Brain Plasticity: Neural Basis of Individuality

September 27 – October 4, 2025

 

Director: Ulman Lindenberger

Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

 

Co-Director: Tobias Bonhoeffer

Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Martinsried, Germany 

 

Faculty:

Naftali Raz, Stonybrook University, USA

Gerd Kempermann, Technical University Dresden, Germany

Nathalie Rochefort, University of Edinburgh, UK

Martin Lövdén, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Tomás Ryan, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Mackenzie Weygand Mathis, École Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne, Switzerland

Alexander Mathis, École Polytechnique Fédérale, Lausanne, Switzerland

 

Plasticity allows organisms to form lasting adaptive changes in neural structures in response to interactions with the environment. It serves both species-general functions and individualized skill acquisition. To better understand human plasticity, we need to strengthen the dialogue between human research and animal models. This Advanced Course will foster this dialogue by assembling a mixed group of accomplished scientists from either field of research. The discussions will address how to (i) enhance the mechanistic interpretability of macroscopic methods used in human research; (i) launch dedicated cross-species research programs, using either well-controlled experimental paradigms, such as motor skill acquisition or more naturalistic environments, where individuals of either species are observed in their habitats; (iii) develop conceptual and computational models that link molecular and fine-structural events to phenomena accessible by macroscopic methods.

 

Gerd Kempermann

New neurons and the neurobiological basis of Individuality

Even if both genes and environment are held constant — which is possible in laboratory experiments with inbred mice – individuality emerges. The animals develop increasingly individualized behavioral trajectories, social behaviors, learning biographies and measures of brain plasticity and connectivity. An intriguing aspect of individualized brain structure and function is in the hippocampus, where new neurons are generated throughout life. The plasticity adult neurogenesis appears to be instrumental for the emergent individuality. The paradigm reveals that behavior matters for variation and that genes and environment alone do not explain everything. Behavioral activity is subsumed under „environment“ as the „non-shared“ environment, but this is a challenging term. A new theory of individuality is needed.  

 

Alexander Mathis

Elucidating the hierarchical nature of behavior

Natural behaviour is inherently hierarchical, i.e., it is built from spatially and temporally nested subroutines, a claim supported by evidence from neuroscience and ethology. For example, a basketball game is characterized by many part-whole relationships across space (from groups to individuals to body parts and joints) and time (from playing basketball to dribbling to taking a step). In my lecture, I will introduce and review methods for quantifying the parts and elucidating the emerging principles of the “whole”, to elucidate the hierarchical nature of behaviour.

 

Martin Lövdén

Cross-species research on plasticity

Cross-species research programs on plasticity offer promises and face challenges. The promises of complementary information are challenged by comparability issues. These comparability issues are of both fundamental (e.g., related to differential evolutionary demands) and practical (e.g., related to task and measurement comparability) nature. The recent literature on the brain mechanism behind skill acquisitions in animal models and humans offers a window into gauging the advantages, limits, and challenges of cross-species research programs on plasticity. With an understanding of this topic, fruitful directions for future research that may improve the understanding of human learning and plasticity are easier to take out.

 

Naftali Raz

Age-related changes in metabolic and structural properties of the brain – Constraints on plasticity?

Aging is a universal phenomenon whose mechanisms are poorly understood. Major biological theories hypothesize several drivers of the aging phenotype that emerges during lifespan. Aging may proceed as the gradual demise of disposable soma, battered by the random forces of wear and tear in the organisms that completed their reproductive mission. Age-related declines may stem from accumulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) and concomitant mitochondrial dysfunction. Run-away programs that foster growth in the early stage of development continue their wasteful activity into the golden years when they are not needed anymore. Because of the lack of a break on molecular pathways that ensured growth and development in the young, they gradually transformed from providers of benefits to developing organisms into the drain on the resources of the ageing ones. Thus, in the antagonistically pleiotropic manner, the friend becomes a foe. Whatever the primary reason for aging, it is expressed in the energy crisis, which affects the aging organisms and causes dramatic shifts in multiple homeostatic processes. Age-related energy crises may impose significant constraints on the structural underpinnings of behavioral plasticity. We will examine the current empirical evidence of age-related changes and age differences in brain energetics and ensuing changes in physiology and structure. Our goal is to understand the implications for neuroplasticity and durable behavioral change in the later part of the lifespan.