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Research topics & objectives
We are a cross-disciplinary research group striving to understand the mechanisms underlying the control of natural movement and action sequences.
To this end, we study the adaptive locomotion abilities of insects with a research focus on the function of active tactile sensing (touch) and distributed proprioception (the sense of posture). Methodologically, we combine approaches from behavioural physiology (e.g., motion capture), electrophysiology (e.g., intracellular recordings) and biomimetic modeling in software and hardware.
The Department of Biological Cybernetics was founded by Holk Cruse in 1981. In 2009, it was fundamentally restructured. It is now headed by Volker Dürr.
Research-oriented student projects
Are you interested in research-oriented projects in your Bachelor's or Master's studies?
We are offering student projects and modules using various methodologies. These are always research-oriented and are related to the current research topics of our group.
Motivated students are always welcome to jour our group for project modules, research modules and thesis projects. For recent and potential future student projects please see teaching.
NEWS
11/2023 Volker Dürr took part in the November edition of "Brainstorm - Wissenschaft trifft Improtheater" (https://wissenswerkstadt.de/brainstorm) with the topic "Von Robotern mit Wau-Effekt - ein Abend übers Lernen von Tieren und Pflanzen" (Of robots with the woof effect - an evening about learning from animals and plants). To get an impression of the event please visit https://www.instagram.com/p/CzYrqcTMZTO/
10/2023 Martin Strube-Bloss, Patrick Günzel, Carmen A. Nebauer and Johannes Spaethe published an article on "Visual asselerated and olfactory decelerated responses during multimodal learning in honeybees" (https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2023.1257465)
09/2023 Dai Owaki, Volker Dürr and Josef Schmitz published an article on "A hierarchical model for external electrical control of an insect, accounting for inter-individual variation of muscle force properties" (https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.85275)
08/2023 Jens Goldammer, Ansgar Büschges and Volker Dürr recently published an article on "Descending interneurons of the stick insect connecting brain neuropiles with the prothoracic ganglion" (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290359)
08/2023 Cansu Arican, Felix J. Schmitt, Wolfgang Rössler, Martin Strube-Bloss and Martin P. Nawrot recently published the article on "The mushroom body output encodes behavioral decision during sensory-motor transformation" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.016)