Cognitive Brain Research Group

The aim of our group is to understand cognitive functions of the human brain and the cognitive profile of people with various epilepsy types. We use a multimodal approach to tackle some of the most fundamental neuroscientific problems: for example, how are the cognitive functions represented in the human brain, using epilepsy and its typical impairments as a model. Our aim is to develop a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests that would enable not only to assess potential deficits of patients but also to investigate the neural networks dynamics underlying the behavioral responses. Such mapping allows us to uncover neural correlates of different cognitive functions, and ultimately, predict or even avoid potential cognitive deficits in people with epilepsy after surgery.

In more detail, one of our approaches focuses on brain activity during various cognitive tasks and seeks to uncover how the brain orchestrates its networks to produce our behavior. The brain activity is measured by intracerebral electrodes located directly in the human brain. This provides a unique opportunity to observe the activity of the neuronal populations in the vicinity of the electrode contacts. Given the invasiveness of the recording method, we can only measure the intracranial EEG signal in epilepsy patients during their presurgical investigation and only in the brain areas indicated for implantation to provide the best health care. The different cognitive tasks, the representation of which is currently being investigated by our team, include attention allocation, face processing, numerical cognition, working memory, movement encoding or visual processing. Apart from cortical activation, we also investigate the interactions of the brain networks, in collaboration with the Complex networks and brain dynamics group of Dr. Jaroslav Hlinka from the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Another approach is based on detecting the impairments of social cognition in a real clinical practice in patients with neurological disorders, especially in people with epilepsy. We are using different methods to assess social cognition and emotion recognition. We are correlating those data with typical comorbidities like depression and anxiety that are often behind the cognitive maladaptation. All our studies are approved by an ethical committee and attending clinicians, and, of course, with an informed consent of our patients.

The aims of our research group include not only to add to a better understanding of the human brain, the neural networks underlying the cognitive functions and their underlying neuronal dynamics and interactions, but also to map a potential functional reorganization in the brain of epilepsy patients.

Research areas

Selected publications

International cooperation

Prof. Tonio Ball
Medical Center, University of Freiburg, Germany
Development and sharing of advanced intracranial EEG data processing methods, several joint publications (Hammer et al., 2016; Volker et al., 2018; Hammer et al., 2022).

Prof. Julien Bastin
Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences, France
Sharing and development of new cognitive paradigms, joint publication (Cecchi et al., 2022).

Prof. Hennric Jokeit
Swiss epilepsy center, Klinik Lengg, Zurich, Switzerland
Project COSIMO (Cognition of Social Interaction in Movies) for rapid screening of social cognition disorders in patients across the spectrum of epilepsy and other neurological diseases.