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Neuroscience

Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) leads brain research in Ireland and is the country's only dedicated neuroscience research institute. TCIN has led the growth of Trinity College Dublin's and Ireland's strong international reputation in neuroscience to become one of Europe's leading research institutes.

Trinity’s Neuroscience researchers work in the areas of synapses, cognition and behaviours, neuropsychiatry and neurodevelopmental disorders, neurodegeneration, neuroprotection and neurorepair. Trinity’s neuroscience researchers focus on platform technologies specifically imaging and neural engineering.

Please see the TCIN Strategic Plan 2010-2016 (PDF 2.1 MB)

Research Institutes / Centres

Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience

The Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) leads brain research in Ireland in the following areas;

• Synapses, Cognition and Behaviour: focuses on the analysis of the functions of the brain (such as attention, memory and reasoning) with the aim of understanding the brain systems that sustain and underlie specific psychological functions (such as spatial navigation or episodic memory). This thematic research area addresses a major challenge for contemporary science: to understand the brain’s systems and circuits sufficiently to enable cures for neurological conditions associated with age, injury and disease.
• Neuropsychiatry and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: addresses neuropsychiatric disorders which are major contributors to the global burden of disease and are thus of significant individual and socioeconomic importance. Research in this thematic area develops a scientific understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying these disorders, and the translation of this knowledge into improving clinical diagnosis and enabling effective treatments.
• Neurodegeneration, Neuroprotection and Neurorepair: Understanding the fundamental mechanisms by which the brain develops and matures, and by which it responds to insult, are central unsolved problems of contemporary neuroscience. The major goals for this research area are to identify new targets for the prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and to engage in translational neuroscience by exploiting findings of preclinical studies for application to clinical disorders.

TCIN possesses advanced systems for small-bore preclinical brain imaging, and for human brain imaging. The goal is to use neuroimaging tools in a truly integrative, interdisciplinary manner for the detection, real-time monitoring, and diagnostic prediction of physiological and cognitive states.