International Society for Neuroethology

1/7 🧠 My journey into development begins with this work and question: how does the brain's spatial navigation system develop? We found that the neural networks for spatial navigation (tori and rings) are preconfigured and only later anchor gradually to the world with experience! 🧵

Neurons whose activity changes during vocalization are widespread across brain areas. Scientists from @talking-bat.bsky.social lab found that the activity of putative inhibitory and pyramidal neurons of bats 🦇 is differently modulated during vocal production.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Short duration flights are three times more costly than extended flight activity in an insectivorous bat Flying animals face very high instantaneous costs of locomotion (flight metabolic rate ∼16x basal metabolic rate in bats). However, the effect of flight duration is poorly studied. We hypothesized the...

Another study @jexpbiol.bsky.social demonstrates that short flights are about 3-times more costly over long flight periods in Eptesicus fuscus 🦇. journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Sensory-driven divergence in flight strategies of eared and earless moths evading horseshoe bats The evolutionary arms race between insectivorous bats and moths has driven the development of elaborate anti-predator strategies, with ultrasound hearing considered a key adaptation in tympanate moths...

Some moth species have 👂 to potentially detect approaching bats 🦇. A new study @jexpbiol.bsky.social reveals that these moths indeed have an advantage over earless species by responding earlier with evasive flight maneuvers. journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-...

Individual variation in perceived density of conspecifics and its impacts on the realization of ecological niches Animals gather information about their surroundings, including their social environment, using a wide range of sensory modalities. Variation in reception, processing and interpretation of information....

Exciting review on individual variation in perceiving density of conspecifics in the immediate surroundings and how it may affect decision making and the way in which individuals occupy ecological niches. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Neuroethology on the move with butterflies and moths - Journal of Comparative Physiology A Journal of Comparative Physiology A - Lepidopteran insects, namely butterflies and moths, are visually striking and have fascinated scientists as well as the general public for decades, prompting...

Special issue editors @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social, Basil el Jundi & Kentaro Arikawa introduce their special issue on the neuroethology of lepidoptera 🦋. The issue covers a broad field of research spanning from neuroanatomy, sensory perception to behavior. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Nocturnal ants navigate using a time-compensated lunar compass Diurnal animals commonly navigate using a sun compass, compensating for the sun’s movement to maintain accurate headings during migration or homing.1,…

Nocturnal bull ants use a time-compensated lunar compass for navigation. The 🌛🧭 gets calibrated by the skyline. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social

The role of haltere campaniform sensilla on equilibrium reflexes of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster Flying animals use a combination of sensory modalities to maintain stable flight in the face of external and internal perturbations. Although insects rely extensively on vision for this task, members ...

Evolution originally equipped insects with 2 pairs of wings. However in Diptera 🪰 hindwings evolved into halteres thought to stabilize flight. The Dickinson lab shows by silencing sets of campaniform sensilla that halteres sense angular flight velocity. journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Recent social experience alters song behavior in Drosophila Roemschied et al. show that recent social experience reshapes how male Drosophila deploy their innate courtship song. By perturbing female feedback during singing, they reveal usage learning that alte...

Courtship behavior in Drosophila does not follow a fixed & innate motor pattern. By optogenetically perturbing social interactions, scientists of Mala Murthy's lab discovered that ♂️🪰 adjust their courtship strategy ("usage learning").
www.cell.com/current-biol...

New paper out!!!
Such as humans and rats, we showed that birds visual system (🐣) is tuned to specific pixel correlations from hatching: royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Larval Zebrafish can perform evidence integration in a visual random dot motion task.
Here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We developed an automatic high throughput fitting method for latent variables inference studying different zebrafish larvae developmental stages and larval zebrafish mutants.

Species-specific spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies Supple et al. investigate the spectral sensitivity of motion-sensitive descending neurons (DNs) connecting the brain to thoracic motor centers in butterflies. Optic flow-sensitive DNs are spectrally b...

While motion 🏃 vision is generally thought of as achromatic, Supple et al. show that motion vision associated with target tracking in butterflies 🦋 is spectrally tuned 🌈 to conspecific wing coloration - likely to assess conspecific displays!

🚨 Check it out! www.cell.com/current-biol...

🚨 Using a portable e-phys setup, researchers were able to record hoverfly antennal responses across elevation gradients in the Himalayas 🏔️.
🚨 Gharpure et al. showed that antennal olfactory sensitivity 👃 decreased with elevation gain, independently of temperature!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Do Toxin‐Sequestering Snakes Recognize Their Own Nuchal Gland Toxin Reserve? Insights From Rhabdophis subminiatus We have little information on whether toxin-sequestering animals can monitor their current toxin reserves. In this study, we examined whether a toxin-sequestering snake (Rhabdophis subminiatus) alter...

🧪 ETHOLOGY: Do toxic snakes know when they’re running low? 🐍🧪
Kodama et al. tested whether the red-necked keelback detects its own toxin reserves. After experimental depletion of toxins, defensive behavior didn’t change—suggesting they may not directly monitor their arsenal. doi.org/10.1111/eth....

Cognitive primitives of the insect brain Understanding the mechanistic basis of human cognition is likely to benefit from investigating how it emerged through evolution. We propose that identifying and investigating fundamental brain functio...

Little smart critters..🪰🐝🐜
Cognitive primitives of the insect brain: Trends in Cognitive Sciences www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution in Drosophila Ryba et al. uncover extensive variation in male mate preference among D. melanogaster strains and show that it maps to heritable differences in a central inhibitory pheromone circuit controlling court...

Mate choice evolves through the variation of signal production in one sex and behavioral responses in the other: what is the underlying🧠mechanism🕵️? The Ruta lab identified variability in a circuit involved in courtship in🪰strains, a substrate for evolutionary selection! www.cell.com/current-biol...

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Don't miss out on the next mentor office hour! 🎓👀
- 3/2 4pm UTC: Job applications - From Postdoc to PI. Mentor: Dr. Gabriella Wolff.
Link: cwru.zoom.us/j/9661743605...
- 3/16 9am UTC: Peer Review. Mentors: Dr. Björn Brembs and Dr. Vivek Nityananda.
Link: uni-regensburg.zoom-x.de/j/63480518445

I am so proud to share @forrestdrogers.bsky.social’s postdoctoral magnum opus, now out in @nature.com! Forrest discovered a novel role for Agouti in the MPOA of the hypothalamus to integrate socio-environmental information to flexibly tune paternal behavior
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thread! 👇🏻

Neuroscience has a species problem If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle.

Differences between species should be treated as informative constraints that refine theory, not as inconsistencies to be explained away, writes @suthanalab.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...

Out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social!

A dive into the deep history of vertebrate vision, together with @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social

Photo credit : Vasilis Karkalas

How do busy bees avoid overheating from flying? New measurements could help predict pollinators’ ability to withstand climate change

#ProcB in @science.org | Induced airflow cools hovering bumble bees: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

This new #RSOS study examines the heritability of cognitive and behavioural traits in a pedigreed population of assistance #dogs. Read more: doi.org/10.1098/rsos... @ggnanadesikan.bsky.social @dremilybray.bsky.social @marinawatowich.bsky.social @smacklab.bsky.social

Have you ever asked yourself, how insect brains represent places? And whether insects do have place cells? Then move to Germany this summer and start your PhD in my lab. We conduct tetrode recordings from bumblebees that freely forage laboratory mazes. 🧠🐝#BeeSpace @erc.europa.eu @neuroethology.org

Matching sounds to shapes: Evidence of the bouba-kiki effect in naïve baby chicks Humans across multiple languages spontaneously associate the nonwords “kiki” and “bouba” with spiky and round shapes, respectively, a phenomenon named the bouba-kiki effect. To explore the origin of t...

“Humans across multiple languages spontaneously associate the nonwords kiki & bouba with spiky & round shapes, respectively...We tested the bouba-kiki effect in baby chickens. Similar to humans, they spontaneously chose a spiky shape when hearing a kiki sound & a round shape when hearing a bouba.”😲🧪

Sequencing of distinct wing #behaviors during #Drosophila courtship: www.cell.com/current-biol...

@cellpress.bsky.social

Sensory Perception in a Changing World graphic. The graphic has a black background. The text in the top right says: Special Issue. Next line: Sensory Perception in a Changing World Next line: Guest Editors: Almut Kelber, Kathleen M. Gilmour and Sanjay Sane Next line: the Journal of Experimental Biology logo Left of graphic: image showing a moth drinking nectar from cluster of white flowers against two circular green leaves

Many aquatic creatures have a well-developed sense of hearing & in their SI Review, Ana Širović &co discuss the impact of human noise pollution, from shipping & submarine prospecting to construction & military sonar, on fish, marine mammals & invertebrates

journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Can lizards learn #spatial tasks? 🦎
A new study in Biology Letters examines spatial learning and the role of #lateralization in maze navigation.

Read more: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

@royalsocietypublishing.org

four panel figure with a bee on a forget-me-not flower upper left, ants finding their way upper right, migratory bird on the lower right and the logo of the special intestest group on animal navigation of the royal institute of navigation on the lower left. in the middle it is written "royal institute of navigation (RIN) - animal navigation group with the RIN logo"

12th RIN Conference on Animal Navigation - one of my favourites 🧭🦉🐟🦇🐝🐜 - this time we tried a new format, inviting topical sessions to make sure we represent the wonderfully broad range of research in #animal #orientation and #navigation and are super excited about the lineup s.gwdg.de/EBROf7

Sensory Perception in a Changing World graphic. The graphic has a black background. The text in the top right says: Special Issue. Next line: Sensory Perception in a Changing World Next line: Guest Editors: Almut Kelber, Kathleen M. Gilmour and Sanjay Sane Next line: the Journal of Experimental Biology logo Left of graphic: image showing a moth drinking nectar from cluster of white flowers against two circular green leaves

Artificial light at night, urban noise, psychoactive pollutants, agriculture, introduced species & a warming world are making it difficult to sleep. John Lesku & Anne Aulesebrook review how species are affected & suggest ways to minimise the impact #SensoryPerceptionInAChangingWorld

bit.ly/469cNrT

Fluorescent neurons on black background. We're hiring! PhD Student

🚨 We are #hiring a PhD Student to study cerebellum-like circuits in #Drosophila.

Please spread the word!

www.groschner-lab.org/join

#Neuroscience #PhD