Ethology ePosters

Juvenile male zebra finches learn to produce a single, highly stereotyped song and maintain this song over the course of their adult lives using auditory feedback. Much of what we know of the underlying learning process comes from studies of adult male zebra finches adapting to white noise feedback triggered by either…

Foraging, the set of behaviors associated with seeking valuable resources (e.g., food, water) while avoiding danger (e.g., predators), is ubiquitous among organisms, but its neural circuit basis is presently unclear. Most existing work on navigation, a key component of foraging, involves animals in small, fully…

The rise of interactive AI in contextual information processing has enhanced tools for characterizing audio and speech. Behavioral neuroscientists and ecologists studying animal communication benefit greatly from these advancements. However, a universal solution for categorizing vocalizations is difficult due to audio…

Understanding the neural basis of animal behavior is a central challenge in biology. In this work, we establish a connection between the spatio-temporal decision-making processes of animals and the ring attractor dynamics of neurons, which determine the organism's heading direction. We formulate a neural field model…

Throughout each day the brain captures snapshots of distinct experiences, forming episodic memories that often last a lifetime. This function depends on the hippocampus – a brain region that is evolutionarily conserved across vertebrates. My lab studies the relationship between hippocampal activity and episodic memory…

Our research explores the neural mechanisms underlying flexibility during natural social interactions - how animals process dynamic sensory cues from a partner, make decisions, and pattern the appropriate action for the current context. During Drosophila social interactions, males produce time-varying songs via wing…

Rodents and primates exhibit trade-offs between exploitation and exploration. Understanding how different behavioral states modulate neural activities remains a critical question. Previous research has demonstrated that high and low head pitch in rats correlate with distinct head-movement frequencies, which are…

Central place foraging insects like the honeybee (Apis mellifera) are the masters of visual navigation of the insect world: They are able to reliably return to their nest under a wide range of visual conditions after only a few learning flights, (a feat so far unrivalled by any artificial system). Furthermore, they…

In a complex and mutable environment, animals continuously face scenarios where behavioral decisions determine their survival. These rely primarily on sensory input and the associated cognitive process is known as perceptual decision-making. The decision-making is typically preceded by the gathering of information…

Nightingales are renowned for their large song repertoire, including the acoustically distinct type of so-called whistle songs. These contain temporal sequences of unmodulated tonal syllables, known as whistle syllables, defining the fundamental frequency of the song, i.e., the pitch. While recent research has shown…

Brain serotonin (5-HT) is one of the key regulators of aggressive behavior and social defeat stress mechanisms. We had previously found that abolishing central 5-HT biosynthesis increases aggression, as tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (Tph2-/-) knockout rats (TPH2-KO) are more aggressive than wild-type (WT) counterparts. In…

The function and evolution of calling song recognition networks is central to understanding speciation in insects. Evolutionary changes in the recognition network can compel speciation, so understanding the commonalities in the mechanisms by which song recognition is achieved across species can help define a central…

In the quest for survival, animals constantly adapt their behaviours to environmental cues, internal states, and experiences. This process involves allocating cognitive resources in the brain to promote relevant behaviours while inhibiting others. Despite recent progress in understanding biological mechanisms behind…

Flour beetles such as Tribolium castaneum are devastating pests of dry stored grain products, causing up to 19% loss of these commodities in the Global South. Little is known about how the nervous systems of these animals coordinate effective movement. We therefore employed novel behavioural assays combined with…

Sexual imprinting, a learning process influencing mate choice, is observed across species. However, its neural mechanisms in complex networks like the mammalian brain are largely unexplored (Yamazaki et al. J., 1976; Asaba et al. , 2014.). We investigated how the mouse brain (C57BL/6 and wild house mice) represents…

Although oxytocin (Oxt) is expressed in a highly conserved neuroanatomical pattern among vertebrates, brain OXT receptor (Oxtr) distribution is highly variable across species and associated with species-typical social behavior. Genetic mechanisms leading to diversity in brain Oxtr expression, and a causal link between…

In the social context, animal species depend on vocal communication throughout their life, as they are the primary source of communication, yet the neurophysiological underpinnings of the perception of intra-specific communication signals are still poorly understood. The brain processes underpinning the capacity to…

The development of algorithms for high-accuracy animal tracking is fundamental to unravel the neural basis of behavior. The recent growth of Deeplabcut, an open source toolbox for marker-less pose estimation based on transfer learning with deep neural networks, promises to greatly enhance our ability to track animal…

Quantification of animal behavior is critical to neuroscience, genetics, and ethology research. Despite the recent development of a deep-learning-based pose estimation model, the usage of those systems has been limited due to the various video recording environment and hardware systems. Here we introduce a novel…

We trained five rats to perform a complex auditory-guided task in a large environment (diameter 160 cm) with twelve nose-poke ports. To obtain rewards, rats had to position themselves at specific locations indicated by sounds. Despite the nontrivial task, rats reached high success rates within two 70-minute sessions.…

Space can be a limited resource. Many species including humans, evolved a compromise regulating space sharing and its occupancy based on social determinants. For example, students in a classroom tend to sit close to their friends, keeping the same spots across days, revealing the social structure in the classroom.…