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Andreas K. Engel

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Andreas Karl Engel (born 1961) is a German neuroscientist. He serves as the director of the Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).

Education

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Engel studied medicine and philosophy at Saarland University in Homburg, at the Technical University of Munich, and Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany.[1][2][3][4] Following completion of his medical licensing examination (German Staatsexamen), he received his Doctor of Medicine (Dr. med.) from the Technical University of Munich in 1987.

Career

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From 1987–1995, Engel worked as a post-doctoral fellow with Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Between 1996-2000, he led a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research funded by the Heisenberg Program of the German Research Foundation (DFG). From fall 1997 to summer 1998, he also held an affiliation as a Daimler-Benz Fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study.

From 2000-2002, Engel worked at the Jülich Research Centre as head of the Cellular Neurobiology Group at the Institute for Medicine. In 2002, he was appointed to the Chair of Neurophysiology at UKE. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg, and a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. From 2011 to 2023, he has served as coordinator of Collaborative Research Centre SFB 936 "Multi-Site Communication in the Brain" (with C. Gerloff, Dept. of Neurology, UKE).[5]

Research

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Engel has become known by his work on the "binding problem".[6][7] His research examines the hypothesis that temporal synchrony serves for dynamic coordination of signals in the brain. In addition to working on the experimental validation of this hypothesis, Engel pursues research on its cognitive and theoretical implications.

During his postdoctoral work with Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute, Engel participated in studies demonstrating the relevance of neural synchrony, in particular of so-called gamma waves, for processing perceptual information. The group provided evidence that temporal correlations can facilitate binding of features into coherent sensory representations.[8] Work from Engel's laboratory has also examined relations between neural synchrony and visual awareness, as well as the functional role of neural synchrony for sensorimotor coupling.

In the past 20 years, Engel's group has extended this research to the human brain using EEG and MEG in combination with source modeling techniques.[9] Studies have investigated neuronal oscillations and synchrony in relation to perceptual processing,[10][11] attention,[12] working memory,[13] decision-making and consciousness.[14][15][16] Recent work on interactions among visual, auditory and tactile systems suggests a role of temporal binding in multisensory integration.[17] The group has developed novel methods for electrophysiological analysis of resting state network activity.[18] These approaches have been applied to study of network dysfunction in patients with movement disorders, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia, as well as research on pain, and altered networks following early sensory deprivation.[19]

Engel also investigates implications of these neurophysiological findings for theories of perception, cognition and action.[20] Recent work examines connections between neural dynamics and enactive approaches to of cognition,[21] including the grounding of cognition in sensorimotor coupling.[22]

Honors and awards

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Selected publications

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Notes

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  1. ↑ VIAF: 160232314
  2. ↑ website of Andreas K. Engel
  3. ↑ Google Scholar
  4. ↑ Neurotree
  5. ↑ See database of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and website of the SFB 936
  6. ↑ See Treisman A (April 1996). "The binding problem". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 6 (2): 171–8. doi:10.1016/s0959-4388(96)80070-5. PMID 8725958. S2CID 8643357.
  7. ↑ von der Malsburg, C (1999). "The what and why of binding: the modeler's perspective". Neuron. 24 (1): 95–104, 111–125. doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(00)80825-9. PMID 10677030. S2CID 7057525.
  8. ↑ Reviewed e.g. by Tallon-Baudry C, Bertrand O (1999). "Oscillatory gamma activity in humans and its role in object representation". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 3 (4): 151–162. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01299-1. PMID 10322469. S2CID 1308261.
  9. ↑ See e.g. Michel, CM; Muray, MM; Lantz, G; Gonzalez, S; Spinelli, L; Grave de Peralta, R (2004). "EEG source imaging". Clinical Neurophysiology. 115 (10): 2195–2222. doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2004.06.001. PMID 15351361. S2CID 14860994.
  10. ↑ See Singer, W (2011). "Dynamic formation of functional networks by synchronization". Neuron. 69 (2): 191–193. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.01.008. PMID 21262459.
  11. ↑ Welberg, L (2011). "Networking improves performance". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 12 (3): 121. doi:10.1038/nrn3005. PMID 21433323. S2CID 28046079.
  12. ↑ Fries, P (2009). "Neuronal gamma-band synchronization as a fundamental process in cortical computation". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 32: 209–224. doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.051508.135603. PMID 19400723. S2CID 6281165.
  13. ↑ Fell, J; Axmacher, N (2011). "The role of phase synchronization in memory processes". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 12 (2): 105–118. doi:10.1038/nrn2979. PMID 21248789. S2CID 7422401.
  14. ↑ See Gross, J; Ploner, M (2009). "Perceptual decisions: from sensory signals to behavior". Current Biology. 19 (18): R847–R849. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.07.023. PMID 19788877. S2CID 11459886.
  15. ↑ See Maia, TV; Cleeremans, A (2005). "Consciousness: converging insights from connectionist modeling and neuroscience". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 9 (8): 397–404. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.06.016. PMID 16005677. S2CID 16667754.
  16. ↑ Mudrik, L; Faivre, N; Koch, C (2014). "Information integration without awareness". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 18 (9): 488–496. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2014.04.009. PMID 24933626. S2CID 3618710.
  17. ↑ Discussed in Sarko, DK; Ghose, D; Wallace, MT (2013). "Convergent approaches toward the study of multisensory perception". Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. 7: 81. doi:10.3389/fnsys.2013.00081. PMC 3820972. PMID 24265607.
  18. ↑ Hipp, JF; Hawellek, D; Corbetta, M; Siegel, M; Engel, AK (2012). "Large-scale cortical correlation structure of spontaneous oscillatory activity". Nature Neuroscience. 15 (6): 884–890. doi:10.1038/nn.3101. PMC 3861400. PMID 22561454.
  19. ↑ Discussed in Uhlhaas, P; Singer, W (2012). "Neuronal dynamics and neuropsychiatric disorders: Toward a translational paradigm for dysfunctional large-scale networks". Neuron. 75 (6): 963–980. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.09.004. PMID 22998866.
  20. ↑ Reviewed e.g. Uhlhaas, PJ; Pipa, G; Lima, B; Melloni, L; Neuenschwander, S; Nikolić, D; Singer, W (2009). "Neural synchrony in cortical networks: history, concept and current status". Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. 3: 17. doi:10.3389/neuro.07.017.2009. PMC 2723047. PMID 19668703.
  21. ↑ As developed by O'Regan JK, Noë A (October 2001). "A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness". The Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 24 (5): 939–73, discussion 973–1031. doi:10.1017/s0140525x01000115. PMID 12239892. S2CID 22606536.
  22. ↑ See e.g. Buhrmann, T; DiPaolo, EA; Barandiaran, X (2013). "A dynamical systems account of sensorimotor contingencies". Frontiers in Psychology. 4 (285): 285. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00285. PMC 3664438. PMID 23750143.


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