@cranialnurv.bsky.social
Neuroscientist, advocate, nerd and food enthusiast! Asst. prof (research) at Brown in the Kaun lab studying individuality in behavior, brain circuits and molecules underlying alcohol preference and motivation #Blacklivesmatter #vote #5calls π³οΈβπ
The first paper from the lab is now out in Science Advances: Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We find that fly larvae keep their distance to conspecifics in the absence of food, enjoy reading! @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
accepted today :)
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Thank you to everyone who made this work possible: @karlakaun.bsky.social @rebeccaoramas.bsky.social @adacks.bsky.social
Check out my Early Career Research Spotlight Interview with the Journal of Experimental Biology at journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
In a sated state, flies self-administer simulated taste. However, taste plays a minor role in enhancing odor-based learning.
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What drives motivation? We found that #olfaction is the primary sensory driver! Flies rapidly pursue good smells (apple cider vinegar) & strongly avoid bad ones (benzaldehyde).
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In the Open-LA, we tracked individual flies as they self-administered #appetitive (good) vs. #aversive (bad) odors and simulated taste experience, alone and in combination. We wanted to understand how each stimulus guided their volitional choices and multiple #behaviors over time.
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Ever wonder how individuals decide what to eat & what to avoid? We used our novel #OperantLearningAssay (Open-LA) to let #Drosophila control their sensory world and study their motivated choices over time. Read my full work with @karlakaun.bsky.social & co-authors at doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
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I gave the talk! #neuroscience
#gordonresearchconference
