Henning Sheikh

Henning Scheich around 1992 in Darmstadt

The physician and natural scientist Prof. Dr. Sheikh. Michael Emig, oil on canvas, 2019. Private ownership.

Henning Scheich (born May 12, 1942 in Wuppertal ) is a German brain researcher and naturalist.

Until 2010 he was director and until 2013 department head of the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology , Magdeburg , and has headed an emeritus group there since 2014. He has made significant contributions to research into the brain processes of perception, behavior and its adaptability and, within the framework of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community, has had a formative influence on the research landscape in Germany.

Life

After high school at Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium in Dusseldorf studied Sheikh medicine and philosophy at the Universities of Cologne (1961-63), Munich (1963-64 and 1965-66) and Montpellier , France (1964-65). The medical degree is completed with the state examination at the University of Munich (1966).

From 1967 to 1969, Scheich worked as a doctoral student on the subject of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) at the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry , Munich , in Otto Creutzfeldt's department . Graduated with a doctorate ( summa cum laude ) in 1969. During the doctoral phase, he also worked on the physiology of the cat's visual system .

As a postdoc from 1969 to 1972, Scheich worked in the laboratory of Theodore H. Bullock (1915-2005), University of California, San Diego , USA , researching jamming avoidance, a communication behavior of electric fish , and its neurophysiological principles. From 1972 to 1974, Scheich headed a working group at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen , on the subject of "Acoustic Communication".

In 1974 Scheich accepted a professorship for zoology and neurobiology from the Technical University of Darmstadt . In addition to his work there, from 1977 to 1985 he made research stays and trips to the Amazon basin , Central Africa and Thailand to investigate communication behavior in birds (discovery of infrasound hearing) and electric fish, a visiting professorship at the Ponce School of Medicine , Puerto Rico, and a research stay at the National University of Canberra , Australia, during which the sheikh discovered the electrical sense in platypus .

After German reunification and the founding of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community, Scheich was appointed director and department head of the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (IfN; since 2010 LIN), Magdeburg, in 1992. In 1994 he was appointed professor of physiology at the medical faculty of the Otto von Guericke University there . The LIN, which emerged from an institute of the Academy of Sciences in the GDR, is dedicated to research into the mechanisms of learning and memory in accordance with its statutes. Scheich's research at the LIN deals with the organization of hearing and vocalization behavior in animals and humans and the role of the auditory cortex for learning processes in this context. In 2003, Sheikh launched the International Conference on Auditory Cortex.

Sheikh's tenure as director of the LIN ended in 2010; in the same year he retired from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. From 2014 to 2018, the work of the department headed by Sheikh was continued as part of an emeritus group.

Scheich has repeatedly addressed the importance of brain research for upbringing and education and has been involved in the organs of research funding, the self-administration of science and policy advice (e.g. Blue List Committee and Evaluation Committee of the Science Council; Heisenberg Committee of the German Research Foundation; Health Research Council of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research ).

Sheikh describes himself as a horse lover.

Awards / memberships

1995–2003 Vice President of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Association
2000 Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
2007 Order of Merit of the State of Saxony-Anhalt
2013 Golden Book of the City of Magdeburg

Publications

with F. Baumgart, B. Gaschler-Markefski, MG Woldorff and HJ Heinze: A movement-sensitive area in auditory cortex. In: Nature. 400, 1999, pp. 724-726.
with A. Brechmann: Hemispheric shifts of sound representation in auditory cortex with conceptual listening. In: Cereb Cortex. 15, 2005, pp. 578-587.
with M. Brosch and E. Selezneva: Representation of reward feedback in primate auditory cortex. In: Front Syst Neurosci. 5, 2011, p. 5.
with M. Brosch and E. Budinger: Stimulus-related gamma oscillations in primate auditory cortex. In: J Neurophysiol. 87, 2002, pp. 2715-2725.
with M. Brosch and A. Schulz: Processing of sound sequences in macaque auditory cortex: response enhancement. In: J Neurophysiol. 82, 1999, pp. 1542-1559.
with E. Budinger, P. Heil and A. Hess: Multisensory processing via early cortical stages: Connections of the primary auditory cortical field with other sensory systems. In: Neuroscience. 143, 2006, pp. 1065-1083.
with J. Goldschmidt, T. Wanger, A. Engelhorn, H. Friedrich, M. Happel, A. Ilango, M. Engelmann, IW Stuermer and FW Ohl: High-resolution mapping of neuronal activity using the lipophilic thallium chelate complex TlDDC: protocol and validation of the method. In: Neuroimage. 49, 2010, pp. 303-315.
with L. Jancke, T. Wustenberg and HJ Heinze: Phonetic perception and the temporal cortex. In: Neuroimage. 15, 2002, pp. 733-746.
with FW Ohl: Learning-induced plasticity in animal and human auditory cortex. In: Curr Opin Neurobiol. 15, 2005, pp. 470-477.
with FW Ohl and WJ Freeman: Change in pattern of ongoing cortical activity with auditory category learning. In: Nature. 412, 2001, pp. 733-736.
with G. Rausch: Dendritic spine loss and enlargement during maturation of the speech control system in the mynah bird (Gracula religiosa). In: Neurosci Lett. 29 (2), 1982, pp. 129-133.
with A. Brechmann, M. Brosch, E. Budinger, FW Ohl, E. Selezneva, H. Stark, W. Tischmeyer and W. Wetzel: Behavioral semantics of learning and crossmodal processing in auditory cortex: the semantic processor concept. In: Hear Res. 271, 2011, pp. 3-15.
with E. Selezneva and M. Brosch: Dual time scales for categorical decision making in auditory cortex. In: Curr Biol. 16, 2006, pp. 2428-2433.
with H. Thomas, J. Tillein and P. Heil: Functional organization of auditory cortex in the mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus). I. Electrophysiological mapping of frequency representation and distinction of fields. In: Eur J Neurosci. 5, 1993, pp. 882-897.
with H. Wang and X. Wang: LTD and LTP induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation in auditory cortex. In: Neuroreport. 7, 1996, pp. 521-525.
with W. Wetzel and FW Ohl: Global versus local processing of frequency-modulated tones in gerbils: an animal model of lateralized auditory cortex functions. In: Proc Natl Acad Sci US A. 105, 2008, pp. 6753-6758.

Editing

Editorial board of the journal Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
The Auditory Cortex: A Synthesis of Human and Animal Research. Editors Reinhard König; Peter Heil; Eike Budinger; Henning Sheikh. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Mahwah, New Jersey 2005.
The Neocortex: Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Nato Science Series A. Editors Barbara L. Finlay, Giorgio, M. Innocenti, Henning Scheich.

Web links

Individual evidence

personal data
SURNAME	Sheikh, Henning
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German brain researcher and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 12, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wuppertal

[1] 5th International Conference on Auditory Cortex - Towards a Synthesis of Human and Animal Research

[2] The Order of Merit of the State of Saxony-Anhalt

[3] Prof. Dr. Ernst Dieter Gilles and Prof. Dr. Henning Scheich wore a founding director of the Max Planck and Leibniz Institute as guests in the town hall in the Golden Book of the state capital Magdeburg. 4th July 2013.