Judit Makara - „The Brain Explorer“

What is happening in our brain when we are learning and remembering? In fact, the underlying cellular and network mechanisms are not yet fully understood. With persistence and vision Judit Makara explores the mechanisms that determine responses of individual nerve cells and neuronal circuits when their internal and external environment changes. Her aim: understanding of the complexities of the brain.

Neurons receive thousands of excitatory synaptic contacts that are located on their elaborate dendritic tree. The electrical properties of dendrites thus profoundly influence the integration of synaptic inputs and input-output transformation of the cell. Together with her research group at the Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest Judit Makara has been working toward explaining the local properties of the receiving dendritic end of the communicating nerve cells.

“Ever since I was a child, I liked to solve puzzles and figure out how things work down to the details. In my research as well, my dream is to synthesize the understanding of how neuronal circuits can code information, with the understanding of the contribution of individual neurons and how their cellular properties can endow them to fulfill specific roles as building blocks of the network.”