PD Dr. Peter Klaver

 

Main Goals, Keywords

How do we transfer visual perceptions into stable memories? Which factors and which neural mechanisms support this transfer? I investigate the organization and integration between the visual and memory system. For this purpose I use behavioral, neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and neurophysiological technologies that allows for the on-line tracking of human behavior and brain activity in relation to the underlying brain structures, development and functional disorders.
Keywords: visual perception, working memory, episodic memory, neural development, fMRI, DTI, EEG, oxytocin, developmental disorder, learning and memory disorder, epilepsy, preterm birth, congenital heart disease. 

Group Members

1 group leader, 2 PhD students

Previous and Current Research

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) builds the gateway between visual perceptual input information (rhinal cortex) and memory formation (hippocampus). Presurgical evaluation of pharmacoresistant epilepsy patients who have unclear epilepogenic origin sometimes involves implantation of intracranial electrodes in the MTL. In this short period I tested memory functions of these patients while simultaneously recording the EEG signal in the MTL. I identified characteristic EEG signals associated with memory operations and success. In current research I evaluate the role of visual processing areas (dorsal and ventral visual stream) and MTL in memory development of typically and atypically developing children using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Future Projects

School achievement and academic career highly depend on the functional integrity of learning and memory. We investigate which brain structures and functions underlie learning and memory functions in typically developing children and children with neonatally surgically corrected heart disease who are at risk to develop learning disorders. 

Techniques and Equipment

Techniques and equipment of human functional and structural neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI and EEG), and endocrinology (oxytocin). 

Selected Publications

• von Allmen DY, Wurmitzer K, Martin E, Klaver P. Neural activity in the hippocampus predicts individual visual short-term memory capacity. Hippocampus. 2013 Mar 20. doi: 10.1002/hipo.22121. [Epub ahead of print]
• Klaver P, Marcar V, Martin E. Neurodevelopment of the visual system in typically developing children. Prog Brain Res. 2011;189:113-36. Review.
• van der Mark S, Klaver P, Bucher K, Maurer U, Schulz E, Brem S, Martin E, Brandeis D. The left occipitotemporal system in reading: Disruption of focal fMRI connectivity to left inferior frontal and inferior parietal language areas in children with dyslexia. Neuroimage. 2011 Feb 1;54(3):2426-36. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.10.002. Epub 2010 Oct 8.
• Loenneker T, Klaver P, Bucher K, Lichtensteiger J, Imfeld A, Martin E. Microstructural development: organizational differences of the fiber architecture between children and adults in dorsal and ventral visual streams. Hum Brain Mapp. 2011 Jun;32(6):935-46. doi: 10.1002/hbm.21080. Epub 2010 Jun 9.

Selected Lectures, Seminars, Colloquia

• Neuropsychological research methods
• Research seminar on developmental neuropsychology and brain mapping 
• EEG-Fields and brain function 
  

Funding

Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF), Hartmann-Müller Foundation

URL

http://www.kispi.uzh.ch/af/ForschungLehre/zentrum_en.html