Max Planck Institute for Medical Research | Research | Emeritus Groups

Contact

Prof. Dr. Bert Sakmann

Phone: +49 89 8578 - 3695
Fax: +49 89 8578 - 3705

E-mail: bsakmann@neuro.mpg.de

Emeritus Group Cortical column in silico

Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried

Secretariat

Filomina von Hofmann

Phone: +49 89 8578 3459
Fax: +49 89 8578 3240

E-mail: fhofmann@neuro.mpg.de

Emeritus Group Cortical column in silico (Prof. Dr. Bert Sakmann)

Emeritus Group Prof. Dr. Sakmann

The work of this Emeritus Group focuses on the functional anatomy of circuits in the cerebral cortex that form the basis of simple behavior (e.g. decision making). The group’s aim is the reconstruction of a cortical column in silico, e. g. with a computer.

This involves the use of light- and electron-microscopic techniques to reconstruct the wiring of different cell types in the layers of a column. Electrophysiological reactions of individual cell types to sub-threshold and above-threshold levels and the results of in-vitro-pair-registration will be used to stimulate the reconstructed network realistically. Eventually, this will hopefully allow the determination of those parts of the network that trigger sensory initiated behavior. This should elucidate how the network changes in its structure and function during the process of learning.

Bert Sakmann won in 1991, together with Erwin Neher, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discoveries concerning the single ion channels in cell membranes". Aa an Emeritus Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research (Department of Cell Physiology), Bert Sakmann established his extended emeritus-group in January 2008 at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology.