Welcome to Decision and Awareness Group (DAG)
Our research group is affiliated with the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory (CNL) of Prof. Stefan Treue at the German Primate Center (DPZ). The group was established in April 2011 in collaboration with the Institute for Cognitive Neurology of Prof. Melanie Wilke, University Medicine Goettingen (UMG), and is currently funded by the CNL and the UMG. The funding includes the German Research Foundation (DFG) grants "Neural basis of spatial neglect symptoms in thalamo-cortical circuits" to Melanie Wilke and Igor Kagan (2012), and DFG Research Unit "Primate Systems Neuroscience" (FOR 1847), project "Bilateral decision networks for eye and arm movements" grant to Igor Kagan and Melanie Wilke, and Cluster of Excellence "Nanoscale Microscopy and Molecular Physiology of the Brain" (CNMPB) Primate Platform.
We are also part of Leibnitz Science Campus "Primate Cognition".
Research
Our research aims to understand the neural basis of cognitive functions such as spatial awareness and decision making: the ability to perceive and to act adequately in response to multiple external sensory events, exhibiting a flexible behavior in face of several alternatives. We are utilizing neurophysiological recordings (neuronal firing and local field potential) in behaving macaque monkeys, functional imaging (fMRI) in monkeys and humans, and reversible perturbations (inactivation and stimulation) of specific brain regions to study these functions on the local (neuronal) and global (network) levels. Our current work is focusing on intra-areal, interhemispheric, and pulvinar-cortical interactions and communication during visuomotor decision making and response selection, a monkey model of spatial neglect and decision making deficits, and monkey-human comparison of these functions.
More information in Research and Publication sections.
Recent News and Events
04.05.2020 - Alexandra Witt (MSc IMPRS, University of Göttingen) joins our group as an intern and is supervised by Igor Kagan.
04.05.2020 - Asude Tura (MSc IMPRS, University of Göttingen) joins our group as an intern and is supervised by Igor Kagan.
02.03.2020 - Bruno Garcia (MSc IMPRS, University of Göttingen) strengthens our group as an intern and is supervised by Mathieu Pachoud.
06.01.2020 - Tihana Hamzaj (MSc DNB, University of Göttingen) joins our group as an intern and is supervised by Igor Kagan.
06.01.2020 - Jaya Sathiyamani (MSc IMPRS, University of Göttingen) strengthens our group as an intern and is supervised by Igor Kagan.
09.09.2019 - Peter Neumann (MSc Psychology, University of Göttingen) strengthens our group as a master student and is supervised by Igor Kagan.
04.03.2019 - Roberta Nocerino (MSc Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Italy) joins our group as a master student and is supervised by Sebastian Moeller.
15.01.2019 - Sarath Nair (MSc Information and Communication Systems, University of Chemnitz, Germany) joins our group as a master student and is supervised by Mathieu Pachoud and Kristin Kaduk.
08.10.2018 - Isabel Ganter (BSc Psychology, University of Göttingen) joins our group as a Bachelor student and is supervised by Kristin Kaduk.
08.10.2018 - Tarana Nigam (IMPRS MSc in Neuroscience, University of Göttingen) joins our group as a Master student and is supervised by Sebastian Moeller.
01.10.2018 - Marina Slashcheva (IMPRS MSc in Neuroscience, University of Göttingen) joins our group as a master student and is supervised by Igor Kagan.
06.08.2018 - Ivan Plaza Rosales (PhD Biomedical Science, University of Chile, Santiago) joins our group and works on the topic of spatial memory connectivity in early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
02.07.18 - Lukas Schneider has successfully completed his PhD with the title "Perceptual and motor intentional processing in dorsal pulvinar
14.06.18 - Danial Arabali has successfully completed his doctoral thesis with the title "Eye, hand and space representations and causal interference in bihemispheric pulvinar-parietal circuitry".
07.05.18 - Marina Slashcheva (M.Sc. Neuroscience IMPRS, University of Göttingen) starts an internship in our group, supervised by Mathieu Pachoud and Danial Arabali.
07.05.18 - Anna Müllen (M.Sc. Neurosciences IMPRS, University of Göttingen) starts an internship in our group, supervised by Kristin Kaduk.
05.03.18 - Tarana Nigam (M.Sc. Neuroscience IMPRS, University of Göttingen) starts an internship in the Social Neuroscience group, supervised by Sebastian Moeller.
05.02.18 - Rena Birner (B. Sc. Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrueck) starts an internship in our group, supervised by Kristin Kaduk and Mathieu Pachoud.
