The CNCR participates in the Human Brain Project, a European Commission Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship that was awarded 1 Billion Euro in 2013.

In the context of the HBP, the CNCR provides data on human neocortical microcircuits to drive model simulations of human neocortical circuits. Most of our understanding on the function of neurons and synapses comes from studies on the rodent brain. To actually obtain insight in the function of neurons and synapses in the human brain, we investigate human microcircuits in brain tissue resected during neurosurgery to treat patients. Several publications have emerged from this work:

Eyal G, Verhoog MB, Testa-Silva G, Deitcher Y, Lodder JC, Benavides-Piccione R, Morales J, DeFelipe J, de Kock CP, Mansvelder HD, Segev I. (2016) Unique membrane properties and enhanced signal processing in human neocortical neurons. ELife. 5. pii: e16553. doi: 10.7554/eLife.16553.

Verhoog MB, Obermayer J, Kortleven CA, Wilbers R, Wester J, Baayen JC, De Kock CP, Meredith RM, Mansvelder HD. (2016) Layer-specific cholinergic control of human and mouse cortical synaptic plasticity. Nature Commun. 7:12826. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12826.

Mohan H, Verhoog MB, Doreswamy KK, Eyal G, Aardse R, Lodder BN, Goriounova NA, Asamoah B, B Brakspear AB, Groot C, van der Sluis S, Testa-Silva G, Obermayer J, Boudewijns ZS, Narayanan RT, Baayen JC, Segev I, Mansvelder HD, de Kock CP. (2015) Dendritic and Axonal Architecture of Individual Pyramidal Neurons across Layers of Adult Human Neocortex. Cerebral Cortex. 25(12):4839-53. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv188.

Testa-Silva G, Verhoog MB, Linaro D, de Kock CP, Baayen JC, Meredith RM, De Zeeuw CI, Giugliano M, Mansvelder HD. (2014) High bandwidth synaptic communication and frequency tracking in human neocortex.
PLoS Biology. 12(11):e1002007. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002007.

Eyal G, Mansvelder HD, de Kock CP, Segev I. (2014) Dendrites impact the encoding capabilities of the axon. Journal of Neurosci. 34(24):8063-71. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5431-13.2014.

Verhoog MB, Goriounova NA, Obermayer J, Stroeder J, Hjorth JJ, Testa-Silva G, Baayen JC, de Kock CP, Meredith RM, Mansvelder HD. (2013) Mechanisms underlying the rules for associative plasticity at adult human neocortical synapses. Journal of Neurosci. 2013 Oct 23;33(43):17197-208. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3158-13.2013.