Thinking, sensing, learning, remembering - all mental functions reside within the brain. At the same time, this organ is probably the most complex structure that evolution has ever produced.

Understanding the brain is the prerequisite for creating new methods for prevention and treatment of diseases of the nervous system. It may also help developing new strategies for learning and teaching. It may even be used for the design of new, 'intelligent' technical devices, such as neuroprostheses or more powerful computer systems.

For investigating the brain, the interdisciplinary approach of computational neuroscience, in which experts in biology, physics, psychology, medicine, mathematics and engineering join forces, holds especially promising perspectives. By combining experiment, data analysis, theoretical modelling and computer simulations, computational neuroscience allows translating basic research to targeted applications.

Within the framework of the funding initiative "National Network Computational Neuroscience", the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the development of this field in Germany. Besides its research activities, training and support of young researchers is an additional central goal of the Bernstein Network.