Forward by Emrah Duzel, Spokesperson for the Clinical Research Group

A cordial welcome to the Home Page of the Clinical Research Group, “Cognitive Control of Memory Functions.”

Memory disturbances are a symptom of many neurological and psychiatric illnesses, and in today’s rapidly evolving information society are having increasingly adverse effects in the elderly. The cognitive control of memory entails the use of rules or concepts that govern the selection, storage and availability of information.

These control processes allow a person to evaluate and use environmental stimuli as references to past events in order to avoid false memories, overcome memory blocks, and allow disturbing information to fade.
The core concept linking the six subprojects of the Clinical Research Group is the “neuromodulation” generated by cognitive processes that do not require the direct encoding of new information.

Neuromodulators are biochemical neurotransmitters such as dopamine, acetylcholine, noradrenaline and serotonin. They adjust the active representation and adaptive coding of information, as well as regulate motivation and expectation, thereby influencing how long and how strongly specific limbic stimuli are represented.Thus, they play a significant role in the cognitive control of memory.
Neuromodulators can exert their influence by the reinforcement and stabilization of synaptic plasticity, and can also act directly on long-term memory.

The brain areas in which neuromodulators are produced, and, in particular, the basal forebrain and the dopaminergic mid-brain, are affected by a number of neurological and psychiatric illnesses. Moreover, in the elderly, these areas show pronounced changes. Neuromodulatory malfunctions are regarded as an important source of disturbances of cognitive control and plasticity in a number of patient populations.

Neuromodulatory mechanisms are, in addition, significantly determined by individual genetic characteristics. Genes, which influence the transport and deactivation of neuromodulators, occur in various forms (termed polymorphisms). These genetic variations can affect not only the neuromodulatory mechanisms of memory control and plasticity, but also the changes in these mechanisms that are produced by age and illness.

The Clinical Research Group examines the neuromodulatory mechanisms of memory control and plasticity, as well as their disturbances, in the elderly, in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and Parkinson’s disease. In Magdeburg, several of the most current technologies are available for this purpose. Among other equipment, a 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging device makes it possible to obtain very detailed representations of the neuromodulatory brain areas. The Group’s goal is to use its findings to develop new pharmacological approaches for memory disturbances.

This goal is possible only through the close collaboration of investigators who are examining the fundamental processes involved in neuromodulation on multiple levels—cellular, physiological, biochemical and genetic—and through the integration of human clinical and experimental animal research. In Magdeburg, the Clinical Research Group has close ties with investigators involved in basic animal experimental research. Close collaborations exist, for example, with the working groups of Professors Frey and Gundelfinger of the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology.