Finally out! We studied the retinas of the longest-living vertebrate, the Greenland shark, and found that the retinas remain remarkably healthy in animals around 150 years old. What is the mechanism? It may be a highly efficient DNA repair system. Enjoy! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -

1/n: A new collaborative preprint from the lab to start the year: "A multi-ring shifter network computes head direction in zebrafish" together with Siyuan Mei, Martin Stemmler and Andreas Herz from the LMU, Munich.

*First preprint from our lab* !!!!! How does the brain learn to anchor its internal sense of direction to the outside world? 🧭 led by Mark Plitt @markplitt.bsky.social & Dan Turner-Evans, w/ Vivek Jayaraman: “Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread ⬇️

Happening tomorrow!

It's finally out! Our paper on optogenetic interrogation of the lateral line: www.cell.com/iscience/ful... This one involved a lot of sweat and tears, and it was a real tour de force. It was also the last paper we got to write with Jim, so it's a special one (and hence, the tears).

How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm? Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg. w @bingbrunton.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New review out! 🔥🧊 We break down how rodents, primates & insects encode temperature in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... View-only: rdcu.be/eThU1

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 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🚨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 ⬇️)

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🧵

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

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

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.

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...

👁️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/...

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 […]

✨ 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_... 🔈

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...

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...

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...

A single neuron in fruit flies can trigger two different behaviors in response to the same odor. www.cell.com/current-biol...

🚨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... ↙️

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 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....

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

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...

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...

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 1/8

Fascinating work!