A gentle (but unforgettable) reminder of why I work in Neurobiology
By Margarete Überfuhr
Edited by Kate Sytnik

Like many PhD students, I regularly face moments in my daily routine when I ask myself: “Why the hell am I doing this?”
When I run into problems with my Matlab analysis script, I ask myself: “Why did I study Biology and not something useful like Informatics?”
When I spend days and weeks designing an experiment which fails in the end, I ask myself: “Why am I doing a PhD, while I could also find a more productive job?”

But then there are those moments (or even events) that remind me of why I am doing what I am doing. This year’s gentle reminder was the International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN) in Brisbane, Australia.

Where, when, why?

The ICN2018 was held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre from 15th til 20th July 2018. The local organizing committee around Professor Justin Marshall (Queensland Brain Institute), known for his work on visual systems in fish and mantis shrimps, and the program committee around Professor Harold Zakon (University of Texas), studying function and evolution of voltage-dependent ion channels in electric fish, put together a fabulous meeting.

But what does Neuroethology mean?

The name implies a mixture of neurobiology and ethology – the study of animal behavior in natural conditions.
Therefore, the International Society for Neuroethology (responsible amongst others for organizing the ICN every second year) advocates studying the neural bases of behavior.
In a lab environment, where we work on cells, simplified computer models or artificial testing situations, we tend to forget that

Nothing in Neuroscience Makes Sense Except in the Light of Behavior.

This sentence summarizes very well the guiding principle of the ICN. It also shows the common ground, where researchers from all over the world can meet, even though they work…

– on different organisms (from velvet worms over Australian dunnarts to dogs)
– on different brain regions and (sensory) organs (from magnetoreception over polarization vision to cortex formation)
– under different working conditions (from transportable labs in humid rain forests or dry deserts to deep-sea submarines)

How to not get lost in translation…

During the conference it became obvious that all delegates were well aware of the fact that everyone might have a different starting point depending on their own research interest. That is why, all speakers made an effort to give an elaborate introduction into their topic and all delegates were open to learn about topics far beyond their own research focus.
Nevertheless, in order to go into details about the different research topics, satellite meetings with more specified content were hosted 1-2 days before the official beginning of ICN. Thus scientists of the same community were able to meet and exchange their ideas on a more advanced level. The satellite meetings covered topics like zebra fish, electric fish or echolocation and were organized by oft-cited award winning scientists. For instance the biosonar meeting, bringing together researchers working on echolocating animals, was organized by Professor James A. Simmons (Brown University), pioneer in the field of bat biosonar, and Professor Cynthia Moss (Johns Hopkins University), who is interested in neural representation of dynamic sensory information from the natural environment.

…and expand your arsenal of scientific cocktail party trivia

The plenary lectures started off with a very fascinating lecture from Professor Lauren O’Connell talking about parental behavior from poisonous frogs and associated brain activity and genes. This rather exotic research topic turned out to be just one of many I was drawn into at ICN 2018.
To give you a taste of those topics:
I learned about the neural bases of…
– Sleep in bees (Klein, B., University of Wisconsin) and sharks (Kelly, M., Macquarie University)
– Cooperative behavior in songbirds recorded in the wild (Hoffmann, S., MPI for Ornithology, Seewiesen)
– Celestial orientation of dung beetles (Dacke, M., Lund University)
– Behavioral choices of leeches (Kristan, B., UC San Diego)
– Color vision in jumping spiders (Outomuro, D., University of Cincinnati) and reef fish (Cheney, K., Queensland Brain Institute)
– Control of 3D papillae in cuttlefish (Wardill, T., University of Cambridge)
… and a lot more!

Boosting PhD Morale

A session that I found particularly interesting was the Young Investigator Award Symposium, in which 4 young scientists presented their work they had done during their PhD. I was inspired by the confidence with which these scientists spoke about their findings. It was interesting to observe how their early research laid led to their current career path.
In general, the atmosphere at ICN 2018 was very friendly and supportive. Delegates exchanged links to databases, explained 3D-tracking methods to each other. Everyone was happy to help out with references or answer questions both during and outside the sessions. I have rarely seen such a harmonic conference with a gender balance among speakers and many well-known researchers, who were very approachable during the meeting.

Making the most of the location

Aside from the fact that some delegates coming from Europe or America were struggling with jet lag and with the (unexpected) cool temperatures at night (July is winter in Australia, after all), Australia with its unique fauna and different ecosystems was the perfect country to host the ICN 2018.
Like most participants, my colleagues and I took the opportunity to explore the country and “study” animal behavior in our vacation directly after the conference. We were lucky enough to be at the right spot at the right time to watch the migrating humpback whales, from a whale watching boat and one of the sandy beaches around Brisbane.
Some of us flew to Townsville to snorkel and dive in the Great Barrier Reef (which is luckily recovering from the worst bleaching in 2016). We got to observe sharks, turtles and dolphins up close.
Yet others chose to spend their time in the National Parks inland, looking for kangaroos, koalas, kookaburras, possums, snakes and other endemic Aussie animals.

Back to work

Observing all these mesmerizing animals engaging in natural behaviors – feeding, courting, fighting, etc. – in their habitat made me acutely aware of how little we know about the underlying neural processes.
Having seen all those enthusiastic researchers at ICN being curious about behavior and its neural basis, made me return to Germany and my PhD life with a smile and newly discovered motivation. I know exactly why I work in Neurobiology. Thanks ICN 2018!

You can attend too!

I can only recommend attending and presenting at an ICN. The next ICN in 2020 will take place very close to us – in Berlin which means travelling costs will be low and travelling times short, so that hopefully many GSN students can attend. However, I don’t regret that I made the trip to ICN 2018 and to Australia this summer ;).