Researchers at Chemnitz University of Technology explore human-robot conversations – and share their insights in a podcast episode.

Seeing is more than light hitting the retina — it is the result of a finely tuned interplay between networks of neurons. A new study by researchers at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) and international partners shows how the brain learns to reliably process visual stimuli after the eyes open. With experience, incoming signals become more precise and increasingly aligned with internal circuits — a process that enables stable visual perception. These insights could inform advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and therapeutic approaches.

Dr Oliver Barnstedt and Dr Anggi Hapsari each receive an ERC Starting Grant.

Flies too need their sleep. In order to be able to react to dangers, however, they must not completely phase out the environment. Researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now deciphered how the animal's brain produces this state. As they describe in the journal Nature*, the fly brain filters out visual information rhythmically during sleep – so that strong visual stimuli could still wake the animal up.

A simulated child and a domestic environment like in a computer game: these are the research foundations of the group led by Prof. Jochen Triesch at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS). It uses computer models to find out how we learn to see and understand—and how this could help improve machine learning.

Large language models (LLMs) from the field of artificial intelligence can predict how the human brain responds to visual stimuli. This is shown in a new study published in Nature Machine Intelligence by Professor Adrien Doerig (Freie Universität Berlin) together with colleagues from Osnabrück University, University of Minnesota, and Université de Montréal, titled “High-Level Visual Representations in the Human Brain Are Aligned with Large Language Models.” For the study, the team of scientists used LLMs similar to those behind ChatGPT.

Sara A. Solla receives this year’s Valentin Braitenberg Award for Computational Neuroscience for her “outstanding contributions to computational neuroscience over decades” (the award committee). The award ceremony will take place during the Bernstein Conference on September 30, 2025, in Frankfurt am Main.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is designed to make our health system even more efficient. Yet cyberattacks are capable not only of jeopardizing patient safety but also impairing medical devices and hindering the work of emergency responders. With the “SecureNeuroAI” project, researchers from the University of Bonn, University Hospital Bonn and FIZ Karlsruhe – the Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure are aiming to develop secure, AI-powered methods for detecting medical emergencies in real time using the example of epileptic seizures, although their findings should be applicable to many other areas. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is providing almost €2.5 million in funding over a three-year period.

Free-living groups of fish recognize dangers more quickly and react more accurately the larger they are.

A new connectomics research center will be established on the TUM campus in Garching, which will focus on the comprehensive mapping and analysis of all neuronal connections in the brain. At the Center for Structural and Functional Connectomics (CSFC) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), researchers from various disciplines will collaborate in such areas as state-of-the-art imaging technologies. The Joint Science Conference (GWK) has approved funding of around 69 million euros.