Research Unit 5159

We are delighted to announce that the research unit has been successfully granted a second funding period by the German Research Foundation. The continued support recognizes the unit’s impactful work and enables the further advancement of its research agenda. For more information, please refer to the official press release: https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/pressemitteilungen/2026/pressemitteilung-nr-07

Our environment is constantly changing. Successful survival under these conditions implies that our behavior has to be flexible as well. We experience different places and contexts, have to conduct different tasks in a rapid sequence and need to constantly develop and re-arrange acting strategies. These abilities are not inherited, but develop with age and their regression forms the core of several pathologies. It is commonly held that in mammalian species the prefrontal cortex is the hub brain area accounting for the flexibility of minds (i.e. cognitive flexibility).

The Research Unit 5159 has been launched in January 2022. Our mission is to decipher the dynamic principles of prefrontal processing underlying cognitive flexibility.