Onur Güntürkün will stay from October 2014 to April 2015 in Berlin Grunewald together with about 50 other researchers from all over the world to think deeply about scientific problems. During this time, he wants to explore if it is possible that the capacity for complex cognition arose several times during evolution such that groups of non-mammalian animals might have developed as-yet unknown brain mechanisms that generate intelligent behavior. His ideas may contribute to developing a new theory of the evolution of brains and complex cognitive abilities.
In the meantime during WS 2014/15, Martina Manns acts for a substitute professor of the Biopsychology. Apart from taking over teaching, she will pursue investigating development of cerebral asymmetries in pigeons to unravel the interactions of left- and right-hemispheric specialization processes.