Exhibition Booth "Sensory Worlds in the Brain", August 29/30
We invite you to visit our booth in the UZH Lichthof. Explore how our brain integrates different senses such as sight, sound, and touch and how this may differ in people with developmental or learning disorders. Step into virtual reality to journey through brain networks, explore 3D reconstructions of neural pathways, and try out interactive games inspired by our own research.

Want to dive deeper? Join our additional events co-organized with the Developmental Science Network Zurich (both in German): 

Workshop «Autismus besser verstehen», August 29/30, 14:00/15:00/16:00, ETH main building
Join our workshop, co-led by a person with autism and a scientific expert. Through optical illusions and immersive VR scenes, you will discover how sensory experiences can differ and gain new perspectives on how autistic people may experience the world.
A ticket is required for this event. You can get a free ticket one hour before the start at the ticket booth ETH main building. Seats are limited. Room will be indicated on the ticket. 

Science Café "Aufmerksamkeit unter Druck - Das Gehirn im digitalen Alltag", August 29, 16:00, UZH Zentrum, SOC E-010
Attend our Science Café, where experts discuss how digital media influence attention, learning, and brain development in children and teenagers.

We look forward to seeing you at Scientifica 2026!

SRF-Einstein visited the URPP AdaBD! In the episode of May 21, 2026, the moderators Tobias Müller and Kathrin Hönegger visited Prof. Christian Ruff in his research lab.

Through entertaining learning experiments, they explored key questions from our research focus: How do complex skills develop? What happens when the brain has to relearn something, and what role do breaks play in this process? How does the brain decide what deserves attention and what doesn’t?

Every day, our brain seamlessly combines what we see, hear, and feel to help us learn, make decisions, and interact with the world. But how does this remarkable ability develop, and what happens inside the brain as we learn from different senses? Among the research highlights of 2025 are two complementary URPP AdaBD projects helping to unravel the brain mechanisms underlying multisensory learning.

The project 'Functional Mechanisms' developed a novel multisensory learning task in which participants learned which responses to specific combinations of visual, auditory, or tactile cues led to rewards. The combinations occured at different frequencies and gave rise to different probabilities of success. The task separated two different sources of learning: participants could learn from recurring statistical patterns in the sensory information itself, and from feedback on the reward outcome of their choices. This design allowed the researchers to distinguish three complementary multisensory learning processes—learning from statistical regularities, learning from rewards and mistakes, and responding to unexpected events. Brain imaging by fMRI revealed that these learning processes rely on distinct but interacting brain networks that work similarly across different combinations of senses, such as vision with hearing or vision with touch. The task provides a powerful new framework for studying how our brains learn to guide behavior based on multisensory information about the world.

Task design in more details. a, Schematic of the multisensory learning task. Participants took the role of an “insect scientist” classifying different insect species characterized by different combinations of information: visual (wing patterns), auditory (mating sounds), and tactile (mating dances implemented as taps on the hand). For the different species, participants had to learn which multisensory pairings (image × sound/touch) predicted mating success with high probability. b, Trial timing showing separate phases for stimulus presentation (driving statistical learning) and feedback (driving reinforcement learning). c, Reinforcement structure. Probabilistic outcomes (green = attracts is rewarded; white = not attracts is rewarded) ensured that unexpected outcomes continued to occur throughout learning. In other words, even if participants predicted correctly, sometimes they did not obtain reward, thus violating their expectation. d, Statistical structure. Some image–sound/touch combinations occurred more often than others, while the individual images and sounds/touches were equally frequent.

Building on this work, the project 'ChildBrainCircuits' adapted the task for children to investigate how multisensory learning develops during middle childhood. A first study showed that older children process information faster and make more efficient decisions when learning new audiovisual and visuotactile associations. At the same time, brain activity increased with age in visual, parietal, and frontal regions that support attention, cognitive control, working memory and multisensory integration (see Graphical Abstract, middle panel). The researchers also found that children become increasingly sensitive to negative feedback as they grow older (see Graphical abstract, right panel), while the core brain mechanisms supporting reward-based learning remain remarkably stable across development.

The study in more details: Graphical abstract of Raduner et al. (2025). The result in the left panel shows faster information processing as the children get older and in audiovisual (AV) compared to visuotactile(VT) multisensory learning. The middle panel shows the brain regions that show increased activation (yellow) and decreased activation (blue) with age. The right panel shows the brain activation in the left anterior insula in response to negative prediction errors. It shows that the older the children, the more negative the brain activation, indicating increased sensitivity to negative feedback.

In a second study, they further compared children and adults across two versions of the learning task. The researchers showed that not all learning mechanisms mature at the same pace. While reinforcement-learning processes were largely similar across age groups and task versions, children's brains were less sensitive to surprising statistical patterns, highlighting that the ability to discover hidden regularities in the environment continues to mature during development. Together, these findings help us better understand how the developing brain learns by combining information from different senses and provide valuable tools for future research on neurodevelopmental and learning disorders.

Read the publications

• Bedi et al. (2025) – Separable neurocomputational mechanisms underlying multisensory learning (preprint)
• Raduner et al. (2025) – Growing minds, integrating senses: Neural and computational insights into age-related changes in audio-visual and tactile-visual learning in children
• Raduner et al. (2026) – Neural and behavioural differences in multisensory statistical and reinforcement learning across development and task variants

Prof. Dr. Beatrix Latal has been promoted Full Professor ad personam for Developmental Paediatrics as of 1 November 2025. 

Dr. Akanksha Jain joined UZH as Assistant Professor with Tenure Track for Neural Morphogenomics in January 2026. 

We congratulate both professors!

Prof. Dr. Christopher Pryce, Associate Professor ad personam for Behavioral Neurobiology and Biological Psychiatry, retired on July 31, 2026.

We thank him for his important contribution to our research as a member of the URPP AdaBD from 2021 until 2025 and wish him all the best for his future! 

We are pleased to announce that we welcomed three new AdaBD group leaders in the past months. We are looking forward to fruitful collaborations!

Prof. Dr. Akanksha Jain, Assistant Professor with Tenure Track for Neural Morphogenomics, Department of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zurich.
January 2026

Prof. Dr. Mirella Manfredi, SNSF Assistant Professor of Neurodiversity and Cognition, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich.
March 2026

Prof. Dr. Katharina Wilmes, SNSF Assistant Professor on Theory of Neural Circuits, Institute of Neuroinformatics.
January 2026

Since our last newsletter, three PhD Students completed their dissertations. Congratulations!

Access to the dissertations is currently only available on the UZH network:

Natalia Cruz Ochoa: Functional and Molecular Analysis of Adult Brain Rewiring

Alexandra Noble: Investigating the Role of the Primary Cilium in Neural Circuit Development and Function

Nina Raduner: Multisensory Learning Across Development: A Computational and Neuroimaging Investigation of Multisensory Processing and Learning

The progress report 2025 of the URPP AdaBD can be downloaded on our website. 

2026

Antonios M, Szekely G, Karayannis T, Jakab A (2026)
Mapping the human thalamus: a historical review of thalamic atlases from histology to modern neuroanatomy
Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, 20:1927141

Asma Ull O, Kaandorp MPT, Jakab A, Kim HG (2026)
Developmental Brain Age Estimation From MRI Data: A Systematic Review of Deep Learning Approaches and Open Datasets
Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 650-671

Bürgi N, Aydogan G, Konovalov A, Ruff CC (2026)
A neural fingerprint of adaptive mentalization
Nature Neurosience, 934-944

Hu J, Moisa M, Ruff CC (2026)
Augmentation of frontoparietal gamma-band phase coupling enhances human altruistic behavior
PLOS Biology, e3003602

Noble AR, Doherty D, Stoeckli E, Bachmann-Gagescu R (2026)
Evolving Roles of Primary Cilia in CNS Development and Neural Circuit Function: From Human Disease to Molecular Underpinnings
The Journal of neuroscience, e1215252026

Raduner N, Providoli C, Di Pietro SV, Schneebeli M, ..., Casimiro E, Bedi S, Karipidis I, von Rhein M, Raschle NM, Ruff C, Brem S (2026)
Neural and behavioural differences in multisensory statistical and reinforcement learning across development and task variants
Imaging Neuroscience, 1117

Suomalainen M, Haenseler W, Kolibius J, Plückthun A, Hearing P, Greber UF (2026)
Transcriptional transactivation turns human iPSC-derived macrophages into an adenovirus-producing cell state
Journal of Virology, e00392-26

Wicki S, Canziani A, Poggi G, Argunşah AÖ, Karayannis T, Pryce CR (2026)
Development of visual-stimulus reversal learning-memory in mice is dependent on social interaction
iScience, 114864

2025

Bachmann-Gagescu R, Sayer JA (2025)
Tackling ciliary specialization to understand phenotypic variability in human primary ciliopathies
Journal of Cell Science, jcs264177

Calangiu I, Kollmorgen S, Reppas J, Mante V (2025)
Prospective and retrospective representations of saccadic movements in primate prefrontal cortex
Cell Reports, 115289

Disselhoff V, Jakab A, Latal B, Schnider B, Wehrle MF, Hagman C, EpoKidsResearch Group (2025)
Inhibition abilities and functional brain connectivity in school-aged term-born and preterm-born children
Pediatric Research, 315-324

Ehrler M, O’Gorman R, Wehrle FM, Speckert A, Jakab A, Kretschmar O, Latal B (2025)
Learning from those who thrive: protective factors and neuroimaging markers in adolescents with complex congenital heart disease and with a favorable neurodevelopmental profile. Child Neuropsychology, 613–634

Eschment M, Mercey O, ..., Rauch A, Guichard P, Hamel V, Bachmann-Gagescu R (2025)
CEP290 deficiency disrupts ciliary axonemal architecture in human iPSC-derived brain organoids
Journal of Cell Science, jcs264092

Figueiro-Silva J, Eschment M, ..., Rauch A, Bachmann-Gagescu R (2025)
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated generation of two isogenic CEP290-mutated iPSC lines
Stem Cell Research, 103781

Fraga-González G, Haller P, Willinger D, Gehring V, Frei N, Brem S (2025)
Functional brain activations correlated with association strength and prediction error during novel symbol-speech sound learning
Imaging Neuroscience, imag_a_0039

Garbelli M, Chen Z (2025)
Food dye for optical clearing and in vivo imaging
Kidney International , 776-778

Groos D, Reuss AM, Rupprecht P, Stachniak T, Lewis C, Han S, ..., Karayannis T, Aguzzi A, Helmchen F (2025)
A distinct hypothalamus-habenula circuit governs risk preference
Nature Neuroscience, 361-373

Han S, Helmchen F (2025)
Coordinated multi-level adaptations across neocortical areas during task learning
Nature Communications ,7719

Kapetaniou GE, Moisa M, Ruff CC, Tobler PN, Soutschek A (2025)
Frontopolar Cortex Interacts With Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex to Causally Guide Metacognition
Human Brain Mapping, e70146

Lugrin C, Hu J, Ruff CC (2025)
 A computational account of multiple motives guiding context-dependent prosocial behavior
PLOS Computational Biology, e1013032

Lugrin C, Konovalov A, Ruff CC (2025)
Manipulating attention facilitates cooperation
Commun Psychology, 39

Naert T, Yamamoto T, Han S, Röck R, Horn M, Bethge P, Vladimirov N, Voigt FF, Figuieiro-Silva J, Bachmann-Gagescu R, Vleminckx K, Helmchen F, Lienkamp SS (2025)
Precise, predictable genome integrations by deep-learning-assisted design of microhomology-based templates
Nature Biotechnology, 14

Payette K, Steger C, ... Bach Cuadra M, Jakab A (2025)
Multi-Center Fetal Brain Tissue Annotation (FeTA) Challenge 2022 Results
IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 1257-1272

Raduner N, Providoli C, Di Pietro SV, Schneebeli M, Karipidis II, Casimiro E, Bedi S, von Rhein M, Raschle NM, Ruff C, Brem S (2025)
Growing minds, integrating senses: Neural and computational insights into age-related changes in audio-visual and tactile-visual learning in children
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 101622

Raschle NM, Borbás R, ...., Konrad K, Stadler C (2025)
Losing Control: Prefrontal Emotion Regulation Is Related to Symptom Severity and Predicts Treatment-Related Symptom Change in Adolescent Girls With Conduct DisorderBiological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 80–93

Speckert A, Gianinazzi L, Kollmorgen S, Hagmann C, Grehten P, Kottke R, Natalucci G, Latal B, …, Jabkab A (2025)
Atlas-independent brain connectome analysis at voxel-level granularity: graph convolutional networks for etiology classification in newborns
NeuroImage, 121568

Steger C, Boegeholz A, Latal B, …, Jakab A, Reinehr M, Knirsch W (2025)
Placental histology, perioperative brain development, and neurodevelopmental outcome at 1 year of age in patients undergoing neonatal cardiac surgery—is there an association? Frontiers Cardiovascular Medicine, 1556289

Wu Y, Korobeynyk VI, ..., Jessberger S (2025)
Multimodal transcriptomics reveal neurogenic aging trajectories and age-related regional inflammation in the dentate gyrus.
Nature Neuroscience, 30

Yusifov E, Schaettin M, Dumoulin A, Bachmann-Gagescu R, Stoeckli ET (2025)
The primary cilium gene CPLANE1 is required for peripheral nervous system development
Developmental Biology,106-121

New Preprints

Araujo GA, Baudis L, Bowden N, ..., Vladimirov N, Walkup K, Wittweg C, Zhang X (2025)
Nuclear recoil detection with color centers in bulk lithium fluoride
arXiv

Aydogan G, Kollmorgen S, Mante V, Linnér RK, Kleim B, Nave G, Ruff CC (2025)
Long-Term Imprint of Prenatal War Trauma on Brain Structure: Evidence from Genetically Informed Neuroimaging
bioRxiv

Bedi S, de Hollander G, Raduner N, Helmchen F, Brem S, Konovalov A, Ruff CC (2025)
Separable neurocomputational mechanisms underlying multisensory learning
bioRxiv

Bedi S, de Hollander G, Ruff CC (2025)
Probability weighting arises from boundary repulsions of cognitive noise
bioRxiv

de Hollander G, Grueschow M, Hennel F, Ruff CC (2025)
Rapid Changes in Risk Attitudes Originate from Bayesian Inference on Parietal Magnitude Representations
bioRxiv

Prat-Carrabin A, de Hollander G, Bedi S, Gershman SJ, Ruff CC (2025)
Distributed range adaptation in human parietal encoding of numbers
bioRxiv

Renkert MF, de Hollander G, Aydogan G, Bedi S, Lamm C, Ruff CC (2025)
Acute stress reduces risk-aversion by changing magnitude perception
bioRxiv

Reuss AM, Groos D, ..., Vladimirov N, Bethge P, Reimann R, Helmchen F, Rupprecht P, Aguzzi A (2025)
aDISCO: A clearing method to enable 3D microscopy of large archival paraffin-embedded human tissue blocks
bioRxiv