The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
We investigate information processing in the brain
The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen is active in theoretical and experimental neuroscientific basic research. It is owned by the Max Planck Society with a large number of research institutes in Germany and abroad.
The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics investigates how the brain processes information through theoretical and experimental approaches, developing quantitative frameworks to uncover the fundamental mechanisms of neural function. The goal is to capture the processes carried out by a nervous system using mathematical models and computational methods. The Institute's basic research deliberately draws on perspectives from physics, computer science, mathematics, and statistics to explore how intelligence works, both in humans and in artificial systems. Through new technologies, quantitative model systems, and machine learning methods, researchers aim to clarify how mental processes and behavior emerge from neural information processing, answering neuroscientific questions in innovative ways and with unprecedented precision.
Together with the Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory, the Institute forms the Max Planck Campus Tübingen. One interface with the University of Tübingen is the International Max Planck Research School for the Mechanisms of Mental Function and Dysfunction. Further connections exist through two Max Planck Fellows in the fields of computer science and medical imaging. The Institute is also involved in Cyber Valley and the Tübingen AI Competence Centre, making it part of a growing ecosystem in which insights from computational neuroscience and the development of artificial systems increasingly converge.
Biological Cybernetics
Early in the 20th century, researchers realized that complex systems – and most systems in nature and technology are complex – are almost invariably dynamic, constantly adjusting to disturbances to keep on track. More
Heritage
The origin of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics goes back to the Cybernetics Research Group. It was founded in 1958 by Otto Hahn on the initiative of Wolfhard Weidel, Georg Melchers and Alfred Kühn and consisted of the zoologist Bernhard Hassenstein, the technical physicist Hans Wenking and the theoretical physicist Werner Reichardt. After Bernhard Hassenstein's departure, this became the nucleus of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, founded in 1968. More
Research
In addition to the three research departments Computational Neuroscience (Director: Peter Dayan), Body-Brain Cybernetics (Director: Ivan de Araujo), High-Field Magnetic Resonance (Max Planck Fellow: Klaus Scheffler), and Sensory & Sensorimotor Systems (Max Planck Fellow: Li Zhaoping), there are several independent research groups. More
Network
The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics is closely connected with the Max Planck Institutes at the Tübingen and Stuttgart research campuses as well as with the neuroscientific institutes of the Max Planck Society in Germany and abroad. More
Part of the Max Planck Campus in Tübingen
Together with the Max Planck Institute for Biology, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory, the Institute forms the Max Planck Campus Tübingen. Various facilities on the campus are shared with the neighbouring Max Planck Institutes. These include the EU Regional Office, the central campus IT, a specialist library, lecture halls and event facilities, the Max Planck Guest House and the cafeteria. A day-care center for children is also part of the campus. More