2. Behavioral Biology TALKS - Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

12. Neurobiology TALKS
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Invited speaker 1: Chair – Jacob Engelmann A 701 / 11:00
Boris Chagnaud (München)
Temporal patterning of vocalizations and prevention of acoustic reafference– a
lesson from vocalizing fish
Author: Boris Chagnaud 1
Affiliation: 1 Division of Neurobiology, Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-
Universität München
Vocalizations require perfect neuronal control to be executed in a meaningful way.
While we have a basic understanding of the way vocalizations are patterned in higher
brain centers, we almost entirely lack information about the final patterning of
vocalizations that occurs in the hindbrain. This is mainly due to respiratory influence
on vocalizations and the difficult accessibility of hindbrain structures in birds and
mammals. Using vocalizing fish, that share an evolutionary ancient and conserved
hindbrain compartment in all vocalizing vertebrates, we have elucidated the neuronal
elements that contribute to the patterning of vocalizations in singing fish. Our results
show that separate hindbrain compartments code for vocalization frequency and
duration respectively. The duration encoding nucleus not only serves a function in
motor control but also informs other hindbrain nuclei about the onset and duration
of vocalizations in order to prevent reafferent signalling.
Invited speaker 2: Chair – Christoph Kleineidam A 704 / 11:30
Jörg T. Albert (London)
From circadian time keeping to species-specific hearing: chordotonal contributions
to mechanosensory behaviours in Drosophila
Author: Jörg T. Albert 1
Affiliation: 1 Ear Institute, University College London, UK
A major type of insect mechanosensors is formed by chordotonal organs (ChOs).
ChOs are located at virtually every joint of the insect body and they contribute to a
plethora of different behaviours. Most famously perhaps, Johnston’s Organ (JO), a
specialized ChO located in the second antennal segment of Diptera, underlies the
auditory behaviours of mosquitoes and fruit flies. During the last decade, the
Drosophila JO has been subjected to in-depth analyses, establishing it as one of the
prime model organs for the molecular, and mechanistic, study of
mechanotransduction.
This presentation will present recent data on the molecular composition of
mechanosensory transduction machineries in the fruit fly antenna, and on how this
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