Group Leader
PD Dr. Dr. Cornelia McCormick
University Medical School Bonn
Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry
Venusberg-Campus 1
53127 Bonn, Germany
German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
Venusberg-Campus 1
53127 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: +49 228 287 16377
Email:
1. EDUCATION
2023 Specialist Examination in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
2021 Habilitation for Experimental Psychiatry, University of Bonn
2014 PhD in Clinical Neurosciences, University of Toronto, Canada
2010 Medical Doctorate, University of Hamburg
2006 Psychology Degree, University of Hamburg
2. CURRENT POSITIONS
2023 Psychiatrist, Dept. Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn
2019 Group Leader “Memory and Imagination”, University Hospital Bonn
2018 Study Physician of Clinical Trials for Neurodegenerative Diseases, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany
3. PREVIOUS POSITIONS
2018 – 2023 Psychiatrist in Training, Dept. Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University Hospital Bonn
2014 – 2018 PostDoc, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, UK
4. RESEARCH AWARDS AND GRANTS
2023 Neuro-aCSis Programm (German Research Foundation)
2023 Fellowship of the Hertie Network of Excellence in Clinical Neurosciences
2022 German Research Foundation Research Grant
2019 BONFOR Fellowship to establish a junior research group
2011 German Research Foundation Fellowship
Research Focus
If we close our eyes, most of us can vividly imagine events from our past or envision never-experienced scenarios set in the future. This type of mental imagery is supported by a key set of brain regions, including the hippocampus, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and visual-perceptual cortices. My research focusses on each region’s precise contribution and about their dynamic interactions. Uncovering the neuronal basis of mental imagery offers crucial insights into experiential cognitive functions such as autobiographical memory, future thinking, and navigation, but is also important, for decision-making, emotion regulation and mind-wandering.
My research draws on multimodal neuroscientific techniques. First, I use neuroimaging tools, such as structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Second, I work with people who complain about their memory (i.e., due to temporal lobe epilepsy, limbic encephalitis, or various forms of neurodegenerative dementia) and imagination (i.e., aphantasia and blindness).
If you are interested in our research, either to participate in our studies or as a new team member, please contact us.
Julia Taube, PhD
PostDoc
Pitshaporn Leelaarporn (Lilly), M.sc.
PhD student
Sorit Achmed Ali, cand. Med.
MD student
Marie Malinowski, cand. Med.
MD student
Hannah Fischer, cand. Med.
MD student
Marion Crump, Occupational Health Specialist
MD candidate
Sven Lange, cand. M.sc.
Master student
Conny is attending CNS in Toronto in April 2024.
Lilly’s poster got accepted, so she is going to OHBM in Korea 2024.
Hannah Fischer received a stipend from the HIRNLIGA. Congratulations!
We welcome new members to our team.
Welcome Hannah, Marie, and Marion! Good luck with your medical doctorate research. We further welcome Maren Bilzer and Chantal Reinecke and wish them all the best for their internships!
1. Leelaarporn, P., Dalton, M. A., Stirnberg, R., Stoecker, T., Spottke, A., Schneider, A., & McCormick, C. (Preprint). Hippocampal subfields and their neocortical interactions during autobiographical memory using submillimeter whole-brain fMRI at 7 Tesla. bioRxiv.
2. Monzel, M., Leelaarporn. P., Lutz, T., Schultz, J., Brunheim, S., Reuter, M., McCormick, C. (Preprint). Hippocampal-occipital connectivity reflects autobiographical memory deficits in aphantasia. bioRxiv.
3. McCormick, C., Maguire, E.A. (2021) The distinct and overlapping brain networks supporting semantic and spatial scene processing. Neuropsychologia. 158: 107912
4. McCormick, C., Dalton, M.A., Zeidman, P., Maguire, E.A. (2021) Characterising the hippocampal response to perception, construction, and complexity. Cortex. 137:1-17.
5. McCormick, C., Barry, D.N., Jafarian, A., Barnes, G.R., Maguire, E.A. (2020) vmPFC drives hippocampal processing during autobiographical memory recall regardless of remoteness. Cerebral Cortex. 30(11), 5972-5987.
6. Spanò, G., Pizzamiglio, G., McCormick, C., Clark, I.A., De Felice, S., Miller, T.D., Edgin, J.O., Rosenthal, C.R., Maguire, E.A. (2020) Dreaming with hippocampal damage. Elife.9:e56211.
7. Spanò, G., Weber, F.D, Pizzamiglio, G., McCormick, C., Miller, T.D., Rosenthal, C.R., Edgin, J.O., Maguire, E.A. (2020) Sleeping with hippocampal damage. Current Biology. 30:523-529.
8. Fließbach, K., McCormick, C., Kaulen, B., Schneider, A. (2019) Anti-tau therapies – what can be expected? Nervenarzt. 90:891-897.
9. De Luca, F., McCormick, C., Ciaramelli, E., Maguire, E.A. (2019) Scene processing following damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Neuroreport 30:828-833
10. Dalton M.A., McCormick, C., De Luca, F., Clark, I.A., Maguire, E.A. (2019) Functional connectivity along the anterior-posterior axis of hippocampal subfields in the ageing human brain. Hippocampus. 11:1049-1062.
11. Ciaramelli, E., De Luca, F., Monk, A., McCormick, C., Maguire E.A. (2019) What "wins" in VMPFC: scenes, situations, or schema? Neuroscience & Biobehavioural Reviews. 100:208-2010
12. Dalton, M.A., McCormick, C., Maguire, E.A. (2019) Differences in functional connectivity along the anterior-posterior axis of human hippocampal. NeuroImage. 192:38-51
13. De Luca, F., McCormick, C., Mullally, S.L., Intraub, H., Maguire, E.A., Ciaramelli, E. (2018) Boundary extension is attenuated in patients with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage. Cortex. 108:1-12
14. Dalton, M.A., Zeidman, P., McCormick C., Maguire, E.A. (2018) Mental imagery of scenes, objects and space: deconstructing the neural correlates of scene construction. Journal of Neuroscience. 38 (38):8146-8159
15. McCormick, C., Rosenthal, C.R., Miller, T.D., Maguire, E.A. (2018) Mind-wandering in people with hippocampal damage. Journal of Neuroscience. 38(11):2745-2754
16. McCormick, C., Ciaramelli, E., De Luca, F., Maguire, E.A. (2018) Common and differential cognitive changes following ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampal damage: a review of human lesion studies. Neuroscience, Forefront Review. (Invited review). 374:295-318
17. McCormick, C., Moscovitch, M., Valiante, T., Cohn, M., McAndrews, M.P. (2018) Different neural routes to autobiographical memory recall in healthy people and individuals with left medial temporal lobe epilepsy. Neuropsychologia. 110:26-36
18. McCormick, C., Rosenthal, C.R., Miller, T.D., Maguire, E.A. (2017) Deciding what is possible and impossible following hippocampal damage in humans, Hippocampus, 27(3), 303-314
19. McCormick, C., Rosenthal, C.R., Miller, T.D., Maguire, E.A. (2016) Hippocampal damage increases deontological responses during moral decision making, Journal of Neuroscience, 36, 12157-12167
20. McAndrews, M.P., Girard, T.A., Wilkins, L.K., McCormick, C. (2016) Semantic congruence affects hippocampal response to repetition of visual associations, Neuropsychologia, 90, 235-242
21. Adnan, A., Barnett, A., Moayedi, M., McCormick, C., Cohn, M., McAndrews, M.P. (2016) Distinct hippocampal functional networks revealed by tractography-based parcellation, Brain Structure and Function, 221(6), 2999-3012
22. McCormick, C., St-Laurent, M., Ty, A., Valiante, T., McAndrews, M.P. (2015) Functional and effective hippocampal-neocortical connectivity during construction and elaboration of autobiographical memory retrieval, Cerebral Cortex, 25:1297-305
23. McCormick, C., Protzner, A.B., Barnett, A.J., Cohn, M., Valiante, T.A., McAndrews, M.P. (2014) Linking DMN connectivity to episodic memory capacity: what we can learn from patients with medial temporal lobe damage? Neuroimage: Clinical, 5:188-96
24. St-Laurent, M., McCormick, C., Cohn, M., Mišić, B., Giannoylis, I., McAndrews, M.P. (2014) Using multivariate data reduction to predict post-surgery memory decline in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, Epilepsy & Behavior, 31:220-7
25. Quraan, M., McCormick, C., Cohn, M., Valiante, T.A., McAndrews, M.P. (2013) Altered resting state brain dynamics in temporal lobe epilepsy: a survey of spectral power, functional connectivity and graph theory metrics, Plos One, 8(7): e68609
26. McCormick, C., Quraan, M., Cohn, M., Valiante, T.A., McAndrews, M.P. (2013) Default mode network connectivity indicates episodic memory capacity in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, Epilepsia, 54(5): 809-18
27. O’Neil, E.B., Protzner, A.B., McCormick, C., McLean, D.A., Poppenk, J., Cate, A.D., Koehler, S. (2012) Distinct Patterns of Functional and Effective Connectivity between Perirhinal Cortex and Other Cortical Regions in Recognition Memory and Perceptual Discrimination, Cerebral Cortex, 22(1): 74-85
28. Protzner, A.B., Valiante, T.A., Kovacevic, N., McCormick, C., McAndrews, M.P. (2010) Hippocampal Signal Complexity in Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: A Noisy Brain is a Healthy Brain, Archives italiennes de biologie, 148(3):289-97
29. McCormick, C., Moscovitch, M., Protzner, A.B., Huber, C.G., McAndrews, M.P. (2010) Hippocampal-neocortical networks differ during encoding and retrieval of relational memory: Functional and effective connectivity, Neuropsychologia, 48(11): 3272-3281
30. Bengner, T., Fortmeier, C. et al. (2006), Sex differences in face recognition memory in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, generalized epilepsy and healthy controls. Epilepsy & Behavior, 9 (4): 593-600 [Under my maiden name Fortmeier]
