Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

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Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Category: research Institute
Carrier: Max Planck Society
Legal form of the carrier: Registered association
Seat of the wearer: Munich
Facility location: Tübingen
Type of research: Basic research
Subjects: Natural sciences
Areas of expertise: Biology , cybernetics , cognitive science
Basic funding: Federal government (50%), states (50%)
Management: Peter Dayan (Managing Director)
Employee: approx. 240
Homepage: www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de

The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics is a non-university research facility under the sponsorship of the Max Planck Society based in Tübingen . The institute primarily conducts basic research in the field of natural sciences in the field of biology and cybernetics .

history

The origins of the institute, founded in 1968, lie in the "Cybernetics Research Group" established in 1958 by Werner Reichardt , Bernhard Hassenstein and Hans Wenking , which was based at the Max Planck Institute for Biology at the time. The Max Planck Institute for Biology itself dates back to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology, which was founded in Berlin-Dahlem in 1913 . The institute was founded in 1968 with the directors Valentin Braitenberg , Karl Georg Götz , Kuno Kirschfeld and Werner Reichardt.

research

The institute researches cognitive processes in experimental, theoretical and methodological areas. Close cooperation between physiologists, psychophysicists, psychologists, biologists, chemists and computer scientists enables questions in the field of visual cognition to be dealt with in an interdisciplinary manner using a wide range of methods.

The departments and main research areas of the institute are:

  • Computational Neuroscience
    One of the main research areas of this department is the question of how the brain makes decisions. Experimental and theoretical methods as well as computer simulations help to examine the processes that make us make decisions and act. One example is reinforcement learning, which stands for a number of machine learning methods . The brain brings together positive and negative experiences and takes them into account in future decisions. The department was founded by Peter Dayan in 2018 and has been headed by him ever since. He is also the managing director of the institute.
  • Sensory & Sensorimotor Systems
    The department, founded in 2018 and headed by Li Zhaoping, deals with questions of how the brain receives sensory stimuli, processes them and uses them to control motor skills and for decision-making. Different theoretical and experimental approaches are used for this purpose: including psychophysics in humans, animal behavior, electrophysiology and imaging processes.
  • High-field magnetic resonance center
    This was founded in 2003 and was headed by Kamil Ugurbil until the end of 2007. In July 2007 the new building for the center was inaugurated, after the final expansion of the department, the aim of research will be to further develop the current technology of functional magnetic resonance tomography and to make the high image resolution previously only achieved in animal experiments suitable for use in humans. The center also helps to intensify the cooperation between the institute and the University of Tübingen and other institutions in the region. A corresponding cooperation agreement was concluded with the university in 2002. The department has been headed by Klaus Scheffler since 2011.
  • Perception, Cognition and Action
    This department, founded in 1993 and headed by Emeritus Heinrich Bülthoff , examines the information processing that underlies visual and haptic object recognition and orientation in space. The focus is on the question of how shape and space are represented in the brain so that we can name and grasp objects or orientate ourselves in foreign environments. Interactive experiments carried out with the methods of computer graphics and virtual reality led to results that are already used in the automatic synthesis of faces and in the " homing behavior " of autonomous robots .

Former department

controversy

In September 2014, in the department at the Institute "cognitive physiology processes" were carried out animal experiments on rhesus monkeys in a television report by Stern TV criticized as animal torment.

According to later research by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , however, the laboratory's recordings were "cut to suit a sensation". The Soko Tierschutz association was able to use covert recordings to "create a climate in which the scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen can be called criminals with impunity and are threatened with death". In addition to specific death threats, the children of the scientists are also marginalized in schools. The neuroscientist and head of the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Stefan Treue , who inspected the laboratory as an expert, made it clear that the animals in Tübingen are treated in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act.

In May 2015, Nikos Logothetis , Director of the Physiology of Cognitive Processes department , announced that no more experiments on monkeys would be carried out at the institute. Tübingen's Mayor Boris Palmer described this as a "serious setback for research". Hundreds of scientists, including 16 Nobel Prize winners, expressed their solidarity with the then head of the institute. In December 2018, the proceedings against Logothetis regarding violations of the Animal Welfare Act were discontinued before legal proceedings were opened; the allegations could not be confirmed.

Infrastructure

The institute is currently managed by the managing director Peter Dayan , the director Nikos Logothetis and Klaus Scheffler. Heinrich Bülthoff is emeritus.

At the end of 2008, a total of 234 employees were working at the institute, including 40 scientists and 114 young scientists ; There are also 79 third-party funded employees and visiting researchers.

literature

  • Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics , in: Eckart Henning , Marion Kazemi : Handbook on the history of the institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm / Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science 1911–2011 - Data and Sources , Berlin 2016, 2 part volumes, part volume 1: Institutes and research centers A – L ( online, PDF, 75 MB ), page 871ff. (Chronology of the institute)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Animal testing laboratory of the Max Planck Institute In: Stern.de of September 9, 2014
  2. ^ Tübingen Max Planck Institute under fire In: Stuttgarter-Nachrichten of September 11, 2014
  3. ↑ FAZ: A brain in the pillory , January 17, 2015
  4. ↑ Focus Online : Scientists threatened! Max Planck Institute stops experiments with monkeys , May 4, 2015
  5. ↑ World: Is Research on Monkeys Really Necessary? , dated May 11, 2015
  6. ↑ Volkart Wildermuth in conversation with Arndt Reuning: Controversy over experiments with monkeys: Proceedings against Tübingen brain researchers stopped. In: www.deutschlandfunk.de. December 21, 2018, accessed December 23, 2018 .

Coordinates: 48 ° 32 '12 "  N , 9 ° 3' 30.5"  E