Happy that our research on mRNA localization, synaptic diversity and local protein synthesis in layer 1 is now out in Cell Reports! 🧬🧠 Read it in full here 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... and browse the data here 👉 syndive.org @cp-cellreports.bsky.social @mpibrain.bsky.social

Teresa Spanò@teresaspano.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I’m excited to share my PhD work on localized mRNAs and protein synthesis in cortical layer 1 on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

So cool! Congrats @andrewmatheson.bsky.social and @matosches.bsky.social!

Maria Antonietta Tosches@matosches.bsky.social · last wk.

Excited to share a new preprint from the lab, by @andrewmatheson.bsky.social and team, where we dive into the superpower of newts: plasticity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Like many good projects, this started with a serendipitous observation... 🧵1/5

California mice are paragons of monogamy. The neuronal bases of how they (or any other species) remember their partners is unknown. We found a surprisingly important role for hippocampal CA1 as the pair bond develops and a concomitantly diminishing role of CA2. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How did singing mouse evolve its song? Two research manuscripts published today shed light on peripheral and central circuit modifications underlying this novel vocal capacity.

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

Genome of the Abominable Snowfly uncovers the mysteries of cold tolerance in a winter active insect! New cool (literally) paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social from Marco Gallio, @matthewcapek.bsky.social, @tuthill.bsky.social, myself, and fine colleagues! ⛄ 🦟 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be starting my lab as a SNSF starting grant professor at the Center for Integrative Genomics in Lausanne! I'm looking for PhD students who are fascinated about the neuronal basis of behaviour across species @fbm-unil.bsky.social

First whole-brain recording of social sound processing in a vertebrate. Surprises start in the hindbrain; thalamus gates conspecific calls; male and female brains diverge downstream. Work by @joerghenninger.bsky.social, @mh123.bsky.social sky.social and team. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Why are some males caring toward infants while others are neglectful or abusive? I'm so pleased to share work that my colleagues and I @princeton.edu have just published @nature.com (an explanatory thread to follow!) (1/8)

Agouti integrates environmental cues to regulate paternal behaviour - Nature

Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...

nature.com

Why do some worms graze on bacteria while others hunt and kill? Our study, published today in Nature, reveals how predatory aggression evolved in nematodes. Led by @gunizgozeeren.bsky.social and @leoboeger.bsky.social across the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social and @monikakscholz.bsky.social labs.

Predatory aggression evolved through adaptations to noradrenergic circuits - Nature

Noradrenergic circuits support and balance aggressive behavioural states in predatory nematodes, distinguish predatory from non-predatory nematode species and are associated with the evolution of comp...

nature.com

I’m excited to share my PhD work on localized mRNAs and protein synthesis in cortical layer 1 on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Localized mRNAs and protein synthesis in cortical layer 1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.23.689989v1

As a longtime fan of cool papers in @currentbiology.bsky.social, I am really thrilled to see this out! This study sets the stage for understanding the origins of novel (vocal) behaviors. Big shout out to the main architects of this work @xmikezheng20.bsky.social and @cliffscience.bsky.social

Cedric Boeckx@cedricboeckx.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Great @currentbiology.bsky.social study by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @cliffscience.bsky.social @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social 🧪🧠🐭🎶 Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node www.cell.com/current-biol...

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito

Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...

science.org

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Evolutionary expansion of the corticospinal system is linked to dexterity in Peromyscus mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682851v1

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion. Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit shorturl.at/gGYm7

Our new study modeling selection for (behavioral) variability has been covered in a lovely @genetics-gsa.bsky.social podcast featuring first author Shraddha Lall and @ecoevogal.bsky.social academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Family-based selection: an efficient method for increasing phenotypic variability

This article introduces a model comparing various selection regimes for increasing phenotypic variability. Individuals with the same genotype, reared in id

academic.oup.com

🚨Hiring Alert! Join Gregor Schuhknechts’s new group Brain Algorithms and Circuits @mpibrain.bsky.social ! 🧠 Fully funded PhD & Postdoc 🐟 Larval #zebrafish model 🔬 Imaging, electrophysiology, EM 💻 #SystemsNeuroscience 👉 brain.mpg.de/schuhknecht

We are looking for a Postdoc (up to 5 years) who wants to study neural mechanisms of spatial memory in honeybees. This includes tetrode recordings in behaving honeybees. Application Deadline is 1st of October 2025. More details: www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/services/...

How do animals decide if they should forage for food or stay home to take care of newborn offspring? Whose needs come first? For my PhD work now out in Nature, we examined how hunger and parenting neurons interact and are reshaped postpartum in mice 🧵⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature

Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.

nature.com

New preprint!

 tl;dr — We ran around late at night to record wild rats in NYC and figured out how to quantify their behavior and environment. 🧵 w/ Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, Emily Mackevicius www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Computational Urban Ecology of New York City Rats

Urban rats are highly adaptable, thriving in the dynamic and often inhospitable conditions of modern cities. Despite substantial mitigation efforts, they remain an enduring presence in urban environme...

biorxiv.org

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com! We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments www.nature.com/articles/s41... This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️

Very happy to share the latest from my postdoc‬! 10 yrs of mouse social networks + 1.25 yrs of acoustic data ➡️ insight into vocalization & sociality in a wild population of your favorite lab model 🐁 paper: bit.ly/4n93yyD data: bit.ly/4lfFBEk code: bit.ly/4kNnMwx #bioacoustics #neuroskyence 1/8

🧬 New study out: we report a chromosome-level assembly of the deer mouse Peromyscus maniculatus! A launching pad for chemosensory-evolution research. Read more 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Functional and Genetic Architecture of Olfaction in Deer Mice

Mammals have well-developed olfactory systems, but the molecular logic driving the extraction of biological information, how this logic evolves and contributes to differences in behavior remain unclea...

biorxiv.org

A nice, layperson writeup of my latest work, which is now out on eLife! TLDR: Using snRNA-seq, we find cell type abundance differences and sex-biased gene expression differences that may explain innate differences in mating + parenting behavior elifesciences.org/digests/1031...

The parenting styles of deer mice

Single-nuclei RNA-sequencing sheds new light on how two closely related species of deer behave differently when mating and caring for young.

elifesciences.org

🎉 so excited to share my first first-author paper is out in @Nature.com, from my PhD work in the Gallio Lab! we uncover the neurobiological mechanisms that drive the evolution of temperature preference behavior in flies of the genus Drosophila 👇 go.nature.com/4i1VQn9

Evolution of temperature preference in flies of the genus Drosophila - Nature

A study using flies of the genus Drosophila adapted to life in diverse thermal environments shows how evolution has shaped temperature preference by acting on both molecular heat receptors and th...

go.nature.com

This is a few weeks old, but LIZARDS NEVER GET OLD 🦎😇 Find out what makes them so interesting in our Creature Column @naturemethods.bsky.social

International Society for Neuroethology@neuroethology.org · 2y ago

The bearded dragon 🦎 has become a model system to study sleep and the evolution of the brain. A short review by Lorenz Fenk, Felix Baier & Gilles Laurent. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Having flashbacks to my time in the US during Trump‘s first term. Lots of sympathy and hugs to everyone on the ground. Hang in there ❤️

Congrats Saikat, amazing work!!

Saikat Ray@ray-neuro.bsky.social · 2y ago

How does the brain work in natural scenarios, in multi-animal societies of wild animals? 🧠 🧪 🦇 doi.org/10.1126/scie... (1/n)

SfN is thrilled to launch a new webinar series in collaboration with the @kavlifoundation.bsky.social exploring how different species’ nervous systems acclimate to environmental changes! #NeuroSky

Congratulations to @mpibrain.bsky.social director Gilles Laurent for being awarded the 2025 Louis-Jeantet prize for Medicine! The @louisjeantetfdn.bsky.social recognizes Laurent's pioneering work on the operations of #neurons and dynamics of neuronal networks. More infos 👉 bit.ly/4hqk6ie

Gilles Laurent is awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2025

The 2025 Louis-Jeantet Prizes are awarded to Gilles Laurent, director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and to Veit Hornung, professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of ...

brain.mpg.de