Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence (Martinsried site)

Scientists trace dynamic color-change circuit in zebrafish larvae

Study reveals how changes in cell behavior and numbers can drive the formation of distinctive grooves and ridges in the brain

By uncovering the blinking communication of river birds, scientists have shed new light on the mechanisms and evolution of animal interactions

New insights into the emergence of brain cells that keep neural activity in balance

Evolution has provided birds with a clever strategy to eat extremely acidic fruit 

Nerve cells in the visual cortex respond to simple light stimuli, e.g. lines or edges of a certain orientation in space. Surprisingly, the preferred orientation of a cell changes over time, it shows “drift”. Our experiments not only reveal the characteristics of this phenomenon in the visual cortex, but also provide clues as to what causes it and which mechanisms counteract the drift.

We do not always perceive odors in the same way. Instead, our perception is modulated by previous experiences, context and internal states such as hunger or stress, which also modulates the behavioral response. Our research group investigates what happens in the brain during this process, using the zebrafish as a model. In the transparent brains of the animals, we are able to investigate how sensory, associative and motor circuits interact to produce odor-controlled behavior.

Depression is a disorder that affects thoughts, but also the ability to engage in the most basic actions, as simple as getting out of bed. Therefore, this disorder must perturb a core network of brain regions implicated in our motivation to act. Our team at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology investigates in mice what part of the brain is active when they spontaneously engage in an action, using a novel method to record whole-brain activity. The goal is to better understand what brain circuits controls our drive to act and how they become dysfunctional in psychiatric disorders.

Neurodegenerative diseases are devastating disorders for which no cure currently exists. The molecular mechanisms of these diseases are still not well understood. A characteristic feature of neurodegeneration is the accumulation of protein aggregates in the brain. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology investigate the effects of aggregates on nerve cells, using histological and biochemical methods, behavioral tests and in vivo microscopy. The aim of these studies is to gain a deeper understanding of how diseases develop, in order to develop better treatments in the future.

As soon as we open our eyes and look around, we immediately realize where we are, which objects surround us, and in which direction they are moving. All this information is contained within the images that our e eyes deliver to our brain, but only implicitly: to extract it in an explicit way, our brain has to compute. But how do nerve cells compute? Using motion vision in the fruit fly Drosophila as an example for neural computation, we were able to answer this question in large parts within recent years.