European School of Network Neuroscience

Taking neuroscience from the study of individual brain regions to a network-based approach is essential for unraveling the mechanisms of cognition and behavior and their breakdown in disorders. Network neuroscience is only at its incipient stages. Therefore, we propose an ETN for training ESRs on this emerging field and its application domains. euSNN will integrate leading European groups in network neuroscience and deliver training on knowledge and skills that enable students to pursue a successful career in this emerging field. euSNN will combine and train all approaches relevant for the investigation of brain networks, including (f)MRI, M/EEG, in-vivo recordings, analysis, modeling, network modulation with optogenetics or non-invasive neurostimulation and studies on network changes in neurological disorders. The novelty of euSNN's training results from the unique combination of experimental, analysis and modeling approaches, which is amplified in a highly integrated program that cuts across disciplines and sectors. This is in stark contrast with traditional concepts on graduate training in neuroscience, which often have been confined to a single research approach. All euSNN thesis projects focus on the key goal of identifying, analyzing, and manipulating network interactions underlying cognitive and sensorimotor functions or their disturbances. Each project will operate across both academic and industrial partners in the network, giving a unique translational and application-geared orientation to the training. Exploiting intense collaborations between experimental, theoretical and clinical groups, we link basic research on large-scale brain dynamics with new pathophysiological approaches and clinical applications. Overall, euSNN will contribute to assuring Europe’s leading position in the field of network neuroscience, while giving ESRs state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary research and entrepreneurial skills.

Research activities:
- development of approaches for monitoring the structural and functional connectivity has started
- investigation of projections that link primary sensory areas and PFC by recording neuronal activity have started

Training activities:
- theoretical work on the background of cortical network dynamics and optogenetics
- theory of different modeling approaches
- hippocampal functions and neuronal properties of the various neuron types in the dentate gyrus and hippocampus
- recording and analysing basic neuronal properties such as input resistance, resting membrane potentials and discharge patterns
- basic electrophysiology by performing whole-cell recordings from dentate gyrus granule cells in acute slice preparations of mouse hippocampus
- training in rat surgery, chronic implantation of recording probes, electrophysiological recordings in the awake animal and perfusion
- state-of-the-art research on electrophysiological markers of Parkinson’s Disease
- laminar fMRI recording and data analysis
- training in programming, handling behavioral control setups and software, signal acquisition and analysis

Dissemination activities:
- press release on project start
- launched a website which presents the network, its individual projects and lists publications emerging from the action
- radio interview on the ‘Cognitive functions of the brain’ at Radio ‘Feierwerk’ Munich for children
- published an article for lay people about prefrontal impact on action control in uni’wissen, the journal of the University of Freiburg

The euSNN research and training programme has high innovation potential in several respects. (1) The network approach is able to contribute to new theories of cognitive and sensorimotor processes. We expect, e.g. new insights into the mechanisms of multisensory interactions, into top-down modulation of sensory processing, and into the large-scale interactions subserving attention and memory. Indeed, we believe that without the intermediate-level network-oriented approach proposed here, brain processes underlying cognition can hardly be understood. (2) euSNN is highly multidisciplinary by integrating a broad variety of cutting-edge approaches into a coherent research programme. This will allow us to link data across different levels of description and spatial scales of network study, which likely will produce new insights into common principles of network function. (3) The euSNN research programme will generate new knowledge with respect to gender differences in brain networks, which is a highly underinvestigated topic. Such differences are likely to occur because, for instance, developmental time scales differ between sexes, and female and male brains are affected with different incidences by PD. (4) The euSNN collaborations will directly contribute to new data on and new insights in altered network interactions in brain disorders. For instance, we will attempt to relate disturbances of large-scale network communication to clinically manifest symptoms in patients with central motor deficits or cognitive dysfunction. (5) In the long run, the research programme can help to prepare the ground for innovative therapeutic approaches based on the manipulation of functional connectivity between different neural systems. This might also include aspects of personalized medicine, contributing to a better understanding of interindividual differences in network dynamics and connectivity.

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - euSNN (European School of Network Neuroscience)

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