8. May 2026

Michael Grange | “Structural cell pathology: imaging the sub-cellular molecular makeup of the brain”

Cellular and molecular neuroscience \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre Studying biological structures within intact tissues requires methods that can prepare very thin sections while preserving the sample’s native state, which remains technically challenging. Samples must be rapidly frozen to retain hydration and minimise preparation artifacts. I will describe approaches that use advanced ion beam and electron microscopy techniques to simplify…

8. May 2026

Panel discussion | “The future of animal research – navigating the landscape”

Andreas Nieder, Frederic Römschied, Ivana Jaric and Maria-Patapia Zafeiriou, Roman Stilling \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre In response to growing public concern regarding the ethics and validity of animal research, multiple European countries have put forward increasingly strict regulations on the experimentation with animals. Non-governmental organizations and the European Commission have urged and supported the exploration and advancement of alternative…

8. May 2026

Ivana Jaric | “Ovarian cycle disruption and its impact on brain plasticity and behavior in mice”

Young PI talk \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre For decades, female subjects have been systematically excluded from preclinical neuroscience research, largely due to the assumption that ovarian hormone fluctuations would introduce unwanted variability. Although ovarian hormone status is now recognized as shaping brain physiology and contributing to psychiatric disorder risk, it remains largely overlooked in preclinical settings. Dr. Jaric will…

8. May 2026

Frederic Römschied | “Modulation of neural function following experience in alternate social realities”

Young PI talk \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre Learning from social feedback is fundamental for flexible behavior across species, and deficits in such flexibility can impair social well-being. To investigate the neural basis of social flexibility, we studied male Drosophila melanogaster, a genetically accessible model of social behavior. Building on work showing that past social experience influences male courtship behavior,…

8. May 2026

Shashwat Sridhar

Young scientist talk \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre A key challenge in computational neuroscience is designing easy-to-fit models that also capture the wide range of responses exhibited by sensory neurons. In the retina, predictive models of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) activity that rely on linear receptive fields (RFs) require few parameters but fail to capture the cells’ sensitivity to high-frequency…

8. May 2026

Licheng Zou

Young scientist talk \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre Orientation preference maps (OPMs) are a canonical example of cortical organization and are commonly described within a two-dimensional framework, where orientation singularities appear as point-like pinwheels. However, (1) indicated that in three dimensions pinwheels rarely form straight columnar structures, challenging both the classical columnar hypothesis and existing two-dimensional descriptors. At present, a…

8. May 2026

Henrike M. Jungeblut

Young scientist talk \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre White matter microstructure is a candidate neurobiological substrate underlying individual differences in cognitive abilities. However, measurement inaccuracies in MRI-derived metrics often attenuate observed effect sizes, obscuring true brain-behavior relationships. Here, we demonstrate how latent variable modeling of neuroimaging data can mitigate these reliability concerns by estimating latent effect sizes free from measurement…

8. May 2026

Uta Noppeney | “To integrate or not to integrate: Solving the binding problem in a multisensory world”

Systems and cognitive neuroscience \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre Adaptive behavior in a complex, dynamic, and multisensory world requires the brain to solve the causal inference or binding problem, deciding whether signals come from common sources and should hence be integrated or from independent sources and be segregated. In this talk, I will delve into our recent research, spanning behavioral,…

8. May 2026

Andreas Nieder | “How monkeys and crows crunch numbers”

Systems and cognitive neuroscience \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre Mammals and birds diverged roughly 360 million years ago. Despite this vast evolutionary distance, both groups include species with advanced cognitive abilities, such as monkeys and crows. These animals can categorize abstract numbers, hold and manipulate them in working memory, and use quantity information to guide deliberate decisions. Their shared numerical…