Estelle in ‘t Zandt
@eintzandt.bsky.social
PhD candidate at NYU CNS in the Sanes Lab 🧠 excited about all things auditory, social behavior, cortex, and development. NSF GRFP fellow
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Cow Tools!
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
January 19, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Cow Tools!
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
We have lived alongside cows for nearly 10,000 years.
We breed them and exploit them
It is now, only now, that we have discovered THEY CAN USE TOOLS
Here I describe our study
(paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... in @currentbiology.bsky.social
with @auersperga.bsky.social
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Happy new year! I wanted to share my new Python package called chatter that streamlines the process of applying AI/ML models to animal communication 🦜🦇🐋🐵👨🌾 masonyoungblood.github.io/chatter/
January 2, 2026 at 4:59 PM
Happy new year! I wanted to share my new Python package called chatter that streamlines the process of applying AI/ML models to animal communication 🦜🦇🐋🐵👨🌾 masonyoungblood.github.io/chatter/
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Very pleased to announce our research on #nestlinggrowth and #broodreduction in #hornbills has been published! I started this work as an undergraduate and am grateful for everything I have learned from my co-authors.
@dialektical.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
@dialektical.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Nestling Growth and Brood Reduction in the Southern Yellow‐Billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas)
In the southern yellow-billed hornbill, Tockus leucomelas, we found first-hatched nestlings had a higher growth rate and that growth rate was negatively correlated with mortality, such that early hat...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Very pleased to announce our research on #nestlinggrowth and #broodreduction in #hornbills has been published! I started this work as an undergraduate and am grateful for everything I have learned from my co-authors.
@dialektical.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
@dialektical.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#blueprint 1/7
#blueprint 1/7
Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning - Nature Neuroscience
Dopamine encoding of reward prediction errors naturally fluctuates over females’ reproductive cycles with estrogenic signaling due to reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#blueprint 1/7
#blueprint 1/7
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Family identity is represented within vocal categories by the gerbil auditory cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684438v1
October 25, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Family identity is represented within vocal categories by the gerbil auditory cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.24.684438v1
Super excited to share the first part of my thesis work!
Perhaps how you might be able to both recognize someone’s voice *and* understand what they’re saying, we find that both social identity and vocalization category can be decoded from gerbil auditory cortex activity👂🧠
tinyurl.com/4fba6wk4
Perhaps how you might be able to both recognize someone’s voice *and* understand what they’re saying, we find that both social identity and vocalization category can be decoded from gerbil auditory cortex activity👂🧠
tinyurl.com/4fba6wk4
October 27, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Super excited to share the first part of my thesis work!
Perhaps how you might be able to both recognize someone’s voice *and* understand what they’re saying, we find that both social identity and vocalization category can be decoded from gerbil auditory cortex activity👂🧠
tinyurl.com/4fba6wk4
Perhaps how you might be able to both recognize someone’s voice *and* understand what they’re saying, we find that both social identity and vocalization category can be decoded from gerbil auditory cortex activity👂🧠
tinyurl.com/4fba6wk4
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
What do neuroscience labs and the streets of New York City have in common? They are both commonly home to rats, a feature this research team is leveraging to study rat social cognition in the wild.
By @martajhill.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/social-cogni...
By @martajhill.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/social-cogni...
August 19, 2025 at 2:23 PM
What do neuroscience labs and the streets of New York City have in common? They are both commonly home to rats, a feature this research team is leveraging to study rat social cognition in the wild.
By @martajhill.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/social-cogni...
By @martajhill.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/social-cogni...
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Great news: NIH postbac program is recruiting again! If your grad school plans were affected by program cutbacks or admissions freezes this year I highly encourage you to apply, this could be a perfect opportunity. Please repost.
www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...
www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...
www.training.nih.gov
April 10, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Great news: NIH postbac program is recruiting again! If your grad school plans were affected by program cutbacks or admissions freezes this year I highly encourage you to apply, this could be a perfect opportunity. Please repost.
www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...
www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Instead of cutting costs for working families, Donald Trump is slashing the federal investments that fund their lifesaving care, fuel their local economy, and lower their health care costs.
It’s cruel, short-sighted, and will cost jobs and devastate millions of families.
It’s cruel, short-sighted, and will cost jobs and devastate millions of families.
NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately
Researchers say it would hurt facilities that work on medical issues such as cancer research and heart disease. Elon Musk contends the old policy was ‘a ripoff.’
www.washingtonpost.com
February 8, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Instead of cutting costs for working families, Donald Trump is slashing the federal investments that fund their lifesaving care, fuel their local economy, and lower their health care costs.
It’s cruel, short-sighted, and will cost jobs and devastate millions of families.
It’s cruel, short-sighted, and will cost jobs and devastate millions of families.
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Happy holidays, happy new year, happy to reintroduce our gerbil vocal dialect paper! Final version now available in eLife elifesciences.org/articles/89892
Unsupervised discovery of family specific vocal usage in the Mongolian gerbil
Gerbils exhibit stable, family-specific vocal dialects over weeks, suggesting vocal communication may play a key role in representing kinship in natural social groups.
elifesciences.org
December 26, 2024 at 6:04 PM
Happy holidays, happy new year, happy to reintroduce our gerbil vocal dialect paper! Final version now available in eLife elifesciences.org/articles/89892
Reposted by Estelle in ‘t Zandt
Hi 🔵☁️! My name is Ralph - I am working on my PhD in neuroscience at NYU where I research auditory processing and vocal communication. I’m generally interested in how the brain controls behavior, perception, and understanding neural function in natural contexts (e.g. social interactions, in the wild)
December 10, 2024 at 7:22 PM
Hi 🔵☁️! My name is Ralph - I am working on my PhD in neuroscience at NYU where I research auditory processing and vocal communication. I’m generally interested in how the brain controls behavior, perception, and understanding neural function in natural contexts (e.g. social interactions, in the wild)