Alex M Winsor

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...
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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!

A cell type in the visual system that receives feedback about limb movement Hartman et al. describe a cell type in the Drosophila visual system that is activated during head grooming through visual and non-visual signals arising from foreleg movements. These neurons inhibit a...

New paper from our lab! This was such a fun project to be a part of - proof that sometimes following a spurious observations down the rabbit hole leads to awesome findings.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Divergent synaptic dynamics originate parallel pathways for computation and behavior in an olfactory circuit Kim et al. investigate how the Drosophila olfactory system dynamically transforms odor information. They discover that distinct synaptic dynamics from individual projection neurons underlie different ...

A single neuron in fruit flies can trigger two different behaviors in response to the same odor.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Repeated evolution of reduced visual investment at the onset of ecological speciation in high-altitude Heliconius butterflies Abstract. Colonization of new habitats is typically followed by divergent selection acting on traits that are immediately important for fitness. For exampl

🚨New paper out on "Repeated #evolution of reduced visual investment at the onset of ecological speciation in high-altitude Heliconius #butterflies" by @gadusmo.bsky.social et al. @dickmerrill.bsky.social @ebablab.bsky.social ↘️ doi.org/10.1093/evle... ↙️ 🦋🧠💙💕 #neuroplasticity #opticlobe #sntennallobe

🚨 New review out: " #Neuroanatomy of blood-feeding #arthropods" by Jessica A. Hearn and @gabriellawolff.bsky.social in Current Opinion in #Insect #Science 🧠🧪🦟🕷🩸 (anyone noticed the fact that we lack relevant arthropod smileys!?) #bedbugs #lice #ticks
Enjoy reading ↘️ doi.org/10.1016/j.co... ↙️

Mapping the adaptive landscape of Batesian mimicry using 3D-printed stimuli - Nature Birds have an excellent ability to learn to discriminate harmless insects from those that they mimic on the basis of subtle differences in appearance.

Why do imperfect mimics (such as many hoverflies) exist? We created 3D printed replicas of flies, wasps and our own custom intermediates and then "asked" various predators what they thought of our 3D stimuli. Read all about it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are looking for early carrer researchers who want to share their fascination for Neuroethology by introducing their work.

The genome of a sea spider corroborates a shared Hox cluster motif in arthropods with a reduced posterior tagma - BMC Biology Background Chelicerate evolution is contentiously debated, with recent studies challenging traditional phylogenetic hypotheses and scenarios of major evolutionary events, like terrestrialization. Sea ...

The lab is proud to have contributed to the first chromosome-level sea spider genome! Many thanks to Niko Papadopoulos, Georg Brenneis, and Andi Wanninger, who spearheaded the work! #pycnogonida

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Wow that looks cool!

Yesterday evening the Neuroethology Gordon Research Conference started at the Renaissance Tuscany II 🇮🇹

Our new paper on structure and growth of Porpita porpita - rdcu.be/etcY6 . Like Velella and Physalia, this is a colonial cnidarian that floats at the surface of the Ocean. The whole colony arises form a single embryo through clonal growth that gives rise to many specialized bodies.

Our new paper is out: "The 3D architecture of the ctenophore aboral organ & the evolution of complex integrative centers in animals.

We reveal a remarkable cell type diversity, nerve net condensation, a multilayered circuit & gene expression profiles.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #ctenophores

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1929

Selection Shapes Diverse Animal Minds: our special issue of @royalsocietypublishing.org Phil Trans B on the diverse evolutionary processes underlying cognitive evolution is out today. Thanks to all our contributors! royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...

Biological point-light displays scanning by the principal eyes of a jumping spider The semi-rigid structure of bodies forces animals to move in rhythmic patterns shared by all creatures with skeletons, exoskeletons, or limb connections. This pattern, known as biological motion, is i...

Can jumping spiders extract implied object shape from motion? Check out our new preprint to find out. Collab with Massimo De Agrò @neuroethology.org

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

So cool!

Graphical abstract for "Vocal communication is seasonal in social groups of wild, free-living house mice." The abstract has, from top to bottom, a title, four middle image panels, and two bottom text panels. Image title: "Vocal communication in social groups of wild-free living house mice" Middle image panels from left to right: (1) An aerial snap shot of the region where the study site is located, an agricultural landscape in rural Switzerland. (2) An image of the study site, a small barn in the forest inhabited by mice. (3) An image of a radio frequency identification (RFID) box used to track mouse social interactions. A mouse is entering the box from the left while another sits outside. (4) A spectrogram showing example vocalizations - one low frequency squeak and one ultrasonic call - recorded from an RFID box. Bottom panels: Left: Data Collection  - 10 years of RFID-based tracking data (from 6,946 mice) - 15 months of acoustic monitoring (totaling 6,594 hours) - Machine learning for vocal detection and labeling (CNN) Right: Key Findings - Vocalization is seasonal (most in spring and summer) - Vocalization is associated with the presence of pups - Vocalization is correlated with social group dynamics

Very happy to share the latest from my postdoc‬!

10 yrs of mouse social networks + 1.25 yrs of acoustic data ➡️ insight into vocalization & sociality in a wild population of your favorite lab model 🐁

paper: bit.ly/4n93yyD
data: bit.ly/4lfFBEk
code: bit.ly/4kNnMwx

#bioacoustics #neuroskyence

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Fascinating work!