The Collaborative Research Centre involves a consortium of 21 scientists from theoretical and clinical departments at the UKE and the University of Hamburg, as well as 4 scientists from the Universities of Lübeck, Giessen, and Berlin. All participating scientists contribute with proven expertise to the core theme of the Centre.
The two key goals of this consortium are, first, to bring basic neuroscience data into the clinical field and vice versa, especially by linking molecular and animal data with the human system; second, to link different spatial and temporal scales, at which neuronal multi-site communication is experimentally studied, ranging from small-scale cellular networks to large-scale interactions between different brain areas.
The research program bears high innovation potential in several respects: The network approach pursued here is able to contribute to new generalized models for cognitive processes; several projects of this Centre have the potential to add complementary evidence to new pathophysiological models based on altered network properties in brain disorders; as a translational future perspective, the research program of the Centre could help preparing grounds for innovative therapeutic approaches based on targeted manipulation of functional connectivity between different neuronal systems.