature Communications

The RUB news portal reports: Why do we have a memory? According to current research, it’s not just for reminiscing about the past. Our brain stores experiences in order to be able to derive predictions for the future. If these

“I am still confused, but on a higher level” – In the seventh episode of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?”, Harald Lachnit, Professor of Experimental & Clinical Biopsychology at the Philipps University of Marburg and Head of Project 15 of our Collaborative

The news portal of the University of Duisburg-Essen reports: The “Experimental Neurology” research group of Prof. Dr. Dagmar Timmann (A05, F02) is one of the recruiting centers for an international research project on ultra-high-field MRI. The project “Spinocerebellar ataxias: Advanced

With the strong focus on the functioning of bird brains, animal experiments are indispensable for the SFB 1280, and all researchers are equally aware of their great responsibility. Every planned experiment is preceded by careful ethical consideration and evaluation in

In episode six, presenter and amateur neurologist Rainer Holl welcomes technical wizards Tobias Otto, graduate engineer, and Thomas Ernst, doctor of neurology and graduate physicist, who enter the engine room of the Collaborative Research Centre with him. Together, they start the engines

Soon, the SFB 1280 will have a new MAGNETOM Terra 7T MRI scanner at its disposal, which will enable particularly high-resolution images of the human brain. The 20-tonne, 7.5-million-euro device is located at the Erwin-Hahn-Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging in

We are pleased to announce that Onur Güntürkün (A01, F01) has been accepted as a new full member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since June 2021. Further information on the Academy can be found at: https://www.bbaw.de/en/ Original

The new Research Network “Cerebellum and Emotional Networks” (CEN) starts with the support of the European Research Council. Here, 7 leading universities, including the University Hospital Essen, are coming together to gain a detailed insight into the functioning of the

The RUB news portal reports: Healthy people are not only able to remember past events: they can also use these memory contents to plan their future. The ability to mentally travel through time, i.e. to mentally relive past experiences and

We congratulate former Junior Professor Armin Zlomuzica (A13) on his appointment to the Chair of Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience at the RUB and look forward to further insights from his research as project leader of A13. Learn more about his

How can genes be switched on and off? For the fifth episode of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?”, Rainer Holl welcomes Robert Kumsta, Professor of Genetic Psychology at the Ruhr University in Bochum. Look forward to a crash course in epigenetics! Learn

The SFB 1280 goes into the next round! We are pleased to announce that another funding period has been approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the SFB 1280. This means that there is nothing standing in the way

This year’s European Meeting of Human Fear Conditioning (EMHFC) took place under special conditions from 17 May to 19 May. Nevertheless, it was an instructive and interesting digital event with 25 discussions and talks as well as 67 poster presentations,

We are pleased to announce that Onur Güntürkün’s (A01, F02) research will be supported by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for the next five years! How does thinking arise in a brain that is structured so

A commentary by Christian Merz (A09): Under pressure in my everyday research life are my colleagues, students or even myself, although partly for different reasons. We all have in common that in uncertain times we have to learn again and

Feeling unwell, depressed mood, fever – how does the body communicate with the brain? Rainer Holl’s guests Franziska Labrenz and Harald Engler have answers to this question in the fourth episode of our podcast “Kannste Vergessen? Labrenz is a postdoctoral

In the third episode of our podcast “Kannste vergessen?” host Rainer Holl is impressed by the high-end MRI and EEG studies that biopsychologist Erhan Genç and neuropsychologist Marie-Christin Fellner are conducting as part of SFB 1280 to better understand the

The News Portal of the RUB reports:People who are forced to learn do not remember as much as someone who practices on their own. An international research team, which includes Prof. Dr. Nikolai Axmacher (A02, A03, F02) from the Bochum

“Learned material sticks better if you’ve gone for a run afterwards” – this is Rainer Holl’s lyrical conclusion towards the end of the second episode of our podcast “Kannste vergessen”. In episode two, the poetry slammer talks with Dr Marcella

Back in 2016, Ioannidis et al. presented a bibliometric score (composite score) consisting of six indicators to assess the scientific impact of researchers. This year, the results for 2019 were published and among the top 2% of the most cited

Watching the brain at work and researching how it works is now possible at the Leibniz Institute für Arbeitsforschung an der TU Dortmund (IfADo) with the help of a magnetic resonance tomograph (MRT). The MRI device with a field strength

We are happy to announce the launch of the new podcast “Kannste Vergessen”! The News Portal of the RUB reports: How do you get rid of things you’ve learned, such as bad habits or fears? That’s what author, presenter and

The new podcast of the SFB 1280 has started, dive into the world of extinction learning together with host Rainer Holl and his exciting guests. Extinction learning – what is that supposed to be? Rainer Holl asks himself this question

The News-Portal of the IfADo reports: Watching the brain at work and researching its functions – this is now possible at the Leibniz Institute for Human Factors Research at TU Dortmund University (IfADo) with the help of a magnetic resonance

The news portal of the RUB reports: The visual short-term memory seems more complex than expected, as the German-Chinese research team, which includes Rebekka Heinen and Prof. Dr. Nikolai Axmacher (A02, A03, F02) from the Bochum Neuropsychology Unit, was able

The news portal of the RUB reports: Nikolai Axmacher (A02, A03, F02) was awarded the ERC Consolidator Grant. In his ERC Grant, Nikolai Axmacher investigates the neural basis of spatial navigation in humans. Original article: >> Original article as PDF:

Congratulations! Tamas Spisak has been awarded the second promotion award of the Deutsche Schmerzgesellschaft, in particular for his work on the prediction of individual pain sensitivity by studying the resting state of the brain. Original article of the German Pain

The news portal of the RUB reports: “In view of the astonishing cognitive achievements that birds can accomplish, it was suspected that their brain is more organized than expected”, says Onur Güntürkün (A01, F02), head of the Biopsychology work unit

Congratulations! The RUB news portal reports: Everyone is familiar with anxiety. People with anxiety disorders find their own behavior irrational, but are still unable to change it. This is where the internationally renowned research of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Margraf, Professor

The news portal of the RUB reports: An international team of scientists, including Onur Güntürkün (A01, F02) from the RUB, proposes a new system for the classification of cell types of the cerebral cortex. The new system is necessary, they

The news portal of the RUB reports: Why the intestine and brain cannot be considered separately, the intestine is considered „the small brain“ – Sigrid Elsenbruch (A10, A12) wants to get to the bottom of this connection. For this purpose,

News from our cooperation partners – Laborpraxis reported: Cell-free DNA could be a marker with which physical and psychosocial stress can be distinguished. This theory is being pursued by the team from the Department of Genetic Psychology at the Ruhr

The News Portal of the RUB reports: Oliver Wolf (A09) gets honoured for his outstanding scientific work and his now part of the National Academy of Science Leopoldina. His work helped get a better understand of stress and its implications

Wow! Already the tenth teaching award for Dagmar Timmann-Braun (A05, F02), we congratulate on this success! The International Graduate Program Medical Neurosciences, located at Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, has awarded a teaching prize for the 10th time this year to Dagmar

Marta Méndez-Couz from the Ruhr University Bochum is a postdoc in project A04. The title of her research project is: “Characterization of the Neural Basis Underlying Appetitive Extinction in a Model of Psychosis Disorders”. The aim of the study is

The News Portal of the RUB reports: Since January 13, 2020 Melanie Mark holds her professorship of Behavioral Neurobiology in the Department of General Zoology and Neurobiology at the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology. Her research focuses on the cerebellum

Exposure therapy for the treatment of anxiety is considered one of the most effective and reliable approaches in psychotherapy. Anyone who comes into contact with the anxiety-inducing stimulus as part of the therapy can expect to “unlearn” the anxiety quickly.

It’s boiling in the cerebral Cortex Why do we bend our heads to the right when we kiss? Can women really park worse than men? And what determines the performance of our brain: genes, education and culture or even hormones?

The Adverse Effect of Hormonal Contraceptive Use on Exposure Therapy Benefit A new Research Paper about the negative psychological impact of hormonal contraceptive was published by a research team around Friederike Raeder (Postdoc A13), Franziska Heidemann (PhD student A13), Manfred

Learning and Unlearning in MRT The University of Duisburg-Essen reports on their news portal: The cerebellum controls movements and helps to control emotions. Otto Waalkes already knew this, as his sketch “Cerebellum to cerebrum: boys, don’t get excited, you’re going

Laura Lueckemann from the University of Duisburg-Essen is Post-Doc in the SFB 1280 subproject A18. The title of her research project is “Analysing extinction and memory up-dating of learned immune responses with fingolimod”. The objective of this study is to

Harald Engler takes over Professorship for Behavioural Immunobiology at the UDE The University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) reports on their newsportal: Inflammations in our body influence behaviour and psyche. This is manifested, for example, by constant fatigue or increased loss of

“Advanced Methods in Brain MR-Imaging” starts at UDE A new junior research group dealing with the human brain is being set up at the Medical Faculty. One of the aims is to gain a better understanding of complex brain functions,

What is the capital city of Tajikistan? When did Einstein create his famous theory of relativity? And when did Goethe die? Some people seem to have an answer to every general knowledge question. Why? The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität

SFB 1280 offers Care Assistance to Parents The mobile nursery is offered by the SFB 1280 and the Faculty of Psychology. It is aimed at employees and students who have to take their child to work at short notice in

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal: Cognitive performance varies greatly between individuals and is significantly influenced by the structural and functional properties of the brain. In the past, neuroscientific research focused on fluid intelligence,

We are very happy to present to you the great press article in the new Stern magazine with our SFB spokesperson Onur Güntürkün, in which he talks about forgetting. Biopsychologist Onur Güntürkün explains why our brain is constantly erasing content

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal: Humans and animals alike find their way around complex environments – even without a compass. Researchers from Bochum and Freiburg intend to find out how the brain manages

Roland Pusch explains how the brain overwrites old memories with new ones On June 26th, Collaborative Research Centre 874 hosted the last BRAIN CAFÉ before the summer break. The lecture series, which highlights neuroscientific research for non-scientists, focussed on the

Why research teams stress test subjects and what robots have to do with brains. Erhan took over the Twitter channel of the Ruhr University on 17 June 2019. For one day, he showed how he investigates the structures and networking

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their newsportal: Strobe light or acoustic stimulation can put the brain in the right rhythm. Patients could also benefit from this one day. During certain mental processes, such as remembering, nerve

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal: Both individual nerve cells and large neuronal assemblies appear to berelevant for spatial navigation. But what’s the relationship between both? Spatial navigation is an essential cognitive function, which

The SFB 1280 is part of a long-term strategy of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) to establish itself as an international hub for Cognitive Neuroscience. As part of this developmental strategy, the rectorate of the RUB has decided to grant a

At the 10th International Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on the Cerebellum and Ataxias (SRCA) from 16-17 May 2019 in Sheffield, UK, Lana Inoue received the Masao Itō Award for Best Poster for presenting her poster “Can cerebellar-dependent

Short-Movie Workshop for movie&neuro&interested scientists Tage Stunden Minuten Sekunden – 10.05.2019, 16-18.Uhr – Oh no, missed the show? At least you may peak what behind the courtain what was done AGENDA Dare to change perspective Short Movie Workshop “Rememberance, Forgetting,

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their newsportal: When the fear of spiders or heights gets so extreme that it interferes with everyday life, it makes sense to undergo cognitive-behavioural therapy. The approach works quite well, and

As a key component in fear avoidance models of pain chronification, avoidance fueled by fear of pain is a main obstacle to successful extinction. However, mechanisms underlying pain-related avoidance are uncharted territory, particularly in the context of visceral pain. We

In summer semester 2019, the lecture “Cognition and Brain” will be offered. Topics include emotions and attention, autobiographical and episodic memory, memory consolidation in sleep and reconsolidation. There will also be a series of lectures given by SFB 1280 members

The press announces the new publication of A07: “Design of an ultrafast G protein switch based on a mouse melanopsin variant”. The paper proposes a generally applicable to designing optogenetic tools. The primary goal of optogenetics is the light‐controlled noninvasive

“Planet Wissen” as guest of Onur Güntürkün (A01, F02) SFB 1280-Speaker Onur talks about the differences between humans and birds, women and men, left and right brain hemispheres – and much more. In “Planet Wissen” on 27 March 2019, he

Real forgetting is rarer than we think. Nikolai Axmacher Who doesn’t know this: You meet someone whose face you remember – but the name doesn’t come to your mind. A stupid situation, especially when the other person speaks to us

This new tool is a true two-in-one solution. In future, it might help to study a number of diseases. Using a novel optogenetic tool, researchers have successfully controlled, reproduced and visualised serotonin receptor signals in neural cells. To this end,

Julie Poirier researches at the Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences of the Technical University Dortmund how children unlearn their knowledge and lets them “blast” chocolate out of a candy mine. Starting in March, the experiment will be used in kindergartens and

The German Research Foundation (DFG) promotes equality between men and women and family-friendly jobs. We have considered how we can express respect for our young parents for mastering the double burden of work and family life – at best with

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal: When we try to remember something, we call up a scenario. It is constructed while we think back, say researchers. Did I turn off the coffee machine at

We are proud to announce that Lana Inoue, one of our PhD students from the sub-project A05, won one of the popular poster prizes on the Research Day of the Medical Faculty at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The event is

We are happy to present Katharina Schmidts‘ (Post-Doc A11) pilot study “Appetitive and aversive learning of pain-related fear in chronic low back pain patients” aiming at developing and transfering an experimental paradigm, which investigates learning mechanisms of stimuli predicting pain

The Sparkasse Essen awards six candidates with the Science Prize for their dissertations. Each of them receives 5,000 euros. The certificates are given to the winners by Vice-Rector Prof. Dagmar Führer-Sakel and Helmut Schiffer, Chairman of the Board of Management

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their newsportal: The mechanisms are much more complex than hitherto assumed. The left and the right hemispheres specialise in different tasks. However, it has not yet been fully understood how one

The Press Department of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) reports on their newsportal: A new junior research group currently being set up at the Medical Faculty of the UDE is taking a closer look at the human brain.  One of

UMEA: Excellence in Medicine How do new medical findings get to the bedside? Through clinically researching physicians. At the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), they will in future be supported by a new funding program so that

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their News portal: Brain oscillations that can be measured using depth electrodes provide insights into the human navigation system. The method may open up new approaches for early Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news Portal: Sleep helps to consolidate memories. Researchers from Bochum and Bonn have investigated how exactly this works. Even things that we forget are not immediately gone. Hui Zhang and

We are proud to present Giorgi Batsikadzes’ (Post-Doc A05) research proposal “Modulation of Extinction of Conditioned Fear by Non-invasive Cerebellar Electric Stimulation” tackling an issue that concerns the modulation of the learned fear by non-invasive brain stimulation. To date, only

With ProKids, the RUB offers holiday care for children of university employees. The SFB 1280 supports the program with the help of our pigeons. RUB holiday fun at the BioPsy Lab How birds think – a day at the faculty

The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal: The consequences of long lasting depressive phases could be more far-reaching than previously thought. During a depressive phase, the brain’s ability to form new nerve cells decreases –

The press department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports in the news portal: Stress helps to learn fear New insights into extinction learning could be useful for therapies. Stress can have positive effects on extinction learning by dissolving previously learned associations.

Neuroforum Neuroforum is published both in print and online; the review articles are published in English only. In addition to these overview articles, both issues contain short reports on new methods and research developments, presentations of institutes, research groups and

Julie Poirier had just finished her master’s thesis when she already got the okay for her job as a doctoral student in subproject A16, and now she is not even registered at university in Bochum, but already has her first

Julian was excited whether his request would be granted. He has been interested in the idea behind this planned study for a long time now. Years ago he allready received a small grant from the Extinction Group for a precursor

Pump Up Extinction! Valerie Kinner wonders if a work out can help the memory? As a PhD student in Project A09, Valerie has learned a lot about learning and forgetting under the influence of stress. Usually, their team uses gentle

The first Nature Communications paper of SFB 1280 is published! We are very happy and congratulate the subproject A07. Title: “Orexin modulates behavioral fear expression through the locus coeruleus” >> To the publication

With the launch of SFB 1280, the search for new, good staff members began. Now we are complete: A warm welcome to all new employees! With José Donoso in focus group F02 the team is complete. When the whole round

The first publication of the SFB 1280 has been published! Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts, A08. Title: “d-Cycloserine facilitates extinction learning and enhances extinction-related brain activation” >> Publication

Good news: On May 25, 2017, the DFG Senate Commission for SFBs decided to establish a brand new SFB in Bochum: The SFB1280 Extinction Learning was thus officially accepted! This is the first SFB that was born out of our