The focus of this group is the investigation of mechanisms that shape the dynamics and function of biological and artificial neuronal networks. Starting either from analyses of electrophysiological data of parallel spiking activity in vivo or activity of network models, the group aims to infer fundamental relationships between the structure and dynamics of neural networks to unveil experimentally testable mechanisms underlying observed collective phenomena. A further research goal is to study how these dynamics are employed by the circuit to implement information processing. To analyze both the dynamic and the functional mechanisms the group employs and transfers methods from theoretical physics and makes them applicable to neural systems.