2013 and older
Music Medicine and Music Physiology Award 2013 for our study: "Encoding and recall of finger sequences in experienced pianists compared with musically naïve controls: A combined behavioral and functional imaging study".
Posteraward, iSAMS Congress, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 2013: "Auricular stimulation reduces BOLD signal in insular cortex of responders exposed to thermal pain – an fMRI crossover investigation", Laqua R, Lotze M, Leutzow B, Usichenko TI.
Award of our project: „Prevention of obesity in childhood“ (Lauffer, Hamm and Lotze) with one of the prevention awards of the German Adipositas Society on the 3rd of October 2013 in Hannover.
Defence Benjamin Gebel 12.09.2013. Title: "Instrument specific activation maps in musicians".
Lecture: Prof. Dr. Winston Byblow (Movement Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Sport & Exercise Science, Centre for Brain Research, The University of Auckland), 11.9.2013 at 9.30 a.m. Neurology meeting room:
"Two perspectives of motor recovery after stroke’"
Report about our study on instrument-specific plasticity: www.bodyinmind.org/it-is-the-instrument-that-shapes-your-brain-and-not-only-the-time-you-spend-with-it
Greifswald Cityrun;
Flavia Di Pietro (Sydney) after running the 10 km distance (7th best of more than 100 women participating)
Science Price of the Medical Association, Greifswald:
Gebel B., Braun Ch., Kaza E., Altenmüller E., Lotze M. (2013) Instrument specific brain activation in sensorimotor and auditory representation in musicians. Neuroimage, 74:37-44.
Seminar with Prof. Simon Eickhoff and Professor Silke Anders; 9. und 10.5.2013; Advanced-User-Seminar: ANATOMY, ALE, Connectivity analyses.
22.6.2012: Predicting the potential for upper limb recovery after stroke; Professor Winston Byblow; Auckland; New Zealand
08.09.2011:"Potential & perspectives of repetitiv sensory stimulation" Professor Hubert Dinse, Neuroinformatik, Universität Bochum
13.7.2011: "Decoding mental states from human brain activity" Professor John-Dylan Haynes; Bernstein Center Berlin; Ort: Krupp Kolleg.
International workshop "Brain stimulation and brain repair" 02.-04. September 2010; Organizer: T. Platz
Location: Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald Martin-Luther-Straße 14, 17489 Greifswald
Webpage und Programm: www.wiko-greifswald.de/events/cal/browse/4/article/6/brain-stimul.html
Plasticity after brain damage: is there an optimal time window for intervention?
Martin Lotze
15. September 2010; 15 Uhr
Rehabilitationsklinik Hamburg Eilbek
Experiments with fMRI and TMS on motor plasticity
Martin Lotze
20. September 2010; 13 Uhr
University of Zurich; Brain Research Institute
OHBM Meeting 2010
06.-10. Juni 2010 in Barcelona
Contributions from Greifswald:
M. Lotze; Parietal specificity on visual compared to tactile movement guidance - an fMRI-navigated rTMS-study; Poster: 1451 MT-AM
K. Erhard; Cerebral Representation of Creative Writing in Professional Writers – An fMRI-study; Poster: 1566 MT-PM
C. Shah; Neural Correlates of Creative Writing – an fMRI study; Poster: 51 MT-AM
K. Holtz; Anticipation of interoceptive threat – An fMRI study; Poster: 651 WTh-AM
N. Neumann; Electromagnetic brain activity in autistic individuals during disembedding task performance; Poster: 425 WTh-AM
E. Steinfurth; Neurobiological correlates of emotion regulation – an fMRI study; Poster: 574 WTh-PM
J. Wendt; The Influence of Directed Attention on the Neural Processing of Threatening and Erotic Pictures; Poster: 636 WTh-PM
E. Kaza; Which brain regions profit from using a 32-channel or a 12-channel head coil in fMRI studies? Poster: 943 WTh-AM
Webpage: www.humanbrainmapping.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3342
36. Tagung "Psychologie und Gehirn", Greifswald, 10.-12.6.2010
Webpage: www.tagung.dgpa.de/
MRI and carriers in science
28. Mai 2010
Organizer: N. Hosten
Location: Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald Martin-Luther-Straße 14, 17489 Greifswald
unter anderen mit H.J. Markowitsch, N. Hosten, R. Puls, T. Platz, M. Lotze
Workshop Verbund Neurowissenschaften
Montag, den 11. Januar 2010
DGNR und DGNKN Jahrestagung Berlin Samstag, 5. Dezember 2009:
8.00–10.00 Symposium: Wiederherstellung der Aktivitäten III; Vorsitz T. Platz, M. Lotze (Greifswald)
8.20 Neuroplastizität in der Neurorehabilitation; M. Lotze (Greifswald)
8.40 tDCS zur Förderung der trainingsinduzierten Neuroplastizität; F. Hummel (Hamburg)
9.00 rTMS – Funktionell-therapeutisches Potential in der Neurorehabilitation; T. Platz (Greifswald)
Our main topic:
The fact that the brain is changing continuously is one of the most challenging results from brain research of the last two decades. These adaptation processes can be documented by electrophysiological parameters (e.g. evoked potentials in response to a stimulus), with secondary parameters to energy consumption in the brain (e.g. blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) effect), with changes in neurotransmitters (e.g. NMDA, glutamate) but also morphological changes (e.g. axional sprouting, changes in synapses, changes of cortical thickness, rewiring of white matter etc.). All these changes have been documented after repetitive training in a physiologic condition in animal and men. However, adaptation of the brain to a changing environment or a differential interaction of the body with the environment is not only positive. There are maladaptive processes in response to changes which are at least associated with pathology. For instance for pain processing a repetitive nociceptive stimulus does not only result in changes in the neural transmission but also in brain changes as for instance in changes of cortical representation of the hurting body part and over long periods to changes of the morphology (cortical and subcortical atrophy). Maladaptive changes are difficult to stop and as longer they last as less restitution can be achieved. With respect to our understanding of therapy on chronic pain these findings have deeply changed our understanding and treatment concepts for chronic pain.
With respect to restitution of function after cerebral damage comparable processes have been described which hamper relearning and beneficial reorganization. For instance there is an imbalance between the affected and the non-affected hemisphere which reduces training affects of the affected limb after motor impairment due to stroke. New therapy approaches reduce these imbalances to facilitate training and knowledge about these non-beneficial processes individualizes training in neurorehabilitation.
Most of our work has been concentrated on these issues.
We currently perform the following studies:
1) Neuropathic pain is associated with cortical and behavioral changes which might not all be based on impaired usage of the limb. One aspect is a neglect-like symptom for the affected hand. We use functional imaging and TMS to learn mote about the interaction of body representation and sensorimotor control of the affected and the unaffected limb. This work is currently performed in a tight interaction wit Lorimer Moseley’s group in Australia (Adelaide and Sydney) and Winston Byblow’s group in New Zealand (Auckland).
2) We are working on the interaction of arts, repetitive training and creativity.
One direction of these studies is centered on musicians, the other on expert versus creative performance and associated brain representation networks. The studies on musicians are centered on comparisons of expert instrumentalists and expert singers during performance of musical performance in the fMRI-scanner. We therefore use cutting-edge technology to allow musical performance in the scanner. We modulate sensory feedback (somatosensory anesthesia, auditory feedback) to learn more about sensorimotor interaction associated with expertise.
Another direction is associated with verbal creativity. In a cooperation project with the University of Hildesheim we investigate neural correlates of creative verbal processes in expert writers in comparisons to non-experts. We identified a fronto-striatal network associated with verbal creativity and writing experience.
In a third study we investigate the ability of drawers to detect characteristic items of the human face during drawing a portrait. This study is performed in a cooperation of the Institute for Fine Arts at the University of Greifswald (Caspar David Friedrich Institute).
3) Another large field of research is the imaging of plastic changes of the brain.
These includes A) basic concepts of brain plasticity B) precise identification of different plasticity processes C) identification of these processes and their role for pathologic symptoms D) development of strategies for increasing beneficial plastic processes and decrease or avoid maladaptive plasticity.
We build on different approaches for the investigation of these issues: we use the Brucker 7 Tesla ClinScan in our department to cooperate with groups investigating basic principles in the animal model (e.g. research on dementia together with Stephan Teipel, Rostock). Additionally, we investigate repetitive training processes in healthy participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging -fMRI, voxel based morphology -VBM, diffusion tensor imaging –DTI and transcranial magnetic stimulation /TMS.
Thirdly, in cooperation with the clinicians of the University Hospital, we investigate patients suffering form brain damage (Neurology, BDH-Rehabilitation Hospital), chronic neuropathic pain (Taras Usichenko; pain ambulance; Bernd Kordass; dental hospital) and psychological diseases (e.g. cooperation projects with the group of Alfons Hamm, Psychology, studies on the understanding of panic disorder).