Alexander Groh

Professor
Institute for Physiology and Pathophysiology, Medical Biophysics
Heidelberg University

Alexander Groh is Professor for Medical Biophysics at the Institute for Physiology and Pathophysiology at Heidelberg University. His group investigates the structure and function of the central nervous system, in particular the neurophysiological interactions within and between neuronal circuits that give rise to sensory perception and behavioural control. In the model system mouse brain, the laboratory studies neuronal processes at the level of synapses, single cells and interactions between cell assemblies. To describe and model neuronal processes, the group employs various electrophysiological techniques, in particular readouts that densely sample neuronal circuits in the intact brain while covering different time scales (microseconds to months) as well as different spatial scales (micrometres to millimetres). To probe causal roles of specific pathways in circuit function and behaviour the group employs optogenetic and chemogenetic approaches. The resulting data include activity patterns of hundreds of neurons as well as behavioural and anatomical data. The analysis and modelling of this complex data is largely supported by high-performance computing.

Principal Investigator

Further information

Responsibilities at home organisation
Responsibilities within the project
Field of Expertise
Research interests of relevance to the project
International Experience
Selected publications
Complete list of publications
Projects within the Big Data Project
Network within RTG Bio Big Data Research
Supervised students within the Big Data Project
Contact details

Responsibilities within the project

Principal Investigator

Field of Expertise

  • Neurosciences
  • State-of-the art neuronal circuits physiology
  • Readouts: electrophysiological population recordings with single cell resolution, behaviour
  • Interventions: optogenetics, chemogenetics
  • Neuronal circuits analysis, optotagging

Research interests of relevance to the project

  • Context-dependent encoding of sensory information, for example how does the brain encode salience
  • Analysis of large populations of simultaneously recorded neurons
  • Network dynamics, neuronal ensembles / manifolds
  • Sensory-motor transformations
  • Data-driven computational approaches

International Experience

Alexander Groh’s lab is a multinational laboratory currently encompassing six nationalities

Selected publications

  • Mease, R. A., Kuner, T., Fairhall, A. L. & Groh, A. Multiplexed Spike Coding and Adaptation in the Thalamus. Cell reports 19, 1130-1140, doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2017.04.050 (2017).
  • Sumser, A., Mease, R. A., Sakmann, B. & Groh, A. Organization and somatotopy of corticothalamic projections from L5B in mouse barrel cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114, 8853-8858, doi:10.1073/pnas.1704302114 (2017).
  • Mease, R. A., Metz, M. & Groh, A. Cortical Sensory Responses Are Enhanced by the Higher-Order Thalamus. Cell reports 14, 208-215, doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2015.12.026 (2016).
  • Mease, R. A., Sumser, A., Sakmann, B. & Groh, A. Corticothalamic Spike Transfer via the L5B-POm Pathway in vivo. Cereb Cortex 26, 3461-3475, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhw123 (2016).
  • Mease, R. A., Krieger, P. & Groh, A. Cortical control of adaptation and sensory relay mode in the thalamus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111, 6798-6803, doi:10.1073/pnas.1318665111 (2014).

Projects within the Big Data Project

Working title: “Neuronal encoding of perceptual salience”. This project is based on newly established neuronal population recordings in freely behaving mice engaged in a new salience paradigm. The applicant should have solid computational skills but can also participate in experimental work.

Network within RTG Bio Big Data Research

Open for cooperations in the fields of neurosciences and computational approaches in particular but not limited to scientific visualization, statistical tools, machine learning, pattern recognition, network modelling, computer vision

Contact details

Address:

Institute for Physiology and Pathophysiology, Medical Biophysics
Im Neuenheimer Feld 326
69120 Heidelberg
Germany

Phone: +49 6221 54 4050
E-Mail: groh@uni-heidelberg.de
E-Mail of assistant: ziegler@stud.uni-heidelberg.de

Roland Wittje
Błażej Miasojedow
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