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,…

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…

Helen Blank | “I know you! Hierarchical predictive processing in speech and face perception”

Systems and cognitive neuroscience \ Manfred Eigen lecture theatre How does the brain resolve sensory ambiguity? By combining computational modeling, fMRI, and EEG across speech and face perception, we identify a unified hierarchical principle of predictive processing. In both domains, prior expectations exert dual influences: they sharpen sensory representations in early processing regions to facilitate identification, while triggering prediction errors…