Sonja Hofer

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Sonja Hofer is a German neuroscientist studying the neural basis of sensory perception and sensory-guided decision-making at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour. [1] Her research focuses on how the brain processes visual information, how neural networks are shaped by experience and learning, and how they integrate visual signals with other information in order to interpret the outside world and guide behaviour. She received her undergraduate degree from the Technical University of Munich, her PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, Germany, and completed a post doctorate at the University College London. [2] After holding an Assistant Professorship at the Biozentrum University of Basel in Switzerland for five years, she now is a group leader and Professor at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour since 2018. [3]

Contents

Early life

Hofer was born in 1977 in Taufkirchen, close to Munich, Germany. She received her primary education at a local Gymnasium. [4]

Education

Undergraduate school

Hofer began her undergraduate career in Munich at the Technical University studying biology with a specialization in zoology. [3] During her undergraduate studies, Hofer worked with Starlings, studying their auditory system. [3] By recording action potentials from neurons in their brains, she studied how the brain distinguishes signals from background noise. [5]

Graduate studies

During her PhD at Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany, Hofer researched visual processing and plasticity in the primary visual cortex of mice. [6] There she worked on monocular deprivation and used mice as a model for plasticity in cortical circuits. Hofer used dendritic spine imaging and two photon laser scanning microscopy. [3] Her work demonstrated plasticity in the neocortical circuits of adult mice. Specifically, she showed that sensory experiences made early in life leave a synaptic trace in the neocortex that allows for faster adaptation of cortical circuits when the same experience is made again. [7]

Postdoctoral studies

Hofer completed her post-doctorate at the University College London from 2006 to 2012. [3] She developed a novel technique that combined in vivo two-photon calcium imaging with in vitro whole-cell recordings to study the same set of cells in vitro and in vivo. Her findings supported clear functional organization within the subnetworks in the visual cortex. [8] [9] With this technique she investigated how neurons in the cerebral cortex communicate with each other and found that connections between excitatory neurons in neocortex are highly structured, forming functionally specific subnetworks.

Career and research

Hofer's lab currently studies circuit mechanisms of sensory processing and sensory-guided decision-making. Research from the Hofer lab investigated what information about the visual scene individual neurons in visual cortex receive, [10] [11] and how learning changes neural responses to visual stimuli in primary visual cortex (V1) during acquisition of a visually-guided behavioral task. [12] [13] More recently, the Hofer lab investigated how sensory and non-sensory information is integrated by subcortical structures to guide behaviour. They found that the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN), an inhibitory prethalamic area, is a critical hub for the control of visually-evoked fear responses depending on an animal's prior knowledge and internal state. [14] [15] [16]

Awards

Related Research Articles

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Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developmental biology, cytology, physics, computer science, chemistry and mathematical modeling to understand the fundamental and emergent properties of neurons, glia and neural circuits. The understanding of the biological basis of learning, memory, behavior, perception, and consciousness has been described by Eric Kandel as the "epic challenge" of the biological sciences.

Nervous system Part of an animal that coordinates actions and senses

In biology, the classical doctrine of the nervous system determines that it is a highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes that impact the body, then works in tandem with the endocrine system to respond to such events. Nervous tissue first arose in wormlike organisms about 550 to 600 million years ago. However, this classical doctrine has been challenged in recent decades by discoveries about the existence and use of electrical signals in plants. On the basis of these findings, some scientists have proposed that a plant nervous system exists and that a scientific field called plant neurobiology should be created. This proposal has led to a dispute in the scientific community between those who think we should talk about the nervous system of plants and those who are against it. The inflexibility of the positions in the scientific debate on both sides has led to the proposal of a solution to the debate, consisting of redefining the concept of the nervous system by using only physiological criteria and avoiding phylogenetic criteria.

Eric Kandel American neuropsychiatrist

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David H. Hubel Canadian neurophysiologist

David Hunter Hubel was a Canadian American neurophysiologist noted for his studies of the structure and function of the visual cortex. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. For much of his career, Hubel worked as the Professor of Neurobiology at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School. In 1978, Hubel and Wiesel were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1983, Hubel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections, to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping. Examples of neuroplasticity include circuit and network changes that result from learning a new ability, environmental influences, practice, and psychological stress.

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Sensory maps and brain development is a concept in neuroethology that links the development of the brain over an animal’s lifetime with the fact that there is spatial organization and pattern to an animal’s sensory processing. Sensory maps are the representations of sense organs as organized maps in the brain, and it is the fundamental organization of processing. Sensory maps are not always close to an exact topographic projection of the senses. The fact that the brain is organized into sensory maps has wide implications for processing, such as that lateral inhibition and coding for space are byproducts of mapping. The developmental process of an organism guides sensory map formation; the details are yet unknown. The development of sensory maps requires learning, long term potentiation, experience-dependent plasticity, and innate characteristics. There is significant evidence for experience-dependent development and maintenance of sensory maps, and there is growing evidence on the molecular basis, synaptic basis and computational basis of experience-dependent development.

The Karl Spencer Lashley Award is awarded by The American Philosophical Society as a recognition of research on the integrative neuroscience of behavior. The award was established in 1957 by a gift from Dr. Karl Spencer Lashley.

The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre (SWC) is a neuroscience research institute located in London, United Kingdom. The SWC forms part of the Faculty of Life Sciences at University College London (UCL) and is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Wellcome.

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References

  1. ↑ "Hofer Lab | Sainsbury Wellcome Centre". www.sainsburywellcome.org. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  2. 1 2 "Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize for Sonja Hofer". idw-online.de. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Episode 13: Sonja Hofer, PhD". Conjugate: Illustration and Science Blog. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  4. ↑ "Episode 13: Sonja Hofer, PhD". Conjugate: Illustration and Science Blog. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  5. ↑ "Episode 13: Sonja Hofer, PhD". Conjugate: Illustration and Science Blog. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  6. ↑ "Imaging development and plasticity in the mouse visual system" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ↑ Hofer, Sonja B; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D; Bonhoeffer, Tobias; Hübener, Mark (2006-08-01). "Lifelong learning: ocular dominance plasticity in mouse visual cortex". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. Sensory systems. 16 (4): 451–459. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2006.06.007. ISSN   0959-4388. PMID   16837188. S2CID   340170.
  8. ↑ Ko, Ho; Hofer, Sonja B.; Pichler, Bruno; Buchanan, Kate; Sjöström, P. Jesper; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D. (2011-05-05). "Functional specificity of local synaptic connections in neocortical networks". Nature. 473 (7345): 87–91. Bibcode:2011Natur.473...87K. doi:10.1038/nature09880. ISSN   0028-0836. PMC   3089591 . PMID   21478872.
  9. ↑ Mank, Marco; Santos, Alexandre Ferrão; Direnberger, Stephan; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D.; Hofer, Sonja B.; Stein, Valentin; Hendel, Thomas; Reiff, Dierk F.; Levelt, Christiaan; Borst, Alexander; Bonhoeffer, Tobias (September 2008). "A genetically encoded calcium indicator for chronic in vivo two-photon imaging". Nature Methods. 5 (9): 805–811. doi:10.1038/nmeth.1243. ISSN   1548-7105. PMID   19160515. S2CID   5501437.
  10. ↑ "Which Synapse Saw What?". Neuroscience from Technology Networks. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  11. ↑ "How patterns in the brain mirror what you see". cosmosmagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-12-10.
  12. ↑ Hofer, Sonja (2015). "Learning Enhances Sensory and Multiple Non-sensory Representations in Primary Visual Cortex". Neuron. 86 (6): 1478–1490. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2015.05.037. PMC   4503798 . PMID   26051421.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ↑ "Study Measures Activity of Multiple Cell Types During Learning". Neuroscience from Technology Networks. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  14. ↑ Fratzl, Alex (2021). "Flexible inhibitory control of visually evoked defensive behavior by the ventral lateral geniculate nucleus". Neuron. 109 (23): 3810–3822.e9. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2021.09.003. PMC   8648186 . PMID   34614420.
  15. ↑ "New study uncovers brain circuits that control fear responses". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  16. ↑ "New study uncovers brain circuits that control fear responses: Neuroscientists reveal mechanism that regulates responses to threat in animals". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  17. ↑ "Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize for Sonja Hofer". www.unibas.ch. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  18. ↑ "Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize for Sonja Hofer". idw-online.de. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  19. ↑ "Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize". www.ghst.de. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  20. ↑ "ERC Starting Grants 2013 Results" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ↑ "Sonja Hofer". alleninstitute.org. Retrieved 2021-11-29.
  22. ↑ "Grants awarded: Research Career Development Fellowships". Wellcome. Retrieved 2021-11-29.


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