Awesome, congrats!!

A 2024 study found that ants best humans at tests of collective intelligence.

Learn more on #WorldAnimalDay: https://scim.ag/42nMvQJ

Thanks for sharing! Don't miss out on the videos --> bsky.app/profile/moll...

🌆🐀Scientific American article about the project we're starting on NYC rats!! scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

w/ Emily Mackevicius, Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, @basisresearch.bsky.social

Seeking collaborators and funders 🐀🌆

Thanks Arka! :)

Thank you :)

Ein Forschungsteam der @unituebingen.bsky.social zeigt, wie Krähen lernen, ein Stäbchen präzise im Schnabel zu führen, um damit an Futter zu gelangen: 👉 uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet... #Neurobiologie #Biologie #Forschung

Linking it to our previous crow brain anatomy study (Moll et al., 2025, JCN): Our behavioral paradigm offers a scaffold for future studies investigating neuronal correlates of corvid tool use in the avian general motor system and beyond.

At the start of each trial, when the crows pulled the stick from the holder, the stick was often misaligned with the beak. In these cases, the initial pull was followed by brief tosses—momentary re-leases and re-grasps of the stick—to adjust its orientation within the beak and achieve a better grip.

Trained crows dexterously corrected errors when the tool’s working end lost control over the target.

DeepLabCut pose estimation (@trackingactions.bsky.social) revealed high intitial motor variability, which is essenatial for motor learning (Dhawale et al., 2017, Annu. Rev. Neurosci.).

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Cool new paper on how neurons in my favorite bird's brain encode time. Congrats Millie and Max!! @milliejohnston.bsky.social , @crowbrain.bsky.social

Cool new method (functional ultrasound imaging) now established in the crow by @daliao.bsky.social and colleagues:

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/2...

Amazing meeting with amazing people!

Our paper on brain size evolution in birds of paradise was recently accepted!

In brief:
•BoPs have big brains, comparable to those of medium-sized corvids
•Neither absolute nor relative brain size appears to have co-evolved with display complexity

doi.org/10.1093/orni...

My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!

When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️

The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar

bit.ly/3HvWSum

Our first look at midbrain PAG’s role in singing mouse vocal control. When near each other, these mice produce two divergent vocal modes. Same circuits for USVs and Songs—or different ones? Bets were made..some of us bought beers for others! Led by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social & Clifford Harpole. 👇🏽

Nature research paper: Convergent vocal representations in parrot and human forebrain motor networks

https://go.nature.com/4iEIBsz

Proud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)

Excited to share our latest work! It’s been a great experience working on this (including building a whole new lab!) 😊

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How might the general motor system and the song system interact and contribute to flexible vocal behavior? We discuss this question in our brand-new review with lead author @daliao.bsky.social:

"Bridging the fields of cognition and birdsong with corvids"

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Now published in JCN: "Exploring Anatomical Links Between the Crow's Nidopallium Caudolaterale and Its Song System"

In crows (which are songbirds!), we show that the song system is paralleled by the 'general motor system' (cf. Feenders, 2008; Farries, 2001).

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....