News – Cognitive Neurology Lab

We’re hiring! Postdoctoral position in the „PAN-Assistant” project: navigation training in post-acute neurorehabilitation

Wir bieten eine 8,5-monatige Postdoc-Stelle (Elternzeitvertretung) im Verbundprojekt PAN-Assistant an. Das Projektteam vereint industrielle Partner sowie akademische und klinische Einrichtungen für die Konzeptualisierung, Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines Assistenzsystems zum Navigationstraining im Wohnverbund, dem Therapiegelände und der näheren Umgebung des PAN-Rehabilitationszentrums. Ein besonderes Augenmerk wird auf die stetige Einbeziehung von Betroffenen und ihrem Behandlungsteam gelegt, um ein umgebungsbezogenes, digitales Trainingstool zu entwickeln das für Menschen mit schweren kognitiven Einschränkungen therapeutisch sinnvoll ist.

Mehr Details zum Projekt: pan-assistant.de

Hier geht’s zur Stellenanzeige. 100% Stelle – gerne aber auch (Team-) Bewerbungen von 2 Personen, die die Stelle in Teilzeit machen wollen.

Aufgaben:

Mitentwicklung des Taskdesigns für das Assistenzsystem
Konzeptuelle Mitarbeit am Interaktionsdesign für Mixed-Reality
Durchführung von iterativen Usability Untersuchungen mit gesunden Kontrollen und Patient:innen mit schweren kognitiven Einschränkungen
Projektadministration, Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit mit den Studienzentren, Datenanalyse, Publikation der Daten

Erforderlich sind:

Abgeschlossenes Studium der Psychologie, Medizin, Kognitiven Neurowissenschaften oder in einem vergleichbaren Fach
PhD/Dissertation mit sehr gutem Abschluss im Bereich Neuropsychologie/ kognitive Neurowissenschaften
Erfahrungen in der Durchführung wissenschaftlicher Projekte
Erfahrungen im Umgang mit neurologischen Patient:innen mit kognitiven Einschränkungen
Erfahrungen mit neuropsychologischer Diagnostik und qualitativen Analysen
Erfahrungen in der Publikation von Forschungsergebnissen

Wünschenswert sind:

Erfahrungen in der Datenanalyse und -darstellung inkl. sehr gute statistischer Kenntnisse
Erfahrungen in der Entwicklung/ Erforschung von neuen Technologien für den klinischen/ wissenschaftlichen Einsatz (VR/ AR/ Wearables)
Erfahrungen im Forschungsbereich räumliche Kognition/ Navigation

We’re hiring! Postdoctoral position in the „PAN-Assistant” project: navigation training in post-acute neurorehabilitationchariteadmin2023-05-12T16:14:25+02:00

New review on sport-related concussion out now in Neurology Clinical Practice!

Our review highlights the increasing incidence of sport-related concussion (SRC) and its potential impact on long-term cognitive functioning:

We focus on the epidemiology, neuropathophysiology, clinical symptoms, and long-term consequences of SRC, particularly in relation to cognition.

(Repeated) SRCs are associated with an increased risk of several neurologic diseases and long-term cognitive deficits. We call for increased awareness and standardized guidelines for the assessment and management of SRC and propose cognitive training as a prehabilitation and rehabilitation tool to alleviate the severity of cognitive symptoms and improve cognitive recovery post-injury.

For more, check it out here: [pdf]

New review on sport-related concussion out now in Neurology Clinical Practice!Nina2023-03-15T11:07:00+01:00

New paper out in Science Advances!

In this study, we uncover a spatiotemporal complexity architecture of spontaneous brain activity – a human “complexome” that is tightly linked to the brain’s organization as a large-scale network.

The key observation is that the brain operates in distinct states of complexity. Specifically, we found that brain activity is highly irregular most of the time, which is reflected by a higher degree of complexity. However, this “default state” is repeatedly interrupted by spontaneous episodes of low complexity (“complexity drops”), in which brain activity becomes much more regular for a short moment in time.

These dynamics offer an explanation for why brain areas interact in functional networks and how activity patterns spread across the brain over time. Furthermore, the approach explains how brain networks change on the scale of seconds to minutes and creates a link between functional and anatomical properties of brain regions. Moreover, our work also shows that neural complexity is linked to age as well as cognitive and motor performance.

For more, feel free to reach out to Stephan and check out the paper here:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq3851

Charité press release:

https://www.charite.de/forschung/neues_aus_der_forschung/2023/neue_erkenntnisse_zu_hirnnetzwerken/

Twitter thread:

https://twitter.com/krohn_stephan/status/1621527031627517952

New paper out in Science Advances!Nina2023-02-23T11:48:50+01:00

Baby brains! New preprint on the formation of brain shape in human newborns!

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

Baby brains! New preprint on the formation of brain shape in human newborns!Nina2023-02-23T11:46:28+01:00

Dr. Frederik Bartels gets Curt Meyer Memorial Award!

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

Dr. Frederik Bartels gets Curt Meyer Memorial Award!Nina2022-11-23T13:53:31+01:00

We’re hiring! Werkvertrag, Webdeveloper (m/w/d)

Ausschreibung Werkvertrag, Webdeveloper (m/w/d)

Eines unserer Experimente zur Überprüfung der Navigationsfähigkeit zeigt hohe Sensitivität für Einschränkungen bei verschiedenen Erkrankungen, weshalb wir dieses Instrument nun möglichst vielen klinischen und Forschungseinrichtungen zur Verfügung stellen möchten.

Aufgabengebiet:
• Aufbau einer Webanwendung eines bisher in Python und auf Gorilla.sc laufenden Experiments für die Nutzung in Forschung und Klinik
• Adaptives Design für die zukünftige Integration weiterer Parallelversionen und Übersetzungen der Anwendung
• Datenspeicherung bei den Anwender*innen (direkter Download des Datensatzes zu den Ergebnissen)
• Falls möglich, Hosten der dargestellten Bilder und Videos (< 50 MB) direkt auf der Website, universitätsinterne Server existieren, sind aber noch nicht integriert
• Entwurf, Konzeptionierung der dazu erforderlichen technischen Infrastruktur, sowie Einrichtung, Implementierung der Website
Voraussetzungen:
• Durchführung/Rechnungslegung des Auftrags noch in 2022
• Ein Vertrag ist ausgeschlossen mit Personen, die bereits in einem Vertragsverhältnis zur Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin oder deren Töchtern stehen oder kürzlich standen (ehemaliger Arbeitnehmer/Arbeitnehmerin: 12 Monate; alle anderen: 6 Monate)
• Erstellung eines Angebots bis spätestens Ende Oktober 2022
(Berufs-)Erfahrung:
• Praktische Erfahrung auftragsbasiertem Webdevelopment
• Erfahrung in der Durchführung von ähnlichen Projekten (Referenzen)
Erwünscht:
• Erfahrung in der Umsetzung von Websites für wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen oder Kliniken von Vorteil

Bei Interesse und Fragen zum Auftrag/ Voraussetzung, kontaktiert uns gerne vorab. Weitere Informationen erteilt Carsten Finke (carsten.finke@charite.de).

We’re hiring! Werkvertrag, Webdeveloper (m/w/d)chariteadmin2022-09-22T17:19:05+02:00

We’re hiring! PhD position „Contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation”

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

We invite applications for a four-year PhD position in the CRC 1315 project “Spatial Memory Consolidation Networks”. The CRC 1315 “Memory Consolidation” brings together outstanding memory researchers from Berlin institutions, including Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin. The successful applicant will become a member of the Brain & Behavior Group at the Dept. of Neurology at Charité Berlin and will be embedded in an interdisciplinary network of basic and clinical neuroscience researchers. There will be continuous exchanges with Postdocs, PhD students and Faculty of the CRC and associated institutions, including the Excellence Cluster NeuroCure, the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.

The project combines electrophysiological, pharmacological, imaging and lesion approaches in patients and healthy participants with behavioral/virtual reality paradigms to study contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation.

If this sounds interesting to you, click here for more information on the project.

We’re hiring! PhD position „Contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation”chariteadmin2022-06-07T14:03:16+02:00

We’re hiring! Postdoctoral Position „Contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation”

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

We invite applications for a four-year postdoctoral position in the CRC 1315 project “Spatial Memory Consolidation Networks”. The CRC 1315 “Memory Consolidation” brings together outstanding memory researchers from Berlin institutions, including Charité, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin. The successful applicant will become a member of the Brain & Behavior Group at the Dept. of Neurology at Charité Berlin and will be embedded in an interdisciplinary network of basic and clinical neuroscience researchers. There will be continuous exchanges with Postdocs, PhD students and Faculty of the CRC and associated institutions, including the Excellence Cluster NeuroCure, the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience and the Berlin School of Mind and Brain.

The project combines electrophysiological, pharmacological, imaging and lesion approaches in patients and healthy participants with behavioral/virtual reality paradigms to study contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation.

If this sounds interesting to you, click here for more information on the project.

We’re hiring! Postdoctoral Position „Contextual modulation of spatial memory consolidation”chariteadmin2022-06-07T14:06:24+02:00

New preprint – The virtual environments navigation assessment (VIENNA)

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

Happy to share the new preprint by Sophia and Carsten introducing: VIENNA the virtual environments navigation assessment.

VIENNA is designed it to test spatial navigation in older adults and clinical settings without an episodic memory task or controller. Each VIENNA trial presents an egocentric video and an allocentric map of a new and increasingly complex virtual environment. The design of the trials allows us to identify specific spatial updating and perspective rotation errors. In 79 older adults, we demonstrate VIENNAs high feasibility and construct validity with a focus on visuospatial and executive functions. The entire spatial navigation assessment takes about 15 min to administer and is freely available for researchers and clinicians at OSF using PsychoPy.

New preprint – The virtual environments navigation assessment (VIENNA)chariteadmin2022-05-27T13:00:14+02:00

New study in Annals of Neurology is Paper of the Month

Our new article on cognitive outcomes in anti-NMDAR encephalitis lead by Josephine was awarded the Paper of the Month at the Center for Stroke Research at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin!

Based on a comprehensive longitudinal neuropsychological assessment, we find that cognitive deficits are the main contributor to long-term morbidity in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis. These impairments are most pronounced for memory and executive functions and can persist beyond functional neurological recovery. Find out more about the longitudinal trajectories of deficits and predictors for cognitive outcomes in the open access full-text here.

New study in Annals of Neurology is Paper of the Monthchariteadmin2021-12-06T13:14:44+01:00