Director: Tobias Bonhoeffer, Prof., PhD

Overview

One of the most fundamental properties of the brain is its ability to adapt rapidly to environmental changes. This is mainly achieved by changes in the connectivity between individual nerve cells. Synapses, the connection elements between neurons, can be modulated in their strength by a variety of different mechanisms, a process called "synaptic plasticity".

The department is investigating the fundamental principles of synaptic plasticity at a number of different levels, ranging from molecular approaches to studies of the intact nervous system. Recent results from our lab have shown that synaptic plasticity is accompanied by structural changes of dendritic spines, they have demonstrated the importance of neurotrophins in synaptic plasticity, and they have revealed the detailed structure of functional maps in the visual cortex.

Junior Research Group
Synaptic Receptor Trafficking
head: Valentin Stein, PhD

Contact
Claudia Marget-Hahn
Phone: +49 (89) 8578 3751
Fax: +49 (89) 8578 2481
marget[a]neuro.mpg.de