Inaugural opening of “Mohn Research Center for the Brain”

“This will be a powerful initiative to understand important mechanisms in the brain that can in turn contribute to improved patient treatment,” say the centre leaders, Professor Clive Bramham at UiB and Professor Edvard I. Moser at the Kavli Institute, NTNU.

The overriding objective of the Mohn Research Center for the Brain is to identify the core principles of brain plasticity and neural circuit dynamics in the brain.

Brain plasticity involves the brain’s inherent ability to change, learn new things and adapt to changing environments and tasks. Plasticity can take place on several levels in the brain, and can be measured as physical changes in the brain structure and as altered properties in humans or animals.

Neural circuit dynamics involves understanding how different levels of the brain work in different situations. Researchers will seek to identify which brain cells talk to each other and figure out what functions these cells have, as well as which areas of the brain talk to each other and how they organize the tasks in a way that enables human beings or animals to respond quickly and solve the many different tasks and situations that life presents.

Research on plasticity and dynamics in the brain will help us find answers to how the brain enables us to perceive, think, learn and remember. Knowledge of how these principles are carried out in the brain also forms the basis for understanding what happens in the brains of people who gradually lose these cognitive abilities as a result of brain diseases.

“Understanding the brain is one of the greatest challenges in science today, considering that one in three Europeans will have a brain-related problem or disease during their lifetime,” say Bramham and Moser.

The Trond Mohn Foundation is supporting the initiative with NOK 25 million and the host institutions with a total of NOK 30 million. The centre will have one node in Bergen and one in Trondheim, under the leadership of Professor Clive R. Bramham at UiB, and Professor Edvard I. Moser at the Kavli Institute, NTNU. In addition to the centre leaders, Espen Hartveit (UiB), Cliff Kentros (Kavli Institute, NTNU), May-Britt Moser (Kavli Institute, NTNU), Giulia Quattrocolo (Kavli Institute, NTNU), and Menno Witter (Kavli Institute, NTNU) will lead sub-projects at the centre. The official opening of the centre is on Wednesday 13 October in Bergen.