Johanna Kostka

Zentrum für Molekulare Neurobiologie Hamburg | ZMNH · Institute of Developmental Neurophysiology

Olfactory dysfunction has emerged as a hallmark feature shared among several neurological conditions, including both neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. While diseases of both categories have been extensively studied for decades, their association with olfaction has only recently gained attention. Olfactory deficits often manifest a...

In the adult brain, structural and functional parameters, such as synaptic sizes and neuronal firing rates, follow right-skewed and heavy-tailed distributions. While this organization is thought to have significant implications, its development is still largely unknown. Here, we address this knowledge gap by investigating a large-scale dataset reco...

Neuronal activity in the olfactory bulb (OB) drives coordinated activity in the hippocampal-prefrontal network during early development. Inhibiting OB output in neonatal mice disrupts functional development of the hippocampal formation as well as cognitive abilities. These impairments manifest early in life and resemble dysfunctions of the hippocam...

In the adult brain, structural and functional parameters, such as synaptic sizes and neuronal firing rates, follow right-skewed and heavy-tailed distributions. While this organization is thought of having significant implications, its development is still largely unknown. Here, we address this knowledge gap by investigating a large-scale dataset re...

The interplay between olfaction and higher cognitive processing has been documented in the adult brain; however, its development is poorly understood. In mice, shortly after birth, endogenous and stimulus-evoked activity in the olfactory bulb (OB) boosts the oscillatory entrainment of downstream lateral entorhinal cortex (LEC) and hippocampus (HP)....

Cognitive processing relies on the functional refinement of the limbic circuitry during the first two weeks of life. During this developmental period, when the auditory, somatosensory and visual systems are still largely immature, the sense of olfaction acts as ‘door to the world’, providing an important source of environmental inputs. However, it...

Although mostly unaware, we constantly navigate a complex landscape of airborne molecules. The perception of these molecules helps us navigate, shapes our social life, and can trigger emotionally charged memories transporting us back to the past within a split second. While the processing of olfactory information in early sensory areas is well unde...

Processing in primary sensory areas is influenced by centrifugal inputs from higher brain areas, providing information about behavioral state, attention, or context. Activity in the olfactory bulb (OB), the first central processing stage of olfactory information, is dynamically modulated by direct projections from a variety of areas in adult mice....

Processing in primary sensory areas is influenced by centrifugal inputs from higher brain areas, providing information about behavioral state, attention, or context. Activity in the olfactory bulb, the first central processing stage of olfactory information, is dynamically modulated by direct projections from a variety of areas in adult mice. Despi...

Cognitive processing relies on the functional refinement of the limbic circuitry during the first two weeks of life. During this developmental period, when most sensory systems are still immature, the sense of olfaction acts as 'door to the world', providing the main source of environmental inputs. However, it is unknown whether early olfactory pro...

Key points During early postnatal development, mitral cells show either irregular bursting or non‐bursting firing patterns Bursting mitral cells preferentially fire during theta bursts in the neonatal olfactory bulb, being locked to the theta phase Bursting mitral cells preferentially fire during theta bursts in the neonatal lateral entorhinal cort...

Shortly after birth, the olfactory system provides to blind, deaf, non-whisking and motorically-limited rodents not only the main source of environmental inputs, but also the drive boosting the functional entrainment of limbic circuits. However, the cellular substrate of this early communication remains largely unknown. Here we combine in vivo and...

Monitoring the hypnotic component of anesthesia during surgeries is critical to prevent intraoperative awareness and reduce adverse side effects. For this purpose, electroencephalographic (EEG) methods complementing measures of autonomic functions and behavioral responses are in use in clinical practice. However, in human neonates and infants exist...

Although the developmental principles of sensory and cognitive processing have been extensively investigated, their synergy has been largely neglected. During early life, most sensory systems are still largely immature. As a notable exception, the olfactory system is functional at birth, controlling mother–offspring interactions and neonatal surviv...

One Sentence Summary Machine learning reveals consistent features of anesthetic states assessed by intracranial recordings in newborn mice and multichannel EEG in human neonates and infants. Abstract Monitoring the hypnotic component of anesthesia during surgeries is critical to prevent intraoperative awareness and reduce adverse side effects. For...

While the developmental principles of sensory and cognitive processing have been extensively investigated, their synergy has been largely neglected. During early life, most sensory systems are still largely immature. As a notable exception, the olfactory system reaches full maturity during intrauterine life, controlling mother-offspring interaction...

We describe the synthesis of a series of sialic acid-conjugated, polyglycerol-based nanoparticles with diameters in the range of 1-100 nm. Particle sizes were varied along with the degree of functionalization to match the corresponding virus size and receptor multiplicity in order to achieve maximum efficiency. To build up these architectures, we u...