The Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro)

We study how neurons control their excitable behaviour, how they receive and process incoming information, and how they communicate with other neurons via synapses.

We study complex mechanisms underlying cognition and behaviour.

We study how neurons are generated from progenitor cells, how they divide, survive, and adopt specific identities, and migrate to sites where they are incorporated into neuronal circuits.

Motor behaviour is the overt expression of the brain's activity. Motor circuits are precisely assembled and function in a delicate manner to produce the sequential activity of muscles underlying a defined behaviour.

Neurodegeneration is the overarching term for conditions with progressive loss of function and eventually death of neurons participating in motor, sensory or cognitive functions.

Neurodevelopmental disorders refer to conditions of impaired cognitive and motor functions stemming from an atypical development of the brain.

By studying the genetic architecture of diseases affecting the brain and spinal cord it is possible to reveal biological pathways involved in disease etiology.

Neuroinflammatory disorders are conditions where immune responses damage components of the nervous system.

Surgical interventions for conditions such as neurotrauma, brain tumours and vascular disorders are constantly being refined by scientists in this field.

Research in psychiatry concerns conditions such as addiction, depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, personality disorders and suicidal behaviour.

Information about the outside world reaches the brain as for example visual, auditory, olfactory, and mechanoreceptive stimuli.