program / Symposia

Title: Action selection: the role of the insect central complex

Organizer(s):

Alberto Ferrus (Cajal Institute, Spain)

The central complex is a system of midline neuropils, at which converge multisensory pathways carrying high-level information about sensory maps and events, including those representing the sky compass, the somatosensory surround, and motor reafference. Also represented in the central complex are neurons carrying information about high level visual pattern discrimination and visual motion. Such multisensory convergence is reminiscent of inputs to the mammalian striatum and its associated basal ganglia centers. Correspondences of basal ganglia and central complex are reflected in homologous gene expression in development, pathology and behavior, as well as the organization of dopaminergic and modulatory feedback pathways.

This symposium is supported by The University of Arizona's Center for Insect Science.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Roy Ritzmann (Dept. Biology, Case Western University)
   "Neural and behavioral studies of the cockroach central complex reveal a role in directing locomotion and action selection"
2. Stanley Heinze, (Dept. Biology, University of Lund)
   "Common principles of encoding sky compass cues in the central complex across insect species"
3. Barbara Webb (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh)
   "Computational modelling of the central complex"
4. Vivek Jayaraman (Janelia Farm labs)
   "Linking vision and action in the Drosophila central complex"

Title: Avian models of cognitive development

Organizer(s):

Brian J McCabe (Department of Zoology, Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour, Madingley, University of Cambridge, UK)

The symposium capitalizes on the advantages of a precocial bird, the domestic chick, for the study of the neural mechanisms of cognitive development. Among these advantages are a rich behavioural repertoire, clearly defined sensitive periods, a highly plastic nervous system and a wealth of behavioural and neurobiological information on which to base detailed study. The chick is thus an excellent species for investigating features of behavioural development that may be common to a wide range of vertebrates, including humans. The symposium will present evidence from both chicks and human subjects in support of this assertion. If the Committee agrees, the participants would like to dedicate the symposium to the memory of the late Sir Gabriel Horn, in recognition of his pioneering work in this field.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Brian J McCabe (University of Cambridge)
   "Imprinting, recognition memory and sleep"
2. Koichi J Homma (Teikyo University)
   "Thyroid hormone confers 'memory priming' to start the sensitive period of imprinting in birds"
3. Orsola Rosa Salva (University of Trento)
   "The domestic chick as an animal model of early social predisposition"
4. Atsushi Senju (Birkbeck, University of London)
   "Predispositions to conspecifics in human infants"

Title:

Bats as neuroethological models: From echolocation and vocal production to 3D neural codes and navigation

Organizer(s):

Nachum Ulanovsky (Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel) and Hiroshi Riquimaroux (Faculty of Life and Medical Sciences, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan)

Spatial cognition and its neural bases are a central theme in neuroscience in general and in neuroethology in particular. The goal of this symposium is to examine multiple facets of Spatial Cognition, from several different angles: 3D sensory spatial perception, 3D object recognition, and 3D spatial memory and navigation – from small-scale laboratory setups to natural navigation in the wild. By focusing on all these diverse topics in one classical neuroethological animal model – the bat – this exciting symposium will be diverse yet focused. The topic is very timely as recent novel technological advances have allowed researchers to measure bat spatial behaviors in unprecedented detail, for the first time – in the laboratory, as well as in the field – and even record neural activity from space-related neurons in bats flying in 3D.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Nachum Ulanovsky (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
   "Neural codes for 2-D and 3-D space in bat hippocampus"
2. Cynthia Moss (Univ Maryland, USA)
   "Timing matters: Representing space through sound"
3. Hiroshi Riquimaroux (Doshisha Univ, Japan)
   "How do echolocating bats listen to returning echoes: Recent findings"
4. Walter Metzner (UCLA, USA)
   "Different modes of auditory feedback in bats"

Title: Coordination of multi legged locomotion

Organizer(s):

Carmen Smarandache-Wellmann (Institute for Zoology, University of Cologne, Germany) and Brian Mulloney (Department of Neurobiology Physiology and Behavior University of California, Davis, CA USA)

Progress has been made in identifying the connectivity and influence among central pattern generators in different segments. In this symposium we want to present mechanisms of coordinated locomotion in different model systems. We will start with new insights from hexapod walking insects. Also information will be presented on how the nervous system of vertebrates (salamander) are able to switch between walking and swimming. At the end we will show a system where the cellular mechanisms that coordinate and link the central pattern generators have been characterized.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Einat Couzin (Fuchs) (Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel and Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, USA)
   "Leg coordination during cockroach locomotion: experiments and model-based analysis"
2. Anke Borgmann (Institute of Zoology, Dept. of Animal Physiology Univ. of Cologne, Germany)
   "Intersegmental coordination in the stick insect: interaction of weakly coupled oscillators"
3. Jean-Marie Cabelguen (Neurocentre Magendie, University of Bordeaux, France)
   "Flexibility of the central pattern generator for locomotion in salamander"
4. Carmen Smarandache-Wellmann (Emmy Noether Group: Dynamics of neuronal circuits)
   "The swimmeret system of crayfish: cellular mechanisms of coordination"

Title:

Decision making in worms, insects and vertebrates: Are there common principles or mechanisms?

Organizer(s):

Kenji Doya (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) and Hitoshi Okamoto (RIKEN Brain Science Institute)

A recent convergence of the theory of adaptive optimal control and the neurobiological studies in animals and humans has pointed to the critical role of the basal ganglia and the monoamine system in value-based decision making. The aim of this symposium to investigate whether was can find common computational principles and/or common neurobiological mechanisms across a wide range of species. Speakers working on c-elegans, drosophila, zebrafish, and rodents are invited to present how the model animals learn to make a choice based on rewarding or aversive experiences, and what circuit and molecular mechanisms are behind their learning and decisions. Specific points of discussion includes: what are the right characterization of decision strategies (e.g., goal-directev.s. habitual, model-based v.s. model-free), which species are capable of which strategies, and what neural substrates realize them.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Ikue Mori (Nagoya University)
   "Unveiling principle of neural circuits underlying learning, memory and decision making"
2. Aike Guo (Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai)
   "The gain-gating mechanism implements decision making in fruit fly Drosophila"
3. Hitoshi Okamoto (RIKEN Brain Science Insittute)
   "Habenula as a switch board of emotion"
4. Takaki Komiyama (UC San Diego)
   "Imaging neural ensembles during learning"

Title: Deep homology of circuits underlying behavioral actions

Organizer(s):

Nicholas Strausfeld (Department of Neuroscience, School of Mind, Brain and Behavior. University of Arizona, USA)

Have circuits that mediate comparable behaviors in a fly and a mouse evolved independently by convergence or do they derive, in a modified form, from a common ancestral circuit and therefore genealogically correspond? Simplistically, what parts of our own brains might be shared by those of beetles? Hennigian cladistics has been put to good use in resolving evolutionary trends in brain organization across taxa, but propositions arising from cladistics about the origins of neural system are difficult to substantiate. Recently, however, some predictions have been substantiated from observations of fossil brains and sensory systems that belong to stem arthropods from the lower Cambrian. Such evidence suggests that elaborate behaviors were then already in place and that visual systems that today characterize mandibulates and arachnids had already diverged from a common neurological ground pattern. Fossil brains thus reveal evidence about the timing of divergent evolution of sensory systems, particularly those involved in visual perception and predation. In addition to studies of ancient material, comparative studies employing behavioral, molecular, and structural data have identified numerous lines of evidence that support genealogical correspondence of forebrain centers across phyla that mediate learning and memory, and others that mediate the selection of behavioral actions. Such evidence suggests that although the last common ancestor of protostomes and deuterostomes may have had a simple morphology, its brain likely possessed circuits required for such processes. This symposium will interweave glimpses into deep time with comparative studies of extant brains. It will make the case that although there exists a vast variety of brains and behavior, and although brains we study today are generally elaborate, they do not radically depart from those that existed over 525 million years ago in an evolving marine ecology.

This symposium is supported by The University of Arizona's Center for Insect Science.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Nicholas Strausfeld (University of Arizona)
   " Ecology, Predation, and Neural Ground Patterns in Deep Time"
2. Gabriella Wolff (Graduate Neuroscience Program, University of Arizona)
   "A walk down memory lane:genealogical correspondence of learning and memory centers across phyla"
3. Frank Hirth (Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK)
   "Evolutionary conserved neural circuitry for the selection and maintenance of behavioural activity"
4. Jessica Fox (Case Western Reserve University)
   "Evolution and diversity of mechanosensory organs for flight control"

Title:

Emergence of simple behaviour: channels, neurons and networks controlling swimming in developing vertebrates

Organizer(s):

Wen-Chang Li (School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, UK) and Shin-ichi Higashijima (National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan)

Goal: to bring together speakers using new genetic, behavioural and electrophysiological techniques to study the tractable developing nervous systems of the most common vertebrates on the planet (larval fish and amphibians) as models of the basic organisation of nervous networks generating rhythmic locomotorbehaviour.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Vatsala Thirumalai (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India)
   "Mind the gap:Gap junctions and neural circuit assembly in larval zebrafish"
2. Shin-ichi Higashijima (National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan)
   "Functional analysis of locomotor circuits in the spinal cord and brainstem in zebrafish"
3. Wen-Chang Li (School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, UK)
   "Both left-right swimming and synchrony are generated by the same circuit in Xenopus laevis tadpoles"
4. Claire Wyart (ICM Brain and Spine Institute, Paris)
   "Optical probing of sensory-motor loops in the spinal cord of zebrafish larva"

Title: Evolution of Parental Behaviors

Organizer(s):

Lauren A. O’Connell (Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, USA) and Cheryl S. Rosenfeld (Biomedical Sciences and Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, USA)

The goal of this symposium will be to examine the evolution of parental behaviors, such as provision of nourishment, warmth, defense against predators, and education (namely how to survive on their own), which can be found in a wide range of taxa ranging from insects to humans. Additionally, parental care can involve only one or both parents. It is of particular interest, for example, to consider why monoparental versus biparental care has evolved separately in closely related species. Furthermore, understanding how individual parental behaviors might be influenced by the opposite sex partner or extrinsic factors, including chemicals and stressors in the environment, is still a major question in biology. Speakers have been selected on their expertise in studying various parameters of parental care both at the molecular and behavioral levels, and the symposium will be intentionally comparative in its approach.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Cheryl S. Rosenfeld (University of Missouri-Columbia, USA)
   "Endocrine disruption of evolutionary evolved maternal and paternal behaviors in monogamous, biparental California mice (Peromyscuc californicus)"
2. Frédéric Angelier (Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, CNRS, France)
   "Providing parental care in a stressful environment: a study of the endocrine regulation of parental behavior in birds"
3. Lauren A. O’Connell (Harvard University, USA)
   "The soft side of a killer: neuroendocrine basis of parental care in poison frogs"
4. Allen J. Moore (University of Georgia, USA)
   "The evolution of sex difference in parenting"

Title:

In the footsteps Karl von Frisch: 100 years of investigations into insect color and polarization vision.

Organizer(s):

Kentaro Arikawa (Sokendai-Hayama, Japan) and Adrian Dyer (RMIT/Monash University, Melbourne, Australia)

The year 2014 will be the 100th year anniversary of the first publication by the Nobel Laureate Karl von Frisch on honeybee colour vision (Zool. J. Physiol. 37, 1-238, 1914). Frisch’s pioneering contributions strongly stimulated many scientists, especially in the field of insect vision and flower evolution, which has subsequently been one of the major research areas of neuroethology. We will first briefly overview the history of insect studies and neuroethology since the groundbreaking work 100 years ago, and then will have four research talks by young and mid-career scientists on their recent achievements. The topics will include molecular, physiological and behavioral analyses of bees, Drosophila, and other non-model insects.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Michiyo Kinoshita (Sokendai-Hayama, Japan)
   "Color and polarization vision in foraging Papilio butterflies"
2. Hiromu Tanimoto (Max-Plank Inst, Germany and Tohoku Univ, Japan)
   "Neural circuits for colour discrimination learning in the fly"
3. Keram Pfeifer (University Marburg, Germany)
   "Neurons of the bee's sky-compass system"
4. Adrian Dyer (RMIT/Monash University, Australia)
   "Innate colour preferences of the Australian native stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria: lessons from a geologically separated land"

Title:

Insights from molluscan studies into the evolution of neural mechanisms for simple and complex learning and memory systems

Organizer(s):

Binyamin Hochner (Department of Neurobiology, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)

The molluscs display the largest disparity in behavioral complexity that can be found in a single phylum. They are therefore ideal animals in which to analyze processes of conservation and convergence in the evolution of neural systems that mediate learning and memory. The goal of the proposed symposium is to bring together research that examines molluscan cognition as characterized by three different levels of complexity: a simple form of learning and memory that involves the defensive reflex of Aplysia; a more complex form of learning and memory that involves the network controlling feeding in gastropods; and, finally, the advanced cognitive behaviors of cephalopods, which is mediated by their vertical lobe. Assessment of the roles of network organization, short- and long-term synaptic plasticity, and hetero- and homosynaptic modulation in molluscan cognition will be discussed and evaluated from an evolutionary perspective.

Speakers and Titles:

1. David Glanzman (UCLA), USA
   "New insights into the mechanisms of long-term memory maintenance in Aplysia"
2. Abrham Susswein (Bar-Ilan Univ, Israel)
   "Memory after training with inedible food in Aplysia is localized to multiple sites"
3. Ildiko Kemenes (Univ Sussex, UK)
   "Evolutionary conserved mechanisms of associative learning in Lymnaea"
4. Tal Shomrat (HUJI and Ruppin Academic Center, Israel)
   "Conservation and convergence in the evolution of cephalopods' neural systems that mediate learning and memory"

Title:

JSCPB symposium:Third-generation photobiology and its relevance to chronobiology

Organizer(s):

Yoshitaka Fukada (Univ. Tokyo, Japan) and Akihisa Terakita (Osaka City Univ., Japan)

Light is a very important ambient signal for animals, as it affords information for regulation of a variety of physiological functions, such as vision, circadian rhythms, photoperiodism, hormone regulation, pupil contraction, body color change, etc.; These responses to light are considered as being the outputs from the animals who utilized light information as either a spatial cue or a temporal one. This symposium aims at understanding of the light-sensing mechanism, the neural network transducing the light information, and the final outputs including behaviors. The circadian clock system is also sensitive to light, in terms of its phase and period regulation for 24-hours daily cycles. The temporal information is further combined with signals from light onset and offset within the day, providing the basis for photoperiodism underlying seasonal regulation of animal physiology. Active discussion is expected toward understanding of light-regulated physiology.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Sato Honma (Univ. Hokkaido, Japan)
   "In vivo monitoring of circadian clock’s tick by a bioluminescence reporter: environments to genes and genes to behaviors"
2. Takashi Nagata (Graduate University of Advanced Studies (Sokendai), Japan)
   "Depth perception from defocus of retinal images received by a three-dimensionally distributed visual pigment in a jumping spider eye"
3. Daisuke Kojima (Univ. Tokyo, Japan)
   "Photoreceptors regulating light-induced body color change in zebrafish"
4. Satchidananda Panda (Salk Institute, USA)
   "Melanopsin expressing retinal ganglion cells in health and disease"

Title: Learned vocal communication in songbirds: Recent developments

Organizer(s):

Melissa Coleman (Scripps College, USA) and Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan)

About fifty years ago Peter Marler pioneered the scientific research on song birds with a series of studies which showed birds learn complex acoustical signals through auditory experience with adult conspecifics during a developmental sensitive period. Since these early studies the field has grown extensively from the original behavioral studies to a wide variety of neuroethological studies, including sensory-motor integration, hormonal control of behavior, auditory processing, and cognition. These studies have been aided by the development of various new techniques including in vivo imaging of the developing circuitry, chronic recordings from singing birds and molecular manipulations of gene products involved in vocal learning and production. As the song bird is one of the premier model systems for understanding how the brain produces behaviors, in this symposium we would like to highlight some of the recent findings in this field and explore their contributions to other fields. We have selected relatively younger speakers who are using songbirds to address a wide variety of research questions using cutting-edge techniques. We hope the diversity of topics and techniques will also demonstrate the future possibilities of this research field.

Speakers and Titles:

1. Todd Roberts (UT Southwestern, USA)
   "A novel motor to auditory circuit is necessary for song learning"
2. Richard Hahnloser (University Zurich, Switzerland)
   "New approaches to vocal communication and template-based song learning"
3. Stephanie White (UCLA, USA)
   "Cycling in the brain: Molecular insights into procedural learning"
4. Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama (Okinawa Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan)
   "Neuronal representations of tutor song experience"