Emrah Düzel

Prof. Dr. Emrah Düzel serves as Site Spokesperson and Group Leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Magdeburg, with primary responsibility for clinical coordination. His research focuses on memory dysfunction in aging and Alzheimer's disease at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and clinical intervention.

His core research domains include:

• Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neurodegenerative Diseases, particularly Alzheimer's Disease
• Memory mechanisms and hippocampal plasticity
• Advanced Neuroimaging (7 Tesla MRI)
• Dopaminergic and cholinergic neuromodulation systems

He leads pioneering work on cognitive-physical training paradigms where participants combine treadmill walking with virtual reality navigation to stimulate memory areas. His hypothesis centers on how dopaminergic degeneration limits intervention efficacy, directly linking midbrain integrity to memory consolidation outcomes.

Düzel directs a major longitudinal project involving 400 participants undergoing four months of intensive training followed by two years of intermittent sessions. This research examines structural-functional relationships between the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA) and hippocampal subregions using high-field MRI. His team also investigates novelty processing and reward mechanisms in healthy adults through functional imaging. Collaborative partnerships extend his work beyond DZNE's Magdeburg site, as referenced in the cooperation partner homepage link.