Coordination Funds

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The research unit FOR 1847 asks for a second period of funding to enable the scientists involved to continue their joint efforts to promote the understanding of how the human brain realizes complex functions such as perception, communication, or the guidance of movement, a goal that requires a characterization of information processing at multiple levels, from synapses and neurons, to the processing of information in local microcircuits, up to large-scale interactions between distant brain areas. Invasive studies of the brains of non-human primates, used as models of the human brain, play a key role in research on the neuronal underpinnings of higher brain functions. They can take advantage of the similarity of the cognitive and behavioural repertoire of humans and non-human primates and of the underlying brain architectures, which are both direct consequences of the phylogenetic proximity of the two groups. The research unit brought together a group of scientists who try to unravel information processing in the brain of non-human primates underlying complex behaviours, deploying sophisticated combinations of behavioural paradigms and cutting edge neurophysiological, neuropharmacological and optogenetic methods. The group members strongly believe that answering the question of how highly developed brains generate complex functions requires an understanding of both information processing and its differences in distinct neuronal circuits (research group A), as well as an understanding of how signals are exchanged between circuits and areas (research group B). As in the first funding period, the neurobiological research programme will be supplemented by activities to establish and develop the highest standards of animal experimentation and to improve the public,s knowledge and acceptance of this core aspect of modern neuroscience research (primate welfare, ethics, and outreach projects). The very successful graduate training programme will continue to train the next generation of primate neurobiologists. The proposed research unit therefore will provide considerable added value for primate neurobiology not only in terms of scientific but also of structural benefits. The modest changes of the group composition, termination of one rather marginal project (A4) and addition of two new projects (A6 and B5), promise to promote the group coherence and additional momentum for the groups work on the interaction of vision and behaviour.