Welcome to the ICAN!

The Institute for  Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience (ICAN) was founded in March 2023.

The ICAN is a collaboration of researchers who share a common interest in the study of the neural basis of human cognition, affect and behavior. The ICAN is a research institute of the University of Trier and is supported by professors, postdocs and PhDs of a number of labs: General Psychology & Methodology, Biological and Clinical Psychology, General Psychology: Cognition, Emotion, Action Regulation, Cognitive Neuropsychology & Development, Cognitive Psychology, Behavioral Genetics, Clinical Psychophysiology, Neurocognitive Psychology and Neurostimulation. In addition, departments of the University of Luxembourg, the Trier University of Applied Sciences as well as the Trier Hospitals are involved in the ICAN as external cooperation partners.

The ICAN thus brings together regional research interests in neuroscience. The internal and external members of the ICAN maintain an exchange about current projects and research topics within a regular colloquium. In addition, expertise in the core neuroscientific methods is passed on in the ICAN within workshops and training courses; this also applies in particular to young scientists. The ICAN is thus the central scientific platform in the Trier area with the aim of promoting cooperative neuroscientific research.

Grounded on a basic experimental approach, the focus is on the neural basis of human cognition, affect and behavior at the systemic level: How does the human brain process affective and social stimuli? How are cognitive and/or affective processes represented in the brain? How does the brain generate behavior and actions? How are these processes and representations altered in neurological and psychological disorders? On the other hand, pharmacological interventions and neurostimulation methods are used to better understand human cognition and behavior from a mechanistic point of view.

The ICAN provides access to many neuroscientific methodsto address many question in humans: EEG, ERP, (f)MRI, fNIRS, HRV, Eyetracking, Motion tracking, VR-labs, etc.