Editorial: Special Issue Neurovision

Abstract

Visual system research has a longstanding tradition at the Ruhr University in Bochum and it benefitted from continuous support by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) granted first for a Research Unit and then the Collaborative Research Center (CRC) ‘‘Neurovision’’ between 1990 and 2007. This special issue of EBR named ‘‘Neurovision’’ concludes this period and summarizes our achievements. The joint venture in vision research in Bochum started in 1990 with the DFG Research Unit ‘‘Neurobiology of the visual system—Neurovision’’ and continued from 1996 onwards in the Collaborative Research Center ‘‘Neuronal mechanisms of vision—Neurovision’’. The Center was devoted to research in visual neuroscience from early developmental mechanisms to cellular and systems properties and further up to higher and visuomotor brain functions, with a wide range of methodical approaches including, molecular biology, cellular physiology, systems neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and computational neuroscience. After 12 years of continuous and generous funding by the DFG, this CRC had to come to an end. In this issue of EBR, we want to present some of the highlights from the research, which was funded over the last triannual period in the CRC Neurovision. Naturally, most of the results from the previous periods have already been published and papers are given in the reference lists. The development of specific research themes and the projects of the CRC over the last 12 years are represented in the reviews in this volume, and the newest results accumulated during the last funding period are described in the original research articles. With this special issue, we want to especially acknowledge the support we received from the German Research Foundation.