Brain Research Institute

Ruth Handschin, Letters from Nature

The Brain Research Institute (Institut für Hirnforschung, short "Hifo") was founded in 1962 as a neuroscience research center in the medical faculty of the University of Zurich. The four departments - molecular cognition, neuromorphology, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry - focus on basic research topics ranging from molecular and cellular processes to network functions in the nervous system. The main areas of investigation concern the ability of the central nervous system to learn new information and to regenerate after injury, the mechanisms underlying synaptic transmission, plasticity and synapses formation, and the processes that influence behavioral responses.