Over the last decades, the impaired cognitive performance in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders has emerged as one of the biggest burden for the health systems. In the absence of major structural defects, some of these disorders have been considered as “oscillopathies”, i.e. miswiring disorders as result of abnormal functional communication by oscillatory rhythms between different brain areas. It has been hypothesized that these functional deficits take place already during development. We use animal models of mental disorders, perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and perinatal stress to identify the abnormal maturation of circuits and its disease-related behavioral-readout.
Key Publications
Hanganu-Opatz, I. L., Butt, S. J., Hippenmeyer, S., García, N. V. D. M., Cardin, J. A., Voytek, B., & Muotri, A. R. (2021). The Logic of Developing Neocortical Circuits in Health and Disease. Journal of Neuroscience, 41(5), 813-822.
Chini, M. & Hanganu-Opatz, I. L. (2020). Prefrontal Cortex Development in Health and Disease: Lessons from Rodents and Humans. Trends in Neurosciences
Xu X., Song L., Hanganu-Opatz I.L. (2020). Knock-Down of Hippocampal DISC1 in Immune-Challenged Mice Impairs the Prefrontal–Hippocampal Coupling and the Cognitive Performance Throughout Development. Cerebral Cortex, 31(2), 1240-1258.
Chini M., Pöpplau J. A., Lindemann C., Carol-Perdiguer L., Hnida M., Oberländer V., Xu X., Ahlbeck J., Bitzenhofer S.H., Mulert C., Hanganu-Opatz I.L. (2020). Resolving and Rescuing Developmental Miswiring in a Mouse Model of Cognitive Impairment. Neuron, 105(1), 60-74.
Oberländer, V., Xu, X., Chini, M., & Hanganu‐Opatz, I. L. (2019). Developmental dysfunction of prefrontal‐hippocampal networks in mouse models of mental illness. European Journal of Neuroscience. 50(6), 3072-3084.
Hartung, H., Cichon, N., De Feo, V., Riemann, S., Schildt, S., Lindemann, C., Mulert, C., Gogos, J.A., Hanganu-Opatz, I.L. (2016) From Shortage to Surge: A Developmental Switch in Hippocampal–Prefrontal Coupling in a Gene–Environment Model of Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Cerebral Cortex, 26(11), pp.4265-4281.
Domnick, N.K., Gretenkord, S., De Feo, V., Sedlacik, J., Brockmann, M.D., Hanganu-Opatz, I.L. (2015) Neonatal hypoxia-ischemia impairs juvenile recognition memory by disrupting the maturation of prefrontal-hippocampal networks. Exp Neurol 273:202-14.
Marguet, S.L., Le-Schulte, V.T., Merseburg, A., Neu, A., Eichler, R., Jakovcevski, I., Ivanov, A., Hanganu-Opatz, I,L., Bernard. C,, Morellini, F., Isbrandt, D. (2015) Treatment during a vulnerable developmental period rescues a genetic epilepsy. Nat Med. 2015 Nov 23.