Do flies feel pain?

Spooky new preprint from our lab on the cells and circuits that mediate nociceptive behaviors in adult Drosophila, led by graduate student (and newly minted PhD!) @jonesjes.bsky.social.

🪰⚡👻🎃

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sex-reversal in birds (genetically male/female but appear female/male) is surprisingly common. Best detail: A genetically male bird called a laughing kookaburra had recently laid an egg. (1/2)

By @phiejacobs.bsky.social on @science.org

How do we get more neuroscience out of our behavioral data? Excited to share new work with C.A.Baker, M.Murthy and @jpillowtime.bsky.social, where we use natural behavior data to extend predictions from neural recordings about population codes for dynamic social stimuli: tinyurl.com/2d3wwfyf

Congratulations to Adrienne Fairhall, Prof. of Neurobiology and Biophysics, Adjunct Prof. of Applied Mathematics, and Adjunct Prof. of Physics, who has just been elected to the National Academy of Sciences! 🍾 🎉

Wrote a short note about resurrecting a moribund theory in animal behavior — approach-withdrawal theory — by merging it with enactivist perspectives on organization and behavior. Could this merger result in a general theory of basal behavioral abilities? gregorykohn.substack.com/p/can-we-dev...

How many types of causation should we consider in neuroscience? youtu.be/sVyFttbuOLQ?... - here's the recording of the Neuroscience & Philosophy Salon from last Friday, with thanks to @pessoabrain.bsky.social for organising and Peter Tse and Henry Potter for joining the discussion!

The media circus on the slightly modified wolf mixed with the nonsensical hype of de-extinction only highlights the need to greatly shift how we talk about genes and genetic "information" in popular discourse. Oyama's groundbreaking book and Lewontin's prescient forward should be a starting point.

The earliest studies on necessary and sufficient neural populations were performed on simple invertebrate circuits. @neurograce.bsky.social asks: Does this logic still serve us as we tackle more sophisticated outputs?

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

Beyond Mechanism—Extending Our Concepts of Causation in Neuroscience onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... - really pleased that this paper with Henry Potter is now published in the European Journal of Neuroscience 😊

Many neuroscience students are steeped in an experiment-first style of thinking that leads to “random walk science.” Let’s not forget how theory can guide experiments towards deeper insights, writes @gershbrain.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/theoretical-...

Meet 10 neuroscientists bringing model diversity back with the funky animals they study.

By @callimcflurry.bsky.social, @avaskham.bsky.social, @claudia-lopez.bsky.social, @shaena.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...

one of the unexpected perks of studying olfaction is the occasional crossovers with perfumers. a delightful night of smells, sounds, and sights from Fischersund

Applications are open for our Summer Workshop in the Dynamic Brain!! This is a two week computational neuroscience course for grad students and postdocs. Check it out!!
alleninstitute.org/events/summe...

Sniffing helps animals identify smells and connect them to places and events, but noses can’t sense time or place.

How do brains connect odors with internal models of the world?

Our preprint suggests that the olfactory bulb participates in this connection.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our new review in PLoS Biology on how dynamic odour information can help mammals to navigate through their environment.
Led by the fantastic Anantu Sunil & Olivia Pedroncini, this also marks my first last author publication from the University of Bonn!
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Seattle! a new multisensory exhibit at the Nordic museum inspired by the plants of Iceland, with a lecture from @neurovenki.bsky.social on Dec 5th nordicmuseum.org/events/dr-ve... @uw-nbio.bsky.social

Neuroscience-related posts on Bluesky surged last week following an influx of users—including many neuroscientists. Chart by @callimcflurry.bsky.social.

Just to offer a different PoV: this would benefit progress in the same direction, but IMO we need new math for life/natural intelligence to get us out of copying ML into neuroAI, e.g. claiming an engineering tool as THE way the brain works etc. Breakthrough Theoretical advances need broader search.

hi #neuroskyence 👋 i've been mostly lurking here for a few months as i'm writing my thesis but wanted to take a moment to say i'm looking forward to rebuilding a supportive and engaged community here :) ok, back to writing!