In February, the Translational Neuroimaging Team whole-heartedly welcomes two new members: Hannah, a medical student from Greifswald, who will do an internship, and Markus, a medical student from Bonn, who will start his medical thesis work.
"My medical studies further helped strengthen my interest in neurology and made me want to understand how our brain works.
Neurological imaging technologies help us to understand just that, therefore bringing us a whole lot closer to developing methods to cure neurological diseases.
I am incredibly grateful to be working with the “Translational-Neuroimaging-Group”. Through this internship I hope to gain more experience in this field of work, preparing for my own MD.
In this context, I am currently supporting a project aimed at researching the Piriform Cortex and its role in the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy.
I am particularly fascinated by the multidisciplinary research approaches and the direct applicability of the research. The immediate impact that the methods and algorithms developed within the research group have on a patient’s current treatment options, makes the work incredibly exciting and tangible." ~ Hannah
"Fascinated by the dream of overcoming our organic suit, I always wondered to what extent the mind can adapt to altered brain architecture. Back in my philosophy classes at school, I was confronted with the mind-body problem. Since then, the topic has not left me and with physics and computer science, I hope to find a new perspective on the issue.
Yes, it was science fiction at the beginning but now the ground of reality seems to change: While the idea of a connectome evolves, companies like Neuralink have already started to work on brain-machine interfaces, which could unlock unknown potentials. Still, one question remains: How do consciousness and personal identity change after deep invasive interventions?
In January 2022 I joined the Translational Neuroimaging Group to approach this problem. Interestingly, a special group of patients with hemispherotomy reminds of the brain in a vat scenario. With the help of fMRI, we could gain hidden insights into the isolated hemisphere. It seems promising that with the great and highly motivated team I jumped in, we can insert a new piece of the puzzle and challenge current opinions in neuroscience." ~ Markus
