The Brain Plasticity group tries to understand how our brain responds and adapts to a changing, or challenging, environment.
We approach plasticity from a molecular, structural, functional and behavioral level and aim to understand;
In our research, we aim to comprehend;
We focus on the hippocampus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex and hypothalamus, as these brain regions are not only involved in cognition, stress regulation and homeostasis, but also often affected in conditions of hormonal dysregulation, behavioral adaptation and diseases affecting our body and brain.
The Brain Plasticity group is well embedded in local programs such as the Center for Urban Mental Health (https://www.centreforurbanmentalhealth.com ), Amsterdam Brain & Cognition (https://abc.uva.nl ), Healthy Future (https://www.uva.nl/en/about-the-uva/about-the-university/strategy/theme-based-collaboration/healthy-future.html) and organizations like Amsterdam Neuroscience (https://www.amsterdamumc.org/en/research/institutes/amsterdam-neuroscience.htm) and the graduate school Neurosciences Amsterdam & Rotterdam (ONWAR) (http://www.onwar.nl/).
Also, we are part of national consortia on Alzheimer’s disease (Memorabel MODEM, Alzheimer Nederland), ME/Chronic Fatigue syndrome, CTE/TBI and Huntington’s disease, as well as of international ones on neurogenesis (EUROGENESIS, Science Foundation Ireland), cognition, nutrition and brain disease (JPI-D-CogPlast, ERA-Net Neuron ReactNSC, EU-Horizon Happy Mums, EU-JPND) and we hold board functions in societies like the ISNPR, the Alba Network, FENS (https://www.fens.org ), EBBS ( https://www.ebbs-science.org ) and ECNP ( https://www.ecnp.eu ).
We hope our research will help provide more insight in how plasticity is linked to brain function and disease, and how plasticity can be utilized or e.g. recruited to promote resilience to disease and as such, used in possible future therapeutic approaches.
Our group is fully named 'Structural and Functional Plasticity of the Nervous System', in short termed as Brain Plasticity Group.
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