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"The take-home message from my book is that these small creatures are extremely intelligent. They may well be the most intelligent of all the insects," said Thomas Seeley, the Horace White Professor in Biology Emeritus (A&S).
Our brain cells remain active while we sleep, allowing for new memories to form.
Azahara Oliva, assistant professor of the Neurobiology and Behavior Department at Cornell University is quoted, “This means that memory is a two-fold process, with neural circuits that enhance the consolidation of a given experience and neural circuits that control that this consolidation doesn’t go over a healthy limit”
An interdisciplinary group of animal behavior researchers from the fields of biology, psychology, anthropology and philosophy were included in the survey. Klarman Fellow Matthew Zipple is first author.
Eleven teaching faculty from across the university have been awarded Cornell’s highest honors for graduate and undergraduate teaching, Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 22.
A classic psychedelic was found to activate a cell type in the brain of mice and rats that silences other neighboring neurons, providing insight into how such drugs reduce anxiety.
Weinan Sun, Neurobiology and Behavior
"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."
Peter John Loewen says he's excited to support faculty in their research, meet students and showcase the value of a liberal arts education.
The study answers how people can keep learning new things for a lifetime without using up all of their neurons.
NBB has a room called the Rosenblatt room, named after Frank Rosenblatt. You can read about Frank Rosenblatt in the Cornell Chronicle.
The authors of the paper, “Maternal Care Leads to the Evolution of Long, Slow Lives,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on June 14, 2024 are worried the paper may be taken out of context in what a mother's care means. "Humans are a primate and we live much longer lives than is expected based on our body size, even compared to other primates. We also show a very long period of intense connection between mother and child that is unusual among animals," lead author Matthew Zipple, postdoctoral fellow in neurobiology and behaviour in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. Read the story in the CBC News.
The relationship between mother and child offers clues to the mystery of why humans live longer lives than expected for their size – and sheds new light on what it means to be human.
Coming from the University of Toronto, where he was the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen began his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.
The dramatic decline in childhood mortality during the 20th century has added a full year to women’s lives, according to a new study.
BioNB 1100 - Natural History of the Magic Kingdom: Understanding Animal Behavior through Animated Films taught by Michael Sheehan, an associate professor of neurobiology and behavior, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences has become a popular class. "This class is really about how we choose to portray ourselves, as acted out by animals", per Professor Michael Sheehan.
Precious Oyewole is a biological sciences major.
Greater understanding of beneficial characteristics of the human brain, such as flexibility and reliability, will help Wenbo Tang develop therapies for human diseases – and improve AI systems.
The award aims to “create a self-perpetuating cohort of talent that can encourage others to enter science and reach senior leadership roles.”
The grants provide funding for students in unpaid or low-paying summer experiences to offset the cost of taking on those positions.
Mark Sarvary, Ph.D. ’06, found that when life began returning to a “new normal” after three online semesters during the COVID pandemic, students’ expectations regarding assignment flexibility had changed.
The prize aims to “change the paradigm of neuroscience research by creating a community of next-frontier thinkers who can uncover a deeper understanding of the brain and cognition.”
Faculty and staff from across Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Cornell CALS) came together on March 4 to honor 30 awardees at the inaugural CALS Faculty and Staff Awards, held in the Statler Ballroom.
The College of Arts & Sciences is preparing for Giving Day on Thursday, March 14 and we hope the whole Cornell community can join in to support the work and growth of our students and faculty.
The blank slate theory for newborn brains is being challenged. Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences, Assistant Professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University is quoted as saying "Dragoi's paper starts by describing how there has been a paradigm shift in recent years in the study of how the brain represents the external world.'
When you take the lab away, female mice are more likely to play, according to a new Cornell study.
The study, published Feb. 14 in the journal BMC Biology, took lab mice and placed them in large outdoor enclosures. The researchers found that male behavior was essentially the same as genetically wild mice, but females displayed radically different behaviors. It’s the first study to examine social behavior of lab mice in large outdoor enclosures.
The midbrain in these fish may serve as a useful model for how mammals and other vertebrates, including humans, control vocal expressions.
The College hosted a new pre-graduation reception in the Groos Family Atrium of Klarman Hall for December graduates and their families.
Senior author Nilay Yapici, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences, Assistant Professor is quoted as saying, “In our study, we found that hyperactivating the visual system overran the inhibition generated by chemical signals emitted by the male fly to say to the other male, ‘Okay, you know, I’m another male, don’t mess with me”. They have found that fruit flies also use their vision to enable their social behaviors.
After service in the military, Chris Brunkhorst and Caleb Jones sought new outlets to channel their discipline and their commitment to helping others – and they both found it in neuroscience. Now doctoral students in the Cornell’s Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, Brunkhost and Jones are pursuing different ways to make meaningful impacts on people's lives.
In sea fireflies’ underwater ballet, the males sway together in perfect, illuminated synchronization, basking in the glow of their secreted iridescent mucus.
“It’s extreme,” said Nicholai M. Hensley, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “It’s an illustration of convergent evolution and a striking example of synchronized bioluminescent mating displays. The males are putting it all out on the dance floor. It’s a big bright display.”
Social interactions may well make animals smarter and more diverse, a new study of paper wasps suggests.
The study, “Evidence for a selective link between cooperation and individual recognition,” published Dec. 7 in Current Biology, offers behavioral evidence of an evolutionary link between the ability to recognize individuals and social cooperation.
The study provides a clue into how parrot – and human – brains allow continuous, flexible vocal learning.
Cornell University Scientists reveal that the hippocampus region of the brain has two separate parts. One that remembers the past and one that can plan for the future. Antonio Fernandez -Ruiz; Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences, Assistant Professor in neurobiology and behavior is quoted as saying, “We uncovered that two different neural codes support these very important aspects of memory and cognition, and can be dissociated, as we did experimentally.”
The finding has important implications for one day treating memory and learning issues found in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
The collaboration aims for a breakthrough in understanding the neural mechanisms by which parental animals balance their own needs with the needs of their offspring.
Would you like to learn how Nilay Yapici, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences, Assistant Professor of the neurobiology and behavior department became interested in biology or why she studies neuroscience? To learn more, please read Current Biology.
Neuroscientist Antonio Fernandez-Ruiz has received a New Innovator Director’s Award from the National Institutes of Health’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program.
Dopamine neurons fire differently when there are multiple rewards. Professor Goldberg, associate professor of neurobiology and behavior and Robert R. Capranica Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences stated, “What we did that was new to my knowledge, is we were less interested in how an animal achieves a given objective and more interested in what happens when multiple objectives are on the table”.
When a lonely and thirsty male zebra finch encountered a female, his thirst waned and he instead focused his attention on her, a shift reflected in the dopamine system.
The competitive fellowships send PhD students abroad for up to 12 months to build on their language proficiency, engage with other cultures and complete significant dissertation research on global cultures and societies.
Eighty-four students have been selected as National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellows in 2023, comprising the largest group of new fellows Cornell has ever fielded in one year.
Our 34 new faculty will enrich the College of Arts & Sciences with creative ideas in a vast array of topics.
The fruit fly’s visual system, not just chemical receptors, are deeply involved with their social behaviors.
Madineh Sedigh-Sarvestani, Neurobiology and Behavior
Nexus Scholars spent eight weeks this summer working with researchers on campus on projects in the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences.
The Division of Human Resources and the Employee Assembly hosted the 26th annual Staff Graduate Reception on June 14 in Stocking Hall, honoring staff who earned collegiate degrees this year, either at Cornell or another institution.For some graduates, a degree offers the chance to explore new careers and job opportunities. Jeremy Cusker, a technician in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, completed a certificate program in biotechnology from Tompkins Cortland Community College, which enabled him to shift from working in libraries to working in labs.
Two Cornell faculty members are among 31 early-career academics from across the U.S. who have been named Freeman Hrabowski Scholars by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), in recognition of their potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create diverse, equitable and inclusive lab environments where everyone can thrive.
Have our faces evolved to look more modern? According to Michael Sheehan, Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences, associate professor of neurobiology and behavior, "“The perceived differences in appearance of people between the mid-20th century and now is almost certainly the result of stylistic, grooming or diet changes rather than facial evolution.”
Neurons in a key area of the brain have different functions based on their exact genetic identity, and understanding this diversity could lead to better understanding of the brain’s computational flexibility and memory capacity, potentially informing disease treatment options, Cornell researchers report in a new study.
Humidity is as important as scent in attracting pollinators to a plant, new Cornell-led research finds, advancing basic biology and opening new avenues to support agriculture.