Welcome to Brainworks
Neurobiology and Biophysics
Prof. em. Dr. Ad Aertsen
Bernstein Center Freiburg
Albert-Ludwigs-University
Hansastr. 9a
79104 Freiburg
Germany
tel +49 (0)761-203-9550
fax +49 (0)761-203-9559
ad.aertsen@biologie.uni-freiburg.de
Overview
Modern approaches to understand the mechanisms of higher brain function are increasingly concerned with neuronal dynamics. The task of organizing perception and behavior in a meaningful interaction with the external world prompts the brain to recruit its resources in a properly orchestrated manner. Contributions from many elements, ranging from individual nerve cells to entire brain areas, need to be coordinated in time and space.
Our research goal is to understand how this organization is brought about, and how coordinated activity of neurons is used by the brain. To this end we study the spatio-temporal organization of brain activity at many different sites at a time. The rules that govern this organization and the underlying mechanisms are brought to light by complementary approaches of physiological experimentation and data analysis (multiple intra- and extracellular single-neuron recordings and local field potential and epicortical field potential recordings) and neural network modeling.