Gaëlle Botton-Amiot

My first paper is out 🥳 Can you learn without a brain? Turns out - YES! doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2… @simon_sprecher @martinezserrap1

Now switching to holiday mode🎄🏙️and heading to NYC after #cellbio2023, the head full exciting science 🤯! Many thanks to @Musser_CellEvo and @PhysPlanaria for organising this last session , and @LS2Switzerland and @scnatCH for giving me this fantastic opportunity! pic.twitter.com/BXr3tNS1ZG

So excited to be attending #cellbio2023 !!! Want to discuss how cool are brainless animals? Come check out my poster and see my talk! 📌Poster P1389 - Sunday, Dec3, 12:15-14:45pm 🗣️Talk - Wednesday, Dec 6, 9:25am

Talking to Alexandra about learning in brainless animals for @franceculture was a super fun experience! Thanks again for asking me!

Operant conditioning in box jellyfish - cnidarian behavior is definitely less "simple" than we may think 😄 nature.com/articles/d4158…

Very happy to have finally defended my PhD a few weeks ago at @unifr ! A special thank you to my supervisor @simon_sprecher for his guidance along the way 🪼🔬🧬, and to all my friends and colleagues for this joyful ending 🥳🥳🥳

@simon_sprecher @RobertoFeuda … raising exciting questions about reported experimental evidence of monoamines in basal-branching metazoans!

Very happy 🥳🥳🥳 to be part of this collaborative work with Matt Goulty, Ezio Rosato, @simon_sprecher and @RobertoFeuda We found that most of the genes involved in monoamine production, modulation, and reception originated in bilaterians… nature.com/articles/s4146…

@LaydenLab @DrDylanFaltz Congratulations!

Fist graduate student’s final 1st author paper is out. Nice work @DrDylanFaltz nature.com/articles/s4159…

There are still are 5 days to apply for a PhD in my lab to work on the evolution of the monoaminergic system findaphd.com/phds/project/t… please apply and RT

From the most fabulous @z_okray, Pedro Jacob, @_Nils_Otto_ et al. They fleas dae braw things wi thir wee heids. nature.com/articles/s4158…

@SachkovaMaria @UlrichTechnau Beautiful 🤩

Please take a look at our new paper about the syncytial nerve net of ctenophores 😉

Every time I hear about Mangold & Spemann I am reminded of the forgotten contribution of Ethel Browne 15 years before them. See: DOI: 10.2307/1542490. Original paper: Browne, E. 1909. The production of new hydranths in hydra by the insertion of small grafts. J. Exp. Zoo/. 7: l-37

Our Nematostella picture made the cover of PNAS! credit to @GaelleBotAm pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

In this issue: How red flour beetles recycle water in their rectums, how whale sharks may have adapted to deep-sea diving, and associative learning in starlet sea anemonies. ow.ly/H9KJ50NugJq

Brainless learning: According to a study, sea anemones can learn & remember an association between light and electric shocks. The evolution of associative learning may predate the emergence of centralized nervous systems, according to the authors. In PNAS: ow.ly/nVRe50No7kB

@gershbrain @PhilCorlett1 We were not able to implement the Rescorla “truly random” unpaired control for practical reasons, but we assume that in our case, the possibility for the animals to remember the CS-US order and delay sequence is minimal…

@gershbrain @PhilCorlett1 I had absolutely the same thought after my preliminary experiments! I actually used a succession of 4 different delays and order between CS and US for the unpaired control : +1min, -1min, -30s and +30s (see SI) to limit the potential effect of trace or delay conditioning

@claribrunet Thank you Clarisse! Jayson is proud of his Nematostella cousins 🤣

Bravo Gaelle! cognition without a central brain 😱 Jayson the sea anemone says well done 😉

Thus, already animals that did not yet evolve a brain, but contain a net-like nervous system are able to learn. An exciting project with @GaelleBotAm and @martinezserrap1 @DeepLabCut meets Cnidarians!

Exciting finding: Associative learning in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn… @PNASNews