Specialized nerve cells in the brain inhibit food intake during nausea. Satiety, nausea or anxiety can all lead to a loss of appetite. Delaying eating can be a healthy move by the body to prevent further damage and to gain time for regenerating. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence now identified the circuit in the brain that prevents mice from eating when they feel nauseous. The decisive role is played by special nerve cells in the amygdala – a brain region involved when emotions run high. The cells are activated during nausea and elicit appetite-suppressing sig ..read more

In nerve cells, the hormone regulates whether mitochondria are shut down or kept running The hormone insulin controls many cellular processes and adapts them to the body’s current energy supply. One of the insulin-regulated processes is the quality control of cellular power plants in neurons, Angelika Harbauer and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence discovered. When sufficient energy is available in the body, insulin facilitates the elimination of defective mitochondria. When energy is scarce or when the insulin signal is interrupted, mitochondrial recycling is red ..read more

In a new publication, MPFI Scientists demonstrate that ALS-linked protein VAP anchors mitochondria near dendritic spines to support memory formation. When experiencing new things, the structure and function of our neurons and their connections are rapidly being remodeled. This process, known as synaptic plasticity, is critical for us to learn and adapt. However, these changes require a lot of energy. Fortunately, our neurons are well-adapted to support these changes. Biological batteries known as mitochondria are strategically stabilized near sites of synaptic remodeling to ensure a local and ..read more

Symposium on April 19, 2024 – registration open now This symposium will be held in honor of the centenary of the birth of Werner Reichardt, the founding director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and a pioneer in the fields of vision science and what is now known as computational neuroscience. Reichardt’s own research focused on information processing in the nervous system of flies, with a particular focus on understanding motion. Together with his three co-directors at the Institute, Valentino Braitenberg, Kuno Kirschfeld, and Karl G. Götz, Reichardt contributed seminal c ..read more

Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics expands research focus and board of directors Do our gut feelings influence our rational thinking and does the belly guide our emotions more than the brain? Can our minds in turn dictate how our organs work? As a new member of the board of directors at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany, Ivan de Araujo will focus on questions relating to interactions between body and mind. The scientist, who most recently worked at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, is an expert in the field of exploring the interdependencies ..read more

Research Team Publishes Literature Guide and Provides Overview on Current Research Emotional voices attract considerable attention. A search on any browser using “emotional prosody” as a key phrase leads to more than a million entries. Such interest is evident in the scientific literature as well; readers are reminded in the introductory paragraphs of countless articles of the great importance of prosody and that listeners easily infer the emotional state of speakers through acoustic information. However, despite decades of research on this topic and important achievements, the mapping between ..read more

Ground-breaking study suggests strong link between genetics and response to stress Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry asked themselves which genetic variants might be involved in the response to stress. Using a new methodology, they were able to test over 3600 specific variants in parallel to determine which were functional. This pioneering study on the molecular level of stress found that the genetic variants that modulate sensitivity to the consequences of stress have an effect on the risk of psychiatric disorders. The interaction of genes and the environment is critical ..read more

Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) announces that neuroscientist Dr. Lin Tian has been appointed as its third Scientific Director. Tian joins current scientific directors, Dr. David Fitzpatrick and Dr. Ryohei Yasuda, to expand the institute’s work to develop new technologies for understanding the structure, function, and development of neural circuits. Dr. Tian has developed biosensors that enable researchers to better understand the role of dopamine and serotonin in the brain, providing critical insights into the regulation of brain circuits and beha ..read more

Indicator molecules make changes in calcium levels outside of cells visible for the first time The mineral calcium is a crucial building block of countless body functions. For many processes, calcium flows selectively from the cells’ surroundings into them. However, the behavior of calcium concentrations in the important extracellular area has hardly been studied so far due to a lack of methods. Now, after years of development, a team led by Oliver Griesbeck of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence is providing sensors that close this gap. *** Calcium is important for bones, tee ..read more

Milestone in behavioral neurobiology A new computer program allows scientists to observe the behavior of multiple animals simultaneously and over extended periods, while automatically analyzing their motion. What may seem obvious marks a significant milestone, and paves the way for robust and accessible standardization and evaluation of such complex observations. Imagine a researcher in the 19th century wearing a pith helmet, observing animals in their natural habitat. Or envision Konrad Lorenz, a veteran of the Max Planck Society, in the 1970s closely following his gray geese near Lake Starnb ..read more