Research Areas

  • Mechanisms of fear behaviour, fear memory, anxiety, anxiety disorders (System Amygdala-Hippocampus-Prefrontal Cortex);
  • Mechanisms of sleep/wake regulation (System Thalamus-Cortex);
  • Experimental epilepsy research

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Selected Publications

Seidenbecher T, Laxmi TR, Stork O, Pape HC (2003) Amygdala and hippocampal theta rhythm synchronization during fear memory retrieval. Science 301: 846-850.

Munsch T, Freichel M, Flockerzi V, Pape HC (2003) Contribution of transient receptor potential channels to the control of GABA release from dendrites. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100: 16065-16070.

Jüngling K, Seidenbecher T, Sosulina L, Lesting J, Sangha S, Clark S, Okamura N, Duangdao D, Xu YL, Reinscheid R, Pape HC. (2008). Neuropeptide S-mediated control of fear expression and extinction: role of intercalated GABAergic neurons in the amygdala. Neuron 59: 298-310.

Sangha S, Narayanan RT, Bergado-Acosta JR, Stork O, Seidenbecher T, Pape HC (2009). Deficiency of the 65-kDa isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase impairs extinction of cued but not contextual fear memory. J. Neurosci. 29: 15713-15720.

Pape HC, Paré D (2010) Plastic synaptic networks of the amygdala for the acquisition, expression, and extinction of conditioned fear. Physiol. Rev. 90: 419-463

Academic CV

1976–1982 Study of Biology at Ruhr-University Bochum
1983-1987 Research Associate, Section Neurophysiology, Medical Faculty, University Essen
1986 Dr. rer. nat (PhD) Biology/Medical Neurobiology
1987-1988 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept. of Neurobiology, SUNY Stony Brook and Section of Neurobiology, Yale University
1989-2004 Assistant Professor, Department of Neurophysiology, Medical Faculty, Ruhr-University Bochum
1992 Assistant Professor, Department of Neurophysiology, Medical Faculty, Ruhr-University Bochum
1994-2004 Professor and Head of Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg
since 2004 Professor and Head of Department of Physiology I (Neurophysiology), Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster

Honours and Special Recognitions

1993 Heisenberg-Stipend of the DFG
1997-2004 Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 426) “Limbic Structures and Functions”
1999 Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Award of the DFG
1999-2005 Member of the Senate of the DFG
since 2006 Spokesperson of the Research Unit “Neuromedicine”, University Münster
2006 Distinguished Teacher of the Year, University Münster
2007 Max Planck Research Award
since 2008 Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB-TRR58) “Fear, Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders