Birds on the € notes!? You can make it happen! 🐦✨ Vote now for your favourite design! www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknot... The European Central Bank is redesigning the euro banknotes and is asking the public for feedback. And one of the themes is birds and rivers...😈

Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...

Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power

YouTube video by nature video

youtu.be

Registration for our Avian Cognitive Neuroscience Meeting is open. Join us Oct 1 - 2 in Bochum for talks, posters and plenty of discussion. This is the lineup of speakers: www.ngl.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/ngl/mam/cont... Stay tuned for the full program or just register here: eveeno.com/239532040

🚨 New paper in @nature.com We asked why two hippocampal areas with very different anatomy, CA3 and CA1, often seem to code space so similarly? By recording bats flying up to 200m, we found that the difference was hidden by scale! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵 1/11

Sparse-to-dense coding transformation between hippocampal areas CA3 and CA1 - Nature

The hippocampus exhibits a CA3-to-CA1 coding transformation that combines fast learning with an efficient, compressed neural code.

nature.com

Where, exactly, does learning happen in the brain? Out today in @nature.com, we identify a synaptic locus of birdsong learning and show that the circuit can be tuned to make birds learn faster - but at a cost. Read on👇 #neuroskyence 🧪 #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics Shareable link: rdcu.be/fiyrS

A synaptic locus of song learning - Nature

Combining a computational framework and optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations within and downstream of the cortico-basal ganglia circuit identifies the specific cortico-basal ganglia synapse...

nature.com

More control wires enable finer control. The Banerjee lab's findings on the neuroanatomical underpinnings of vocal dexterity neatly tie in with a recurring motif in brain evolution: pre-existing pathways can be selectively expanded to increase sensorimotor control and expand behavioral repertoires.

Cedric Boeckx@cedricboeckx.bsky.social · 3mo ago

“Specific expansion of motor cortical projections in a singing mouse” Great new work by @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social E. Isco @cliffscience.bsky.social @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @tonyzador.bsky.social & colleagues on the neural basis of vocal dexterity, now out in @nature.com 🧪🧠

Striking results showing "swimming" brains in fish endocasts, demonstrating that endocasts are a poor predictor of brain morphology in ray-finned fish.

Matt Friedman@friedmanlab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Ray-finned fishes are famously diverse, but we know little about their brains or cranial endocasts. @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social opens this black box with a dice-CT survey of 86 species across the actinopt tree of life. #OA in @royalsocietypublishing.org 🐟🧠 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

New paper in Animal Behaviour: After centuries of debate, we finally have direct evidence that common cuckoos use different egg-laying tactics 🥚 doi.org/10.1016/j.an... Check the appendix videos! #ornithology #broodparasitism #cuckoo @animbehsociety.bsky.social @ivb-cas.bsky.social

Super interesting paper on the brains of vocalizing seals and sea lions. Highlighting the role of the thalamus for volitional vocal control in both mammals and birds!

Science Magazine@science.org · 5mo ago

By mapping the brains of seals and sea lions, researchers have uncovered specialized neural circuits that have evolved to support the control of complex vocal behavior and learning in the species. Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/4bpsJYU

For decades biologists assumed ravens follow wolves to their kills. Our paper @science.org shows something different: ravens rarely follow wolves far. Instead they remember areas where wolf kills are common and return to them—sometimes from >150 km away. doi.org/10.1126/science.adz9467 📷Dan Stahler

Neat study suggesting proboscis dexterity is improved by learning in an invertebrate.

Lochlan W@lochlanw.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Excited to share my first PhD preprint! w/ Sören Kannegieser and @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @insect-vision.bsky.social We investigated how hawkmoths coordinate lateralized sensory and motor control for appendage guidance, revealing similar control principles to vertebrates doi.org/10.64898/202...

Nice commentary on our recent paper on crow stick tool use. To add one piece of information: One of our crows did, in fact, sometimes use the substrate (i.e., the apparatus desk) to adjust its grip—the crow for which stick re-grasping by tossing was too subtle to be reliably detected.

Shoko Sugasawa@shokosugasawa.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New paper: Stick dexterity in carrion crows🥢 Commentary on Moll et al. 2025 in which they trained crows to use stick tools. Their neat set-up allowed tracking tool motions, showing that crows became more efficient over time. Could nest building affect their stick dexterity? Full text: rdcu.be/eSOMF

After the Ngogo chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female birth rates more than doubled and infant survival increased sharply—showing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/TKmf50XuPjY

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...

Researchers gave female canaries testosterone, which causes them to sing. Two-photon in vivo imaging reveals that songs emerge due to changes in brain cell function rather than by increasing the size of a key brain region, as was once thought. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/pn1750XhFL5

Great Dispatch piece by @milliejohnston.bsky.social et al.. Our crows are very flattered: "Great skill can be found in the dextrous movements of a tool tip. [ ] from cave paintings and papyrus scripts to Da Vinci’s sketches and today’s remote laparoscopic surgery." www.cell.com/current-biol...

Animal tool use: Capturing tool-expertise development with a deep learning network

Movement tracking using the deep-learning network DeepLabCut has revealed how a species not known for tool use acquires and refines tool skills. This opens the door to detailed cross-species compariso...

cell.com

🐦 21 species all produce similar whining noises towards their brood parasites 🐦 Found in areas w/dense parasite-host networks 🐦 Playbacks trigger innate recruit response from all hosts 🐦 --> intermediate b/t innate & learned signals! www.nature.com/articles/s41... #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics 2/2

Learned use of an innate sound-meaning association in birds - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model presentation and playback experimen...

nature.com

A 2024 study found that ants best humans at tests of collective intelligence. Learn more on #WorldAnimalDay: https://scim.ag/42nMvQJ

🌆🐀Scientific American article about the project we're starting on NYC rats!! scientificamerican.com/article/scie... w/ Emily Mackevicius, Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, @basisresearch.bsky.social Seeking collaborators and funders 🐀🌆

New York City’s Rats Have a Secret Nightlife—And a Language Humans Can’t Hear

A new preprint field study reveals that New York City’s rats aren’t just survivors—they’re talkative city dwellers with their own hidden nightlife. Mapping their movements and conversations could offe...

scientificamerican.com

Ein Forschungsteam der @unituebingen.bsky.social zeigt, wie Krähen lernen, ein Stäbchen präzise im Schnabel zu führen, um damit an Futter zu gelangen: 👉 uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet... #Neurobiologie #Biologie #Forschung

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Cool new paper on how neurons in my favorite bird's brain encode time. Congrats Millie and Max!! @milliejohnston.bsky.social , @crowbrain.bsky.social

Millie Johnston@milliejohnston.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I'm delighted to share that, together with @crowbrain.bsky.social our paper on time estimation in crows is now published in @natcomms.nature.com We found that crows not only keep track of time, but individual neurons prefer different time durations 🐦⏱️🧠 Check it out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cool new method (functional ultrasound imaging) now established in the crow by @daliao.bsky.social and colleagues: www.jneurosci.org/content/45/2...

Exploring Neural Dynamics in the Auditory Telencephalon of Crows Using Functional Ultrasound Imaging

Crows, renowned for advanced cognitive abilities and vocal communication, rely on intricate auditory systems. While the neuroanatomy of corvid auditory pathways is partially explored, the underlying n...

jneurosci.org

Amazing meeting with amazing people!

MPI for Biological Intelligence@mpiforbi.bsky.social · last yr.

Birdsong, brains & sunshine! More than 70 brilliant minds from across the globe flocked to Seewiesen to get inspired by cutting-edge research. From finches to singing mice, vocal research flew high at the European Birdsong Meeting hosted at our Institute.

Our paper on brain size evolution in birds of paradise was recently accepted! In brief: •BoPs have big brains, comparable to those of medium-sized corvids •Neither absolute nor relative brain size appears to have co-evolved with display complexity doi.org/10.1093/orni...

Did complex song and dance co-evolve with brain size in the birds-of-paradise (Aves: Paradisaeidae)?

Abstract. Complex signaling behaviors, such as avian song and courtship displays, have been associated with increases in both absolute and relative brain s

doi.org

My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature! When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️ The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar bit.ly/3HvWSum

Our first look at midbrain PAG’s role in singing mouse vocal control. When near each other, these mice produce two divergent vocal modes. Same circuits for USVs and Songs—or different ones? Bets were made..some of us bought beers for others! Led by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social & Clifford Harpole. 👇🏽

animal prattle@animal-prattle.bsky.social · last yr.

Important new work from @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social et al bit.ly/42dWcQN ethology+modeling+targeted neural manipulation —> new textbook example of how evolutionary tinkering can generate multiple behavioral modes with a single neural circuit #bioacoustics #prattle 💬

Nature research paper: Convergent vocal representations in parrot and human forebrain motor networks https://go.nature.com/4iEIBsz

Convergent vocal representations in parrot and human forebrain motor networks - Nature

Using advanced brain-recording techniques, parrots were found to have a brain organization for vocal control similar to humans, making them an important model for studying speech and for developing potential treatments for communication disorders.

go.nature.com

Proud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)

Dual neuromodulatory dynamics underlie birdsong learning - Nature

Dopamine release in the basal ganglia of the zebra finch is driven by neurons associated with reinforcement learning and by cholinergic signalling, and tracks performance quality during long-term lear...

nature.com

Excited to share our latest work! It’s been a great experience working on this (including building a whole new lab!) 😊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Natural behaviour is learned through dopamine-mediated reinforcement - Nature

Studies in zebra finches show that dopamine has a key role as a reinforcement signal in the trial-and-error process of learning that underlies complex natural behaviours.

nature.com