Department of Neurophysiology
The Department of Neurophysiology is located within the Medical Faculty of the Ruhr University Bochum.
Chair of the department is Professor Denise Manahan-Vaughan.
The department engages in teaching of medical students until the end of their fourth semester. Members of the department also participate in postgraduate teaching programmes, particularly of the IGSN and the SFB874.
Several research groups are active in the department:
The Learning and Memory Research Group (LMR) is headed by Professor Manahan-Vaughan and focuses particularly on understanding the mechanisms that underlie declarative memory in the mammalian brain. Special focus is made on synaptic plasticity.
The Experimental Cortical Plasticity Group is led by Professor Klaus Funke. This group examines somatosensory plasticity in the barrel cortex of rats and studies the mechanisms underlying cortical reoranisation resulting fro transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
Professor Magdalena Sauvage heads the Mercator Research Group on the Structure of Memory. This group studies the mechanisms and brain structures underlying recognition memory in the medial temporal lobe.
