Groundbreaking Achievements in Brain Research

Jülich neuroscientist Prof. Katrin Amunts listed as a key player in MIT Technology Review

Jülich, 24 April 2014 – According to MIT Technology Review, brain mapping is one of the ten most influential technologies of 2014. Jülich neuroscientist Prof. Katrin Amunts is one of big names worldwide in this field and was listed by the science magazine as a key player in the recently published list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2014. Since 2001, the editors of the magazine have selected ten technologies each year that they believe have the potential to change the world and fundamentally influence future developments for years to come.

Katrin Amunts is a neuroscientist who is working together with her team, her colleague of many years Karl Zilles, and other scientists from various disciplines on a high-resolution 3D model of the human brain. With her work, she aims to create a three-dimensional brain atlas that will allow the complicated structure and functions of the brain together with individual differences to be imaged and understood on a microscopic level.

The model, which was reconstructed on the computer from several thousand brain slices, provides the basis for neuroscientific studies using imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging. Beyond this, the results also benefit the Human Brain Project. Europe’s ambitious project aims to emulate the processes that occur in the human brain on the computer in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the brain and provide new insights into conditions such as dementia, depression, addiction, and Parkinson’s disease.

Prof. Dr. Katrin Amunts is director of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) at Forschungszentrum Jülich and is head of the C. and O. Vogt Institute of Brain Research at Düsseldorf University Hospital. She has been a member of the German Ethics Council since 2012. Within the Human Brain Project, she is responsible for Multilevel Organization of the Human Brain.