National Network Computational Neuroscience

How does the brain work? This question still constitutes a major scientific challenge. A better understanding of the brain will allow major innovations for medicine, education and new technologies. The 'National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience' aims at exploiting this potential.

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The human brain is one of the most complex structures that evolution has produced. A billion nerve cells process enormous amounts of information in recurrent, complex networks. Up until today, these neuronal processes are insufficiently understood. The discipline of Computational Neuroscience takes a new approach to investigating these processes. It combines experiment and theory in order to decipher the neuronal processes in the brain and to reproduce and simulate them in computer models. This approach can be expected to significantly speed up the scientific progress. 

The results of this research open a multitude of applications. In medicine, they, for example, allow the development of prostheses and technical aids (e.g., for the paraplegic or for stroke patients), as well as new therapies for neurological diseases like Alzheimer's disease. In computer science and modern communication technology, new approaches to the control of robots, for technical assistance systems (like driver's assistance systems) and for the development of high performance computers can be derived. In the field of education, the cognitive processes during learning may be become better understood.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) wanted to unlock this innovative potential in Germany by creating a dedicated funding initiative. With the National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience, it has created new structures to bundle, forster and interconnect the excellent existing expertise in the experimental and theoretical neurosciences in Germany, in order to give it a new quality and to make it internationally visible. The network is named after the German physiologist Julius Bernstein (1839 - 1917), whose 'membrane theory' provided the first biophysical explanation for the neuronal transmission of excitation. The Bernstein Network was initiated in 2004 with four 'Bernstein Centers for Computational Neuroscience', that constitute the central structural elements of the network. The funding measure 'Bernstein Partners', since 2007, integrates further experimental and theoretical expertise into the Bernstein Network.

Starting from 2006, the BMBF annually confers the 'Bernstein Award for Computational Neuroscience' to an excellent young researcher. The prize money of up to 1.25 million Euros allows the awardees to set up their own research group at a German University or research institution.

Since 2008 and 2009, respectively, the  'Bernstein Focus: Neurotechnology' and the 'Bernstein Focus: Neuronal Basis of Learning' build a bridge to applications. The participation of industry partners ensures that research results can be translated into concrete, marketable, products.

The national neuroinformatics node (G-Node) integrates the Bernstein Network into the international neuroinformatics network 'International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility', whose formation had been recommended the OECD.

The Bernstein Coordination Site supports the activities of the Bernstein Network, represents it nationally and internationally and disseminates the Network's research to the press and the general public.
Currently, more than 200 academic research groups and 22 companies from all over Germany take part in the Bernstein Network.

More detailed information can be found on the Bernstein Network website. http://www.nncn.de/willkommen-en/view?set_language=en.

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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Bernstein Newsletter

  A walking robot uses "chaos control" to flexibly switch between different gaits and a trunc robot paints Chinese characters. Scientists unravel the 50 year old riddle about the function of spikelets in the brain. In addition to these new research results, the current Bernstein Newsletter reports about diverse honors and awards. Three of the Leibniz awardees of 2010 are members of the Bernstein Network and Tim Gollisch, Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, has received the Bernard Katz Lecture Award. He investigates how the retina translates image information into neuronal signals.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/7594.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Bernstein Newsletter Sonderausgabe Lernen

  With the new funding initiative "Bernstein Focus: Neuronal Basis of Learning" the Bernstein Network now gains eight new joint research projects that will approach questions of learning and memory formation in the coming five years. Brain development, therapies after stroke, learning through imitation, decision making or short term memory - the topics investigated in the different joint research projects are very diverse. They are presented in a special issue of the Bernstein Newsletter.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/14089.php)
   
  
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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Support of Young Researchers in Computational Neuroscience

  The new discipline of computational neuroscience investigates the questions of how our brain works. Since 2004, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports this new research field in the neurosciences with the funding initiative 'National Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience'. The National Bernstein Network links the theoretical and experimental neurosciences and investigates the neuronal basis of the capacities of the brain. This research will allow a better understanding of brain functions and will thereby contribute to promoting applications in the areas of information technologies, health and education.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/12888.php)
   
  

• topic Hightech Strategy

  Bernstein Network Computational Neuroscience

  Thinking, sensing, learning, remembering - all mental functions reside within the brain. At the same time, this organ is probably the most complex structure that evolution has ever produced. Understanding the brain is the prerequisite for creating new methods for prevention and treatment of diseases of the nervous system. It may also help developing new strategies for learning and teaching. It may even be used for the design of new, 'intelligent' technical devices, such as neuroprostheses or more powerful computer systems.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/3122.php)