Hier finden Sie eine Auswahl an aktuellen Forschungsprojekten:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was held in suspense by the virus's acute threat to humankind. After the crisis, we now recognize that COVID-19 can have long-lasting effects and realize we neglected its impact on cognition. Long-lasting cognitive impairments manifest in the post-COVID syndrome, which occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, usually 3 months from the onset, with symptoms lasting at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis. Fatigue and cognitive deficits are among the most common and debilitating symptoms of the post-COVID syndrome. Cognitive impairments such as attention deficits, memory loss, and impaired executive functioning negatively impact quality of life and normal functioning in individuals suffering from post-COVID syndrome. Society is only starting to recognize and comprehend the post-COVID syndrome, but its underlying causes and prognosis remain uncertain. With the COVISION project, we aim to expand our knowledge of this elusive clinical picture. Using data from an open repository, we will perform prognostic modeling to model the course of neurocognitive symptoms after COVID-19 and create a prognosis based on markers from different disciplines, such as medicine, psychology, and sociology. Furthermore, we aim to develop a web-based application that captures post-COVID-19 symptoms, social determinants, and impacts on daily life. This will help us gain a better understanding of the neuropsychological profile of patients suffering from post-COVID syndrome and enable us to track and classify the fluctuation of their symptoms over time. Therefore, we can contribute to this topic of high societal interest by investigating long-term development and potential fluctuations of neurocognitive symptoms and identifying multidisciplinary factors related to neurocognitive impairments of the Post-COVID syndrome.

 Contact: Jella Voelter 

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a stage between normal aging-related cognitive decline and dementia, in which several cognitive domains are already impaired, but patients are still able to independently conduct activities of daily life. Thus, the identification of MCI patients can play an important role in the early intervention, prevention, and proper treatment.

MCI can be categorized according to the diagnostic criteria further in patients with non-amnestic MCI (non-aMCI) who are impaired in attention, executive functioning, and language but not memory; and patients with amnestic MCI (a-MCI), who show impairments in memory with or without cognitive deficits in attention, executive functioning, and language. Furthermore, the sizes of the hippocampus, the entorhinal cortex and the amygdala are decreased in aMCI relative to naMCI and controls.

Emotion recognition impairments are well documented in Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, but it is less understood whether they are also present in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and hence purpose of this study will be to investigate emotion recognition and processing in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Although research in this area is at its infancy, there is some evidence that Emotion recognition in MCI is compromised when compared to normal aging and there is at least some evidence suggesting that negative emotions are more compromised.

Current findings of impaired emotion recognition in MCI highlight the need for early intervention in order to improve the ability of patients to decode emotional cues.

To summarize, in our planned study we aim to investigate the emotion recognition abilities of patients with aMCI and naMCI using a dynamic emotion recognition paradigm applied during an MRI and assess the structural and functional outcomes. We will further try associating the effects of care-giver burden on the emotion recognition abilities and social dysfunction of the different MCI groups.

Contact: Rachana Mahadevan

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is a condition in which individuals, mostly people aged >60 years, report cognitive impairment and are concerned about a progression of decline – even though the impairment is not yet detectable by neuropsychological testing. Literature shows that individuals with SCD are at a higher risk of suffering from dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the future. In addition, SCD is associated with a decreased quality of life and stress: SCD is perceived as a stressor and individuals with increased stress levels are more likely to report SCD. Especially due to the increasing proportion of elderly people, it is important to understand SCD and relating factors such as stress levels to be able to develop effective intervention and prevention measures. So far, there is no questionnaire for the assessment of possible SCD symptom fluctuations and possible influencing factors in the everyday life of individuals and for tracking SCD over days or weeks. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a questionnaire for the ambulatory assessment of SCD by conducting focus group discussion with people affected by SCD and a pilot testing of the designed ambulatory assessment questionnaire. The results and the developed questionnaire provide the basis for further longitudinal studies for ambulatory SCD measurements over several weeks to investigate SCD symptoms and symptom fluctuations in the everyday life of people as well as the possible influence of affect, stress and the situation a person is currently in.

Contact: Franziska Kiene

The project is part of the  graduate school "Neuromodulation of Motor and Cognitive Function in Brain Health and disease (GRK 2783, https://uol.de/neuromodulation)". We are currently still looking for a PhD. Please see the project description below: 

PI: H. Hildebrandt, Kranczioch, Collaborators: Nothbohm, Roheger

Fast forgetting following distraction is a common problem in amnesia. We suggest that a state of decreased post-learning interference immediately after a memory task may promote interference resolution and memory in patients with such deficits. Initial research in healthy young individuals indicates that theta activity or EEG slow wave and alpha activity could be neural signatures of an optimal post-learning state. The PhD project aims to extend this work. The PhD student will develop an EEG neurofeedback to implement a state of decreased interference allowing for enhanced consolidation. A first study will be conducted on healthy older participants. In the second step, we will validate the EEG patterns in stroke patients. We expect that the patterns identified as characterizing the state of decreased interference (e.g. theta activity) in step 1 are reduced, and that the reduction is related to the impaired performance. Applicants should hold a degree in psychology and should have experience with EEG recording and evaluation. Programming skills (e.g., Matlab, Python) are of advantage. Good knowledge of German is necessary. Workplace is Oldenburg and Bremen.

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