Andrew Bahle
@andrewbahle.bsky.social
neuroscience and behavior in parrots and songbirds
Simons junior fellow and post-doc at NYU Langone studying vocal communication, PhD MIT brain and cognitive sciences
Simons junior fellow and post-doc at NYU Langone studying vocal communication, PhD MIT brain and cognitive sciences
Reposted by Andrew Bahle
ok kind of a fun paragraph
November 15, 2025 at 2:27 AM
ok kind of a fun paragraph
Reposted by Andrew Bahle
New preprint:
Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping
Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping
Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 9, 2025 at 9:33 PM
New preprint:
Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping
Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping
Here we develop a new theory for neural generation of walking and how it can stop- Next we test the theory using Neuropixels probes in the lumber spinal cord of freely moving rats. See more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Love this paper. One of my core scientific memories is learning that african grey parrots and crows have the roughly same number of cortical neurons as rhesus macaques
(apologies for a cerebellarphobic post)
(apologies for a cerebellarphobic post)
Birds are both intelligent and incredibly agile, yet they are quite small. How do they achieve this with their little brains?
They have twice as many neurons per brain mass than mammals, including primates.
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
They have twice as many neurons per brain mass than mammals, including primates.
www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
November 7, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Love this paper. One of my core scientific memories is learning that african grey parrots and crows have the roughly same number of cortical neurons as rhesus macaques
(apologies for a cerebellarphobic post)
(apologies for a cerebellarphobic post)
Is using the word innate to describe unlearned behaviors really that bad?
I see people constantly citing polemics explaining why it’s bad but it seems no more imprecise than other potentially loaded words we use to describe behaviors i.e. adaptive or spontaneous
I see people constantly citing polemics explaining why it’s bad but it seems no more imprecise than other potentially loaded words we use to describe behaviors i.e. adaptive or spontaneous
November 4, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Is using the word innate to describe unlearned behaviors really that bad?
I see people constantly citing polemics explaining why it’s bad but it seems no more imprecise than other potentially loaded words we use to describe behaviors i.e. adaptive or spontaneous
I see people constantly citing polemics explaining why it’s bad but it seems no more imprecise than other potentially loaded words we use to describe behaviors i.e. adaptive or spontaneous
All models of ducks are wrong but some models of ducks are useful
October 30, 2025 at 8:53 PM
All models of ducks are wrong but some models of ducks are useful
What a time to be alive
The songbird basal ganglia connectome https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.684569v1
October 27, 2025 at 5:02 PM
What a time to be alive
Reposted by Andrew Bahle
sure, if you enjoy the horrifying limits of human perception
October 25, 2025 at 12:22 PM
sure, if you enjoy the horrifying limits of human perception
Injecting testosterone in female canaries induces singing. I always assumed this meant that the brain areas for song production would grow much larger but apparently not!
Researchers gave female canaries testosterone, which causes them to sing. Two-photon in vivo imaging reveals that songs emerge due to changes in brain cell function rather than by increasing the size of a key brain region, as was once thought. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/pn1750XhFL5
October 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Injecting testosterone in female canaries induces singing. I always assumed this meant that the brain areas for song production would grow much larger but apparently not!
Manifesting a Kekulé style nap today
October 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Manifesting a Kekulé style nap today
Reposted by Andrew Bahle
I will be recruiting PhD students via Georgetown Linguistics this application cycle! Come join us in the PICoL (pronounced “pickle”) lab. We focus on psycholinguistics and cognitive modeling using LLMs. See the linked flyer for more details: bit.ly/3L3vcyA
October 21, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I will be recruiting PhD students via Georgetown Linguistics this application cycle! Come join us in the PICoL (pronounced “pickle”) lab. We focus on psycholinguistics and cognitive modeling using LLMs. See the linked flyer for more details: bit.ly/3L3vcyA
Very cool large comparative study on the distinctive avian trait neophobia (fear of novelty). Bernd Henrich apparently worked with some wild ravens that loved spaghetti and cheese puffs so much they would eat them out of his hand but became completely terrified if either food was presented in a pile
🐦 Exciting news! Our new paper is out in PLOS Biology:
“A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.”
Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍
🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@themanybirds.bsky.social
“A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.”
Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍
🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
@themanybirds.bsky.social
A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia
Neophobia (the aversive response to novelty) varies considerably across species and individuals, and can impact adaptability and survival. This study assesses neophobia in 1400 subjects from 136 bird ...
journals.plos.org
October 20, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Very cool large comparative study on the distinctive avian trait neophobia (fear of novelty). Bernd Henrich apparently worked with some wild ravens that loved spaghetti and cheese puffs so much they would eat them out of his hand but became completely terrified if either food was presented in a pile
Counter example: as an infant my first utterance was the fully formed sentence “bring me a xylophone made out of carburetors and doorknobs you useless bureaucrats”
In all seriousness I really enjoyed this paper which put me at ease.
In all seriousness I really enjoyed this paper which put me at ease.
A paper by Josh Rule from my lab providing some formal tools for how to think about innateness -- and trying to pinpoint exactly why Fodor's claims that everything is innate is nonsense.
arxiv.org/abs/2505.18277
arxiv.org/abs/2505.18277
The end of radical concept nativism
Though humans seem to be remarkable learners, arguments in cognitive science and philosophy of mind have long maintained that learning something fundamentally new is impossible. Specifically, Jerry Fo...
arxiv.org
October 19, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Counter example: as an infant my first utterance was the fully formed sentence “bring me a xylophone made out of carburetors and doorknobs you useless bureaucrats”
In all seriousness I really enjoyed this paper which put me at ease.
In all seriousness I really enjoyed this paper which put me at ease.
Wow what a nice picture I wonder who took it :)
Faux fish and birds are helping researchers decipher some of the rules that govern schooling and squawking, among other social behaviors.
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/social-behav...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/social-behav...
Robots marry natural neuroscience, experimental control to probe animal interactions
Faux fish and birds are helping researchers decipher some of the rules that govern schooling and squawking, among other social behaviors.
www.thetransmitter.org
October 17, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Wow what a nice picture I wonder who took it :)