“Neural Plasticity in Rehabilitation and Psychotherapy – New Perspectives and Findings”

Neural plasticity has become a major focus of neuroscience. Recent theories and experimental observations of this research field have radically altered our views about the brain and its capacity and shown that the brain continuously adapts its structures and functions to changing environments across the whole lifespan. A relatively new subarea of this field is focused on structural and functional plasticity of the brain as a result of behavioral and cognitive training and training of emotion regulation in several areas of therapy and rehabilitation (neurology, neuropsychology, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions, psychotherapy, physiotherapy and sports therapy, etc.). Most research in this field is guided by the conviction that any positive outcomes of therapy and rehabilitative measures will only occur when the interventions significantly change the underlying physiological and pathological structures and/or functions of the brain.

We are looking for original empirical articles as well as review-type articles or meta-analyses that focus on training-induced or therapy-induced brain plasticity in the fields of sensory, motor, or sensorimotor disorders, language disorders, cognitive or affective disorders, or psychopathological conditions. We are especially interested in contributions that advance our current knowledge by addressing new perspectives and new methods of intervention and testing the training-induced or therapy-induced brain plasticity.

How to submit: Interested authors should submit a letter of intent including: (1) a working title for the manuscript, (2) names, affiliations, and contact information for all authors, and (3) an abstract detailing the content of the proposed manuscript to either of the guest editors, Wolfgang H. R. Miltner (mailto:wolfgang.miltner@uni-jena.de) or Otto W. Witte (mailto:otto.witte@med.uni-jena.de).

There is a two-stage submissions process. Initially, authors are requested to submit only abstracts of their proposed papers. Authors invited to submit a full paper should then do so. All papers will undergo full peer review.

• Deadline for submission of abstracts is April 15, 2015.
• Deadline for submission of full papers is August 15, 2015.

The journal seeks to maintain a short turnaround time, with the final version of the accepted papers being due by November 15, 2015. The topical issue will be published as issue 2 (2016).

For additional information, please contact:

• Wolfgang H. R. Miltner (mailto:wolfgang.miltner@uni-jena.de) or
• Otto W. Witte (mailto:otto.witte@med.uni-jena.de).

About the Journal

The Zeitschrift für Psychologie, founded in 1890, is the oldest psychology journal in Europe and the second oldest in the world. One of the founding editors was Hermann Ebbinghaus. Since 2007 it is published in English and devoted to publishing topical issues that provide state-of-the-art reviews of current research in psychology.

For detailed author guidelines, please see the journal’s website at www.hogrefe.com/journals/zfp/