News from the neurosciences of the CRC
Faster Than You Think
On June 26th, 2025, this year’s “Firmenstaffel” race took place in Magdeburg,…
Reminder: Learning & Memory Conference at the LIN Magdeburg
From September 28 to October 2, 2025, the renowned Learning & Memory…
CRC 1436 in Neuroforum
Our CRC 1436 is currently featured in the June issue of Neuroforum,…
Successful CRC Retreat 2025
From June 25th to 26th, 2025, this year’s CRC 1436 retreat took…
Meet Florian Engert at the LIN
On Tuesday, 8 July 2025 at 2 p.m., Prof. Florian Engert (Harvard…
MDR JUMP morning show with Constanze Seidenbecher
Fact or Fake is the name of a category in the MDR…
Prof. Christian Behrends as part of the Syntophagy Seminar Series
We are pleased to announce that the Syntophagy Seminar Series will be hosting Prof….
CRC 1436 Retreat 2025 with Bryan Strange
Our two-day CRC retreat started today. We are looking forward to all…
Congratulations, Niklas!
One of our PhD students within the CRC successfully defended his doctoral…
CRC 1436 – top research in Magdeburg
This week, we had the MDR on site for filming. The feature…
Our research focus
Is it possible to increase the performance of memory?
What is the hidden potential of the brain and what are its limits?
How can the brain’s cognitive potential be mobilized and enhanced?
The architecture of our brain provides biological limits for the performance of memory, attention, and our capacity for learning; this is evident on both the micro and macro scale. However, there is large variability within these limits and individual cognitive abilities can be improved through directed training. The goal of our Collaborative Research Center (CRC) is to uncover the performance limits of the human brain and to explore methodological approaches for improving this performance. We aim to understand which neurobiological principles limit cognitive resources and how these resources can be fully accessed or even enhanced. Further, we will identify new ways to preserve neural resources across the lifespan with targeted interventions.
More than 40 scientists in 20 individual projects are currently working in our CRC towards this exciting neuroscientific topic, which is also highly relevant in our current society.
Using the latest neuroscientific technologies and innovative methods, human and animal experimental studies will examine individual variability and transferable improvement in cognitive function. We place a specific focus on how performance improvements in one task can be transferred to other tasks and when task performance comes at the expense of other abilities. We also ask, why do cognitive abilities decline with age? And what are the tremendous resources of “super-agers”? Further, we are investigating how molecular and biochemical processes affect cognitive performance, for instance, with the deposition of tau and amyloid in the brain, or those that occur with sleep deprivation or other environmental influences. This project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and encompasses both the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and the Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology, as well as the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Magdeburg site, Freie Universität Berlin, Charitè Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and the universities of Leipzig, Heidelberg, and Göttingen.
Co-Spokesperson Dr. Michael Kreutz & Spokesperson Prof. Dr. med. Emrah Düzel
Publications of the CRC
