Symposia

Neural basis of Acoustic Communication across Vertebrates

Susanne Babl & Luciana López-Jury

This symposium explores the neural basis of acoustic communication across multiple vertebrate taxa. Acoustic communication is a key topic in neuroethology, as it is a multimodal behavior that relies on the integration of auditory, motor and social systems in the brain. Rooted in ancient evolutionary mechanisms, vocal communication has diversified widely across vertebrates. Examining this diversity can help uncover general principles of how the brain produces highly flexible and socially influenced behaviors. Speakers will present recent advances on how diverse brains generate, perceive, and adapt acoustic signals, highlighting both shared principles and distinctive solutions across species.

Katherine Tschida, Cornell University
Ana Amador, University of Buenos Air
Logan James, McGill University & University of Texas at Austin
Andrew Bass, Cornell University
Luciana López-Jury, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research

Principles of communication in social groups: from behavior to neuron

Megan Freiler

While signaling interactions have traditionally been studied between one sender and receiver, many species form groups where they interact with and distinguish between multiple individuals. The behavioral, neural, and cognitive mechanisms that regulate social-decision making and sensorimotor circuits should be under strong selection to facilitate efficient communication in socially complex environments. This symposium showcases how different species (wasps, fish, frogs, birds, bats) communicate amid social complexity across contexts (agonistic, mate choice, predation) using different modalities (visual, acoustic, electric). These researchers use advances in multi-animal tracking and signal analysis in the lab and field to ask how animals process and respond to overlapping social inputs.

Elizabeth Tibbetts, University of Michigan
Angie Salles, University of Illinois Chicago
Patrick Weygoldt, University of Tübingen
Amir Alayoubi, Colorado State University
Lorenzo Micolucci, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

The Evolutionary, Behavioral, and Neural Bases of Synchrony

Lauren O’Connell & Eduardo Fernandez Duque

Interactions strengthening relationships are the building blocks of social life. Research in humans identified social synchrony as a behavioral phenomenon with neuroendocrine correlates and physiological benefits. In animals, decades of theoretical work emphasized group behavior as a long-term strategy promoting individual fitness, rather than how social interactions promote teamwork and homeostasis. Yet, recent studies enabled by new methods yielded similar results across vertebrates, where neuroendocrine synchrony is well conserved in critical social interactions. In our symposium, we aim to bridge anthropological, neural, and ecological fields by integrating humans, primates, birds, fish and amphibians into our understanding of the neural and physiological synchrony promoting sociality.

Zoe Donaldson, University of Colorado Boulder
Billie Goolsby, Stanford University
Shir Atzil, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Norihiro Okada, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Facundo Fernandez-Duque, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

The neuroethology of water stress: thirst, desiccation risk and water-seeking behavior

Deborah Gordon, Stanford University

As many regions of the world grow more arid and temperatures rise, water stress is a growing environmental challenge for many animals including humans. This symposium will explore how the neural mechanisms for detecting thirst and desiccation, and humidity conditions in the environment, are linked to the behavior involved in seeking water and avoiding the risk of water loss. Speakers will present studies of insects, crustaceans, and mammals that examine cellular and neurogenetic mechanisms of hydration and humidity sensing, gut–brain and neural circuit control of thirst, and dopaminergic regulation of decisions about water and desiccation risk.

Eleayna Gracheva How to stay hydrated: the solution from extremophiles
Zachary Knight Control of thirst by pregastric signals
Willem Laursen Neurogenetic basis of mosquito humidity-guided reproductive behavior
Mitchell Roitman Body fluid perturbations in the rat and the comings and goings of phasic dopamine signals
Deborah Gordon The role of dopamine in ant forager decisions about the risk of water stress.

Evolution of sleep: A comparative perspective to unravel the biological function of sleep?

Jerome Beetz

We spend about a third of our lives sleeping. Therefore, it is not surprising that sleeping behavior has fascinated generations of scientists. Despite this fascination, the biological function of sleep remains unclear. One way to address this is through a comparative approach. This symposium aims to provide an overview of the current progress in sleep research by presenting findings from a broad evolutionary range (i.e., from insects to mammals). To this end, five speakers, each aiming to unravel the biological function of sleep by focusing on a different species, i.e., flies, bees, cavefish, lizards, pigeons, and mice, will present their findings. Their research covers a wide spectrum of techniques, including electrophysiology, neural imaging, pupil tracking, and behavioral experiments.

Alex Keene, Texas A&M University, Evolution of sleep loss in Mexican cavefish
Hanna Zwaka, Leibniz-Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany, Do Not Disturb: Sleep and Memory in Honeybees
Azahara Oliva, Cornell University, Sleep-dependent neural processes support memory
Lorenz Fenk, MPI for Biological Intelligence, Sleep and Perceptual Dynamics
Gianina Ungurean, MPI for Biological Intelligence, Rapid iris movements during REM sleep in pigeons: a new window into the sleeping brain

The neural substrate of animal collective motion

Amir Ayali, Tel Aviv University

Collective motion is widespread across different scales and species. Fish schools, bird murmuration, or insect swarms are some examples of the intricate spatial and temporal patterns demonstrated in different environments. The prevailing paradigm is that such complex behavioral patterns result from repeated local interactions among individual group members. This symposium will present recent findings, from a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate models, comprising novel insights into the neural basis of the decision making and behavior of the individual, allowing coordination and synchronization among the group. The research presented employs diverse approaches and cutting-edge techniques, ranging from behavioral monitoring and electrophysiology to virtual reality and computer modeling.

Matthew Lovett-Barron, UCSD, Visual circuits for social motion perception in schooling glassfish
Weizhe Hong, UCLA, Neural basis of collective social and prosocial behavior in mice
Clara Howcroft Ferreira, Northumbria University, Mechanisms of social cue integration underlying the safety in numbers effect in flies.
Amir Ayali, Tel Aviv University,Visual interactions in locust collective motion-related decision making
Orit Peleg, University of Colorado Boulder, Synchronization and signal diversity in firefly swarms

Animal Architecture

Andrew Gordus, Johns Hopkins University & Patrick McGrath, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tinbergen proposed that behaviors are nested within a hierarchy of different drives, or what we would now call “internal states”. However, these states are rarely defined by specific behaviors, but instead on changes in the probabilities of common behavioral motifs. Ideally, a method that revealed intent would simplify their study. Animal architecture presents us with a unique tool: the architecture itself is a physical record of an animal’s past intent. This extended phenotype is observed throughout the animal kingdom. Here we present research that leverages animal architecture to understand intent using different study systems, employing a variety of tools from explicit neuronal manipulation, to evolutionary comparisons, to genomic analysis.

Andrew Gordus, Johns Hopkins University, Toward a neuronal understanding of spider orb-weaving behavior.
Patrick McGrath, Georgia Tech, The genomics of bower shape building.
Sara Lipshutz, Duke University, Assistant Professor, Repeated behavioral evolution is associated with convergence of gene expression in cavity-nesting songbirds.
Sanjay Sane, Tata Institute, Architectures in mud: lessons from mound-building termites.
Caleb Weinreb, Harvard University, How do mice learn to nest?

Periphery is key: adaptations to natural scenes in the visual periphery of arthropods & vertebrates

Anna Stöckl, Konstanz University & Gregor Belušič, University of Ljubljana

Peripheral visual processing is critical for adapting central pathways to the statistical properties of inputs animals encounter in natural habitats. Recent advances in connectomics, as well as the integration of novel environmental imaging with physiological studies, have unraveled substantial morphological and physiological variation in the visual periphery, reflecting the diversity of species’ habitats and life histories. Featuring work on the visual periphery’s tuning to their natural input statistics across vertebrates and invertebrates (mice, flies, butterflies, mantis shrimps and sharks), we aim to stimulate discussion across clades, bridging from neural form and function to the animals’ natural behavioural ecology.

Kentaro Arikawa, Sokendai University, What does the lamina do for butterflies to see colors?
Marion Silies, University of Mainz, Natural stimuli drive functional temporal diversity in the fly optic lobe
Maximilian Joesch, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Neural Adaptations to the Statistical Properties of Natural Vision
Amy Streets, Case Western Reserve University, Information processing beyond the retina of mantis shrimp
George Kafetzis, Sussex University, Vision at the origin of vertebrate life

Principles of sensory navigation across species & habitats

Claire Wyart & Venkatesh Murthy

The symposium “Principles of sensory navigation across species & habitats” proposed by Profs. Venkatesh Murthy and Claire Wyart will unite leading experimentalists studying complex animal navigation processes driven by diverse sensory cues—olfaction (Katherine Nagel, USA and Sylvie Retaux, France) and vision (Profs. Antoine Wystrach, France and Anna Gagliardo, Italy)—across invertebrate (ants, flies) and vertebrate species (cavefish, pigeons, rodents). The contribution of Prof. Gautam Reddy (USA) will demonstrate how machine learning can transform our understanding of animal behavior and its modeling. This diversity of approaches will foster rich discussions comparing navigation theories and examining the neuronal mechanisms underlying both distant and local search behaviors.

Katherine Nagel, NYU School of Medicine, NYC, USA
Sylvie Rétaux, Paris-Saclay Institute of ́Neuroscience, CNRS, Saclay, France
Gautam Reddy, Princeton University, Princeton, USA
Antoine Wystrach, CBI, CNRS, Toulouse, France
Anna Gagliardo, Dept of Biology, University of Pisa, Italy

Directional selection as a force that shapes behaviours

Maria Abellán-Álvaro & Jose V. Torres-Pérez

Directional selection is a key evolutionary force shaping behavioural adaptations across taxa. This symposium gathers researchers working on diverse systems, from insects and arachnids to birds and humans. V. Hamlin will present work on learning and memory in fruit flies; L. Castilho on sexual selection in jumping spiders; H. Hoi on sexual selection and communication in birds; D. Wright on the genomic and behavioural effects of domestication; and C. Boeckx on human self-domestication and language evolution. By integrating ecological, genetic and neuroethological perspectives, the session highlights shared mechanisms and shows how directional selection shapes behaviour across species in a comparative framework.

Leonardo Castilho Universidade de Brasília
Victoria Hamlin University of Missouri, Columbia, Division of Biological Sciences Herbert Hoi- Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology
Herbert Hoi Department of Integrative Biology and Evolution, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology
Dominic Wright– IFM Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Cedric Boeckx– 1. ICREA (Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies and Research) 2. Universitat de Barcelona, Section of General Linguistics 3. Institute of Neurosciences, Universitat de Barcelona 4. Universitat de Barcelona Institute for Complex Systems (UBICS)

Neurosustainability: How Brain Science is Revolutionizing Environmental Design and Policy

Tracy Larson, University of Virginia, Department of Biology & Jeff Riffel, University of Washington, Department of Biology

‘Neurosustainability’ represents a paradigm shift – one that recognizes that cognitive health and environmental vitality are deeply intertwined systems, influencing one another in profound ways. This symposium brings together researchers from animal behavior, ecology, cognitive neuroscience, urban design, and policy to explore how diverse expertise can be integrated into comprehensive solutions. The symposium will feature innovative strategies for creating environments that simultaneously enhance cognitive function, support biodiversity conservation, and strengthen environmental governance. Participants will gain insights into cutting-edge tools and frameworks that they can use to transform their research into solutions for real-world challenges.

Jens Krause Leibniz Institute
Marc G. Berman University of Chicago
Eric S. Higgs University of Victoria
Carly Kenkle USC
Daniel Blumstein UCLA

The Neuroscience of Emotion

Vivek Nityananda & Luigi Baciadonna

Understanding the affective states, including emotions and moods, of non-human animals is crucial to understand their natural behaviour and to develop treatments for neuropsychological disorders in animals and in humans. Recent research has investigated these states in several different animals and a picture of the neural mechanisms underlying these states and their impact on behaviour is becoming clearer. This symposium brings together experts across multiple model systems who investigate the neural basis of emotion to enable a comparative approach and identify common principles and divergences across taxa. This symposium will be of interest to several researchers in neuroethology, especially researchers of state-dependent neural processing and cognition, and comparative neuroscience.

Meryl Malezieux, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Emotions and Interoception in mice: how cardiac signals shape neural coding of affective states.
Robyn Crook, San Francisco State University, Affective state and cognitive bias in cephalopods.
Rui Oliveira, Gulbenkian Institute, Emotion-like states in (zebra)fish: cognitive appraisal, cognitive bias, and social contagion of fear.
Catherine Marci, Sorbonne University, Integrative evidence for a fear-like state in honey bees.
Masashi Tanaka, Waseda University, Limbic circuits regulating cultural behaviours in songbirds.

Peripheral circuits that shape descending commands to modulate motor programs

Brad Dickerson, Princeton University & Simon Sponberg, Georgia Tech

Locomotor circuits rely on local sensory feedback to dynamically tune motor output. Mechanosensors’ direct coupling with the environment makes them especially important for providing robust signals about movement at short timescales. However, a growing body of work is showing that such feedback not only shapes local reflexes but also sculpts descending commands. Thus, peripheral feedback circuits may have an underappreciated role in integrating processing with central brain regions than suggested by classic hierarchical motor control framework. This symposium will span organismal models, modes of locomotion, and life history stage to derive principles regarding how peripheral mechanosensory feedback transforms descending information from the brain and enables rapid, flexible behavior.

Brad Dickerson Princeton University
Alex Yarger Imperial College London, UK
Chris Dallmann University of Würzburg, Germany
Elias Lunsford Paris Brain Institute, France
Barry Trimmer Tufts University

Adaptive responses to changing internal and external environments: weathering the storm

Joe Santin, University of Missouri-Columbia & David Schulz, University of Missouri-Columbia

As animals navigate through the world, their nervous systems are constantly challenged by changes in their internal and external environments. Therefore, one of the most fundamental challenges in cellular and systems neuroscience is understanding how neuronal circuits also “regulate themselves” amid a lifetime of disturbances over a broad range of time scales. Indeed, when nervous system activity strays from acceptable limits, the behaviors it controls will inevitably fail. Recent research has revealed a variety of mechanisms that enable neurons to produce healthy outputs in changing environments, and in this symposium, we invite speakers to discuss innovative work on cellular and molecular mechanisms to overcome stress in challenging environments encountered in the wild.

Lara Amaral-Silva, Wake Forest University, Overcoming glutamate excitotoxicity during metabolic stress: The bird’s-brain view
Daniel Powell, Bowdoin University, The combined effects of temperature and salinity on two motor networks in decapod crustaceans
Hafsa Yaseen, University of Missouri, Functional uncoupling of neural activity and aerobic metabolism in the frog brainstem
Clarice Diebold, Washington University, Filling in the gaps: the auditory midbrain supports flexible foraging behaviors in echolocating bats
Kathleen Jacquerie, Brandeis University, Compensatory mechanisms that maintain neuromuscular function over large temperature ranges in the crab Cancer borealis

Brains in the Wild

Nachum Ulanovsky, Weizmann Institute of Science & Jan Benda, University of Tuebingen

In the past few years, neuroethology has witnessed a paradigm shift toward studying neurophysiology and quantitative animal behavior in the field – fueled by advances in wireless electrophysiology and AI-based data analysis. This symposium will focus on recent neurophysiological, behavioral, and comparative studies performed outdoors in a wide range of species (bats, mice, lemurs, songbirds, penguins, and electric fish). The talks showcase how neural recordings and behavioral quantification in the wild sheds new light on the neuroethology of navigation, foraging, decision making, sociality, singing, and sleep. We hope that this symposium will inspire more neuroethologists to study the neurophysiology of natural behaviors in the real world, outdoors – a “dream come true” for neuroethology.

Nachum Ulanovsky. Weizmann Institute of Science, Neuroethology of navigation in the wild: Place cells and head-direction cells in bats navigating outdoors on a remote oceanic island
Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz, Cornell University), Neural circuit mechanisms of rodent foraging and social group behavior in natural environments.
Susanne Hoffmann, MPI Biological Intelligence, Neurophysiology in wild free-ranging songbirds in South Africa reveals the neural mechanisms of duet singing
Jakob Voigts, Janelia Research Campus, Mice navigate complex and natural environments by using sparse sets of paths
Niels Rattenborg, MPI Biological Intelligence, Sleep research goes wild: From sloths to penguins”.
Claudia Fichtel, German Primate Center, From branch to branch: Unravelling vision in arboreal leaping and navigation in a nocturnal primate.
Federico Pedraja, Columbia University, Collective sensing in electric fish
Yossi Yovel, Tel Aviv University, Maps of time and space – studying animal behavior in the real world”.
Pranav Minasandra, MPI Animal Behavior, The Behavioural Observatory: Looking for universal principles governing behavioural decision making”.
Lena Stoeckl, University of Tuebingen, Musical electric fish