Our goals

From an understanding of cognitive processes to the development of new treatment strategies for neurological deficits.

The Department of Cognitive Neuroscience (INM-3) uses behavioral, pharmacological and neuromodulatory methods to elucidate pathomechanisms of neurological and neuropsychological deficits, with the aim to develop innovative diagnostic and therapeutic strategies/procedures.

Using functional imaging (PET and MRI), both systemic (neural networks) and molecular (neurotransmission) approaches utilizing mathematical models (such as dynamic causal modelling) are combined, in order to arrive at a holistic understanding of the development of normal functions in the healthy brain (across the entire life span) as well as the diseased brain of neurological and psychiatric patients.

These aims are pursued in tight collaboration with the Department of Neurology, University Hospital Cologne (stroke-induced deficits and neurorehabilitation, memory disorders in normal aging and dementias), the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Cologne (disorders of social cognition in autism and schizophrenia) and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen (disorders of attention and empathy in ADHD).