Werner Reichardt Centrum für Integrative Neurowissenschaften (CIN)
Animal Physiology
Our overall goal is to understand how higher brain centers enable intelligent, goal-directed behaviors. To that aim, we explore the functioning of highly intelligent mammalian and avian brains that evolved independently through convergent evolution.
The layered neocortex of the endbrain, particularly of the frontal and parietal lobes, constitutes the highest integration center of the primate brain. We therefore focus on the posterior parietal and prefrontal association cortices.
In corvid songbirds, we explore the nidopallium caudolaterale of the crow's endbrain, a key cognitive brain component and the suggested functional analogue of the primate prefrontal cortex.
Nieder A., Wagener L., Rinnert P. (2020) A neural correlate of sensory consciousness in a corvid bird. Science 369(6511): 1626-1629.
Ditz H.M., Nieder A. (2020) Format-dependent and format-independent representation of sequential and simultaneous numerosity in the crow endbrain. Nature Communications 11(1): 686.
Kutter E.F., Bostroem J., Elger C.E., Mormann F., Nieder A. (2018) Single neurons in the human brain encode numbers. Neuron 100: 753-761.
Nieder A., Diester I., Tudusciuc O. (2006) Temporal and spatial enumeration processes in the primate parietal cortex. Science 313: 1431-5.
Nieder A., Freedman D.J., Miller E.K. (2002) Representation of the quantity of visual items in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science 297: 1708-1711.
