RESEARCH CENTER NEUROSENSORY SCIENCE
RESEARCH CENTER NEUROSENSORY SCIENCE
The Research Centre Neurosensory Science (FZN) is an independent cross-faculty scientific institution. It sees itself as an umbrella organisation for the more than 40 research groups that have established themselves in the various areas of neuronal sensor technology over the past 20 years since the Research Centre Neurosensory Science was founded. The FZN bundles the interdisciplinary activities of currently 82 experienced researchers and also plays an active role in promoting young scientists. The research centre supports the networking of members across faculty boundaries and thus promotes the realisation of joint collaborative proposals.
The FZN forms the bridge between medicine (University Medicine Oldenburg, Faculty VI), the natural sciences (Faculty V) and the local clinics in the field of neuronal sensor technology.
Goals
The Research Centre Neurosensory Science wants to find answers to these and similar questions:
- How do images get into our heads or music into our ears?
- How do our ears manage to perceive and transmit the information relevant to us from a vast amount of sounds?
- How does constant pain change our brain?
- How do birds and fish orientate themselves?
more
This is what the research centre wants to contribute to:
- To elucidate the processes by which our brain creates an internal image of the world around us based on the messages from our sensory organs.
- Understanding the processes that create the first sensory building blocks in the sensory organs from the flood of sensory impressions and the processes that construct a perception in the brain.
The Research Centre Neurosensory Science is characterised by:
- Interdisciplinary composition - neurobiologists, biologists, psychophysicists, physicians, psychologists and biochemists work together
- Modern techniques - from molecular biology, optogenetics and imaging techniques (neuroimaging, next generation sequencing, etc.) to algorithm development are applied
- State-of-the-art infrastructure - the latest research equipment (e.g. Leica TCS STED CW, MRT, MEG), modern laboratories, neurosensory research building and safety-critical systems (NeSSy)
Impulses
The FZN supports the networking of researchers across faculty boundaries and promotes the realisation of joint collaborative proposals:
- Cluster of excellence Hearing4all.connects
- Cluster of excellence NaviSense
- Junior researcher funding: DFG RTG "Neuromodulation of motor and cognitive functions in the healthy and diseased brain" and DFG RTG HEARAZ
- Proposals for third-party funding from the DFG (currently CRC "Hearing Acoustics: Perceptual Principles, Algorithms and Applications - HAPPAA" and CRC "Magnetoreception and Navigation in Vertebrates: from Biophysics to Brain and Behaviour") and the EU
- Application-oriented projects such as the network for multilingual hearing and speech intelligibility diagnostics
- Methods/devices - STED microscope, fMRI/MEG.
Co-operation
Scientists from various disciplines (e.g. neurobiology, psychophysics, psychology, acoustics, biochemistry, neurogenetics, medicine and engineering) are working together to elucidate the processes by which our brain creates an inner image of the world around us on the basis of the messages from our sensory organs. This involves processes that create the first sensory building blocks in the sensory organs from the flood of sensory impressions and the processes that construct a perception from this in the brain. Particular attention is paid to the investigation of interactions between different sensory impressions. In line with the interdisciplinary composition of the research centre, a number of modern techniques are used, ranging from molecular biology and imaging techniques to algorithm development.
In recent years, over 40 research groups have been established at the University of Oldenburg in the various areas of neuronal sensor technology. The Research Centre Neurosensory Science sees itself as an umbrella organisation for these groups. It brings together the interdisciplinary activities of the various working groups and also plays an active role in promoting co-operation with non-university institutions. An important task of the centre is the promotion of young scientists and advanced scientific training in the relevant research areas.
In order to strengthen interdisciplinary research work, the Research Centre Neurosensory Science was restructured in 2014 - five sections were created that are dedicated to thematic focus areas within neurosensory science at the University of Oldenburg.
Neurosensory technology as a research focus at the University of Oldenburg
The University of Oldenburg has agreed on the following three guiding themes for research and teaching based on criteria that have emerged as national and international evaluation standards:
"Environment and Sustainability", "People and Technology" and "Society and Education".
The guiding theme of "People and Technology" combines the focal points of "Hearing Research", "Cooperative Safety-Critical Systems", "Neurosensory Systems" and "Care Systems and Patient Orientation".
This makes "Neurosensorics" one of a total of eleven research focuses at the University of Oldenburg.
The spokespersons for the Neurosensorics research focus are: