The FoxP family of transcription factors is necessary for operant self-learning, an evolutionary conserved form of motor learning. The expression pattern, molecular function and mechanisms of action of the Drosophila FoxP orthologue remain to be elucidated. By editing the genomic […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posts Tagged behavior
10 results.
Fast object tracking in real time allows convenient tracking of very large numbers of animals and closed-loop experiments that control stimuli for many animals in parallel. We developed MARGO, a MATLAB-based, real-time animal tracking suite for custom behavioral experiments. We […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Book chapter (in German) after a conference on chance in natural systems. Reference: B. Brembs and M. Heisenberg, “Der Zufall als kreatives Element in Gehirn und Verhalten,” in Zufall in der belebten Natur, edited by U. Herkenrath (Verlag Roman Kovar, […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It’s now been 24 years since Stevan Harnad sparked the open access movement by suggesting in his “subversive proposal” in 1994 that scholars ought to just publish their scholarly articles on the internet: If every esoteric author in the world […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The main function of brains is to generate adaptive behavior. Far from being the stereotypical, robot-like insect, the fruit fly Drosophila exhibits astounding flexibility and chooses different courses of actions even under identical external circumstances. Due to the power of […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Tethering a fly for stationary flight allows for exquisite control of its sensory input, such as visual or olfactory stimuli or a punishing infrared laser beam. A torque meter measures the turning attempts of the tethered fly around its vertical […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
At this year’s Winter Conference on Animal Learning and Behavior, I was invited to give the keynote presentation on the relationship between classical and operant conditioning. Using the slides below, I argued that Skinner already had identified a weakness in […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posted on February 13, 2014
at 00:39
Comments Off on Two evolutionary conserved, fundamental learning mechanisms
“Standing on the shoulders of giants” is what scientists say to acknowledge the work they are building on. It is a statement of humility and mostly accompanied by citations to the primary literature preceding the current work. In today’s competitive […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
During my flyfishing vacation last year, pretty much nothing was happening on this blog. Now that I’ve migrated the blog to WordPress, I can actually schedule posts to appear when in fact I’m not even at the computer. I’m using […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
As part of my scheduled re-posts during the summer break, I’ll also post some of the science videos from the archives. I originally posted these two on February 24, 2013: The first one is a TED talk by Michael Dickinson […] ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Posted on August 5, 2013
at 09:17
Comments Off on SummerScienceVideo: fruit fly research
