Individual Projects

Neuroprosthesis depend on precise stimulation of neurons, both spatially and in the time domain. A new paradigm, optical stimulation with laser pulses, has the potential to achieve much higher spatial resolution compared to electrical stimulation, because light can be focused down to a spot ... more

Recurrent neuronal networks are thought to serve as a physical basis for learning and memory. For example, the recurrent network in the CA3 region of hippocampus, exhibits the replay of stored sequences of previously experienced events. This replay is accompanied by the fieldpotential-pheno... more

We study the neural mechanisms underlying visual course control in flies and its application in autonomously navigating robots and vision-based robot control. In the fly, ample evidence exists for a specific mechanism of local motion detection, the so-called Reichardt detector. In the curre ... more

In the struggle for survival in a complex and dynamic environment, animals have developed a multitude of sensory systems. These sensory systems form the link between events in the real world and the neuronal representation of the very same events in the brain of ... more

We are regularly exposed to several concurrent sounds, producing a mixture of binaural cues. The neuronal mechanisms underlying the localization of concurrent sounds are, however, not well understood. The major binaural cues for localizing low-frequency sounds in the horizontal plane are int ... more

This projects aims at elucidating the computational principles underlying neuronal processing of static and dynamic acoustic cues. A major focus has been the problem of how our auditory system can reliably localize sound sources in a reverberant environment. In this context we successfully ... more

One of the most critical steps in encoding sound for neuronal processing occurs when the analog pressure wave is coded into discrete nerve-action potentials. Recent pool models of the inner hair cell synapse do not reproduce the dead time period after an intense stimulus, so we used visual ... more

The auditory system is an excellent model to study temporal aspects of information processing be-cause of the pronounced temporal structure of communication sounds. In our analysis of information transmission by neurons in the auditory brainstem we compared two neuron types: octopus neurons ... more

Gain modulation is a major computational principle of sensorimotor transformations. Changes in the sensory environment or variations of the internal state demand an adaptive reweighting of sensory inputs. Smooth pursuit eye movements exhibit a dynamic gain control, resulting in an increased ... more

Active and passive head movements both generate sensory signals in the vestibular system, yet require completely different reactions to this input. Here we investigate the context-dependent processing of vestibular signals with a variety of methods. To clarify the role of vestibular sensory ... more

We are interested in the basic mechanisms and principles of human navigation. ... more