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 Schedlowski (Project Leader A18) , Jürgen Margraf (Project Leader A13) and Armin Zlomuzica (Project Leader A13). Hormonal contraceptive use can aggravate existing symptoms of anxiety and depression and influence the

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 to lose anyway” shows. Scientists from the Medical Faculty of the UDE have taken a closer look at the cerebellum – especially at its ability to make predictions on the

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 implement a new immunomodulatory drug in our conditioning paradigm allowing us to analyze not only behavioural readout parameters (CTA) during different time points of retrieval but also neuroendocrine and in

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 appetite. “We withdraw, our mood is clouded. Evolutionary, this gentle behaviour is advantageous. It protects us from taking risks in the event of weakness.” Harald Engler Harald Engler (Project Leader

“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, such as emotional learning processes in permanent pain. Research is carried out on the basis of magnetic resonance tomographic data. The junior research group “Advanced Methods in Brain MR-Imaging”, headed

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 Bochum reports on their newsportal. The brains of people with excellent general knowledge are particularly efficiently wired. “Although we can precisely measure the general knowledge of people and this wealth

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 case of childcare bottlenecks. Flexible Areas of Application for the Mobile Nursery The area of application is flexible, whether in the office or during a symposium where children can

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, neglecting its equally important counterpart, crystallized intelligence. Crystallized intelligence is defined as the depth and breadth of knowledge and skills appreciated by one’s own culture. The accumulation of crystallised intelligence

It is now a good two years since our network began its work as an SFB. The projects are running at full speed and it is a pleasure to observe this development. To keep the SFB agile, it was time to discuss achievements and new options: PIs, postdocs and doctoral students were invited to discuss the research status of the projects on two days in Düsseldorf’s beautiful city centre. Time

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 and how we can use forgetting to better manage fears and pain. About the person 0nur Güntürkün, 60, was born in lzmir and came to Germany as a child with

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 this task. Researchers have made new discoveries about how certain brainwaves aid navigation. They hope that the methods may benefit patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders one day. The brain appears

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 relearning of memories. The talk of Roland Pusch, Project Manager A01, is entitled: “How Pigeons help us to understand a complex learning behaviour: Extinction learning”. We can easily put new

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 of the brain and the importance he attaches to collaborating with other research teams.

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 cell networks in the brain generate a special rhythmic activity. Various stimuli, such as light or sounds, can influence these oscillations in brain activity – and this can improve memory.

Save the Date: Wednesday, 25th of September 2019, 3 pm @ IfADo lecture hall 3rd level, Ardeystraße 67, 44139 Dortmund, Germany The satellite symposium is co-organized by the SFB 1280 and the Graduate School IGSN and takes place within the framework of the CME 2019 (International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering).

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 is frequentlyimpaired in patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric disorders.Research groups worldwide have studied the neuronal basis of spatialnavigation, and the activity of both individual nerve cells and large cellassemblies

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 W2-professorship on the “Neuronal Foundations of Learning” to the Faculty of Psychology if the SFB 1280-application will be successful. This professorship was specifically planned to further increase the scientific ties

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 motor responses modulate extinction of conditioned fear?” (Inoue L, Batsikadze G, Ernst TM, Merz CJ, Timmann D). Lana is doing her doctoral thesis in the group of Dagmar Timmann at

Remembering, Forgetting, Displacing A cinema evening by and for neuroscientists and film scholars Opening up new perspectives on one’s own research with art. The experiment of a moderated short film program @Endstation.kino (Bahnhof Langendreer, Bochum). With mini-lectures by Julia Eckel | Bochum | Medienwissenschaft Bertram Gerber | Magdeburg | Neurobiologie Felix Hasebrink | Bochum | Medienwissenschaft Jürgen Margraf | Bochum | Klinische Psychologie Onur Güntürkün | Bochum | Biopsychologie Hilde

Short-Movie Workshop for movie&neuro&interested scientists Days Hours Minutes Seconds – 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, Displacement” Film and neuroscientists as well as psychologists of the universities of Bochum and Magdeburg invite you to a joint experiment on Friday, 10 May, 4-8pm ct. Under the title

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 it could become even more efficient. Many people feel rather queasy at the sight of a spider. Not to mention that they avoid actually touching arachnids – despite the fact

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 proudly present “An offer you cannot refuse – The true cost of avoidance“, a novel and phenomenologically valid avoidance protocol implemented by Ariane Icenhour and Franziska Labrenz. The two treasure

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 explaining our research methods and talking about clinical psychology, stress and pain and their effects on the brain. Within “Cognition and Brain”, there is a multipart lecture series held by

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 and specific manipulation of various cellular processes. So far, development has been mainly based on a trial-and-error approach. But the novel method might help save a lot of time. “I’m

“Planet Wissen” as guest of Onur Güntürkün 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 gives insights into the current state of research, explains why he works with pigeons and the way he came to the Biopsychology Department. The vidcast “Our brain – are thoughts really free?”

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 with our name. The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal. Oftentimes, we consider forgetting as annoying or a disease syndrome (as in Alzheimer’s dementia) and

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, they modified a photosensitive membrane receptor in the eye, called melanopsin. The Press Department of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports on their news portal. As a result, they were able to

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 day-care centres. The results can provide new insights for the design of school lessons or certain therapies, for example confrontation therapy. People are confronted with their fears, which they should

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 a sustainable campaign that offers genuine added value. At the end of 2018, we came up with the idea of sliding cars with SFB 1280 stickers. Within the framework of

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 home? This simple question triggers complex processes in our brain that lead us to construct a scenario in which the action we are trying to remember occurs. Such processes have

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 the most important forum for young scientists and takes place annually at the University Hospital Essen. The UDE reports. On the 17th Research Day, 214 doctoral students presented their scientific

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 increase and pain relief to chronic pain patients. The acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement will be investigated on two consecutive days using a capsaicin heat pain model. Further the feasibility of

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 of Sparkasse Essen. The prize, which has been awarded since 1989, honours outstanding achievements in medicine, humanities and economics. In his dissertation, Andreas Thieme (sub-project A05) examined whether the human

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 hemisphere assumes dominance over the other when it comes to controlling specific functions. Qian Xiao and Onur Güntürkün (Project Leader A01, F01, Z, Ö) have demonstrated in a colour differentiation

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 the aims is to gain a better understanding of complex brain functions, such as emotional learning processes in permanent pain. Research is carried out on the basis of magnetic resonance

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 clinical and scientific activities can be combined better. The UDE reports. The program “Excellence in Medicine: Clinician Scientist Academy of University Medicine Essen” (UMEA) will be funded by the German

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 brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular

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 Nikolai Axmacher, together with researchers from the University of Bonn, have investigated which activity patterns occur in the brain when people remember or forget things. They were interested in how

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 small number of studies have tried using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with fear conditioning/extinction paradigms and the results are indecisive. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), however, has been proven

At the third WissensNacht Ruhr on September 28, 2018, scientists will offer interesting lectures and discussions, hands-on activities, presentations, excursions, guided tours, and many other program items. A total of 16,000 visitors enjoy the varied programme. The SFB 1280 is represented at WissensNacht Ruhr With a “crazy brainlab”, the SFB 1280 also takes part in this year’s WissensNacht Ruhr at Blue Square. During the WissensNacht, the Metropole Ruhr becomes a

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 of biopsychology at the RUB The children get to know the pigeons in the aviary and the different species in the lab. In the seminar room, they will be shown

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 – with negative consequences for memory. It was already known that people do not remember current events as well during depressive phases. Now researchers have shown that older memories can also

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. As cognitive psychologists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum found out, stress ensures that extinction learning is independent of context. This could be useful, for example, in the treatment of anxiety disorders.

Planning together: Almost the entire team of project leaders and a big number of scientific staff gathered on what is probably the warmest day of May to clarify some arrangements and organisational issues for 2018. To the special joy of all, even the newest and at the same time very youngest member of the group came along – to completely oversleep the meeting from place.

The SFB 1280 is part of Neuroforum. From now on, articles and publications of our members will also be published there. Neuroforum Neuroforum provides information on topics, trends, progress, new methods, research priorities, funding opportunities, job offers and job advertisements. The main articles are printed in English and published online by de Gruyter. Members have free access. Further information is available in the member area. The journal publishes invited review

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 treasure chest grant in her pocket. Congrats! While her project, A16, examines infants Julie experienced during the testing session once more how difficult it is to get the babies’ attention

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 of this study and is now keen to develop his very first idea for extinction. Congratulations on approval! That’s how he explains his study plan: Title: „The influence of memory

The last meeting before the Young Scientist Symposium on April 23–24, 2018! Organized by the Graduate School IGSN, supported by the Research Training Group BIOME – and planned by the Young Scientists of the SFB 1280.

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 electric shocks or ice-cold water to stress their study participants. They were able to show that stress has an immense effect on memory; stress situations are better noted. But what

The first congress of the SFB 1280 will take place in April 2018. As in the predecessor of this SFB, the FOR 1581 research group, the design is completely in the hands of the Young Scientists. What is new this time is that the SFB’s graduate school will be brought together in this symposium. Today the coordinator visits the students of the BIOME to discuss the current planning and take

The Research Data Management working group meets at irregular intervals to optimise the flow of study data in SFB 1280 with the support of the Ruhr-Universität Data Management group closely cooperating with us.

A Sonderforschungsbereich is subject to certain rules and freedoms. Knowing exactly how to cope with everyday office work requires precise knowledge of the specifications – and a good deal of experience. The SFB Office has therefore invited all employees in charge of administration to an exchange of information. What questions are there, where are perhaps still problems and what can the office make better, that was the agenda of the

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

The Young Scientists who have just joined the SFB 1280 shall get to know Essen better  – what could be better suited than the Christmas market in the city centre. A nice, this time a little less topic-oriented meeting, where some of the former Young Scientists of the FOR 1581 welcomed those who just move to us.

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 will have arrived complete and all jobs in the Ruhr Area have started, we will introduce our team on an employee site. Some last visas for the entry of international

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 Faculty and the third in Germany given to a Faculty of Psychology. We now have the means to study for four years the behavioral, developmental, neural, and clinical aspects of