Max Planck Dahlem Campus of Cognition (MPDCC)
Facilities at the MPDCC
The MPDCC as a Collaboration and Exchange Hub
The MPDCC as a Home for Three PhD Programs
The Max Planck Dahlem Campus of Cognition (MPDCC) is an integral part of the MPI for Human Development, offering a high-end laboratory infrastructure for behavioral and cognitive neuroscience research.
Over the past 15 years, the range of empirical methods used for research at the Institute has increased considerably. While cultivating its roots in the humanities and the social sciences, the Institute mission has steadily strengthened the behavioral sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, over the last two decades. This trend has gained further momentum by the addition of the Center for Environmental Neuroscience in 2024. The recent appointment of Mareike Grotheer as Lise Meitner group leader as well as the scientific profiles of several Research Groups also fit this picture. At the same time, social-science methods, such as surveys, as well as purely behavioral experiments continue to be an important part of the Institute's research portfolio.
In March 2023, the Max Planck Society purchased the neighboring building in Dillenburger Straße to meet the massively growing demand for laboratory space (see Figures 1 and 2).
Image: Thomas Rehmann
Facilities at the MPDCC
At present, the MPDCC houses a magnetic resonance imaging lab (MRI Lab), a lab for electroencephalography (EEG Lab) including mobile EEG that can be integrated with virtual reality (VR), a wavefield synthesis audio lab (Small Wavefield Lab), a virtual reality lab (VR Lab), a small wet lab for bio-assays (Biobank), and several labs for behavioral testing (Behavioral Testing Rooms), as well as a high-performance computing cluster. In view of the renovation of the building on Dillenburger Straße and the construction of additional laboratories, all movable laboratories have been temporarily relocated to the building in Lentzeallee. By the middle of 2026, employees still working on the 1st to 3rd floors of the Dillenburger Straße will have been relocated to the Institute building in Lentzeallee as well.
In the context of establishing the Center for Environmental Neuroscience led by Simone Kühn, the Institute ordered a mobile 1.5-Tesla (1.5 T) MRI scanner, which was put into operation in early 2026 (see News). Back in 2023, the Max Planck Society (MPG) had already purchased two new MRI scanners for use at the Institute: a 3 T Siemens Cima.X and a 7 T Siemens Terra, both of which were originally intended to be installed in the Dillenburger Straße building by the end of 2026. However, due to regulatory uncertainties and complex planning requirements, the renovation of the Dillenburger Straße building has been significantly delayed. For this reason, the MPG recently decided to temporarily install the 3 T as well as the 7 T MRI scanner at the Lentzeallee site. This will allow scanning operations to begin regardless of the renovation work on the Dillenburger Straße building. Once the Dillenburger Straße building is completed, the scanners will be moved into the renovated facility.
The topic of plasticity across the lifespan is of outstanding importance for the Center for Lifespan Psychology, the Center for Environmental Neuroscience, and the new Lise Meitner Group led by Mareike Grotheer. The 7 T MRI scanner, in particular, was purchased to maintain the Institute’s leading position in research on human brain plasticity. The greater signal yield of a 7 T scanner improves spatial resolution, both structurally and functionally. The signal gain and the smaller spectral linewidth are also advantageous for metabolic imaging and for single-voxel spectroscopy. The 7 T scanner is particularly suitable for studies in which associations among brain changes at structural, functional, and neurochemical levels are to be identified and linked to changes in behavior. Through the concerted use of structural, spectroscopic, and functional MRI methods, the 7 T scanner also will be instrumental in linking plasticity research on animal models to corresponding research in the human field. Over the past few years, and in close collaboration with other labs both within and outside the MPG, the Institute has intensified its efforts to close the gap between these two strands of research.
By expanding its neuroimaging facilities, the Institute will maintain its leading role in research on the antecedents, mechanisms, and consequences of neural plasticity in humans. The delay in the commissioning of the 7 T scanner has been an impediment to this goal. The Institute is attempting to compensate for this delay, at least in part, through collaborations with Max Planck Institutes in Leipzig and Frankfurt. The difficulties encountered during construction are also delaying the commissioning of other central laboratories, such as the Flex Lab, the Robotics Lab, and the Extended Wavefield Lab, which are needed to bring the Institute's research program to full fruition.
The MPDCC as a Collaboration and Exchange Hub
Beyond laboratory infrastructure, the launch of the MPDCC is meant to create a hub for scientific collaboration and exchange in the fields of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Collaborators from partner institutions in Berlin and beyond, as well as international guests, are welcome to work at the MPDCC. The three Berlin universities—Freie, Humboldt, and Technische—all collaborate with the Institute in graduate education (see below), and many doctoral candidates make use of MPDCC facilities. The Berlin site of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, under the leadership of Ulman Lindenberger and Ray Dolan, is also linked to the campus. Overall, the MPDCC enables high-level scientific collaboration in Berlin and beyond, and the planned new labs will further promote this function.
Image: MPI for Human Development
Research at the MPDCC is facilitated by an experienced lab team supporting study organization, recruitment, data collection, and data analysis. Mandatory guidelines for conducting research at the labs are in place. Study participants are recruited through the Institute's participant data base (see Castellum), and all employees who require access to data from Castellum must complete both Castellum training and data protection training via our data protection awareness platform.
All researchers making use of MPDCC resources need to register their study plans with the Institute's central Study Registration Tool. To make efficient use of limited office space and laboratory infrastructure and to secure standards of scientific practice, researchers are also required to seek approval for planned studies by presenting them at a Campus User Meeting. After the presentation, a committee consisting of the directors who are using the MPDCC infrastructure and domain experts decides whether the study can be executed as planned or needs to be revised. Relevant criteria include the adequacy of the research design as well as currently available lab resources. Should the demands of several studies on laboratory or support resources exceed current supplies, the directors decide on prioritization.
The MPDCC as a Home for Three PhD Programs
As mentioned above, the MPDCC also provides an excellent environment for educating and promoting future generations of leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience and psychology. Hence, the campus is the Berlin home base for three international PhD programs: the International Max Planck Research School on Learning, Institutions, and Future Evolution (IMPRS LIFE), the IMPRS on Computational Methods in Psychiatry and Ageing Research (IMPRS COMP2PSYCH), and the Max Planck School of Cognition (MPSCog). The Berlin headquarters of MPSCog are located at Dillenburger Straße and form a crucial part of the MPDCC. The graduate schools at the MPDCC organize curricula and training together to create synergies among the schools and to strengthen graduate education, particularly in relation to experimental and computational methods.