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Lochlan W

@lochlanw.bsky.social
965 followers 427 following 74 posts

@insect-vision.bsky.social Uni Konstanz PhD student with the International Max Planck Research School (QBEE) 🦋🧠🛩️ Intrigued by invertebrate sensorimotor control, vision, quantitative ethology 🇨🇦

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Reposted by Lochlan W
bioRxiv Genetics @biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Generation of a transgenic cephalopod www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Tessa Montague @tessamontague.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I'm excited to share our new preprint: Generation of a transgenic cephalopod tinyurl.com/pc86jxz8 Cephalopods (cuttlefish, octopus & squid) are crazy critters that dynamically camouflage to their surroundings by changing the color, pattern, & texture of their skin, which they control w their brain.
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Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In our newest issue, we interview Jennifer Mather, whose work involves cephalopod behaviour and human–animal interactions at the University of Lethbridge. Read the Q&A to find out what drew Jennifer to cephalopods and more! www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Jennifer Mather
Interview with Jennifer Mather, whose work involves cephalopod behaviour and human–animal interactions at the University of Lethbridge.
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Ethological Society @ethoges.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
New year, new conference! Registration for the next Annual Meeting of the Ethological Society is officially open! 🤩 Save the date, sign up, and join us in beautiful Konstanz 24–27 February, 2027 @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social www.ab.mpg.de/etho-2027
static.klipy.com
Graceful Deer Hopping at Sunset
ALT: Graceful Deer Hopping at Sunset
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bioRxiv Animal Behavior and Cognition @biorxiv-behav.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Variability of Head Motion Reveals Development of Spatial Attention www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Daniela Rößler @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🚨New paper🚨 Garden #spiders are everywhere right now—big, beautiful ladies, still in the hub of their 🕸️ But they are not just waiting, at night they also 💤! We found behavioral signatures of sleep in the wild. Out in #AnimalBehaviour w/ @mherberstein.bsky.social tinyurl.com/uznvv58y 🧵1/5
Adult female garden spider (Araneus diadematus) sitting at the center of her orb web, with orange‑brown legs and a patterned abdomen. The web’s radial and spiral threads are sharply visible, catching the light. The background is blurred green foliage with soft circular highlights, making the spider and web stand out in clear focus.
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Pip Wren @lollibeepop.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A joyous fat bear week to all 🐻
A painting of fat blobby bears
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Johan Lind @johanlind.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We just published the first study showing that a bird-of-prey goes through an ontogenetic window of exploratory play. Young goshawks look like young cheetahs when tossing pine cones into the air, chasing after them. Just published in Animal Behaviour: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/4
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Andrew Straw @andrewstraw.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
We are hiring! Come join us in the Straw Lab at the @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social . Seeking a scientist to work on the neural and computational mechanisms of visual navigation in honey bees. uni-freiburg.de/en/job/00005...
Bee trajectories in agricultural landscape and two photon microscope for in-vivo calcium activity imaging.
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Lochlan W @lochlanw.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
An interesting commentary by Jordanna Sprayberry on our recent @pnas.org paper (pinned on my profile) showing lateralized visuomotor control in hawkmoths 👁️🥤🦋 Cool to discuss additional context of neural circuit structure and ultimate consequences for such control axes www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Lochlan W @lochlanw.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
An interesting commentary by Jordanna Sprayberry on our recent @pnas.org paper (pinned on my profile) showing lateralized visuomotor control in hawkmoths 👁️🥤🦋 Cool to discuss additional context of neural circuit structure and ultimate consequences for such control axes www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW BRAIN DROPPED
med.stanford.edu
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A typical morning at the Anthropic head office
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Ashkaan K. Fahimipour @akfbio.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I'd be grateful if you could circulate to good students: I'm recruiting PhD students for Fall '27 in the areas of species interactions and animal behavior. Ad here - jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...
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Lisa Fenk @fleyes.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Many thanks to @lochlanw.bsky.social and @prelights.bsky.social for highlighting our preprint!
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preLights @prelights.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
To see, or not to see... 👀 @lochlanw.bsky.social highlights recent work showing that fruit flies selectively suppress visual input via electrical transmission of an efference copy. #neuroscience #preprint @fleyes.bsky.social #preLight ⬇️ prelights.biologists.com/highlights/v...
prelights.biologists.com
Vectorial efference copy and visuomotor transformation through gap junctions - preLights
To see, or not to see: fruit flies selectively suppress visual input via electrical transmission of an efference copy
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Lochlan W @lochlanw.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
excited to share my first preLight summarizing such an exciting preprint! from Tjalda Falt et al. @fleyes.bsky.social Vectorial efference copy and visuomotor transformation through gap junctions prelights.biologists.com/highlights/v...
prelights.biologists.com
Vectorial efference copy and visuomotor transformation through gap junctions - preLights
To see, or not to see: fruit flies selectively suppress visual input via electrical transmission of an efference copy
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Ed Yong is offline @edyong209.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Briefly popping my head back in to unveil the cover of my upcoming book, LIFE BEYOND MEASURE: Nature's Hidden Wonders at Every Scale. It’ll be out on April 6 in the U.S. and April 29 in the U.K. and you can pre-order it right now! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/757705... 1/
A book cover featuring a beautiful closely cropped portrait of an Anna's hummingbird. The cover says LIFE BEYOND MEASURE: Nature's Hidden Wonders at Every Scale, by Ed Yong. The image also says US: 4/06/27 and UK: 4/29/27
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Jay Gallagher @jay-gallagher.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
🐟🚨 New paper! 🚨🐟 Where do behavioral differences come from? Early life environment clearly matters... ...or not? Early environment affected behavior, but NOT how different individuals became from each other. Those differences were seeded before birth through factors OTHER than genetic variation 🤯
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Born This Way: Individuality Is Seeded Before Birth and Robust to Ecological Stress
We reared and recorded behaviours of clonal Amazon mollies in standardized environments, with and without predation stress, from birth through week four of life, to understand how the developmental e...
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Ajay Narendra @pipilika.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
We have a fully funded 3-year PhD position to study jumping spider navigation. Open to both domestic and international candidates. Details below. Join us! @animbehav.bsky.social @austentsoc.bsky.social @ausevosoc.bsky.social @neuroethology.org @asab.org
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bioRxiv Animal Behavior and Cognition @biorxiv-behav.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Cheetahs Combine Head Pitch Stabilisation with Predictive Yaw Tracking during High-speed Pursuit www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Jolyon Troscianko @jtroscianko.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
BehaveAI can now measure orientation. So now you can work out the behaviour of your animal in each frame as well as its direction - e.g. tells you which way animals are pointing or whether they're turning. Video guide: youtu.be/FgmtHoardWg Install: github.com/troscianko/B...
youtu.be
BehaveAI - orientation tracking - v1.4
YouTube video by Jolyon Troscianko
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Max Farnworth @maxfarnworth.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Reminder I am hiring a postdoc and PhD student. Thanks to all the applications I already received 🙏 If you know anyone particularly with single cell expertise for the postdoc position, please let me know!
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George Kolyfetis @gkolyfetis.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Great work on the effects of desert locust coloration on swarming!! Thanks @sercansayin.bsky.social for including me and @jjfosterlab.bsky.social in this exciting study!!
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Lochlan W @lochlanw.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
There seemed to be a lot of public panic (at least on X) over the recent simulation of a fruit fly being controlled by the virtual connectome - this was by far the funniest response
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Fish with electrical senses have unique brain cells specifically to process that information. The real trick they pull is separating the electricity they emit from the ones they sense. 🧪 Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-…
a, Schematic of the interference problem facing the passive electrosensory system of weakly electric fish. Responses of EAFs to prey are masked by responses to the EOD of the fish, which vary depending on factors such as water conductivity. b, Schematic of prediction and cancellation of responses to the EOD. Predictions are based on electric organ corollary discharge signals conveyed by GCs (granule cell basis) and require specific patterns of synaptic connectivity. c, Summary diagram of the synaptic connectivity patterns revealed in the present study. Only connections comprising >10% of the total synapses to a given cell type are shown in the diagram. d, Two example Output cells (blue and red) are shown along with EAF (pink) and GC (magenta) inputs overlaid on a cutout of the EM volume (424 × 427 × 45 µm; all EM connectomic data are from a single biological specimen). The dorsal–ventral and anterior–posterior dimensions of the skin surface are mapped onto the x- and z-dimensions of the volume, respectively. The top inset shows example excitatory GC synapses (magenta fill and star) onto apical dendritic spines of the ON cell (red fill). The magenta fill marks the example GC axon visualized in the volume; the magenta star marks another GC axon. The white star marks an inhibitory molecular layer interneuron synapse onto the dendritic shaft of the same ON cell. The bottom inset shows an example excitatory EAF synapse (pink fill) onto the ON cell basal dendrite (red fill). mol, molecular layer; ggl, ganglion layer; plex, plexiform layer; gran, granular layer. e–h, Example reconstructions of major ELL cell types. Axons are shown in black. ON/OFF, Output (h); MG+/MG−, medium ganglion (f); SG+/SG−, small ganglion (g); Gr+, granular; SP−, small plexiform (h). The inset in f shows an example inhibitory synapse between an MG+ cell (orange) and an OFF cell soma (blue).
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Cat Hobaiter @nakedprimate.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Are you sitting comfortably…? TLDR: In which, gentle reader, we outline an idea on how language originated in fireside storytelling & make new predictions for studying the evolution of language.. 1/n 🔥🔥🔥 royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Firelight and the origins of spoken language
Abstract. Language and fire are hallmarks of the human condition, but most scholars treat them as independent traits. We develop a theory for the origin of
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ASAB Education Committee @asabeducation.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🤯🤯 again! Tim Caro explains more things… American black bears not always black… of course, we teach within every population there is huge variation of characteristics, but who knew?! The second photo is an American brown bear. #ECBB2026
American black bears - photos of various colour types, black, cinnamon and pale.American brown bear.
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IMPRS-QBEE @imprs-qbee.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🎉Congratulations to Akhila Mudunuri 🎓 for successfully defending her thesis "Small brains in complex environments: Social and environmental contexts shape decision-making in Drosophila larvae", supervised by @katrinvogt.bsky.social
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MBARI @mbarinews.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Your Wednesday just got an upgrade: a new MBARI bigfin squid sighting just dropped! 🦑👀 During a recent expedition to study seamounts offshore of Central California, MBARI scientists and NOAA collaborators encountered a rarely seen Magnapinna squid. Learn more: youtu.be/cEw74DoCv6Q
youtu.be
MBARI researchers film chance encounter with a rare deep-sea bigfin squid
YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)
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Max Farnworth @maxfarnworth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🚨 I AM HIRING a 3-year postdoc & 4-year PhD student 🚨 [PLEASE SHARE WIDELY] My Emmy Noether @dfg.de funded Neural Circuit & Systems Evolution lab (🌟) at the @unimainz.bsky.socialÍ wants to start existing. So..., what do we need? WELL... we need you! APPLY UNTIL 21 SEPTEMBER.
static.klipy.com
ALT:
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Max Farnworth @maxfarnworth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I am also advertising a 4 year (!) PhD student position. The PhD student will design developmental brain atlases and help establish comparative projectomics in key cell groups of the central complex and mushroom bodies. See details in the ad.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 28/08/2026
A deep dive into the capacity for trees to physiologically adapt to drought reaches a sobering conclusion: Trees have little ability to change their inner hydraulic systems to accommodate increasing levels of drought as the climate changes. In PNAS: ow.ly/rcBR50ZFVIC
A global map of the 40 rainfall-exclusion experiment sites (yellow dots) across forested regions analyzed in the study.
CREDIT: Xingyun Liang.
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Lauren Sumner-Rooney @laurensr.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
⏰Closing today!! ⏰
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Science X / Phys.org @sciencex.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Hummingbird hawkmoths inspect flowers with a left- or right-side bias, pairing one preferred proboscis side with one dominant eye. That alignment holds even when part of the eye is blocked. doi.org/hcb9wm
phys.org
Left or right? Moths use a preferred side to inspect flowers for nectar
Just as humans exhibit right- or left-handedness, moths also have a preferred side on which they place their proboscis when inspecting a flower for nectar.
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bioRxiv Animal Behavior and Cognition @biorxiv-behav.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Takeoff dynamics are stereotyped across jumping spiders www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Ann Kennedy @antihebbiann.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
There's still time to apply for our Short Course on the Application of #MachineLearning for Automated Quantification of Behavior! Join us October 11 – 16 at #JAXBehavior for expert lectures, hands-on workshops, evening sessions & more: www.jax.org/education-an... #Neuroskyence
jax.org
Short Course Machine Learning for Automated Quantification of Behavior
This course covers fundamentals of quantitative behavior analysis, machine learning, and data science for neuroscience, genetics, and biomedical researchers.
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Martin Hebart @martinhebart.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
I have been meaning to write a post about a preprint that I'm pretty excited about: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... In neuroscience we often assume that we can learn something general about “the brain” using different species. But is this true? Do monkeys even see the world the way we do?
On the left, an image of a rhesus macaque looking towards its left, and on the right, an AI-generated zoomed-out rendering of a human in the same pose. Both are looking.
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Jonathan Tsay @tsay.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
New preprint! 🎉 How can we measure how the nervous system knows, moment to moment, where the body is as it moves? We introduce a continuous tracking paradigm to measure the hidden dynamics of proprioception—revealing it is faster and more precise than vision during movement. tinyurl.com/yf297k53
tinyurl.com
Tracking the hidden dynamics of proprioception
Every movement unfolds with a simple question: Where is my body? The nervous system answers through proprioception - the sense of limb position (static position sense) and movement (dynamic propriocep...
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voigtvision.bsky.social @voigtvision.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
🤩 It's time for some invertebrate eye candy! 🤩 Here's a ctenophore (or comb jelly) stained with phalloidin by John Alexander Salazar Hernandez & imaged on an exaSPIM built by Kaelin Wulf of the team of @adamkglaser.bsky.social as part of the FHL Functional Biodiversity course #microscopy
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SFB 1372 @sfb1372.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
NaviSense, the Cluster of Excellence on Animal Navigation at the University of Oldenburg, is looking for motivated doctoral researchers to join their interdisciplinary team! Find more details here: 🔗 uol.de/job1191en #DoctoralResearcher #AnimalNavigation #Oldenburg
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Vectorial efference copy and visuomotor transformation through gap junctions www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Richard Mann @richardpmann.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Why do some groups adopt a collective 'many-eyes' approach to vigilance, while in others sentinels keep watch for all? Our paper, led by @charliepilgrim.bsky.social, shows the shape of the cost function determines the optimal strategy. @templetonworld.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
Many-eyes and sentinels in selfish and cooperative groups | PNAS
Collective vigilance describes how animals in groups benefit from the predator detection efforts of others. Empirical observations typically find e...
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Lochlan W @lochlanw.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Not big on sharing personal stuff here, but finally updated photos for my choreography/dance teaching adverts and they were too good to not share 😎
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George Kolyfetis @gkolyfetis.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I am thrilled to share my second PhD manuscript! We modelled bee polarisation vision and tested two navigational models. Many thanks to @jjfosterlab.bsky.social and all our collaborators (@egkanias.bsky.social,@edinburgh-uni.bsky.social,@insectlabsu.bsky.social) for such a productive collaboration!
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Ann Clemens @annmclemens.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
preprint🚨 ✨A Stickiness Response System in Rats tinyurl.com/4wnu88v9 What underlies that sticky, icky feeling? Sticky sensing is surprisingly underexplored. we investigated its neural and behavioural basis Congrats to Sandra, @simonerencken.bsky.social @jasmine-stone.bsky.social Adam, Tom & Pam! 👏
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Tim Verstynen @tdverstynen.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
🚨Preprint alert!🚨 Have you ever wondered what imagination is good for? A new preprint from our lab tests the idea that imagination helps us develop generalizable strategies by bootstrapping experiences that haven’t happened in order to learn. We look at this in both man and machine. 1/9
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Lauren Sumner-Rooney @laurensr.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Two weeks left to apply for our postdoc position on vision in trilobites! Come and explore the exciting world of reconstructing vision in the fossil record, using some of the most iconic extinct animals to grace our oceans! Please reach out + RT! (*Deadline in fact 23.59 BST on the 26th August!*)
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Pawel Burkhardt @pawelburkhardt.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Postdoc opportunity in Copenhagen! Interested in marine bioluminescence, comb jellies & experimental biology? A great 2-year postdoc (possibility of 1-year extension), working with CRISPR, imaging & EM in the labs of Anders Garm & Cornelia Jaspers. Deadline: 16.08 jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli...
jobportal.ku.dk
Postdoc in Marine Bioluminescence - re-advertisement
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Universität Konstanz @uni-konstanz.de · 28/07/2026
Hummingbird hawkmoths show a form of "handedness": #UniKonstanz @cbehav.bsky.social researchers found that they preferentially place their proboscis on one side when searching for nectar. Full story: t1p.de/v09qd @insect-vision.bsky.social @anna-stoeckl.bsky.social @lochlanw.bsky.social
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