Dear Users

Today from 4-5 pm in YNiC open plan, Susanne Weis and Markus Hausmann will be giving YNiC project proposal presentations.

i) Susanne Weis: "Object location memory: Differences between verbal and non-verbal strategies during memory encoding and retrieval"

It has repeatedly been shown that the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and especially the hippocampus, play an important role during memory encoding and retrieval. Specifically,activation of the hippocampus has been related to associative and contextual memory and binding of an item with its context. It is therefore assumed, that the hippocampus interacts with cortical regions during object location memory (OLM) tasks, where an object has to be bound to its spatial location. A variety of studies have shown that men on average perform better than women in specific aspects of spatial cognition. On the other hand, women have been shown to be superior in OLM tasks. One explanation which has been proposed for this findings suggests that women use verbal strategies during OLM encoding and retrieval, while man rely more on spatial strategies. It can be assumed that different strategies during OLM task are linked to different patterns of brain activation. It is the aim of our study to examine functional connectivity between the hippocampus and cortical areas during encoding and retrieval of an OLM task. Further, we intend to find out if inter-individual differences in strategies result in changes of patterns of brain activation and the functional connectivity within these networks.

ii) Markus Hausmann: "Sex hormonal effects on the functional connectivity within and across hemispheres in postmenopausal women"

Previous research in postmenopausal women has shown that hormone therapy (HT), and estrogen therapy (ET) in particular, affects the functional brain organization such as interhemispheric integration and functional cerebral asymmetries (FCAs) (Bayer & Erdmann, 2008; Bayer & Hausmann, 2009a,b; Bayer & Hausmann, 2010). The results suggest that these effects are mediated by the neuromodulatory properties of estradiol on intrahemispheric functional networks. Specifically, it seems that estradiol enhances verbal processing at the expense of visuo-spatial processing within the right hemisphere. This idea might explain why several studies found divergent effects of HT on verbal and visuo-spatial cognition (including verbal and non-verbal memory). Moreover, estradiol-related effects on FCAs have also been demonstrated in normally cycling women during hormonal distinct cycle-phases (Weis et al., 2008). Specifically, this fMRI study found estradiol-related changes in the interhemispheric inhibition between homotopic areas in the inferior frontal gyrus of the left and right hemispheres. The present study is set out to elucidate whether HT-related changes in FCAs as measured by a verbal and visuo-spatial visual half-field tasks in postmenopausal women might be subserved by changes in the functional connectivity between cortical networks within and across hemispheres.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Best wishes Rebecca