My Research Group uses translational MR imaging to understand how cortical microstructure links to human brain function in health and disease. We study healthy younger and older adults, people with neurodegenerative and neurological diseases and people with mental disorders to understand the neuronal mechanisms that underlie healthy and pathological cortex architectures and their modification. 

​List of publications

overview research topics


lab research at a glance

CLINICL APPLICATION
Multi-modal layer modeling reveals in vivo pathology in ALS 
​Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disease characterised by the loss of motor control. Current understanding of ALS pathology is largely based on post-mortem investigations at advanced disease stages. We combined submillimeter structural 7T-MRI data, functional localisers of body parts and automated layer modelling to compute layer-specific in vivo pathology maps of the primary motor cortex (M1) in living ALS-patients with reference to age-, gender-, handedness- and education-matched controls. The data uncover a layer-specific profile of ALS pathology in MI that matches the clinical profile of the patients. Our data shows that layer-specific markers of in vivo pathology can be identified in ALS-patients with a single 7T-MRI measurement after first diagnosis, which emphasizes the importance of 7T MRI as a clinical tool (Northall et al. 2024 Brain [link]). 
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KEY-FINDING
Septa in the human brain
Monkeys' and rodents' primary somatosensory cortices (SI) are equipped with myelin-poor septa that separate adjacent body part representations. It has been a long-standing question whether or not also humans are equipped with such structural body part boundaries. We used in vivo 7 Tesla MRI in humans to show that structural boundaries exist between major body part representations (hand and face) in the human sensory and motor cortices  (Kuehn et al. 2017 Cereb Cortex [link]). They do not exist, however,  between individual finger representations in human SI, other than in many monkey species (Doehler et al. 2023 J Neurosci [link]). Whereas human septa are a stable feature of cortex architecture and do not degenerate with age (Northall et al. 2023 Neurobiol Aging [link]), recent data indicate that they play an important role in the development of neurodegenerative disorders that affect the sensorimotor system ​ (Northall et al. 2024 Brain [link]). 
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TREND
Model the human cortex in 3D
Modeling the human cortex in three dimensions, that is, across the cortical surface and in depth, allows novel and unprecedented insights into brain dys-/function in health and disease. 3D models of human cognition that take into consideration the different computations along the cortical surface and in depth allow understanding human brain function in its full complexity. In this Trends in Cognitive Sciences paper [link] and  Nature Reviews Neuroscience commentary [link], we delineate the critical importance of 3D models of the cortex in health and disease.
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​+++ IN THE NEWS +++
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Körpergedächtnis - Wie beeinflussen körperliche Erfahrungen unser Denken und Handeln? (listen the Podcast via Spotify, Apple Podcast, or the Kortizes homepage)​​

In Touch mit unseren Gefühlen - Körperpsychotherapie (Listen to Podcast via Spotify, Apple Podcast, deezer)

Deutschlandfunk Nova: Körpergedächtnis - Negative Gefühle mit positiven bekämpfen
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​MADAME: Der Körper vergisst nichts
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Deutschlandfunk Nova: Wie wir weniger grübeln
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Volksstimme: Wie Körper und Geist zusammen hängen

2021 - ein historisches Jahr für die deutsche Forschung (Blog)

​Wenn sich das Gehirn selbst zerstört (Blog)
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Warum Altern glücklich macht (Blog)
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Eingebrannt ins Gehirn (Blog)
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Die Gene sind nicht alles - Was wir gegen Alzheimer tun können (Blog)
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In-Mind: Das Gehirn kann nicht abschalten - Was tun?
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In-Mind: ​Posteingang(10.098) - Lesen Sie die Signale, die Ihr Körper Ihnen sendet?
KEY-FINDING
Non-afferent topographic maps in human SI
The human primary somatosensory cortex area 3b has long been believed to code self-perceived (afferent) touch only. In a series of studies, I show using 7 Tesla fMRI that feeling touch on the hand and observing touch at another person's hand activates similar fine-grained topographic maps in area 3b, and similar inhibitory receptive field interactions during their co-activation. Topographic maps in area 3b can therefore also be triggered from non-afferent sources. Read the full Journal of Neuroscience and Brain Structure and Function papers: [link] [link]
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