Dopamine regulates our motivation, mood, and drive — and thus also our learning and decision-making abilities. In Parkinson's disease, a progressive dopamine deficiency plays a central role. In a new study, researchers from HMU Health and Medical University and TU Darmstadt have now examined the connection between decision-making processes and the administration of dopamine-enhancing medications in more detail. Their findings have been published in the renowned journal Science Advances.

Which neurons in the brain control movements, and how? This question was addressed by a team of researchers from the fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence in a study conducted on an animal model at the interdisciplinary research centre BrainLinks-BrainTools at the University of Freiburg. The findings, now published in the journal Cell Reports, could help to improve the precision of mind-controlled prostheses.

Pandemics follow common fundamental principles despite their differences. The course of pandemics arises from the interplay of biological, mathematical, and social mechanisms. Understanding these principles can improve preparedness and response to future pandemics.

New research questions often arise where different methods, mindsets and subject-specific cultures meet, and it is these kinds of encounter that Bernstein member Professor Tatjana Tchumatchenko and her Bonn colleague Professor Elvira Mass want to make happen in a targeted way in future. The two researchers have been picked as Henriette Herz Scouts by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed a soft, pneumatic glove that restores the ability of people with paralyzed hands to grasp objects. To achieve this, researchers at the TUM Chair of Cognitive Systems use electrical signals from the forearm muscles to reliably predict when a person intends to grasp an object. The invention could one day help people whose hands have been paralyzed as a result of accidents or neurological disorders.

Three University of Bonn researchers have been awarded a Proof of Concept Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). Neuroscientist Professor Dominik Bach, chemist Assistant Professor Ala Bunescu and radiologist Professor Philipp Vollmuth (from the University Hospital Bonn) are each receiving €150,000 over a period of 18 months. This program helps researchers to take findings from their work and turn them into commercial products or services.

Italian scientist Prof. Dr. Eleonora Russo has joined the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Center Mainz (UM) as a DFG Mercator Fellow, effective July 1, 2026. Hosted by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kelsch, Professor of Systems Neuroscience and senior physician at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Russo brings her internationally recognized expertise in theoretical neuroscience from the prestigious BioRobotics Institute at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy.

In a virtual reality study involving zebrafish, researchers from the University of Konstanz and King’s College London have discovered that the development of the eye is influenced by what the fish see during the early stages of life – and this, in turn, alters their behaviour.

Xiao-Jing Wang receives this year’s Valentin Braitenberg Award for his “enormous contributions across many subfields, from biophysics to computational psychiatry” (the award committee). The award ceremony will take place during the Bernstein Conference on September 29, 2026, in Frankfurt am Main.

Two researchers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) have once again been awarded prestigious ERC Advanced Grants by the European Research Council (ERC). The funded projects focus on brain research and will receive more than €2.4 million for UKE over the next five years. With these latest awards, UKE has now secured a total of 40 ERC Grants.