Björn Brembs

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• Prof.
• Professor at University of Regensburg

Background Motor learning is central to human existence, such as learning to speak or walk, sports moves, or rehabilitation after injury. Evidence suggests that all forms of motor learning share an evolutionarily conserved molecular plasticity pathway. Here, we present novel insights into the neural processes underlying operant self-learning, a for...

Background Motor learning is central to human existence, such as learning to speak or walk, sports moves, or rehabilitation after injury. Evidence suggests that all forms of motor learning share an evolutionarily conserved molecular plasticity pathway. Here, we present novel insights into the neural processes underlying operant self-learning, a for...

Replacing traditional journals with a more modern solution is not a new idea. Here, we propose ways to overcome the social dilemma underlying the decades of inaction. Any solution needs to not only resolve the current problems but also be capable of preventing takeover by corporations: it needs to replace traditional journals with a decentralized,...

Twitter is in turmoil and the scholarly community on the platform is once again starting to migrate. As with the early internet, scholarly organizations are at the forefront of developing and implementing a decentralized alternative to Twitter, Mastodon. Both historically and conceptually, this is not a new situation for the scholarly community. Hi...

Zusammenfassung Immer noch werden die Auswirkungen der digitalen Transformation auf die Wissenschaftskommunikation unterschätzt und damit auch die Veränderung der Bibliothek. Die zunehmende Auflösung gewohnter Medienformen und die fortschreitende Vernetzung digitaler Ressourcen werden die Bibliothek 2040 zu einer neuen Form der Wunderkammer machen,...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00486-3

Background Motor learning is central to human existence, such as learning to speak or walk, sports moves, or rehabilitation after injury. Evidence suggests that all forms of motor learning share an evolutionarily conserved molecular plasticity pathway. Here, we present novel insights into the neural processes underlying operant self-learning, a for...

This is a very simple protocol showing how to extract haemolymph from adult Drosophila melanogaster. (Based on protocols from Sigma Aldrich).

CITATIONS 0 READS 129 60 authors, including: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: SafeConsume View project O perfil epidemiológico e demográfico dos pacientes com tumor da cabeça e pescoço HPV16+ numa instituição oncológica em Portugal View project

4open, its Editorial Board, scientists, and the network of the Theodor-Billroth-Academy and its International Consortium of Research Excellence (INCORE) are aware of the current dire situation for Ukrainian scientists and students. After the unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, our colleagues in Ukraine are now in fear for their fam...

4open, its Editorial Board, scientists, and the network of the Theodor-Billroth-Academy and its International Consortium of Research Excellence (INCORE) are aware of the current dire situation for Ukrainian scientists and students. After the unprovoked attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, our colleagues in Ukraine are now in fear for their famil...

Environmental variability during the development of an organism has known impacts on the expression of certain behavioural patterns. We used the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to investigate how different environmental conditions interact with the allelic variants of rover (forR) and sitter (fors) at the foraging locus to affect food-related beh...

In mammals, dopamine is considered a central neuromodulator involved in all kinds of rewarding experiences ('common currency' hypothesis). In insects, the role of dopaminergic neurons in aversive stimuli was discovered before dopaminergic neurons were found to also be involved in processing appetitive stimuli. Here, we screened about 50 transgenic...

A major factor underlying several of scholarship's most pressing problems is its antiquated journal system with its trifecta of reproducibility, affordability and functionality crises. Any solution needs to not only solve the current problems but also be capable of preventing a takeover by corporations. Technically, there is broad agreement on the...

Our own unique character traits make our behavior consistent and define our individuality. Yet, this consistency does not entail that we behave repetitively like machines. Like humans, animals also combine personality traits with spontaneity to produce adaptive behavior: consistent, but not fully predictable. Here, we study an iconically rigid beha...

Fluorescence labeling and microscopy of adult Drosophila mushroom body: 1. Dissection: The brains are removed in cold Phosphate-buffered saline (1X PBS, pH 7.4). 2. Fixation: Tissues are fixed for 20 min in 4% paraformaldehyde (Merck, Germany) in PBST on an orbital shaker at room temperature. 3. Washing: Three quick (each 30 sec) and three long was...

For decades, the supra-inflation increase of subscription prices for scholarly journals has concerned scholarly institutions. After years of fruitless efforts to solve this “serials crisis”, open access has been proposed as the latest potential solution. However, also the prices for open access publishing are high and are rising well beyond inflati...

The biogenic amine octopamine (OA) and its precursor tyramine (TA) are involved in controlling a plethora of different physiological and behavioral processes. The tyramine-β-hydroxylase (tβh) gene encodes the enzyme catalyzing the last synthesis step from TA to OA. Here, we report differential dominance (from recessive to overdominant) of the putat...

Our own unique character traits make our behavior consistent and define our individuality. Yet, this consistency does not entail that we behave repetitively like machines. Like humans, animals also combine personality traits with spontaneity to produce adaptive behavior: consistent, but not fully predictable. Here, we study an iconically rigid beha...

For decades, the supra-inflation increase of subscription prices for scholarly journals has concerned scholarly institutions. After years of fruitless efforts to solve this “serials crisis”, open access has been proposed as the latest potential solution. However, the prices for open access publishing are also high and are rising well beyond inflati...

The FoxP family of transcription factors is necessary for operant self-learning, an evolutionary conserved form of motor learning. The expression pattern, molecular function and mechanisms of action of the Drosophila FoxP orthologue remain to be elucidated. By editing the genomic locus of FoxP with CRISPR/Cas9, we find that the three different FoxP...

Die großen Verlage haben ein neues Geschäftsfeld entdeckt: die Überwachung von Wissenschaftlern und den Verkauf ihrer Daten. Sie nehmen dadurch weitreichenden Einfluss auf die Forschung. Die Europäische Union muss dringend eingreifen.

Nervous systems are typically described as static networks passively responding to external stimuli (i.e., the ‘sensorimotor hypothesis’). However, for more than a century now, evidence has been accumulating that this passive-static perspective is wrong. Instead, evidence suggests that nervous systems dynamically change their connectivity and activ...

Nervous systems are typically described as static networks passively responding to external stimuli (i.e., the ‘sensorimotor hypothesis’). However, for more than a century now, evidence has been accumulating that this passive-static perspective is wrong. Instead, evidence suggests that nervous systems dynamically change their connectivity and activ...

The FoxP family of transcription factors is necessary for operant self-learning, an evolutionary conserved form of motor learning. The expression pattern, molecular function and mechanisms of action of the Drosophila FoxP orthologue remain to be elucidated. By editing the genomic locus of FoxP with CRISPR/Cas9, we find that the three different FoxP...

This is an open editorial about the issues on reproducibility and the current publication system that led us to launch the Journal for Reproduciblity in Neuroscience.

We present here our reflections on the scientific work of the late Troy D. Zars (1967 – 2018), on what it was like to work with him, and what it means to us. A common theme running through his work is that memory systems are not for replaying the past. Rather, they are forward-looking systems, providing whatever guidance past experience has to offe...

Fast object tracking in real time allows convenient tracking of very large numbers of animals and closed-loop experiments that control stimuli for many animals in parallel. We developed MARGO, a MATLAB-based, real-time animal tracking suite for custom behavioral experiments. We demonstrated that MARGO can rapidly and accurately track large numbers...

For many decades, the hyperinflation of subscription prices for scholarly journals have concerned scholarly institutions. After years of fruitless efforts to solve this “serials crisis”, open access has been proposed as the latest potential solution. However, also the prices for open access publishing are high and are rising well beyond inflation....

For many decades, the hyperinflation of subscription prices for scholarly journals have concerned scholarly institutions. After years of fruitless efforts to solve this “serials crisis”, open access has been proposed as the latest potential solution. However, also the prices for open access publishing are high and are rising well beyond inflation....

Fast object tracking in real time allows convenient tracking of very large numbers of animals and closed-loop experiments that control stimuli for multiple animals in parallel. We developed MARGO, a real-time animal tracking suite for custom behavioral experiments. We demonstrated that MARGO can rapidly and accurately track large numbers of animals...

Although a case can be made for rewarding scientists for risky, novel science rather than for incremental, reliable science, novelty without reliability ceases to be science. The currently available evidence suggests that the most prestigious journals are no better at detecting unreliable science than other journals. In fact, some of the most convi...

This document aims to agree on a broad, international strategy for the implementation of open scholarship that meets the needs of different national and regional communities but works globally.Scholarly research can be idealised as an inspirational process for advancing our collective knowledge to the benefit of all humankind. However, current rese...

For many decades, the hyperinflation of subscription prices for scholarly journals have concerned scholarly institutions. After years of fruitless efforts to solve this “serials crisis”, open access has been proposed as the latest potential solution. However, also the prices for open access publishing are high and are rising well beyond inflation....

The biogenic amine octopamine (OA) and its precursor tyramine (TA) are involved in controlling a plethora of different physiological and behavioral processes. The tyramine-beta-hydroxylase (tbetah) gene encodes the enzyme catalyzing the last synthesis step from TA to OA. Here, we report differential dominance (from recessive to overdominant) of the...

We believe that Elsevier and other major publishers are continuing to engage in anti-competitive practices, which are continuously worsening, and that information gained in the last 15 years urges immediate investigation and intervention into this unregulated market space. This could be, for example, through an empirical analysis of the scholarly p...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2018.00037.].

Mit wachsendem Erfolg der Populisten werden auch antiwissenschaftliche Strömungen immer stärker. Doch wir nehmen den Wissenschaftsgegnern nicht den Wind aus den Segeln, sondern liefern ihnen mit überzogenem Wettbewerbsbewusstsein und mangelnder Offenheit noch weiter Munition.

In which journal a scientist publishes is considered one of the most crucial factors determining their career. The underlying common assumption is that only the best scientists manage to publish in a highly selective tier of the most prestigious journals. However, data from several lines of evidence suggest that the methodological quality of scient...

All animals constantly negotiate external with internal demands before and during action selection. Energy homeostasis is a major internal factor biasing action selection. For instance, in addition to physiologically regulating carbohydrate mobilization, starvation-induced sugar shortage also biases action selection toward food-seeking and food con...

In contrast to the long-held assumption that the organization of behavior is best characterized as the perception of a sensory stimulus followed by appropriate response (i.e., “sensorimotor hypothesis”), recent converging evidence from multiple systems and fields of study instead suggests that both ancestral and extant general brain functions are b...

We propose to change the default P-value threshold for statistical significance for claims of new discoveries from 0.05 to 0.005.

"We propose to change the default P-value threshold forstatistical significance for claims of new discoveries from 0.05 to 0.005."

The main function of brains is to generate adaptive behavior. Far from being the stereotypical, robot-like insect, the fruit fly Drosophila exhibits astounding flexibility and chooses different courses of actions even under identical external circumstances. Due to the power of genetics, we now are beginning to understand the neuronal mechanisms und...

This white paper delves into: • The past and present state of journal publishing • Current alternatives to the corporate publisher model • Steps to realize sustainable, open access-friendly journal models of the future This paper argues democratization of journal publishing is the key to lowering journal production costs and facilitating OA. Member...

Like a moth into the flame—phototaxis is an iconic example for innate preferences. Such preferences probably reflect evolutionary adaptations to predictable situations and have traditionally been conceptualized as hard-wired stimulus–response links. Perhaps for that reason, the century-old discovery of flexibility in Drosophila phototaxis has recei...

Like a moth into the flame - Phototaxis is an iconic example for innate preferences. Such preferences likely reflect evolutionary adaptations to predictable situations and have traditionally been conceptualized as hard-wired stimulus-response links. Perhaps therefore, the century-old discovery of flexibility in Drosophila phototaxis has received li...

The main function of brains is to generate adaptive behavior. Far from being the stereotypical, robot-like insect, the fruit fly Drosophila exhibits astounding flexibility and chooses different courses of actions even under identical external circumstances. Due to the power of genetics, we now are beginning to understand the neuronal mechanisms und...

The main function of brains is to generate adaptive behavior. Far from being the stereotypical, robot-like insect, the fruit fly Drosophila exhibits astounding flexibility and chooses different courses of actions even under identical external circumstances. Due to the power of genetics, we now are beginning to understand the neuronal mechanisms und...

In contrast to the long-held assumption that the organization of behavior is best characterized as the perception of a sensory stimulus followed by appropriate response (i.e., “sensorimotor hypothesis”), recent converging evidence from multiple systems and fields of study instead suggests that both ancestral and extant general brain function is bes...

Tethering a fly for stationary flight allows for exquisite control of its sensory input, such as visual or olfactory stimuli or a punishing infrared laser beam. A torque meter measures the turning attempts of the tethered fly around its vertical body axis. By punishing, say, left turning attempts (in a homogeneous environment), one can train a fly...

Tethering a fly for stationary flight allows for exquisite control of its sensory input, such as visual or olfactory stimuli or a punishing infrared laser beam. A torque meter measures the the turning attempts of the tethered fly around its vertical body axis. By punishing, say, left turning attempts (in a homogeneous environment), one can train a...

Tethering a fly for stationary flight allows for exquisite control of its sensory input, such as visual or olfactory stimuli or a punishing infrared laser beam. A torque meter measures the the turning attempts of the tethered fly around its vertical body axis. By punishing, say, left turning attempts (in a homogeneous environment), one can train a...

Discovery is an essential task for every researcher, especially in dynamic research fields such as biomedicine. For example, researchers often need to get an overview of a research field (e.g. at the beginning of their PhD, or later on when venturing in a neighbouring field) or a certain topic (e.g. when writing the state-of-the-art for a project p...

To understand how transposon landscapes (TLs) vary across animal genomes, we describe a new method called the Transposon Insertion and Depletion AnaLyzer (TIDAL) and a database of >300 TLs in Drosophila melanogaster (TIDAL-Fly). Our analysis reveals pervasive TL diversity across cell lines and fly strains, even for identically named sub-strains fro...

We use this protocol to test if flies have preferance for darkness or light (phototactic or non-phototactic response).

This is the protocol we are using to assess the Light/Dark preference in flies.

Heutzutage machen solche Forscherinnen und Forscher Karriere, die besonders viele Steuermittel für ihre Forschung ausgeben und die Ergebnisse dieser Forschung besonders gut an Ex-Wissenschaftler vermarkten, ungeachtet der Verlässlichkeit ihrer Ergebnisse. Diese historisch gewachsene Infrastruktur schadet der Wissenschaft in mehrfacher Hinsicht. Zum...

Scientific software has become an indispensable commodity for the production, processing and analysis of empirical data but also for modelling and simulation of complex processes. Software has a significant influence on the quality of research results. For strengthening the recognition of the academic performance of scientific software development,...

We collected five sub-strains of the standard laboratory wild-type Drosophila melanogaster Canton Special (CS) and analyzed their walking behavior in Buridan's paradigm using the CeTrAn software. According to twelve different aspects of their behavior, the sub-strains fit into three groups. The group separation appeared not to be correlated with th...

p> >> See video of presentation ( 65 min.) Even (or maybe especially?) if you are not a professor at a university, you are familiar with web-technology of the last decade. You have seen "customers who have bought this item also bought this item" - it is ubiquitous. Ten years ago, Facebook was founded and four years later they bought the 'like' tec...

We collected five sub-strains of the standard laboratory wild-type Drosophila melanogaster Canton Special (CS) and analyzed their walking behavior in Buridan's paradigm using the CeTrAn software. According to twelve different aspects of their behavior, the sub-strains fit into three groups. The group separation appeared not to be correlated with th...

Intact function of the Forkhead Box P2 (FOXP2) gene is necessary for normal development of speech and language. This important role has recently been extended, first to other forms of vocal learning in animals and then also to other forms of motor learning. The homology in structure and in function among the FoxP gene members raises the possibility...

Most researchers acknowledge an intrinsic hierarchy in the scholarly journals (“journal rank”) that they submit their work to, and adjust not only their submission but also their reading strategies accordingly. On the other hand, much has been written about the negative effects of institutionalizing journal rank as an impact measure. So far, contri...

Altruistic cooperation among individuals is a key problem in evolutionary theory, because, intuitively, the competitive nature of evolution would prevent altruism from evolving. Three main mechanisms underlying the evolution of altruistic cooperation have been developed: group selection, kin selection, and reciprocity. Hamilton's rule is the mathem...

Insects have been among the most widely used model systems for studying the control of locomotion by nervous systems. In Drosophila, we implemented a simple test for locomotion: in Buridan's paradigm, flies walk back and forth between two inaccessible visual targets [1]. Until today, the lack of easily accessible tools for tracking the fly position...

Movie of the 3D representation shown in Fig. 9B , see Fig. 9 legend for more information. (AVI)

Distribution of speed values frequency in the computer-generated data, when no threshold for movement (Tm) is applied. Red bars represent the threshold for movement (8 mm/s = 0.8 mm in 0.1 s) and for jumps (50 mm/s) that delimit the grayed areas of discarded movements. (EPS)

Histogram of speed frequency (on a logarithmic scale, speed is calculated on a sliding window of 1 s) for all 60 flies tested. Bars denote the lower and upper thresholds (1 and 2.7 mm/s, in red and green, respectively). (EPS)

Activity in fly endogenous locomotion (gray bars), in Buridan's paradigm with narrow stripes (white bars) or wide stripes (striped pattern). A. The number of pauses is significantly different between the wide stripes situation and the two other situations. B–D. No significant differences in the total activity time (B), the median activity bout dura...

Hens can be immunized by means of i.m. vaccination (Musculus pectoralis, left and right, injection volume 0.5-1.0 ml) or by means of Gene-Gun plasmid-immunization. Dependent on the immunogenicity of the antigen, high antibody-titres (up to 1:100,000 - 1:1,000,000) can be achieved after only one or 3 - 4 boost immunizations. Normally, a hen lays egg...

Already in the 1930s Skinner, Konorski and colleagues debated the commonalities, differences and interactions among the processes underlying what was then known as "conditioned reflexes type I and II", but which is today more well-known as classical (Pavlovian) and operant (instrumental) conditioning. Subsequent decades of research have confirmed t...

Until the advent of modern neuroscience, free will used to be a theological and a metaphysical concept, debated with little reference to brain function. Today, with ever increasing understanding of neurons, circuits and cognition, this concept has become outdated and any metaphysical account of free will is rightfully rejected. The consequence is n...

Background / Purpose: In humans, mutations of the transcription factor Forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2) cause a severe speech and language disorder. Down regulating the Zebrafinch FOXP2 orthologue in development, results in incomplete and inaccurate song imitation. Because both language and song learning can be seen as instances of operant trial-a...