Course description:

The aim of our research is to unravel how neural circuits enable animals to sense their environment and how such information is processed in the brain to guide behavior. To this end, we study how animals make decisions in different contexts and behavioral states, learn and remember, and interact when in a group. We are driven by the idea that biological systems, in their beautiful diversity and complexity, follow relatively simple principles that are commonly shared across species. To explore these common principles, we use a variety of model organisms, including larval zebrafish, locusts, bees, ants, cockroaches, adult flies, and fly larvae. Each one of these model organisms has its specific experimental advantage or shows a particularly interesting behavior:

• Larval zebrafish are tiny and almost completely transparent vertebrates, making it easy to use functional imaging techniques to characterize the activity of the entire brain at cellular resolution, while animals can still make behavioral decisions. Larval zebrafish are genetically tractable, allowing us to manipulate circuit function and test its effect on behavior. 

• Locusts show complex group dynamics, they often march or fly in huge groups, which can be mimicked in a laboratory setting. Using electrophysiological recordings and imaging techniques we can ask how such different behavioral states arise and how this affects sensory processing. 

• Bees are masters in olfactory processing, spatial memory, and communication, and can make complex decisions as a collective. It is possible to use imaging and electrophysiological techniques to dissect the combinatorial code in the olfactory system and explore how memories are stored. In behavioral experiments, the division of labor and the organization of the colony can be explored. 

• Ants are highly social insects and can collectively shape their environment by cutting grass and leaves, and by keeping their environment tidy. Through behavioral experiments, immunohistochemical staining methods, as well as mass spectrometry, we explore how nervous system activity changes as a function of the animal’s state. 

• Cockroaches have a very fine sense of odor and actively sample their environment using their long antennae. Through behavioral quantification and electrophysical recordings, we aim to understand their behavioral strategies in odor plume detection and how this information is represented on the level of the brain. 

• Fruit flies perform sophisticated navigation behaviors towards olfactory or visual cues, which are also modulated by their internal state. Furthermore, they are able to associate rewarding and punishing events with different contextual stimuli, allowing them to adapt their behavior for future behavioral decisions.

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Students will join one of our currently active research projects, using one of our animal models. Working closely together within our scientific community, we will provide students with hands-on exposure to state-of-the-art experimental techniques, including high-throughput behavioral tracking, two-photon functional calcium-Imaging, electrophysiology, mass spectrometry, immunohistochemistry, molecular biology, and computational modeling:

• The project work includes the development of a specific research question, literature research, planning of experimental design, experimental execution, data acquisition, and data analysis. The project ends with a detailed protocol in the form of a manuscript and a final presentation of results in the form of a talk.

• The course is accompanied by lectures covering basics and advanced topics in behavioral neuroscience and general important experimental techniques. Moreover, invited speakers give students the opportunity to learn about ongoing research in the field outside our department.

• Additionally, students will attend relevant talks at our Excellence Cluster for the Study of Collective Behaviour, selected departmental seminars, and some of our progress reports.

• Lectures, project completion, as well as seminar attendance, are mandatory parts of the course.

• This course is held in English only.

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Key dates 2022:

• The course takes place daily from June 20th to July 29th.

• Students and supervisors will go on a joint retreat to develop their project ideas. This year we will all go to the Hochkopf-Hütte (link) in the Black Forest, from July 4–6.

• On July 15th, we will have a special technical workshop event, in which students will learn with hands-on-engineering to control hardware for neuroscience experiments.

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Lecture material:

• Click on the Link to our Nextcloud storage. In case the link does not work anymore, please let us know.

• The content in the lecture will be used during oral Master's examinations. 

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Recommended reading material:

• Kandel E, Schwartz J, Jessell T (2000) Principles of Neural Science. McGraw-Hill.

• Greenspan RJ (2007) An Introduction to Nervous Systems. Cold Spring Harbor.

• Carew T (2000) Behavioral Neurobiology. Sinauer Associates.

• Galizia CG, Lledo PM (2013) Neurosciences. Springer.

• Zupanc GKH (2010) Behavioral Neurobiology - An Integrative Approach. Oxford University.