Welcome to SFB 1528 - Cognition of Interaction
Viola Priesemann honored with Madame de Staël-Preis
At its annual general assembly, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) awarded the 2025 Madame de Staël Prize to physicist Professor Viola Priesemann from the University of Göttingen. The prize honors her outstanding scientific achievements, leadership, and commitment to European cooperation—particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. ALLEA President Paweł Rowiński praised her efforts to advance science as a global public good and foster cross-border collaboration. Priesemann, also a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and PI of our SFB 1528 investigates the dynamics of complex systems, in particular neural networks—both biological and artificial— and explores how they self-organize, learn, and efficiently process information.
Göttingen Neural Networking Day
The Annual Göttingen Neural Networking Day is an opportunity for everyone from the Campus interested in neuroscience to come together, mingle, exchange, discuss and network. All areas of neuroscience are represented, from molecules to minds. A dedicated poster session provides further opportunities for exchange and everyone is invited to present their projects on a poster. This year's Neural Networking Day is organised by SFB members Ayuno Nakahashi, Irene Lacal and Viola Priesemann together with Stefan Pommer. Keynote lectures will be provided by Anne Schacht, Nivedita Mani and Thomas Frank.
Panel discussion "First Generation Academics - Wie das Elternhaus die Karrierewege junger Wissenschaftler*innen beeinflusst" now on YouTube
On March 12, we concluded our series “Interaktion neu Denken - Wege zu einer vielfältigeren Wissenschaftskultur” with a panel discussion on how social background influences scientific careers, with a special focus on first-generation academics. Moderated by Elena Everding, our guests discussed the hurdles faced by students who are the first in their families to attend university, and how their situation differs from that of students from academic households. Zurna Ahmed, Ann-Kristin-Kolwes, Britta Korkowsky, Charlotte Prauß and Holmer Steinfath talked about their own experiences from primary school to professorship and how they managed to live in two different worlds. In case you missed it, you can now watch the entire discussion online..
New Perspective in Nature Methods: Advancing Primate Behavior Analysis in the Wild
A recently published Perspective article in Nature Methods, the result of a highly collaborative effort by many members of our SFB, offers a comprehensive overview of computer vision methods for analyzing primate behavior in natural environments. While existing tools have transformed behavioral analysis in laboratory settings, this article addresses the critical gap: how to robustly detect, track, and identify multiple animals, and how to interpret their behavior under the complex, dynamic conditions of the field.This interdisciplinary approach aims to contribute to the ongoing development of methods that are both practical and scalable, with the potential to enhance primate behavior research in natural settings. Our team assesses the limitations of current approaches and proposes a unified, video-centric framework that integrates all key tasks, moving beyond fragmented solutions. By emphasizing data-centric and effort-efficient learning strategies, the article provides a roadmap for scaling behavioral research without exhaustive manual annotation. The authors suggest shifting the focus from tool-specific challenges to holistic, scalable methodologies for real-world behavior analysis.
Prof. Alexander Gail
Sensorimotor Neuroscience & Neuroprosthetics
University of Göttingen & German Primate Center Göttingen
Kellnerweg 4,
37077 Göttingen
Tel.: +49-551-3851-358 ContactDr. Christian Schloegl
Kellnerweg 4,
37077 Göttingen
Tel.: +49-551-3851-480
Contact