Fascinating Behaviors

How do brains drive behavioral adaptability?
Our ultimate goal is to understand how the brain controls behavior. Even though all brains are made of the same building blocks - the nerve cells or neurons - different animal species successfully occupy a vast range of habitats. How is such adaptability possible?

At MPINB, we focus on different animal species and on their special behaviors to unravel general principles of neural information processing and decision-making in the brain.

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Learn more about the various behaviors our researchers are studying and follow the links to our research groups and departments.

How does a fly’s brain control such a complex behavior as course control during flight?

How do mice and rats perceive and navigate their surroundings? How do African mole-rats navigate underground?

What are the adaptations for navigating in water?

What goes on in the brain during foraging and hunting? What stimuli do animals pay attention to?

How have predation behaviors evolved in tiny roundworms?

How is sleep controlled and which cellular circuits in the brain are involved?

How do cellular computations and learning processes emerge?

Our Behaviors