Forschung

Scientific Background

Our group investigates the neurophysiological basis of schizophrenia using functional neuroimaging. We employ functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to understand how abnormal neural coordination gives rise to the cognitive deficits and clinical symptoms of the disorder. We focus on the neural systems for working memory and attention and their disturbance in schizophrenia. Our goals is to identify potential new treatment strategies for cognitive dysfunction. This research is complemented by studies investigating how schizophrenia risk genes influence these cognitive processes on both the behavioural and neurophysiological level.

Group Members

Current group members:

• Robert Bittner (Group leader)
• Catherine Barnes-Scheufler (Postdoc)
• Mishal Qubad (Consultant)
• Aqsa Waris (PhD student)

Alessandro Cunto (MD student), Tobias Lehmann (MD student), Kilian Lommer (MD student), Deliah Macht (MD student), Katharina Müller (MD student), Christina Raab (MD student), Wiebke Ringels (Master student), Hannah Schroeder (MD student).

Former Members:

• Peter Hahn
• Meike Hettwer (Max Planck School of Cognition)
• Carolin Passow
• Eva Raspor
• Lara Rösler (Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• Anna Seitz

 

Collaborations

• Prof. Hannelore Ehrenreich (MPI for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany)
• Prof. Rainer Goebel (Maastricht University, The Netherlands)
• Dr. Corinna Haenschel (City University, London, UK)
• Prof. David Linden (Maastricht University, The Netherlands)

Selected Publications

• Barnes-Scheufler CV, Rösler L, Schaum M, Schiweck C, Peters B, Mayer JS, Reif A, Wibral M, Bittner RA. External Cues Improve Visual Working Memory Encoding in the Presence of Salient Distractors in Schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine. 2024 Mar 4:1-10.
• Qubad M, Barnes-Scheufler CV, Schaum M, Raspor E, Peters B, Rösler L, Goebel R, Reif A, Bittner RA. Improved correspondence of fMRI visual field localizer data after cortex-based macroanatomical alignment. Scientific Reports. 2022 Aug 22;12(1):14310.
• Hettwer MD, Lancaster TM, Raspor E, Hahn PK, Roth Motha N, Singer, W, Reif A, Linden DEJ, Bittner RA. Evidence from imaging resilience genetics for a protective mechanism against schizophrenia in the ventral visual pathway. Schizophrenia Bulletin. 2022 May 7;48(3):551-562.
• Barnes-Scheufler CV, Passow C, Rösler L, Mayer JS, Kittel-Schneider S, Matura S, Reif A, Bittner RA. Transdiagnostic comparison of working memory capacity in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. International Journal of Bipolar Disorders. 2021 Apr 2;9(1):12.
• Bittner RA, Linden DE, Roebroeck A, Haertling F, Rotarska-Jagiela A, Maurer K, Goebel R, Singer W, Haenschel C. The When and Where of working memory dysfunction in early-onset schizophrenia - a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Cerebral Cortex. 2015 Sep;25(9):2494-506
• Oertel-Knöchel V*, Bittner RA*, Knöchel C, Prvulovic D, Hampel H. Discovery and development of integrative biological markers for schizophrenia. Progress in Neurobiology. 2011 Dec;95(4):686-702
• Haenschel C, Linden DE, Bittner RA, Singer W, Hanslmayr S. Alpha phase-locking predicts residual working memory performance in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry. 2010 Oct 1;68(7):595-8
• Haenschel C, Bittner RA, Waltz J, Haertling F, Wibral M, Singer W, Linden DE, Rodriguez E. Cortical oscillatory activity is critical for working memory as revealed by deficits in early onset schizophrenia. Journal of Neuroscience. 2009 Jul 29;29(30):9481-9489
• Haenschel C, Bittner RA, Haertling F, Rotarska-Jagiela A, Maurer K, Singer W, Linden DE. Contribution of impaired early-stage visual processing to working memory dysfunction in adolescents with schizophrenia – a study with event-related potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2007 Nov;64(11):1229-40
• Mayer JS, Bittner RA, Nikolic D, Bledowski C, Goebel R, Linden DE. Common neural substrates for visual working memory and attention. Neuroimage. 2007 Jun;36(2):441-53
• Bledowski C, Cohen Kadosh K, Wibral M, Rahm B, Bittner RA, Hoechstetter K, Scherg M, Maurer K, Goebel R, Linden DE. Mental chronometry of working memory retrieval: a combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials approach. Journal of Neuroscience. 2006 Jan 18;26(3):821-9
• Linden DE, Bittner RA, Muckli L, Waltz JA, Kriegeskorte N, Goebel R, Singer W, Munk MHJ. Cortical capacity constraints for visual working memory: dissociation of fMRI load effects in a fronto-parietal network. Neuroimage. 2003 Nov;20(3):1518-30

(* Equal contribution)