Welcome to the Frohlich Lab! Our goal is to understand cortical network dynamics and to become a key contributor to the fields of network neuroscience and brain stimulation. We combine electrophysiology, computational modeling, and engineering principles to investigate how cortical networks generate physiological and pathological activity states and how perturbations can be used to modulate these states. We aim for a rapid translation of our research into the clinical domain for treatment of patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. We strive to make our laboratory a productive, collaborative, and happy workplace. We currently work in the two following areas: (1) Network oscillations, cortical states, and sensory processing. Oscillations represent fundamental activity states both in physiological and pathological conditions in cortex. We study how cortex generates these activity states and how sensory input modulates cortical oscillations in the awake and anesthetized animal. We combine multichannel electrophysiological recordings with advanced data processing methods and computational modeling to unravel the dynamic landscape of cortical activity states. (2) Non-invasive brain stimulation We develop novel brain stimulation paradigms to enhance and modulate the oscillation structure of cortical network activity. We use computer simulations and in vitro recordings to prototype stimulation paradigms that we then subsequently test in animals and humans.  Transitions between different cortical activity modes in vivo (left), in vitro (middle), and in computer simulations (right). Top: LFP. Bottom: Spectrogram. Ee study how the brain switches between these different states and how we can use brain stimulation to prevent such transitions. |
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