The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) aims to understand the neural circuits that create our mental functions and how they change in brain disorders. The NIN is an independent research institute, founded by the Royal Academy of Science (KNAW).
Website of the Netherlands Insitute for Neuroscience: https://nin.nl/
Master the Mind
The brain holds the key to who we are, how we perceive the world and how we act upon it. To understand the brain circuits that enable our mental functions, the Netherlands Institute for Neurosciences leverages a cross-species approach from humans to non-human animals and back. With brain disorders the primary cause of lost quality of life, we unravel the mechanisms that enable the mental functions that are altered in these disorders.
By synergizing diverse research groups harnessing state-of-the-art neurotechnologies across the human, primate and rodent brain, the NIN is in a unique position to uncover circuits and molecular mechanisms that generate these mental functions.
Organisation
The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience has eighteen research groups. They are part of the NIN community and join (group)meetings, seminars and social events. All eighteen groups are housed in the NIN buildings and use the (lab)facilities and other services provided by the NIN. The employees of fiftheen groups are employed at the NIN and led by the NIN director. The employees of three groups are employed at the Amsterdam UMC and (formally) led by Amsterdam UMC management.
Research group Ingo Willuhn
Researchers involved: Ingo Willuhn, Tara Arbab, Eugenia Poh, Sergio Conde
The Neuromodulation & Behaviour group is driven by the question: “What drives our behaviour?”. Specifically, the group is interested in how our brain controls motivated behaviour and under what circumstances our behaviour occurs seemingly uncontrolled or maladapted.
The Willuhn group conducts its scientific research at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (NIN) but is also embedded in the Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC and, therefore, has close ties with clinicians and clinical researchers, providing optimal conditions for a translational and multidisciplinary approach. Specifically, they aim to translate clinical findings from studies in humans into relevant animal models, and vice versa.
Read more about the Willuhn Group: https://nin.nl/research-groups/willuhn/#researchers
Research group Eus van Someren
Researchers involved: Eus van Someren
Against the background of their 24-hour rhythm, driven by the circadian clock of the brain, sleep and wakefulness show a mutual dependency. The Sleep & Cognition group investigates how sleep affects brain function during subsequent wakefulness, and how experiences during wakefulness affect subsequent sleep. The group’s aim is firstly to elucidate factors that promote and disturb sleep at the systems level, notably insomnia, and secondly to investigate the brain mechanisms involved in the favourable and disruptive effects on cognition of, respectively, sleep and sleep disturbances. They are confident it’s important to translate fundamental insights into applications to improve sleep, vigilance and daytime function.
Read more about the Van Someren group: https://nin.nl/research-groups/van-someren/#researchers
Read more about the work of prof. dr. Eus van Someren: https://psychiatryamsterdam.nl/groups/brain-mechanisms-of-insomnia-and-mental-disorders/