In a new study published in @currentbiology.bsky.social, researchers uncover how a dietary shift may have set the stage for one of nature’s most spectacular phenomena: the elaborate courtship displays of manakins.

🔗 Press release: www.bi.mpg.de/news/2026-06...

🚨 New paper in @nature.com

We asked why two hippocampal areas with very different anatomy, CA3 and CA1, often seem to code space so similarly?

By recording bats flying up to 200m, we found that the difference was hidden by scale!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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1/11

Where, exactly, does learning happen in the brain?

Out today in @nature.com, we identify a synaptic locus of birdsong learning and show that the circuit can be tuned to make birds learn faster - but at a cost. Read on👇 #neuroskyence 🧪 #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics

Shareable link: rdcu.be/fiyrS

Latest on the sound production mechanism and laryngeal adaptions from @evolbrain.bsky.social, Michael Long, Coen Elemans, Sam Smith and others. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

On central circuit control from my lab, in collaboration with @tonyzador.bsky.social

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

In this beautiful paper from the Baier lab, authors show that cichlid fish show innate nest-building behaviors, but they are refined over time as animals learn to improve their nest! Additionally, they find brain activity in a region homologous to the hippocampus. 🐠🧠 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Exciting new research published in @currentbiology.bsky.social by our guest scientist and former group leader @jmrko.bsky.social. The study highlights insights from connectomics research in songbirds. „Tunneling neurons“ open new perspectives on how adult neural circuits may regenerate.

🐟+🐚 =🏠 Shell-dwelling cichlids are true underwater architects, instinctively transforming empty snail shells into protective nests. New research shows: They improve with practice, remember what they learned, and adapt to unusual conditions.

🔗 Press release: www.bi.mpg.de/news/2026-04...

This conference is going to be so cool! Good science good people good location. Register ASAP! #neuroskyence

www.fens.org/news-activit...

How do fish localize sound without interaural cues? @johve.bsky.social et al. found a behavioral algorithm for directional hearing that predicts behavior from a pressure/motion phase comparison and accounts for how this relationship varies with distance. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Even innate vocal behaviors can be socially flexible. In zebra finches, replies to contact calls are faster and more reliable when the caller is familiar than when hearing strangers.

🔗 Press release: www.bi.mpg.de/news/2026-03-vallentin
🎬 Video by @cgomez-guzman.bsky.social

Most of us are familiar with the nightingale's song, but did you know there's more to it than just a melody?

Read more: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

@danielavallentin.bsky.social @tpvogels.bsky.social @mpiforbi.bsky.social

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Only a few days left to register for the India-EMBO Lecture Course on Neurethology meetings.embo.org/event/25-neu... taking place in Pune Dec 7-11, 2025. #EMBOneuroethology
Fantastic speaker line up!
Deadline July 31st.

Birdsong, brains & sunshine! More than 70 brilliant minds from across the globe flocked to Seewiesen to get inspired by cutting-edge research. From finches to singing mice, vocal research flew high at the European Birdsong Meeting hosted at our Institute.

Very, very cool paper from @tamir-eliav.bsky.social and the Ulanovsky lab!
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Looking forward to reading the new book by Nachum Ulanovsky! @mitpress.bsky.social