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Second round of the Excellence Strategy: Cluster proposal “Primate Cognition” submitted

On 21 February 2018, the University of Göttingen submitted full proposals for four Clusters of Excellence.
A long-tailed macaque at the DPZ. Photo: Christian Schlögl

The University participates with its partners at the Göttingen Campus in the Excellence Strategy funded by the German Federal and State Governments. The topics of the four cluster proposals are “Multiscale Bioimaging”, “Primate Cognition”, “The Making and Unmaking of the Religious” and “Integrative Land Use Science for Sustainable Development”. The final funding decision will be announced at the end of September 2018. The concept of the Cluster “Primate Cognition” was developed within the Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, which is a joint activity of the University and the German Primate Center.

This Cluster initiative seeks to better understand the evolutionary origins and mechanisms that characterise primate cognition and sociality. Specifically, the researchers aim to explain the emergence of the apparent discontinuity in cognitive capacity that sets humans apart from other primates. The interrelated research areas ‘Primate Sociality’, ‘Building Blocks of Primate Cognition’, and ‘Developmental and Clinical Perspectives’ aim to identify similarities and differences between species. To foster comparative studies, novel experimental paradigms will be created for studies with humans and nonhuman primate species, individuals of different ages, and neurotypical and clinical populations. The Cluster will develop novel avenues in functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and will push forward non-invasive assessments of physiological markers. Innovative data collection and experimentation at three field stations in Madagascar, Thailand and Senegal will extend the work on nonhuman primates in their natural environment. Expanding the available computational strengths, the researchers will develop novel approaches to the analysis of high-dimensional data streams. To achieve its aims, this Cluster initiative brings together a unique combination of scholars with expertise in psychology, systems and theoretical neuroscience, primate behaviour, as well as psychiatry. Professor Julia Fischer, with a joint appointment in primate cognition at Göttingen University and the German Primate Center, is the project spokesperson. She is being supported by Professor Hannes Rakoczy (Developmental Psychology), Professor Annekathrin Schacht (Affective Neurosciences and Psychophysiology) and Professor Stefan Treue (Cognitive Neurosciences).

In case of funding, three new professorships in psychology and anthropology and three junior research groups will be established. The long-term goal of the initiative is to create a world-leading hub of research on human and nonhuman primate cognition and social behaviour firmly nested within the University of Göttingen and its partners at the Göttingen Campus.

Funded by the Leibniz Association, the Leibniz ScienceCampus was established in 2015 as a joint activity of the German Primate Center and the University of Göttingen. The ScienceCampus serves as a platform for researchers at the Göttingen Campus with an interest in the interdisciplinary study of the cognitive abilities of humans and nonhuman primates.