Projekt

Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by three main criteria: 1) hostile intent, 2) imbalance of power and 3) repetition over a period of time. In modern day society, bullying can range from one-to-one to group bullying, is increasingly evident in various kinds of daily contexts of social interaction including family, neighborhood, school and workplace, and is massively augmented by social media websites. Bullying can cause various negative effects on the brain of susceptible individuals including anxiety, depression and an increased risk for suicide. However, the brain regions, neural circuits and molecules involved in these processes are completely unclear. The key questions of this project are which effect does bullying have on the molecular anatomy of synapse populations in the murine brain and whether synaptic resilience factors can be identified. This knowledge can be used to develop molecular strategies to prevent the impact of bullying on neural circuits and to prevent mal-adaptive consequences on the brain like anxiety and depression.

• Prof. Michael Schmeißer

  Universitätsmedizin der Johannes
  Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
  Institut für Mikroskopische Anatomie und
  Neurobiologie
  Mainz