Plasticity of the Brain

Description

The group's main interest is brain plasticity in relation to (early) stress and disease. They focus on the regulation of adult neurogenesis and other forms of (structural/synaptic/functional) plasticity and their relevance for cognition, depression and dementia. Neurogenesis is prominent particularly during early development, and their primary focus is effects of early stress on (development of) hippocampal structure and function. This brain structure is very sensitive to stress hormone action, implicated in learning and memory and affected in several disease conditions including depression, suicide and dementia. The hippocampus is furthermore unique as it contains stem cells that continue to generate new neurons in adult animals, including humans, a process called "adult neurogenesis". Key interest is the functional relevance of adult neurogenesis for brain function. The group hypothesises that e.g. stress-induced reductions in the number of newborn neurons is determined during early development and will interfere with the role of the hippocampus e.g. in cognition, depression and dementia and in the negative feedback of the HPA-axis in adult life. They further study how such deficits can be influenced and possibly ameliorated by means of early diet, antidepressant treatment, or physical or cognitively challenging events such as life long learning and exercise. (Description adapted from working group website: see link above)