Flexibility of neuronal information processing enabled by dendritic mechanisms

The Neocortex represents the largest and most powerful area of the human brain. Having expanded and differentiated the most during mammalian evolution, it mediates many capacities that distinguish humans from their closest relatives. It also plays a central role in many psychiatric disorders. In 2018 our research group has discovered fundamentally new mechanisms that enable neocortex to rapidly and flexibly adjust information processing to the behavioral requirements of the animal.