Wilke, Melanie, Prof. Dr.

Professor of Cognitive Neurology

since 2011: Schilling Foundation Professor (W3), Director of the department of Cognitive Neurology and Head of the MR-Research Unit, University Medical Center Göttingen
since 2011: Co-Investigator in the "Decision and Awareness" group (DAG) at the German Primate Center (DPZ)
2008-2010: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Biology, Caltech, Pasadena; Advisor: Prof. R.A. Andersen
2005-2008: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology, NIMH, Bethesda, Advisor: Dr. D.A. Leopold
2001-2005: PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Advisor: Dr. D.A. Leopold
1997-2001: M.A. in Psycholinguistics, Neuropsychology and Neurobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany

Major Research Interests

The long-term goal of our research is to understand how neural activity gives rise to spatial awareness and how distributed information is integrated to guide the selection of movement goals. Furthermore we are dedicated to perform translational research from monkey models of cognitive disorders to human patients. Current research focuses on the question how thalamic nuclei and cortical areas interact during visual perception and decision making. Another line of research is concerned with the neural mechanisms underlying spatial neglect, which is a frequent and severe consequence of brain damage in humans. Specifically, we are investigating pathological and compensatory changes in large-scale brain networks in human stroke patients by means of imaging (DTI, fMRI) and stimulation (tACS, tDCS, TMS) methods. We develop and employ monkey models of spatial neglect to study the underlying neural mechanisms by means of fMRI, electrophysiological recordings, inactivation and stimulation techniques with the goal to develop new therapeutic interventions.

Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.cognitive-neurology.med.uni-goettingen.de/index.html/

Selected Recent Publications

Storm F, Boly M, Casali M, Massimini M, Olcese M, Pennartz CMA, Wilke M. Consciousness regained: disentangling mechanisms, brain systems, and behavioral responses. J of Neuroscience, 2017 (in press)

Wilke M, Dechent P, Bähr M. Sarcoidosis manifestion centered on the thalamic pulvinar leading to persistent astasia. Movement Disorders: Clinical Practice. 2017. (in press)

Dominguez-Vargas A, Schneider L, Wilke M*, Kagan I*. Electrical Microstimulation of the Pulvinar Biases Saccade Choices and Reaction Times in a Time-Dependent Manner. J of Neuroscience 37(8):2234-2257, 2017

Cabral-Calderin Y, Williams K, Dechent P, Opitz A, Wilke M. Transcranial alternating current stimulation modulates spontaneous low frequency fluctuations as measured with fMRI. 2016. Neuroimage 141:88-107, 2016

Cabral-Calderin Y, Weinrich C, Schmidt-Samoa C, Poland E, Dechent P, Bähr M, Wilke M. Transcranial alternating current stimulation affects the BOLD signal in a frequency and task-dependent manner. Hum Brain Map 37(1):94-121, 2016

Tsuchiya N, Wilke M, Frässle S, Lamme V. No-report paradigms: Extracting the true neural correlates of consciousness. Trends Cogn Sci 19(12):757-70, 2015

Hwang E, Hauschild M, Wilke M, Andersen RA. Spatial and Temporal Eye-Hand Coordination Relies on the Parietal Reach Region. J of Neuroscience 34:12884-92, 2014

Hwang EJ, Hauschild M, Wilke M, Andersen RA. Inactivation of the parietal reach region causes optic ataxia, impairing reaches but not saccades. Neuron 76(5):1021-9, 2012

Wilke M, Kagan I, Andersen RA. Functional Imaging Reveals Rapid Reorganization of Cortical Activity after Parietal Inactivation in Monkeys. PNAS 109:8274-9, 2012

Schmid MC, Mrowka S, Turchi J, Saunders R, Wilke M, Ye F, Leopold DA. Blindsight functions depend on the lateral geniculate nucleus. Nature 466(7304):373-7, 2010

Wilke M, Mueller, KM., Leopold DA. Visibility related modulation of neural responses in visual thalamic nuclei. PNAS 106(23):9465-70, 2009.