Lochlan W
@lochlanw.bsky.social
@insect-vision.bsky.social
Uni Konstanz PhD student with the International Max Planck Research School (QBEE) 🦋🧠🛩️ Intrigued by invertebrate sensorimotor control, vision, computational ethology, and 8-legged animals 🏳️🌈🇨🇦
Uni Konstanz PhD student with the International Max Planck Research School (QBEE) 🦋🧠🛩️ Intrigued by invertebrate sensorimotor control, vision, computational ethology, and 8-legged animals 🏳️🌈🇨🇦
Reposted by Lochlan W
Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila
#Drosophila
#Drosophila
Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila
#Drosophila
PubMed link
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
January 31, 2026 at 1:23 AM
Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila
#Drosophila
#Drosophila
Reposted by Lochlan W
Finally out in eLife!!
"Early foveal cortex predicts the features of saccade targets through feedback from higher cortical areas."
elifesciences.org/articles/107...
"Early foveal cortex predicts the features of saccade targets through feedback from higher cortical areas."
elifesciences.org/articles/107...
January 26, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Finally out in eLife!!
"Early foveal cortex predicts the features of saccade targets through feedback from higher cortical areas."
elifesciences.org/articles/107...
"Early foveal cortex predicts the features of saccade targets through feedback from higher cortical areas."
elifesciences.org/articles/107...
Reposted by Lochlan W
Netcasting spiders modulate silk thread stiffness via a tailorable multi-fibre meta-structure to construct a web that is hyperelastic and high load-bearing at the same time.
Read about our discovery in PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🔓 & with video content!
Read about our discovery in PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🔓 & with video content!
January 27, 2026 at 7:38 AM
Netcasting spiders modulate silk thread stiffness via a tailorable multi-fibre meta-structure to construct a web that is hyperelastic and high load-bearing at the same time.
Read about our discovery in PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🔓 & with video content!
Read about our discovery in PNAS: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🔓 & with video content!
Reposted by Lochlan W
🚨 🕷️ 🕸️ You thought netcasting spiders could not get any cooler?! You were wrong! Check out this new study lead by @wolffspider.bsky.social @evoimec.bsky.social showing how these spiders behaviorally tune their silk to be hyperelastic AND super load-bearing www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
January 27, 2026 at 12:58 PM
🚨 🕷️ 🕸️ You thought netcasting spiders could not get any cooler?! You were wrong! Check out this new study lead by @wolffspider.bsky.social @evoimec.bsky.social showing how these spiders behaviorally tune their silk to be hyperelastic AND super load-bearing www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Lochlan W
More than you would expect from studying AI and less than you would expect from studying neurobiology.
"How much of the brain's learned algorithms depend on the fact it is a brain?" arxiv.org/abs/2601.02063 The brain is a neural network, but also a biological organ (unlike artificial neural networks). How much does this matter to cognition?
January 25, 2026 at 3:17 PM
More than you would expect from studying AI and less than you would expect from studying neurobiology.
Reposted by Lochlan W
Model organisms promise insights into the human brain only if they’re representative. This new paper argues that convenience-driven choices weaken extrapolation in neuroscience, and highlights growing calls for comparative, evolution-informed approaches. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
January 6, 2026 at 2:53 AM
Model organisms promise insights into the human brain only if they’re representative. This new paper argues that convenience-driven choices weaken extrapolation in neuroscience, and highlights growing calls for comparative, evolution-informed approaches. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Reposted by Lochlan W
✨ New preprint from the lab on firefly synchronization, led by Owen Martin (freshly Dr. Martin!), with Nataliya Nechyporenko and Kaushik Jayaram.
Our measured firefly phase-response curves reveal excitatory and inhibitory timing rules that facilitate population synchrony ✨
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Our measured firefly phase-response curves reveal excitatory and inhibitory timing rules that facilitate population synchrony ✨
doi.org/10.64898/202...
January 22, 2026 at 4:01 AM
✨ New preprint from the lab on firefly synchronization, led by Owen Martin (freshly Dr. Martin!), with Nataliya Nechyporenko and Kaushik Jayaram.
Our measured firefly phase-response curves reveal excitatory and inhibitory timing rules that facilitate population synchrony ✨
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Our measured firefly phase-response curves reveal excitatory and inhibitory timing rules that facilitate population synchrony ✨
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Lochlan W
Motor learning and adaptation in bird flight https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700397v1
January 21, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Motor learning and adaptation in bird flight https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700397v1
Reposted by Lochlan W
The second paper from the lab is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We discovered that cannibalistic behavior in fly larvae is social-context dependent. Larval groups avoid dead conspecifics; individuals show high attraction. They only do it when no one is watching 😉
We discovered that cannibalistic behavior in fly larvae is social-context dependent. Larval groups avoid dead conspecifics; individuals show high attraction. They only do it when no one is watching 😉
January 21, 2026 at 12:29 PM
The second paper from the lab is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We discovered that cannibalistic behavior in fly larvae is social-context dependent. Larval groups avoid dead conspecifics; individuals show high attraction. They only do it when no one is watching 😉
We discovered that cannibalistic behavior in fly larvae is social-context dependent. Larval groups avoid dead conspecifics; individuals show high attraction. They only do it when no one is watching 😉
Reposted by Lochlan W
Excitation-inhibition interactions mediate firefly flash synchronization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700439v1
January 20, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Excitation-inhibition interactions mediate firefly flash synchronization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700439v1
Reposted by Lochlan W
Forschende der @uni-konstanz.de haben untersucht, wie Insektengehirne komplexe Lichtreize aufnehmen und parallel verarbeiten. Es könnte eine schichtweise Verarbeitung der Informationen in der Lamina stattfinden.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Bild: © Elisabeth Böker/Universität Konstanz
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Bild: © Elisabeth Böker/Universität Konstanz
January 20, 2026 at 9:52 AM
Forschende der @uni-konstanz.de haben untersucht, wie Insektengehirne komplexe Lichtreize aufnehmen und parallel verarbeiten. Es könnte eine schichtweise Verarbeitung der Informationen in der Lamina stattfinden.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Bild: © Elisabeth Böker/Universität Konstanz
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Bild: © Elisabeth Böker/Universität Konstanz
Reposted by Lochlan W
It is widely thought that 🕷️ mostly experience the world through their tactile and vibratory senses. However, vertebrates and invertebrates like insects can smell, so what about spiders? This comparative study identifies putative glomeruli in 🕷️👃🤨! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Presumed Glomerular Neuropils in the Central Nervous Systems of Spiders (Araneae)
Spiders sense chemicals in their environment with particular sensory hairs (sensilla) on their legs and feelers. Chemosensory neurons inside these sensilla send their axons into the central nervous s...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:54 PM
It is widely thought that 🕷️ mostly experience the world through their tactile and vibratory senses. However, vertebrates and invertebrates like insects can smell, so what about spiders? This comparative study identifies putative glomeruli in 🕷️👃🤨! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Lochlan W
New paper from the lab, led by @ronjabigge.bsky.social, in collaboration with Kentaro Arikawa. We reconcile contrast and spatial processing functions of lamina monopolar cells by integrating 3D morphology, connectivity and neurophysiology in the hummingbird hawkmoth. tinyurl.com/mvnh3325
For more 👇
For more 👇
ScienceDirect.com | Science, health and medical journals, full text articles and books.
authors.elsevier.com
January 19, 2026 at 2:19 PM
New paper from the lab, led by @ronjabigge.bsky.social, in collaboration with Kentaro Arikawa. We reconcile contrast and spatial processing functions of lamina monopolar cells by integrating 3D morphology, connectivity and neurophysiology in the hummingbird hawkmoth. tinyurl.com/mvnh3325
For more 👇
For more 👇
Reposted by Lochlan W
#UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social researchers studied how insect brains take in complex light stimuli and process them in parallel. Neuroethologists Anna Stöckl and Ronja Bigge are the first to have found evidence that information is processed in different layers of the lamina. Details: t1p.de/h15yj
January 19, 2026 at 12:19 PM
#UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social researchers studied how insect brains take in complex light stimuli and process them in parallel. Neuroethologists Anna Stöckl and Ronja Bigge are the first to have found evidence that information is processed in different layers of the lamina. Details: t1p.de/h15yj
Reposted by Lochlan W
A researchers’ propensity for risky projects is passed down to their doctoral students — and stays with trainees after they leave the laboratory
go.nature.com/4qvaffO
go.nature.com/4qvaffO
PhD students’ taste for risk mirrors their supervisors’
Nature - Learned risk-taking behaviours can persist for years after leaving the lab — and even after taking on a new research topic.
go.nature.com
January 18, 2026 at 1:45 PM
A researchers’ propensity for risky projects is passed down to their doctoral students — and stays with trainees after they leave the laboratory
go.nature.com/4qvaffO
go.nature.com/4qvaffO
Reposted by Lochlan W
How does our visual system process natural scenes ? How can we approach this question ?
Happy to share this recent review written with Samuele Virgili where we ask these questions at the level of the retina.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Happy to share this recent review written with Samuele Virgili where we ask these questions at the level of the retina.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Retinal processing of natural scenes: challenges ahead
While substantial knowledge exists about the way the retina processes simple stimuli, our understanding of how the retina processes natural stimuli re…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 14, 2026 at 9:36 PM
How does our visual system process natural scenes ? How can we approach this question ?
Happy to share this recent review written with Samuele Virgili where we ask these questions at the level of the retina.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Happy to share this recent review written with Samuele Virgili where we ask these questions at the level of the retina.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Lochlan W
🦋🧬 A milestone for biodiversity genomics.
Project Psyche is building chromosome-level genomes for ~11,000 European butterflies & moths — 1,000 sequenced, 3,000+ collected, across 34 countries.
🔗 Read the publication: bit.ly/ProjectPsyche
@projectpsyche.bsky.social
#BiodiversityGenomics 🧬🌍
Project Psyche is building chromosome-level genomes for ~11,000 European butterflies & moths — 1,000 sequenced, 3,000+ collected, across 34 countries.
🔗 Read the publication: bit.ly/ProjectPsyche
@projectpsyche.bsky.social
#BiodiversityGenomics 🧬🌍
January 13, 2026 at 6:28 PM
🦋🧬 A milestone for biodiversity genomics.
Project Psyche is building chromosome-level genomes for ~11,000 European butterflies & moths — 1,000 sequenced, 3,000+ collected, across 34 countries.
🔗 Read the publication: bit.ly/ProjectPsyche
@projectpsyche.bsky.social
#BiodiversityGenomics 🧬🌍
Project Psyche is building chromosome-level genomes for ~11,000 European butterflies & moths — 1,000 sequenced, 3,000+ collected, across 34 countries.
🔗 Read the publication: bit.ly/ProjectPsyche
@projectpsyche.bsky.social
#BiodiversityGenomics 🧬🌍
Reposted by Lochlan W
Nice video explainer to go along with this cool article about spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies in relation to wing color: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Species-specific spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies
Supple et al. investigate the spectral sensitivity of motion-sensitive descending
neurons (DNs) connecting the brain to thoracic motor centers in butterflies. Optic
flow-sensitive DNs are spectrally b...
www.cell.com
January 2, 2026 at 5:08 PM
Nice video explainer to go along with this cool article about spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies in relation to wing color: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Lochlan W
A view of bird's eyes -- Pigeons lock their eyes in place during flight https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698303v1
January 9, 2026 at 12:45 AM
A view of bird's eyes -- Pigeons lock their eyes in place during flight https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.07.698303v1
Reposted by Lochlan W
🐙 Inspired by the power of octopus camouflage, @ucsandiego.bsky.social scientists have developed a way to produce xanthommatin, a color-changing pigment with potential real-world applications ranging from UV protection to thermal coatings.
How scientists learn from the masters of invisibility: octopuses
Octopus and other cephalopods are good at hiding themselves—and are inspiring cutting-edge technologies that may help us do the same.
www.nationalgeographic.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:29 PM
🐙 Inspired by the power of octopus camouflage, @ucsandiego.bsky.social scientists have developed a way to produce xanthommatin, a color-changing pigment with potential real-world applications ranging from UV protection to thermal coatings.
Reposted by Lochlan W
🧪New preprint! tinyurl.com/mr7km2pv
When & why do predators share social information? Blue whales produce foraging calls when prey (krill) are abundant & dense, conditions arising from physical oceanographic forcing across temporal scales. Variation in ocean physics shapes blue whale communication!
When & why do predators share social information? Blue whales produce foraging calls when prey (krill) are abundant & dense, conditions arising from physical oceanographic forcing across temporal scales. Variation in ocean physics shapes blue whale communication!
Biophysical ecosystem variation shapes oceanic predator communication
ecoevorxiv.org
January 7, 2026 at 5:32 PM
🧪New preprint! tinyurl.com/mr7km2pv
When & why do predators share social information? Blue whales produce foraging calls when prey (krill) are abundant & dense, conditions arising from physical oceanographic forcing across temporal scales. Variation in ocean physics shapes blue whale communication!
When & why do predators share social information? Blue whales produce foraging calls when prey (krill) are abundant & dense, conditions arising from physical oceanographic forcing across temporal scales. Variation in ocean physics shapes blue whale communication!
Reposted by Lochlan W
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
Neuronal calcium spikes enable vector inversion in the Drosophila brain
In the fly central complex, PFNa neurons switch from firing classical sodium spikes
when depolarized to firing non-canonical T-type calcium spikes when hyperpolarized.
This bidirectional spiking allow...
www.cell.com
January 6, 2026 at 4:35 PM
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
Reposted by Lochlan W
A personalized eye-tracking system reveals complex state-dependent visual acquisition in lizards https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.697876v1
January 6, 2026 at 9:45 PM
A personalized eye-tracking system reveals complex state-dependent visual acquisition in lizards https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.697876v1
Reposted by Lochlan W
Published @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social with @drewlinsley.bsky.social & @tonyfeng.bsky.social: As vision models scale to human/superhuman accuracy, they’re becoming worse models of primate vision—benchmark engineering isn’t neuroscience. @carneyinstitute.bsky.social @browncopsy.bsky.social
Better artificial intelligence does not mean better models of biology
Deep neural networks (DNNs) once showed increasing alignment with primate perception
as they improved on vision benchmarks, raising hopes that advances in artificial intelligence
(AI) would naturally ...
cell.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Published @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social with @drewlinsley.bsky.social & @tonyfeng.bsky.social: As vision models scale to human/superhuman accuracy, they’re becoming worse models of primate vision—benchmark engineering isn’t neuroscience. @carneyinstitute.bsky.social @browncopsy.bsky.social
Reposted by Lochlan W
Threading the needle: Spatial constraints sharpen visual sensitivity in honeybees https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.02.696520v1
January 3, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Threading the needle: Spatial constraints sharpen visual sensitivity in honeybees https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.02.696520v1