General information

Research Overview

We investigate the ontogeny of learning and memory formation with particular focus on the role of epigenetic factors, which are involved in the sculpting of behavior and the brain. Our research is currently focussed on the impact of juvenile emotional experience on the functional maturation of the limbic system. One of the very first emotional learning events after birth, which occurs in a variety of vertebrate species including human and non-human primates, is the formation of an emotional attachment between the newborn and the parents. Behavioral studies in primates and clinical studies in humans have shown that the amount of social experience during early childhood and the intensity of the emotional relationship to the caregiver are of critical importance for the normal development of intellectual and emotional maturity and communication skills. Clinical studies demonstrated a negative influence of socio-emotional deprivation and neglect, stress or abuse on the development of mental capacities and emotional competence, however, the underlying functional and structural changes in the developing brain are widely unknown.

Working Hypothesis

Brain development requires the precise interactions of environmental signals with genes and molecules that drive cellular differentiation and circuit formation. Juvenile experience and learning can be viewed as formatting the harddrive (=brain circuits), and, by leaving permanent synaptic fingerprints, determine its capacity for running “software” (=behavior) later in life. The long-term consequence of juvenile learning events is not so much to form memories for specific details or objects, sounds or a given situation, but to establish the “grammar” of social, emotional and cognitive behavioral strategies.

Aims

How do adverse environmental factors (drugs, neurotoxic substances/heavy metals, stressors, infection) affect neural development, and are these risk factors for  neurodegeneration and development of cognitive impairments ?  How does positive environmental stimulation (enriched environment, emotional attachment, learning) affect neural development, and can a stimulating environment protect from developing cognitive deficits and dementia? What are the cellular molecular events which mediate experience-dependent fine tuning of neonatal neuronal networks? Are juvenile brains learning better, faster, and if so, do they use different strategies, or recruit different or additional cellular mechanisms?

The immature organism provides a unique opportunity for a multidisciplinary approach to study the pathophysiology of major mental illnesses. Abnormalities in one or more of the aspects of neural development which ultimately result in the emergence of pathological behavior will bridge the behavioral and anatomic aspects of development. The detailed knowledge of the neurobiology of such self-organizing plastic systems may begin to change our conceptual approaches to psychopathology and open new avenues of therapeutics for the major psychiatric illnesses that are critically dependent on such learning and memory mechanisms. Furthermore, the knowledge of the basic principles of learning- and memory-related neuronal plasticity may in the future be applied for innovative neuropaedagogic concepts for the preschool/elementary school levels.

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