Lehrstuhl Neuropsychologie

Involuntary and voluntary memory retrieval relies on distinct neural representations and oscillatory processes
Involuntary memory retrieval is central to posttraumatic stress disorder and common in daily life, yet its neural basis remains unclear. Using a visual half-field paradigm with EEG, we examined how involuntary and voluntary retrieval differ. Involuntary retrieval reactivated sensory feature–dependent but item-unspecific representations via extended replay, with mid-frontal theta increases signaling interference. Voluntary retrieval engaged prefrontal–medial temporal processes to reinstate temporally compressed, item-specific representations. These results reveal distinct neural mechanisms shaping episodic memory and psychological well-being.

Am 26.06.2025 hat Malte Kobelt erfolgreich seine Dissertation mit dem Titel "Tracking Neural Representations of Trauma-Analog Memory Intrusions: A Multivariate Neuroimaging Approach to Memory Dysfunction" verteidigt. Das Komitee bestehend aus Nikolai Axmacher, Markus Werkle-Bergner, Oliver T. Wolf und Armin Zlomuzica war beeindruckt von seiner schriftlichen und mündlichen Leistung und hat seine Promotion mit summa cum laude bewertet. Die gesamte Neuropsychologie gratuliert Malte zu diesem Erfolg!

Characterizing BOLD activation patterns in the human hippocampus with laminar fMRI
The human hippocampus has been extensively studied at the macroscale using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) but the underlying microcircuits at the mesoscale (i.e., at the level of layers) are largely uninvestigated in humans. We target two questions fundamental to hippocampal laminar fMRI: How does the venous bias affect the interpretation of hippocampal laminar responses, and is it possible to establish a benchmark laminar fMRI experiment which robustly elicits single-subject hippocampal activation utilizing the most widely applied GRE-BOLD contrast.