Andreas Karl Engel (born 7 January 1961) is a German

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

. He is the director of the Department of

Neurophysiology Neurophysiology is a branch of physiology and neuroscience that studies nervous system function rather than nervous system architecture. This area aids in the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological diseases. Historically, it has been dominated b ...

and

Pathophysiology Pathophysiology ( physiopathology) – a convergence of pathology with physiology – is the study of the disordered physiological processes that cause, result from, or are otherwise associated with a disease or injury. Pathology is the ...

at the

University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf The University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (german: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)) is the teaching hospital of the University of Hamburg and the largest hospital in Hamburg, Germany. The UKE has 1,738 beds and 121 day-care p ...

(UKE).

Life

Andreas Engel studied medicine and philosophy at

Saarland University Saarland University (german: Universität des Saarlandes, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in s ...

, Homburg, at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

, and at the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

in Germany. After his medical exams (German ''

Staatsexamen The ("state examination" or "exam by state"; pl.: ''Staatsexamina'') is a German government licensing examination that future physicians, dentists, teachers, pharmacists, food chemists, psychotherapists and jurists (i.e., lawyers, judges, public ...

''), he received his

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

(Dr. med.) from the

Technical University Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

in 1987. In 1987–1995 Engel was a post-doctoral fellow with

Wolf Singer Wolf Joachim Singer (born 9 March 1943) is a German neurophysiologist. Life and career Singer was born in Munich and studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich) from 1965 onwards (as a scholarship holder of t ...

at the

Max Planck Institute for Brain Research The Max Planck Institute for Brain Research is located in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded as Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin 1914, moved to Frankfurt-Niederrad in 1962 and more recently in a new building in Frankfurt-Rie ...

, Frankfurt, Germany. From 1996-2000, Engel headed a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research which was funded by the Heisenberg Program of the

German Research Foundation The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

(DFG). Between fall 1997 and summer 1998, he also was affiliated as a Daimler-Benz Fellow to the

Berlin Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (german: Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) is an interdisciplinary institute founded in 1981 in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany, dedicated to research projects in the natural and social sciences. It is modeled ...

. From 2000-2002, he worked at the

Jülich Research Centre Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', nl, Gulik, french: Juliers, Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. As a border region betwe ...

as head of the Cellular Neurobiology Group at the Institute for Medicine. In 2002, he was appointed to the Chair of Neurophysiology at the UKE. Engel is a member of the

Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg The Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg (German: Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg) is a German scientific society located in Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Centr ...

. Since 2011, he is the coordinator of Collaborative Research Centre SFB 936 "Multi-Site Communication in the Brain" (with C. Gerloff, Dept. of Neurology, UKE).

Research

Andreas Engel has become known by his work on the so-called "

binding problem The consciousness and binding problem is the problem of how objects, background and abstract or emotional features are combined into a single experience. The binding problem refers to the overall encoding of our brain circuits for the combination o ...

". His research focuses on 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. As a postdoctoral researcher with Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute, Engel was involved in studies that demonstrated the relevance of neural synchrony, in particular of so-called

gamma waves A gamma wave or gamma Rhythm is a pattern of neural oscillation in humans with a frequency between 25 and 140 Hertz, Hz, the 40-Hertz, Hz point being of particular interest. Gamma rhythms are correlated with Large scale brain networks, large scal ...

, for processing of perceptual information. In particular, the group provided evidence that temporal correlations can serve for the binding of features into coherent sensory representations. In addition to addressing the relevance of synchrony and

neuronal oscillations Neural oscillations, or brainwaves, are rhythmic or repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. Neural tissue can generate oscillatory activity in many ways, driven either by mechanisms within individual neurons or by ...

in the visual system, the work of Engel's group yielded evidence for a relation between neural synchrony and visual

awareness Awareness is the state of being conscious of something. More specifically, it is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events. Another definition describes it as a state wherein a subject is aware of some inform ...

. In addition, Engel and coworkers contributed to demonstrating a functional role of neural synchrony for sensorimotor coupling. In the past 15 years, Engel's group has expanded their work to the human brain, using

EEG Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

and MEG in combination with source modeling techniques. The results of these studies demonstrate the importance of neuronal oscillations and synchrony for perceptual processing, attention, working memory, decision-making and

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

. Recent work of the group on the interaction of visual, auditory and tactile systems suggests a role of temporal binding for

multisensory integration Multisensory integration, also known as multimodal integration, is the study of how information from the different sensory modalities (such as sight, sound, touch, smell, self-motion, and taste) may be integrated by the nervous system. A coherent r ...

. The group has developed novel methods for the electrophysiological analysis of resting state network activity. Engel's group also applies these approaches for the study of network malfunction in patients with

movement disorders Movement disorder refers to any clinical syndrome with either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and involuntary movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. Movement disorders are synonymous with basal ganglia or extrapyramidal d ...

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

and

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

, in studies on

pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...

, and altered networks after early sensory deprivation. Engel also explores implications of these neurophysiogical results for theories of perception,

cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

and

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

. A major focus of his work are the implications of the studies on neural synchrony for understanding the neural correlates of consciousness. Recent papers address links between neural dynamics and

enactive Enactivism is a position in cognitive science that argues that cognition arises through a dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its environment. It claims that the environment of an organism is brought about, or enacted, by the active ...

views of cognition, investigating the grounding of cognition in sensorimotor coupling.See e.g.

Honors and awards

* 1995-2000, Heisenberg-Fellowship,

(DFG) * 1997-1998 Daimler-Benz Fellowship at the

, Germany * 2008, elected as member of the

, Germany * 2011, award of an ERC Advanced Grant,

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(with P. König, University of Osnabrück)

Selected publications

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Notes

External links

Website Dept. of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, UKE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Andreas K. Living people German neuroscientists 1961 births