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Get to know the Bernstein Network!

Get to know the Bernstein Network!

Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience

Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience

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Bernstein Conference 2025

Bernstein Conference 2025

Bernstein Conference

Bernstein Conference

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Welcome

The Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience connects experimental and theoretical scientists. It comprises more than 200 research groups and 450 individual scientists from all over the world who combine experimental neuroscientific approaches with theoretical models and computer simulations.

The Bernstein Network was launched in 2004 through a major funding initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) which aimed at advancing the transfer of theoretical knowledge to clinical and technical applications. The network is named after the German physiologist and biophysicist Julius Bernstein (1839-1917).

News

Freiburg, Germany May 16, 2025

The next application deadline for new Bernstein nodes is approaching

Bernstein Nodes represent local groups of Bernstein members who are located either in the same city or in several neighboring cities without Bernstein Centers. The next application deadline for new Bernstein Nodes is May 30.

Berlin, Germany May 8, 2025

Too fast to see: Eye movements predict speed limits in perception

If you quickly move a camera from object to object, the abrupt shift between the two points causes a motion smear that might give you nausea. Our eyes, however, do movements like these two or three times per second. These rapid movements are called saccades, and although the visual stimulus during a saccade shifts abruptly across the retina, our brain seems to keep it under the hood: we never perceive the shift. New research shows that the speed of our saccades predicts the speed limit in our vision when an object becomes too fast to see. According to a study published in Nature Communications by researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Science of Intelligence (TU Berlin), visual stimuli ––think a chipmunk darting around or a tennis ball hit with full force–– become invisible when they move at a speed, duration, and distance similar to those of one of our saccades. This suggests that the properties of the human visual system are best understood in the context of the movements of our eyes.

Frankfurt am Main, Germany April 30, 2025

Rethinking Consciousness: When Science Puts Itself to the Test

What is consciousness? For centuries, scientists and philosophers have tried to understand how the brain creates our inner world—how neural activity translates into the taste of coffee, for example, or the sting of pain. Now, an international, theory-neutral research consortium, led by the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has put two of today’s most studied theories of consciousness to the test. The results, published in Nature, challenge core assumptions of both models and propose a new way to study complex scientific questions.

Munich, Germany April 23, 2025

Neurobiology: Movies “play out” as an oscillatory symphony in the brain

LMU neuroscientists have shown that the brain processes natural visual stimuli with dedicated oscillatory bursts emerging in the visual neocortex.

Events

Bernstein Conference

Call for Abstracts

Bernstein Conference 2025

Past Conferences

Calls

Lower Saxony Impulse Professorship

The "Lower Saxony Impulse Professorship" addresses academics approaching the end of their early career phase up to a maximum of ten years after completing their doctorate. It is intended to support universities in the state of Lower Saxony in their efforts to attract and retain early career researchers – thereby consolidating Lower Saxony as a science location.
The program addresses academics approaching the end of the early career phase up to a maximum of ten years after completing their doctorate. The funding is intended to increase their promising career potential in terms of disciplinary expertise as well as their capacity to shape research profiles and structures. In this light, it seeks to boost their potential for future leadership roles ("rising stars").

Deadline: 01.06.2025

Call for proposals for a major instrumentation initiative 2026

The German Research Foundation (DFG) invites scientists to submit topic proposals for the establishment and announcement of a large-scale equipment initiative.

Deadline: 10.06.2025

The Brain Prize

The Brain Prize is an international award that recognises and celebrates highly original and groundbreaking advances in any area of brain research, from basic neuroscience to applied clinical research. The window for nomination is open from May 1 to September 1 every year.

Deadline: 01.09.2025