Nikolaus Weiskopf

Nikolaus Weiskopf (* 1973 ) is a German physicist , neuroscientist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Neurosciences in Leipzig. Using technical imaging processes, he researches the relationships between the exact anatomy of the brain and its individual functions.

Career

Weiskopf studied physics at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen. He completed his graduate studies at the Graduate School of Neural & Behavioral Sciences and International Max Planck Research School Tübingen in 2004 with a doctorate. At the same time, he worked as a research assistant in the magnetoencephalography center at the University of Tübingen. In addition, from 2002 to 2004 he was a research fellow and head of research in a project for young researchers on the subject of neural coding and brain-computer interfaces at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .

In 2004 he went to the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging (WTCN) at University College London (UCL) to initially work as a research assistant and from 2006 to 2016 as head of the physics research group. From 2006 to 2009 he was a senior research fellow at the WTCN. From 2007 to 2009 he taught as an honorary lecturer at the UCL Institute for Neurology and worked there as a senior lecturer from 2009 to 2014. From 2014 to 2016 he was Professor of Magnetic Resonance Physics and Neuroimaging at the WTCN and the Institute for Neurology at UCL.

Nikolaus Weiskopf has been Director and Head of the Neurophysics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig since 2015. At the same time, he holds an honorary professorship at the Faculty of Physics and Geosciences at the University of Leipzig and an honorary professorship at the Institute for Neurology at University College London.

Research priorities

• New methods for anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRT / fMRI), the subsequent image processing and the associated biophysical models. These are then compared to post-mortem histology and applied to well-characterized neural systems such as the visual cortex .

• Relationship between the anatomical microstructure of the brain and its functions: Magnetic resonance tomographs with particularly high field strengths or high magnetic field gradients such as the Connectom are used to examine how the anatomical microstructure of the brain and its functions are mutually dependent and how high the ability to change, the plasticity of the brain, at the microstructural level. Weiskopf focuses on the microstructure of the cerebral cortex and the white matter . This enabled him to examine more closely how the anatomical boundaries within the brain, the boundaries of its myeloarchitecture, correspond to its functional organization. In addition, he was able to prove that the myelination of the auditory cortex can be used to predict how strongly this brain area will respond to a certain stimulus . In the area of ​​the white matter, his focus is particularly on the area directly below the cortex, which contains short subcortical connections, the so-called U-fibers, and which are crucial for the "wiring" of the cortex.

• Improvement of plasticity and regeneration after acute spinal cord injuries: Development of MRI-based biomarkers to repair injured spinal cord with the help of antibody- induced regeneration.

Scholarships and Awards

• Scholarship from the WIN-Kolleg of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences , 2002
• Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), 2013
• Member of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE), since 2014

Membership in scientific organizations and advisory boards

• International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM)
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM)
• Frontiers in Brain Imaging Methods: Associate Editor
• Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology , Magdeburg: Member of the scientific advisory board
• University of Salzburg , Austria: Member of the scientific advisory board
• UK Biobank Imaging Extension: Member of the external advisory board

Web links

• Homepage at the Max Planck Institute, Leipzig
• List of publications
• Interview: We never think with the same brain again

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fast fMRI techniques for real-time applications and on-line feedback of the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal
2. ↑ Vita Nikolaus Weiskopf
3. ↑ Karsten Möbius: Secret of the Brain - Does the super brain scanner track down our thoughts? (mdr broadcast)
4. ↑ WIN-Kollegiat Weiskopf
5. ↑ http://yacadeuro.org/members/Nikolaus-Weiskopf/
6. ^ The Scientific Advisory Board of the IfN