The human brain undergoes a phase of critical structural developments around birth. In our new study, we show that this perinatal development comes with a rapid formation of brain shape, beyond the expected growth in brain size.

Specifically, brain shape allowed us to predict the age of the infants from structural MRI data with a mean error of only ~4 days, systematically outperforming age prediction from brain size. Moreover, brain shape detected persistent signatures of premature birth that were not detected by brain size. Furthermore, we found that the brains of genetically related infants are more similar in shape than they are in size. Additionally, this shape similarity allowed us to predict which newborns are twin siblings with up to 97% accuracy, again outperforming twin predictions from brain size.

For more on this, get in touch with Stephan and check out the preprint here:

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.01.01.521756v1

Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/krohn_stephan/status/1610346665885433857

Why do patients with tumor diseases suffer from cognitive deficits? This question is addressed in the work of Dr. Frederik Bartels, who has received this prestigious award for young cancer researchers in Berlin.

For more details, check out the links below to learn more about this award and Dr. Bartels’ recent work:

https://www.berliner-krebsgesellschaft.de/aktuelles/aktuelles-detail/curt-meyer-gedaechtnispreis-der-berliner-krebsgesellschaft-ev-fuer-neurologe-dr-frederik-bartels/

https://www.charite.de/forschung/themen_forschung/2022/dr_frederik_bartels_mit_curt_meyer_gedaechtnispreis_2022_ausgezeichnet/

https://www.bihealth.org/de/aktuell/curt-meyer-gedaechtnispreis-der-berliner-krebsgesellschaft-ev-fuer-den-neurologen-dr-frederik-bartels

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2781389

Ausschreibung Werkvertrag, Webdeveloper (m/w/d)

We’re hiring! PhD „Contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation” within the Collaborative Research Center 1315 “Memory Consolidation” (SFB 1315)

We’re hiring! Postdoctoral Position „Contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation” within the Collaborative Research Center 1315 “Memory Consolidation” (SFB 1315)

New preprint – Translating spatial navigation evaluation from experimental to clinical settings – the virtual environments navigation assessment (VIENNA)

New study in Annals of Neurology is Paper of the Month

Sophia Rekers received Penny Standen Award – Congratulations!

Sophia received the Penny Standen Award for Early Career Multidisciplinary Research in Disability at the “13th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality & Associated Technologies” (ICDVRAT) for the development of a memory independent spatial navigation paradigm (VIENNA) in a virtual reality setting. Congratulations!

Read more about her amazing work here.

New preprint – A spatiotemporal complexity architecture of human brain activity

The human brain is a complex network. Ever since the first description of “functional connectivity” in the 1990s, network neuroscience has emerged as one of the leading approaches to study the brain, including unparalleled international collaborations like the Human Connectome Project (HCP).

While our understanding of the connectome is rapidly increasing, some fundamental questions about brain networks remain: How does a functional connection between two brain regions form? Why are some regions more functionally connected than others? And what determines the spatial and temporal organization of the network?

In our latest preprint, we shed some light on these questions through complexity analysis of resting-state data from the HCP. In this manuscript, we report a mechanism by which the brain’s network architecture arises from spontaneous episodes of neural regularity. These episodes become visible as “complexity drops” and provide a unifying explanation for many known properties of the human brain, including functional connectivity, brain states, structure-function relationships, and network hierarchies. For more on this human “complexome”, check out the preprint!

New study published in JAMA Oncology!

Our recent article shows that brain-targeting autoantibodies found in lung cancer patients may be responsible for cancer-related cognitive impairment.

In this prospective, cross-sectional study we included 167 patients with lung cancer. Brain-directed autoantibodies were found in 36.5% of all patients: 19.8% had known neuronal autoantibodies and 16.8% had autoantibodies against currently unknown antigens that were detected by immunohistochemistry. Cognitive impairment was found in as much as 67.0% of patients. Importantly, patients with neuronal autoantibodies had increased odds of cognitive impairment compared with patients without autoantibodies. Interestingly, autoantibodies against currently unknown neuronal antigens were also associated with higher odds of cognitive impairment.

Therefore, our study suggests that neuronal autoantibodies might represent a pathogenic factor in cancer-related cognitive impairment among patients with lung cancer.

There is a JAMA Oncology podcast interview with Frederik and Carsten at: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/audio-player/18621621 and an editorial about our study at: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2781393

The full study can be found online here and downloaded as a pdf here!