Alex M Winsor

We used rabies virus 👾 to map how #psilocybin modifies long-range circuits 🧠, revealing network-specific reorganization that we didn’t expect.

The full study is now online at Cell. @cp-cell.bsky.social

Paper 👉 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Thread for a synopsis 👉
bsky.app/profile/alex...

High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits in Drosophila | PNAS Understanding how the cellular and molecular composition of neural circuits evolves to generate species-specific behaviors remains a major challeng...

High-resolution single-cell analyses reveal evolutionary constraints and evolvability of sexual circuits in Drosophila | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Net-casting spider stretching it net

enlarged forward facing eyes of Asianopis subrufa

🚨Good news, everyone!
1) I'm thrilled to be joining the behavior powerhouse that is Indiana University!! So stoked, starting Jan 2026.
2) I'm recruiting grad students! Are you (or your trainee) interested in sensory ecology? behavior? evolution? fieldwork? spiders? Drop me a line Jstafstr(at)iu.edu

Jumping spiders can recognise one another. This ability to learn, remember and represent images is quite surprising for such a tiny-brained animal!
buff.ly/dCkwPr0

My first official post to say see you at #SfN2025! I'm presenting some new ephys work with @healeylab.bsky.social looking at auditory responses to chick calls in zebra finch parents! 🐦🧠🔊🐣 Tuesday @ 2pm (PSTR346, Vocal/Social Communication). ALSO ~ my lab is opening soon and we're HIRING!! (see ⬇️)

The sensory ecology of caterpillars - Journal of Comparative Physiology A Caterpillars (larval Lepidoptera) are one of the most ecologically and evolutionarily significant taxa on Earth. As both feeders and food, they shape the dynamics of enumerate ecosystems on land. Key ...

Do you work (/want to work) with caterpillars? Or sensory systems? Or BOTH?! Well good golly do we have the paper for you! We explain the senses that caterpillars have, what they use them for, and how anthropogenic sensory pollution might be messing it all up 🐛 doi.org/10.1007/s003...

Applications are now open for the @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social Alan Kanzer Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Deadline: December 16, 2025
bit.ly/KanzerFellows

Me: *Flipping on all our porch lights at sundown*
My partner: Why are you doing that?
Me: I'm expecting ..... friends :D

If your porch lights are on this spooky season, you may be attracting spiders! 🕷️🕸️🎃 Grad student extraordinaire Wes Walsh just published his work in @animbehsociety.bsky.social . Check it out!

nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

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...

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity!

We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

a group of Drosophila erecta fruit flies on a small food patch. flies on white background

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint

We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion.

Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit

shorturl.at/gGYm7

@neuroethology.org

The next Future of Neuroethology webinar is Oct 15th at 21:00 UTC!

Ant olfactory neurons reveal new gene regulation mechanism The mechanism enables each olfactory neuron in the ant to express exactly one out of hundreds of olfactory receptors.

Don't miss this piece in @thetransmitter.bsky.social by @vcallier.bsky.social on @danielkronauer.bsky.social's latest work! His lab discovered that a protective screen of spurious transcriptional activity enables each olfactory neuron to express exactly one out of hundreds of olfactory receptors.

Connecting neural activity, perception in the visual system Figuring out how the brain uses information from visual neurons may require new tools. I asked nine experts to weigh in.

Figuring out how the brain uses information from visual neurons may require new tools, writes @neurograce.bsky.social. Hear from 10 experts in the field.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/the-big-pict...

The final version of our paper on how ants and possibly other insects use a crazy mechanism involving extensive transcriptional interference to regulate odorant receptor expression is now open access in my favorite journal, @currentbiology.bsky.social

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue sticking out . ALT: a black and white dog is sitting on a couch with its tongue sticking out .

👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians!

So how did it evolve?

With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/n

Excited to share our new paper!

✨Natural habitat and wild behaviors of the dwarf cuttlefish, Ascarosepion bandense✨

tinyurl.com/bdew5x3s

Our first cuttlefish expedition - diving in the dark to observe our cuttlefish in the wild...

Check out the paper & new expedition tool on Cuttlebase.org 🧠

A digital atlas of every cell in a developing marine worm reveals how networks across the body coordinate sensing and movement, and provides insights into the evolution of the nervous system.
buff.ly/6vTDWVS

I am recruiting PhD students to join my lab at Wake Forest University Fall 2026. Current projects focus on the neurobiology, behavior, and development of identity processing in paper wasps. Contact me if interested. Deadline to apply is Dec. 15th 2025. Please share!
#PhDposition #PhD #wasplove

Our findings on bees' photoreceptors are now officially published in Biology Letters of the Royal Society Publishing!! Thanks again for a productive collaboration @jjfosterlab.bsky.social and @gregoeur.bsky.social !!
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Apply now 2026 Grass Fellowship Priority Deadline: October 15, 2025 Final Deadline: December 1, 2025 GrassFoundation.org

Now accepting applications for the 2026 Grass Fellowship!

Do you have a great idea for a project you can do next summer in the Grass Lab at the @mblscience.bsky.social?

Get working on that proposal!
grassfoundation.org/apply-for-th...

Scientists have mapped the entire connectome of a 3-day-old marine worm larva (Platynereis dumerilii), including over 9,000 cells and 200+ neuronal types. This resource can help us understand how nervous systems evolved and coordinate whole-body movement.
buff.ly/IPxFCHs

At long last, the version of record of our paper on the #Platynereis #connectome

"Whole-body connectome of a segmented annelid larva" is out.

Explore the rich online presentation with all the videos, figures and source data here:

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.97964

@eLife
@biology […]

Volumetric Comparison of Overall Brain and Neuropil Size Between Social and Non‐social Spiders: Exploring the Social Brain Hypothesis Brain size may be influenced by the cognitive demands of sociality (social brain hypothesis). We used microCT to compare CNS and brain volumes in social versus solitary huntsman and crab spiders. Soc...

✨ It’s published! ✨

🕷️ Social spiders have bigger brains… but only in the right places! Our new study shows that in social huntsman spiders, regions for memory & vision processing are proportionally larger, supporting group living.

Read more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Dear ISN Members, the Program Committee is now soliciting symposia proposals for the 2026 ICN in Vancouver. The symposium organizers must be ISN members, but they can recruit non-members as speakers. EXTENDED DEADLINE! Proposals are now due by 17 Sept. 2025: ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... 🔈

Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution in Drosophila Sexual selection acts on heritable differences within species, driving the parallel diversification of signal production in one sex and behavioral responses in the other. This coevolution implies that...

Exciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila

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

Systems and circuit neuroscience need an evolutionary perspective To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary lens.

To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, systems and circuits, neuroscientists must embrace an evolutionary perspective, argue Karl Farrow and @katjareinhard.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

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

The hidden life of trees. I try to listen to audiobooks while hiking!