SFB 936 

 3 Funding Periods 

 July 1st 2011 - June 30th 2023


This Collaborative Research Center 936 (CRC 936, in German SFB 936) has been established by the DFG in 2011, has been extended into its third funding period in 2019 and will now run until June 2023.

Cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, attentional control, emotion, decision making, action planning, or conscious awareness, are based on the activation of highly distributed networks involving numerous interacting neuronal assemblies in multiple regions of the central nervous system. The essence of a normally functioning brain is proper connectivity. Neurological and psychiatric disorders causing disturbances in any of these cognitive domains, accordingly, involve malfunctions in distributed networks. Current concepts of brain function are still largely based on the notion of local processing and specialization of brain areas. The overarching hypothesis pursued by the SFB 936 is that the crucial determinant of behavior is neuronal network interaction and not local processing. Research of the SFB is structured in three thematic areas:

A. Multi-site communication as a basis of cognition;
B. Multi-site interactions during development, plasticity and learning;
C. Altered multi-site communication in brain disorders.

In the first funding period, the SFB has successfully applied a multi-level approach for the analysis of large-scale networks, combining different methods such as psychophysics, electro-/magnetoencephalography, functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, multi-site microelectrode recordings, morphological-structural analyses and computational modeling.

In the second funding period, the SFB 936 has extended its activities by complementing network investigation and analysis with approaches for modulation of networks, such as optogenetics, electrical stimulation, magnetic stimulation, pharmacology, and behavioral training interventions. Furthermore, computational modeling of networks has been strengthened in the second funding period.

While pursuing the same overarching theme, the SFB 936 moves in the third funding period from analyzing, modulating and modeling networks towards functional and behavioral relevance of distinct network components and their spatiotemporal dynamics in health, development, and disease. Moreover, the SFB now consolidates its integrated perspective on large-scale brain networks by working towards closing gaps that have been identified, such as bridging between different scales of network investigation and integrating results across different subnetworks that have been studied.

The Centre involves 21 scientists (principal investigators) from theoretical and clinical departments at the UKE and the University of Hamburg, as well as 4 scientists from the Universities of Lübeck, Berlin, and Gießen. The SFB 936 awarded funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a third period of four years, starting July 1, 2019. The first funding period ran from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015 and the second funding period from July 1, 2015 to June 30 2019.  Funding for up to a total lifetime of 12 years has been granted in 2019.
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