About Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Göttingen

When we are parsing a sentence, recognizing a face, or are recalling an episode from memory, the underlying neuronal processes are carried out by the dynamics of large and complex networks of neurons of our brains, for the analysis of which the neurosciences presently do not possess systematic methods or successful general paradigms. It is a generally accepted view that the successful approaches will need to integrate advanced mathematical modelling and analysis methods of network dynamics together with experimental recording and manipulation of large networks in vivo. While mathematical modelling has a long tradition e.g. in theoretical physics, in the neurosciences only now a new interdisciplinary generation of scientists is emerging that equally command biological competence and theoretical-mathematical skills, which are both considered necessary prerequisites to finding the desired new routes to the understanding of brain function.

In the recently established Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) Göttingen, theoreticians with a long-standing involvement in neuroscience collaborate with advanced experimental groups in order to decipher the functioning of the central nervous system from single synapses to the brain.

This scientific configuration found the recognition of an international board of referees upon whose vote the BCCN was equipped with a BMBF-grant for 5 years, allowing it e.g. to create a new chair for computational neuroscience. The BCCN Göttingen includes theoretical research groups based in the faculty of Physics (T. Geisel, M. Herrmann, R. Kree, A. Zippelius) and Mathematics/Computer Science (F. Wörgötter) of the Georg-August-University Göttingen, and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (T. Geisel, M. Timme, F. Wolf), as well as experimental groups from the faculties of Medicine (M. Dutschmann, B. Keller, T. Moser, W. Paulus, D. Schild) and Biology (M. Hasselhorn, T. Rammsayer, S. Treue) of the Georg-August-University Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (J. Frahm, E. Neher), and the German Primate Center (S. Treue).

Moreover, based on parts of this research adaptive controllers for prosthetic limbs and data analysis methods for neuroprostheses are studied, evaluated, and prototyped in cooperation with the company Otto Bock HealthCare

The coordinator of the BCCN Göttingen is Prof Geisel, head of the Department of Nonlinear Dynamics at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization.

All institutions participating in the Bernstein Center
and other Neuroscience research facilities can be reached within 10 minutes,
where the distances between most institutions are much shorter.