New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Nearly a decade after starting the project, the first major results from our comparative connectomics work is online! Comparing the head direction circuits of the central complex in bees, ants and flies, recapitulating >300million years of evolution.

🚨🦋 Thrilled to share my first PhD paper published in PNAS this week, in collaboration with Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We found hawkmoths use a convergent visual control strategy for appendage guidance. 👁️🫳 🧵 below.

This paper is now published in its final (and much improved) form in @currentbiology.bsky.social. Check it out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Huge thanks to @sanderliessem.bsky.social, Stefan Dahlhoff, all our co-authors & our collaborators in the @postpop.bsky.social and Büschges labs.

Control of walking direction by descending and dopaminergic neurons in Drosophila

Animals fine-control the speed and direction of locomotion to navigate complex and dynamic environments. To achieve this, they integrate multimodal se…

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me

Jan M. Ache@jan-ache.bsky.social · last yr.

Preprint Alert! Walking mostly feels natural and easy to us - but the neuronal control of walking is actually incredibly complex. We leveraged the fruit fly as a genetically tractable animal model with a compact nervous system to ask how the brain controls walking direction: tinyurl.com/flywalk. 🧵..

New paper from the lab on the molecular regulation of parenting in ants. Spearheaded by postdocs Alex Paul and @tomaskay.bsky.social

Tomas Kay@tomaskay.bsky.social · 4w ago

In an article published today, we show that ancient feeding-related neuropeptides have been repurposed to control brood care in clonal raider ants. Photo: Bart Zijlstra, UNIL /1

I am excited to announce the latest paper from our lab, published in Science ! In this study, we show that thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain process sensory information hierarchically across topographically organized forebrain circuits.

Hierarchical sensory processing in zebrafish thalamocortical-like circuits

Thalamocortical projections shape the functional regionalization and parallel sensory computations across the mammalian cortex. However, the principles of thalamocortical computations in non-mammalian...

science.org

Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience@kavlintnu.bsky.social · last mo.

Out now in @science.org by @emreyaksi.bsky.social, Anh-Tuan Trinh and colleagues at the Kavli Institute in Trondheim: Hierarchical sensory processing in zebrafish thalamocortical-like circuits doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Stronger punishments get better results? Not for this hawkmoth 👀🚫 Check out our new paper where we link sensory ecology to colour discrimination learning in an insect pollinator. Shout out to co-authors @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social and @jjfosterlab.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.an...

Come and join our next talk in the “Emerging Scientist Series”! Sercan Sayin @sercansayin.bsky.social is a postdoc at @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social and will speak on rules for robust collective marching in desert locusts. 📅 June 23 at 11:00 a.m. 📍 Room NQ105, Martinsried @animaltracking.bsky.social

The journey begins! 🚍 This bus is officially on standby to take the students to the Kalahari Research Centre 🇿🇦 for the @cbehav.bsky.social field course 🌅🐀🐦‍⬛🦛🦋 Make sure to watch this space, we’ll be posting updates and photos from the field! 📷✨

We are offering a PhD position with the WildBotics project @uni-konstanz.de! Want to join an interdisciplinary research network and use drones and computer vision to study animal behavior, ecology and conservation in Kenya? 🇰🇪🐘 Please apply! Deadline June 21 🧪🌍🌿 Full details: tinyurl.com/yn8jkzcf

Super happy to see our work published in @nature.com last week 🤩 By combining whole-body tissue clearing, light-sheet microscopy and AI, we mapped obesity-associated remodeling across the entire mouse body in 3D at cellular resolution. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @erturklab.bsky.social

After three years of working on this review with my collaborator Emily Dennis (Janelia Farm), it is finally in press. The review provides an overview and our personal reflections on what constitutes an integrative approach to neurobiology of foraging. Enjoy www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Neurobiology of Foraging: An Integrative Approach

Foraging, defined as the search for food to sustain one's energetic needs, is a fundamental behavior performed by almost all animals to survive in their environment. Foraging involves a variety o...

annualreviews.org

mRNA vaccines continue to show major promise. In a small Phase 1 trial led by Dr. Balachandran, some patients with pancreatic cancer (one of the deadliest cancers) reached 6-year survival. This is why sustained investment in science & research matters. tinyurl.com/f4n4anhk

Excited to share a new review by @kocherlab.bsky.social and me: Nature-inspired neuroscience We discuss diverse sensory systems and behaviors across the animal kingdom and argue for their integration into neuroscience. New tools in diverse systems are making this possible ✨ tinyurl.com/y5y9du27

Things I thought I’d never say - here’s a new manuscript of cockroach and rat collective intelligence. We argue group-level intelligence can emerge from very different mechanisms—from simple local rules to socially mediated cooperation and learning: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...

Clever vermin? Collective intelligence in rats and roaches

Abstract. Collective intelligence (CI) is the capacity of groups to outperform individuals in tasks such as decision-making, coordination and problem-solvi

royalsocietypublishing.org

Just published in @science.org 🚀 By controlling how cells align, we show that living nematic tissues can be programmed to generate forces and fold into predictable 3D shapes. A new platform for tissue engineering and the design of smart active materials! 🫆 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Pau Guillamat@pauguillamat.bsky.social · last yr.

New preprint out! We show how cellular nematic order can be harnessed to program tissue-wide force fields and guide 3D shape transformations. The tissue morphogenesis logic, now engineered into living, programmable materials. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ActiveMatter #TissueEngineering

A huge congratulations to Katja, who defended her PhD last week 🎉 As one of the lab's founding members, she played a pivotal role in shaping the lab from its earliest days, and her hard work, passion, and scientific curiosity have set the bar high. We look forward to her next scientific adventures 🚀

Rockefeller scientists, including @danielkronauer.bsky.social, Vanessa Ruta, Winrich Freiwald, Priya Rajasethupathy, and @erichjarvis.bsky.social, are learning what drives social behavior, and also trying to explain what happens when those roots falter. 🔗: https://bit.ly/47J2Q5h

🚨REPOST PLEASE! 🙏🏻 Calling all South African 🇿🇦 zoology students! You have ONE more week to apply to our Collective Behaviour Field Course 📍Two weeks at the Kalahari Research Centre 🗓️ June 2026 💸 Fully funded Application details are at www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/cbfc DM for any questions

🎙️ New Meet the P.I. podcast episode with Anna Stöckl @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social is out! From vision to interdisciplinary science, navigating new fields, dealing with rejection, and finding your own path ✨ 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1DGh... 📺 YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iemB...

Meet the PI / Episode 3 / Anna Stöckl

Spotify video

open.spotify.com

Braitenberg 100 – a landmark symposium in computational neuroscience – will gather the field’s foremost experts from around the world. Join us in Tübingen, Germany, starting June 29! Registration: braitenberg100-theoretical-neuroscience.de

🧵 New preprint led by @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @elliottabe.bsky.social, @lawrencehu.bsky.social We gave a worm brain control of a fly body and it walked What did we learn? Nothing, other than deep reinforcement learning is effective We call it the digital sphinx www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How does an animal choose between exploring for a better food source and taking advantage of a known one? Our recent work in Current Biology demonstrates how recent feeding and metabolic state dynamically influence fly local search. bit.ly/3PfrIv3 #Science #Neurosky #Foraging #Drosophila

Heads up animal behavior researchers! Amazing opportunity: 3 3-year independent postdoctoral fellowships based in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Deadline July 15. Come collaborate with @livingingroups @MPI_animalbehav...

Another amazing story by @edvardmoser.bsky.social and @m-bmoser.bsky.social on the developmental emergence of spatial navigation : I am so thrilled to see a new, and surprising example of instinctive circuit function 🤣 We still have so much to learn on behavior circuit development: congrats! 👏🧠

Edvard I Moser@edvardmoser.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Is spatial navigation innate 🧠? Using #NeuroPixels we show that the #torus 🍩 underlying the #GridCell map exists already on day 10 in rats — before pups open eyes and ears and before they start upright walking. 🧵1:4 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Have you seen the latest documentary on CASCB research? Director Franziska Mayr-Keber produced an insightful film for public national channel 3sat featuring the work of Hannah Williams, Iain Couzin and August Paula. Dive in: www.3sat.de/gesellschaft... @icouzin.bsky.social @augustpaula.bsky.social

Logik der Vielen - Das Prinzip Schwarm

Ob Vogel- oder Fischschwarm: Tausende Tiere bewegen sich, ohne zusammenzustoßen, ohne Befehle - und doch perfekt koordiniert. Was können wir von solchen Schwärmen lernen?

3sat.de

This could be your dream job! PhD in ecology, and English and Japanese language skills required... working for POKEMON!!! www.ign.com/articles/the...

The Pokémon Company Is Actively Recruiting PhD Holders With Backgrounds in Ecology to Work in Tokyo - IGN

The Pokémon Company is actively recruiting PhD holders with backgrounds in ecology to work in Tokyo. This is perhaps the closest chance Pokémon fans have to channel their inner Professor Oak in real l...

ign.com

I just made an account and voted for this biology laboratory made of LEGO to "promote biological research and inspire more people into the world of biology". They need 10K votes. Reposting and/or voting below would be helpful. 🤗 beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Biological Laboratory | LEGO® Ideas

This is a two-floor realistic Biological Laboratory building. In this design, I try to tell stories about biologists, introduce biology concepts to general publ…

beta.ideas.lego.com

After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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

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...

cell.com

This paper on how the brain may do gradient descent is very cool: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Vectorized instructive signals in cortical dendrites - Nature

Mice learning a neurofeedback brain–computer interface task show neuron-specific teaching signals in cortical dendrites, consistent with a vectorized solution for credit assignment in the brain.

nature.com