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Herwig Baier

Prof. Dr. Herwig Baier

Regular member MCN, GSN core faculty

Responsibilities

Director MPI for Biological Intelligence (formerly Neurobiology)

Contact

Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence
Department Genes – Circuits – Behavior


Website: https://www.bi.mpg.de/baier

Further Information

Brief research description: All sensory perception and every coordinated movement, as well as feelings, memories and motivation, arise from the bustling activity of many millions of interconnected cells in the brain. The ultimate function of this elaborate network is to generate behavior. We use zebrafish and cichlids as our experimental models, employing a diverse array of molecular, genetic, optical, connectomic, behavioral and computational approaches. The goal of our research is to understand how neuronal circuits integrate sensory inputs and internal state and convert this information into behavioral responses.

Keywords: zebrafish; visual system; behavior; imaging; optogenetics

GSN students

Current: Johannes Kappel

Graduated: Dr. Thomas Helmbrecht, Dr. Ksenia Yashina, Dr. Jessica Burgstaller, Dr. Yvonne Kölsch, Dr. Yunmin Wu, Dr. Shachar Sherman, Dr. Duncan Mearns

Selected publications:

Shainer, Kappel et al (2024). Positional information drives distinct traits in transcriptomically identified neuronal types. Nature, in press.

Zaupa et al. (2024). The Calmodulin-interacting peptide Pcp4a regulates feeding state-dependent behavioral choice in zebrafish. Neuron 112: 1-15.

Huppertz et al. (2024). Recording physiological history of cells with chemical labeling. Science 383: 890-897.

Hahn et al. (2023). Evolution of neuronal cell classes and types in the vertebrate retina. Nature 624: 415-424.

Svara et al. (2022). Automated synapse-scale reconstruction of neural circuits in the larval zebrafish brain. Nature Methods 19:1357-1366.

Kappel et al. (2022). Visual recognition of social signals by a tecto-thalamic neural circuit. Nature 608:146-152.

Fernandes et al. (2021). Neural circuitry for stimulus selection in the zebrafish visual system. Neuron 109: 805-822.

Kölsch et al (2021). Molecular classification of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells links genes to cell types to behavior. Neuron 109: 645-662.