About us

The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics is studying signal and information processing in the brain. We know that our brain is constantly processing a vast amount of sensory and intrinsic information with which our behavior is coordinated accordingly. Interestingly, how the brain actually achieves these tasks is less well understood, for example, how it perceives, recognizes, and learns new objects. The scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics aim to determine which signals and processes are responsible for creating a coherent percept of our environment and for eliciting the appropriate behavior. Scientists of three departments and seven research groups are working towards answering fundamental questions about processing in the brain, using different approaches and methods.

About 200 international scientists work in three departments and several research groups towards understanding these processes, making use of a broad variety of experimental and theoretical techniques, including electrophysiological recordings, imaging methods, virtual reality and cybernetic modeling. The Institute is one of three Max Planck Institutes in Tuebingen and one of over 80 research facilities of the Max Planck Society.