Maximilian E. Kirschhock

1/n We have discovered that bees can keep track of time duration!
Bees can discriminate long 🟡🟡 vs short🟡 flashes, a bit like the "dash" and "dot" of the Morse code.
Check our new paper royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... and videoclip youtu.be/hsGxU65OMQk?... @preparedmindslab.bsky.social

Rats when they heard bats called "rats with wings"

Never thought THAT would be part of my job description 😄

YouTube video by Weizmann Institute of Science Bat Island: The New Era of Science

Neuroscience projects last several years, and you are usually a bit jaded by the time you wrap it up. Not this one– spending several months on an island in the middle of nowhere, away from all the craziness of the world reminds you how beautiful the world really is.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=46sv...

The work with bats on barren, 7-acre Latham Island was Nachum Ulanovsky’s most complex undertaking yet.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...

I’m just as excited that @shakedpa.bsky.social’s paper is finally out! Recording from bats flying freely outdoors felt like science fiction at first — now it’s real. Projects like this are why I joined Nachum Ulanovsky’s lab.

So cool! So proud! This is a new era of science 🧪

Check out Shaked's 🧵👇

Numerical discrimination in Danionella The transparent teleost Danionella cerebrum offers unique advantages for neuroscience research, including small size, lifelong cranial transparency, and a simplified brain. Despite its suitability for...

Our paper on #number discrimination in #Danionella is out #zebrafish #numbersense #number_sense #number
@mirkuz12
#scott_fraser
cell.com/iscience/ful...

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇

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

Congratulations @mollfw.bsky.social on this cool paper!

A neuronal correlate for time interval estimation in the crow’s telencephalon - Nature Communications It is unknown how birds estimate time using brains organized differently from mammals. Here, the authors show that neurons in the crow NCL encode duration categories, supporting abstract, cue-independ...

I'm delighted to share that, together with @crowbrain.bsky.social our paper on time estimation in crows is now published in @natcomms.nature.com

We found that crows not only keep track of time, but individual neurons prefer different time durations 🐦⏱️🧠

Check it out:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A neuronal correlate for time interval estimation in the crow’s telencephalon - Nature Communications It is unknown how birds estimate time using brains organized differently from mammals. Here, the authors show that neurons in the crow NCL encode duration categories, supporting abstract, cue-independ...

I'm usually not very active here, but good news:
Together with @milliejohnston.bsky.social, our paper on time estimation in #crows got published in @natcomms.nature.com today!
We found crow neurons track time like a stopwatch — without a cortex! 🐦⏱️🧠
#SciComm #Science 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Without urgent action, a species that helps hold rainforests together might be gone for good.

👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/yes-spe...

Auditory object representation in the bat hippocampus Cognitive maps enable the flexible selection of navigation paths. Acoustic cognitive maps, constructed from the spatial layout of sonar auditory objec…

We know how visual objects influence spatial tuning in the hippocampus. A new study from @batwoman123.bsky.social shows that auditory objects can be egocentrically or allocentrically encoded in the hippocampus of echolocating bats 🦇.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@currentbiology.bsky.social

The new issue is out👉https://www.cell.com/cell/current
⁠
On the cover, Eliav et al. reveal that hippocampal replays in bats flying in very large, naturalistic environments were highly fragmented and short, depicting trajectories covering only a small portion of the environment size.

🚨New in @cellpress.bsky.social
We discovered that hippocampal replays in natural-scale environments are highly fragmented, not full-length.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
👇🧵

I second everything @shakedpa.bsky.social said (though I'm also biased of course 😃)

@mitpress.bsky.social
#neuroscience #naturalneuroscience #science 🧪

Allocentric and egocentric spatial representations coexist in rodent medial entorhinal cortex - Nature Communications Successful navigation relies on reciprocal transformation between different reference frames. Here the authors report egocentric representations of the angle and distance to the boundaries and center ...

Nature Communications

Allocentric and egocentric spatial representations coexist in rodent medial entorhinal cortex

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy head direction cell day y’all!

On this day, 41 years ago, Jim Ranck recorded the first “HD cell” in his Brooklyn lab in 1984.

Jim shared the news with the world at SFN that year, showing a video of the cell’s firing on a TV he somehow acquired and brought to his poster… (1/3)

Context-dependent decision-making in the primate hippocampal–prefrontal circuit - Nature Neuroscience The brain uses different valuation schemes across contexts. Elston and Wallis show this is supported by hippocampal encoding of context that is broadcast to prefrontal value subcircuits via theta sync...

We value things differently depending on the situation. A fascinating paper shows that the hippocampus feeds contextual information to the prefrontal cortex by altering theta wave phase alignment, enabling the PFC to adjust value judgments accordingly.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience

The quantitative anatomy of the hippocampal formation in homing pigeons and other pigeon breeds: implications for spatial cognition - Brain Structure and Function Artificial selection for specific behavioural and physical traits in domesticated animals has resulted in a wide variety of breeds. One of the most widely recognized examples of behavioural selection ...

New paper today!

We show that homing pigeons do not have an enlarged hippocampus when compared with other pigeons. They do, however, have higher hippocampal neuronal density and this could be important for navigation.
#neuroskyence #ornithology #anatomy

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Sharing as my personal bookmark - feel free to let me know your thoughts if you('ve) read it 😁

I trained #crows to (kind of) "count" up to 5. Different neurons take over every step of the counting process, from recognising the #number to producing it. 🧪🧠🐦‍⬛

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#NeuralRecordings in butterflies?! Very excited to give this a read (& and a share) 🤩

Our work on neural recordings in flying bats on an island.

@shakedpa.bsky.social is a great speaker and it's fun work!
🦇🧠🧪

Neural Basis of Number Sense in Larval Zebrafish - preLights Zebrafish can sense numbers! This preprint reveals early emergence of number-selective neurons in larval zebrafish

Zebrafish can sense numbers! 🔢🐟

In my first preLight post, I have highlighted the work from Peter Luu & colleagues revealing early emergence of number-selective neurons in larval zebrafish. #preprint #companyofbiologist #zebrafishologist

Take a look! ⬇️ 👀

prelights.biologists.com/highlights/n...

Can you add me also? I'm doing electrophysiology in bats (and previously in crows). Thanks!

Just In case people need to follow people in neuroscience focused on natural behaviors and the brains of cool non-trad animals! Please join let me know if you wanna be added. go.bsky.app/AcLpM4h

Ahh I wanted to suggest @ray-neuro.bsky.social for this list, but he's already there. Let me join my colleagues? 🦇

Monkeys overestimate connected arrays in a relative quantity task: A reverse connectedness illusion - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics Humans and many other species show consistent patterns of responding when making relative quantity (“more or less”) judgments of stimuli. This includes the well-established ratio effect that determine...

Interesting 🤔

Beran, M.J., Englund, M.D., Haseltine, E.L. et al. Monkeys overestimate connected arrays in a relative quantity task: A reverse connectedness illusion. Atten Percept Psychophys (2024). doi.org/10.3758/s134...

I do like all those things, and particularly the animation 👏