Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences
The term "Neurosciences and Cognitive Sciences" covers many disciplines and sub-disciplines from various subjects, among them neurobiology, neuropharmacology, neuroimaging, neuropsychology and neurophilosophy. The objects studied in this field include animals as well as people and range in scale from the cellular to the sub-cellular. The studies comprise nerve cells and their components like the nerve-cell extensions, the synapses as contact points, and electrical and chemical communication between nerve cells as well as interactions between smaller and larger nerve-cell structures in “higher” cognitive and emotive processes (such as learning and memory). In addition, studies are conducted on the behavioural control by the whole brain and the entire organism as they relate to the individual and his self conception of mental and motivational states.
At the HWK the area of "Neurosciences and Cognitive Sciences" is just as broad as this description. In other words, its work is not restricted to any narrow thematic definition. Yet the HWK offers particular support to fellow projects and to conferences that encourage discourse among the sub-disciplines mentioned and which help building a bridge between the neurosciences and the social sciences.
In recent years the HWK has, in particular, committed itself to the following fields of neuroscience and cognitive science:
- behavioural neurobiology
- theoretical neurobiology and the theory of neuronal networks
- all aspects of the auditory system (psychophysics, medical physics, the physiology of hearing etc.) and the visual system
- subjects from the area of neurophilosophy, including the question of human free will
- neurosciences in the context of computer science and robotics such as the development of autonomous robots, spatial cognition in robots, interaction/communication between humans and technical systems
The HWK sponsors guest residencies ("fellowships") from three to ten months as well as workshops and conferences. In addition to the relevant university institutes the regional collaboration partners include the following distinguished institutions:
- the International Graduate School for "Neurosensorik" (Medical Physics; Oldenburg)
- the "Dynamik und Stabilisierung retinaler Verarbeitung" (Dynamics and Stabilisation of Retinal Processing) research group (Oldenburg)
- Special Research Area/Transregio 31 "Das aktive Gehör" (The Active Auditory System; Oldenburg)
- The "Center for Advanced Imaging" (CAI, Bremen)
- the "Center for Cognitive Sciences" (Zentrum für Kognitionswissenschaften, ZKW, Bremen)
- the "Center for Neurosciences Bremen GmbH" (home of 3 Tesla scanners dedicated to research)
For more information, please contact the e-mail address: wstenzel[ at ]h-w-k.de