People – Hannah Gapp

I’m a MD scholar student of the integrated research training group of the CRC 1436 cognitive resources. To focus on my MD thesis, I am currently taking a year off from my medical studies at the Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg. In my project, I will explore the impact of an acute phase shift as a circadian disturbance on the cognitive performance and on the expression of different important circadian neuromodulators in mice. The cognitive limitations after the phase shift will be exposed by different behavioral experiments, in which I will test fear memory and the spatial memory capacity. Afterwards, I will visualize the resulting neural activation in different brain areas via immunhistochemistry of the transcriptional factor c-Fos. Moreover, I will expose the effect of the acute phase shift on the expression of orexin and additional circadian neuromodulators via immunostainings. In doing so, I am seeking a better understanding of the orexinergic system and potential by increasing not only wakefulness but also cognitive resources after circadian strains.