Event Information & Schedule
ICN 2026
Sunday
July 26
Conference Welcome: Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre
- 15:00 Registration and Badge Pick- Up
- 17:00 Reception & Opening Ceremony
Monday July 26
Conference Day 2
16:15 – 16:30 Coffee Break
ISN President’s welcome and introduction to the symposium
Chair: Cynthia Moss, President of ISN, Johns Hopkins University, United States.
Tribute to Ed Kravitz: “You Have to Care About Your People”: Teaching, Mentoring, and Inclusive Excellence According to Ed
Alo Basu, Holy Cross University, USA
Remembering Ed: Scientist, Mentor, Educator, and Mensch
María de la Paz Fernández, Indiana University, USA
Tribute to Harvey Karten: The Voyage of the Night Heron
Andrew Iwaniuk, University of Lethbridge, Canada
Harvey Karten and the mystery of the avian DVR. Pigeons and squirrels under suspect
Jorge Mpodozis, University of Chile, Chile
More foresight from Harvey Karten: Pigeons use stereopsis when landing
Doug Wylie, University of Alberta, Canada
Date and Time
Monday July 26, 9 am – 10:30 am
Chair: Cynthia Moss, President of ISN, Johns Hopkins University, United States
Location: Great Hall
Neurobiology of Social and Sickness Behavior
Catherine Dulac (Harvard University, USA)
Chair: Marie Dacke (Lund university, Sweden)
Location: Great Hall
RHYTHMS & HOMEOSTATIC CONTROL (Performance Theatre)
Chair: Cheyenne McKinley, University of California Santa Barbara, United States
URBAN STRESSORS & ADAPTATION (Great Hall South)
Chair: Helena Norman, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
ACOUSTICS & SENSORY MECHANICS (Room 2306/2309)
Chair: Lucille Chapuis, La Trobe University, Australia
SENSORY LEARNING & DECISION-MAKING (Great Hall North)
Chair: Nicole Bedford, University of Wyoming, United States
16:15 – 16:30 Coffee Break
Coffee will be served in the Nest Lower Level Atrium
16:30- 18:00 Poster Session 1
18:00- 20:00
Tuesday July 28
Conference Day 3
Joseph Parker, California Institute of Technology, USA
Chair: Marie Dacke, Lund University, Sweden
Location: Great Hall
09:45 – 10:00
Substrate-bound societies: Vibratory sensing and communication in tiny caterpillars
Emilie Mauduit, Carleton University, Canada
10:00 – 10:15
Using spatial orientation to assess blast-induced neurotrauma in an animal that uses shock waves as weapons
Alexandra Kingston, University of Tulsa, United States
10:15 – 10:30
Teaching neuroethology: Insights from a worldwide survey
Linnea van Griethuijsen, Maastricht University, Netherlands
Invited Symposium 1: Principles of sensory navigation across species & habitats
Chairs: Claire Wyart (Paris Brain Institute, France), Venkatesh Murthy (Harvard University, USA)
Location: Great Hall South
Invited Symposium 2: Principles of communication in social groups: from behavior to neuron
Chair: Megan Freiler (University of Minnesota, USA)
Location: Great Hall North
Invited Symposium 3: Evolution of sleep: A comparative perspective to unravel the biological function of sleep?
Chair: Jerome Beetz (Wuerzburg University, Germany)
Location: Room 2306/2309
Invited Symposium 4: Adaptive responses to changing internal and external environments: weathering the storm
Chairs: Joe Santin (University of Missouri-Columbia, USA), David Schulz (University of Missouri-Columbia, USA)
Location: Performance Theatre
Ajay Narendra (Macquarie University, Australia)
Chair: Tanvi Deodora (Shiv Nadar University, India)
Location: Great Hall
NEURAL MECHANISMS OF ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION (Great Hall North)
Chair: Nicolas Mathevon, University of Saint-Etienne, France
ARTHROPOD LOCOMOTION & MOTOR PROGRAMS (Great Hall South)
Chair: Natasha Mhatre, Western University, Canada
PHOTORECEPTORS & VISUAL ADAPTATION (Room 2306/2309)
Chair: Michael Bok, Lund University, Sweden
DEVELOPMENTAL PLASTICITY AND EVOLUTION (Performance Theatre)
Chair: Ben Sandkam, Cornell University, United States
Chairs: Michael Dickinson, California Institute of Technology, USA and Marie Dacke, Lund University, Sweden
Location: Great Hall
Wednesday July 29
Conference Day 4
Lisa Fenk, MPI for Biological Intelligence, Germany
Chair: Michael Dickinson, California Institute of Technology, USA
Location: Great Hall
09:45 – 10:00
Visual detection of jumping spiders by Drosophila flies
Jessica Zung, Columbia University, United States
10.00-10.15
A 3D Reconstruction of a Portia Jumping Spider Wild Hunt.
Finn J. Petrie, Northwestern University, United States
10:15 – 10:30
Science and Storytelling
Hannah Thomsay, Science journalist, Canada
Invited Symposium 5: The neural substrate of animal collective motion
Chair: Amir Ayali (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
Location: Great Hall South
Invited Symposium 6: Brains in the Wild A
Chairs: Nachum Ulanovsky (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
Location: Great Hall North
Invited Symposium 7: The Evolutionary, Behavioral, and Neural Bases of Synchrony
Chairs: Lauren O’Connell (Stanford University, USA) and Eduardo Fernandez Duque (Yale University, USA)
Location: Room 2306/2309
Invited Symposium 8: Neurosustainability: How Brain Science is Revolutionizing Environmental Design and Policy
Chairs: Tracy Larson (University of Virginia, USA) and Jeff Riffel (University of Washington, USA)
Location: Performance Theatre
Lunch
Hosted by the ISN Culture and Inclusivity Committee
Location: Great Hall
Investigating feedforward and feedback control in animal locomotion using robots and neuromechanical simulations
Auke Ijspeert (EPFL, Switzerland)
Chair: Poromate Manoonpong (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)
Location: Great Hall
COMPUTATIONAL SENSORIMOTOR CONTROL (Great Hall South)
Chair: Anita Devineni, Emory University, United States
VISION-GUIDED BEHAVIOR & CAMOUFLAGE (Room 2306/2309)
Chair: Adam Blake, University of Washington, United States
MECHANO- & THERMOSENSATION (Performance Theatre)
Chair: Nicolas Gompel, University of Bonn, Germany
EVOLUTION OF SENSORY & MOTOR SYSTEMS (Great Hall North)
Chair: Fiorella Ramirez Esquivel, Macquarie University, Australia
Thursday July 30
Conference Day 5
Laura Quintana (Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Uruguay)
Chair: Gonzalo Budelli (University of the Republic, Uruguay)
Location: Great Hall
09:45 – 10:00
Ultrafast signaling reflects social hierarchy in interacting mormyrid electric fish
Matasaburo Fukutomi (Hokkaido University, Japan)
10:00 – 10:15
Functional organization of haltere projections and neck muscles in Drosophila flight
Payel Chatterjee, Princeton Neuroscience Institute, United States
10:15 – 10:30
AI and the future of scientific publishing
Charlotte E. Rutledge (Senior Editor, The Journal of Experimental Biology)
Invited Symposium 9: Peripheral circuits that shape descending commands to modulate motor programs
Chair: Brad Dickerson (Princeton University, USA) and Simon Sponberg (Georgia Tech, USA)
Location: Great Hall South
Invited Symposium 10: Brains in the Wild B
Chair: Jan Benda (University of Tuebingen, Germany)
Location: Great Hall North
Invited Symposium 11: The neuroethology of water stress: thirst, desiccation risk and water-seeking behavior
Chair: Deborah Gordon (Stanford University, USA)
Location: Room 2306/2309
Invited Symposium 12: The Neuroscience of Emotion
Chair: Vivek Nityananda (Newcastle University, Singapore) and Luigi Baciadonna (University of Cambridge, UK)
Location: Performance Theatre
Lunch
Location: 2306/2309
Emily Standen (University of Ottowa, Canada)
Chair: Michael Dickinson (California Institute of Technology, USA)
ACTIVE SENSING & SENSORIMOTOR GATING (Great Hall North)
Chair: Yuhan Chen, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
INSECT COMPASS SYSTEMS (Room 2306/2309)
Chair: Pauline N. Fleischmann, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany
CHEMOSENSORY ENCODING (Performance Theatre)
Chair: Andrea Adden, The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom
SOCIAL DISPLAYS & COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR (Great Hall South)
Chair: Christopher Jernigan, Wake Forest University, United States
Friday July 31
Conference Day 6
Maud Baldwind, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Germany
Chair: Coen PH Elemans, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Location: Great Hall
09:45 – 10:00
Mechanisms of adaptation to extreme cold temperature in the snow fly Chionea alexandriana
Marco Gallio, Northwestern University, United States
10:00 – 10:15
Asleep on the move: motor control during sleep in swimming birds
Andrea Ferretti, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Germany
10:15 – 10:30
The future of ISN: where are we heading?
Eric Warrant, past president, Lund University, Sweden
Invited Symposium 13: Neural basis of Acoustic Communication across Vertebrates
Chairs: Susanne Babl (Free University Berlin, Germany) and Luciana López-Jury (Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany)
Location: Great Hall South
Invited Symposium 14: Periphery is key: adaptations to natural scenes in the visual periphery of arthropods & vertebrates
Chairs: Anna Stöckl (Konstanz University, Germany) and Gregor Belušič (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Location: Great Hall North
Invited Symposium 15: Animal Architecture
Chairs: Andrew Gordus (Johns Hopkins University, USA) and Patrick McGrath (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Location: Room 2306/2309
Invited Symposium 16: Orientation across modalities
Chair: James Foster (University of Konstanz, Germany)
Location: Performance Theatre
Michael Long (NYU Grossman School of Medicine, USA)
Chair: Elena Gracheva (Yale University, USA)
Location: Great Hall
VERTEBRATE MOTOR CONTROL (Great Hall South)
Chair: Cristian Gutierrez Ibanez, University of Alberta, Canada
3D NAVIGATION & SPATIAL COGNITION (Great Hall North)
Chair: Ash Parker, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
CHEMOSENSORY-GUIDED BEHAVIOR (Performance Theatre)
Chair: Shunsuke Shigaki, National Institute of Informatics, Japan
MODULATION OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR (Room 2306/2309)
Chair: Scott Juntti, University of Maryland, United States