Dresden - Technische Universitaet Dresden

Recruitment and characterisation of population adolescents (WP4), Neuroimaging standardization (WP5) and Neuroimaging of healthy adolescent subjects (WP6)

Prof. Dr. Michael Smolka is head of the Section of Systems Neuroscience at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. His group is located at the Neuroimaging Center (NIC) of the Technische Universität Dresden. The NIC is a new facility, which opened in spring 2007 and has a Siemens TRIO 3.0T MR scanner exclusively dedicated to research.

The Neuroimaging Centre is dedicated to research on psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the interplay of emotion, motivation, and volition in the regulation of adaptive and non-adaptive behaviour in subjects with and without mental disorders. We are specifically interested in how cognitive and volitional processes interact with basic emotional and motivational systems in decision-making and action control, and how dysfunctions in the underlying neural circuits contribute to the development of pathological conditions.

Professor Smolka has extensive experience in neurobiological research of substance use disorders and the combination of brain imaging with genetics and is principal investigator of five DFG and BMBF funded projects in which PET and fMRI are used to investigate cue reactivity, emotional processing and reward related behaviours in subjects addicted to alcohol and nicotine.

Prof. Dr. M. Smolka Phone: +49 351 463 42200  Fax: +49 351 463 42202  Contact