A Spotlight on Cooperation: from Behavior to the Brain
This series explores the vital role of cooperation in human evolution, survival, reproductive success, and social cohesion. Talks will examine cooperation in eusocial species such as social insects and naked mole rats, where intense interactions ensure survival. Cooperation can be mutually beneficial or disadvantageous, creating apparent dissonance that theories like Hamilton’s kin selection address. The series adopts a multidisciplinary approach, inviting experts to discuss neural correlates of empathy, eusociality, and group decision-making. Researchers and students will engage in topics such as social interactions, decision-making, empathy, animal cognition, and the genetics of cooperative behavior.
Invited speakers:
Dr. Alison Barker - Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in FFM, Germany
Dr. James Burkett - College of Medicine, The University of Toledo, Ohio
Dr. Andy Gardner - School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Scotland
Dr. Valeria Gazzola - Mechanisms of Social Behaviour. Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Dr. Christian Keysers - Comparative Social Neuroscience, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience
Dr. Ewelina Knapska - Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Poland
Dr. Friederike Range - Department of Interdisciplinary Lifesciences, Veterinary Medicine, University of Vienna
Dr. Simone Shamay-Tsoory - Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Israel
Organizers:
Brecht Lab: Ben Gerhardt, Elçin Tunçkol, Lena Kaufmann, Noémie Reveyaz, & Malav Shah
Empathy and Interpersonal Processes Group: Dr. Anna-Lena Bröcker
Hörnberg Group: Rosalba Olga Proce, Madhu Nagathihalli Kantharaju, & Dr. Tobias Pohl
Lewin Group; Athanasios Balomenos, Dr. Daniel Mendez, Firdevs Murad, & Letizia Dalmasso
The Circuits Club Berlin
"The Circuits Club Berlin" is a speaker series in which invited speakers talk on topics in systems neuroscience and neighboring fields, such as neuroethology, neuroimaging, and connectomics. The series aims at having vivid discussions with invited speakers, opening doors for future collaborations, and at facilitating scientific exchange among neuroscience labs in Berlin.
Invited speakers:
Dr. Jennifer Bizley - UCL Ear Institute, UCL London, UK
Dr. Vivek Jayaraman - Janelia Research Campus, HHMI, USA
Dr. Eva Naumann - Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke College, U.S.A
Dr. Israel Nelken - Center for Brain Sciences and ther Institute of Life Science, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Organizers:
de Hoz Lab: Linfeng Zhang & Xing Xiao
Hiesinger Lab: Jana Mach
Judkewitz Lab: Johannes Veith & Verity Cook
Larkum Lab: Sarah Duverdin
Owald Lab: Sridhar Jagannathan & Tania Fernandez
Poulet Lab: Smriti Sharma
Connectomics and Neuromodulation
Brain stimulation therapies play a crucial role in treating multifarious brain disorders – and the “connectomic revolution” has inspired a growing interest in their network mechanism and targets. Facilitated by neuroimaging, electrophysiological, computational and microscopic advancements, both clinical-translational and “broad-lens” insights into global brain function may arise from such an integration of the fields of connectomics with neuromodulation. However, since the connectomic neuromodulation community is scattered around the world, young scientists in Berlin may find it challenging to get in touch with international mentors. Therefore, we would like to bring these mentors to Berlin and allow early career researchers to share the stage with them. Moreover, we hope to create a positive networking environment – that beyond the “what” advocates toward an improved “how” in our approach to neuroscience – and foster a close-knit community for future international collaborations.
Invited speakers:
Dr. Colin McNamara - Medical Research Council Brain Network Dynamics, University of Oxford, University of Oxford
Dr. Steven Miletic – Social and Behavioural Sciences, Psychology, and Cognitive Psychology, University Leiden, Netherlands
Timothy Owen West
Dr. Charlotte Stagg - Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, England
Dr. Philip Starr - Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Lennart Verhagen – Donders Centre for Cognition, Radbound University
Organizers:
Beck Lab: Annika Rosenthal
Horn Lab: Barbara Hollunder, Nanditha Rajamani, & Patricia Zvarova
LNM-Stroke, Endres / Kufner Labs: Ana Sofia Rios Infante
Neumann Lab: Alessia Cavallo, Meera Chikermane, & Thomas Samuel Binns
Soekadar Lab: David Haslacher
Neural Mechanisms of Psychedelic Drug Action
The so-called psychedelic renaissance of the last decade has brought psychedelic substances back into the global research spotlight. Psychedelics are under intense investigation for their potential applications in the treatment of depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Until today, their mechanisms of action at the molecular, cellular, circuit, and system levels have not been fully clarified, and it remains unclear how these relate to the induced alterations in consciousness functions. Unraveling these mechanisms requires unprecedented international collaboration. This talk series pursues this goal by promoting 1) collaboration among young researchers and helping local students learn about a growing research field, 2) the sharing of data, novel methods, hypotheses, and theories of psychedelic action among leading figures in psychedelic neuroscience research.
Invited speakers:
Dr. Javier Gonzalez-Maeso - Faculty of Physiology and Biophysics, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Dr. Alex Kwan - Yale School of Medicine, USA
Dr. Natasha Mason - Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Maastricht, USA
Dr. Fernanda Palhano-Fontes - Brain Institute, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Dr. Enzo Tagliazucchi - University of Buenos Aires and Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat), Argentina
Organizers:
CCNB/FU Berlin: Kasey Devitt
Gold Group: Jelena Brasanac
Larkum Group: Anna Bronec, Debapratim Jana, & Jiameng Wu
Ott Group: Eric Lonergan
Psychedelic Substance Research Group & CCNB: Dr. Timo Torsten Schmidt
Spikes - Bug or Feature?
Biological neurons use spikes to communicate. What is the advantage of spike-based communication? How do spikes encode information, and how do they relate to high-level neural dynamics? How can synaptic plasticity rules be defined in the context of spikes? This talk series will highlight recent advances in understanding of spikes – from spike initiation to large-scale network dynamics.
Invited speakers:
Dr. Guillaume Bellec - Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience, EPFL Switzerland
Simon Benjamin Brandt - Computational Neuroscience Group, University of Bern, Switzerland
Dr. Romain Brette - Institut de la Vision Paris, France
Dr. Mihai Petrovici - NeuroTMA Group, Department of Physiology, University of Bern, Switzerland
Dr. Jean-Pascal Pfister - Theoretical Neuroscience Group, University of Bern, Switzerland
Dr. Friedemann Zenke - Friedrich-Mescher-Institute for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland
Organizers:
Gütig Lab: Timo Wunderlich & Rosa Zimmermann
Ott Lab: Gregory Knoll
Schwalger Lab: Nils Greven
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