Future events:
- Seminar series: 23 January, 3 April and 12 June 2013
- 2nd European workshop on 'Physiological mechanisms of song learning', 4-5 February 2013
Please see further details on the events below.
Seminar series
All academic staff at the Faculty of Science are invited to a seminar series in the spring of 2013.
The seminars will be held on the following dates:
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23 January 2013 at 2 o'clock p.m.
3 April 2013 at 2 o'clock p.m.
12 June 2013 at 2 o'clock p.m.
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Schedule for 23 January
At the event there will be relevant entertainment and networking.
Talk given by:
Assistant professor Coen Elemans, Institute of Biology
Title:
Singing in the fast lane: The neuromechanics of sound production in vocal vertebrates
Abstract:
Sound is the fastest, most accurate, and information-rich modality for communication in all vertebrates, with human language at the pinnacle of complexity. Just like human infants, songbirds learn their song through imitation learning, mimicking their parents. Songbirds have therefore become an important model system to understand the neural processes and pathologies underlying human speech production and language acquisition.
My research aims at unraveling the question “How are neural signals translated into sound?”. This field operates at the border of neuroscience and biomechanics. As such, neuromechanics integrates both experimental and computational approaches from physics, molecular biology, physiology and neuroscience.
We find that sound production systems are pushed to the extremes: tissues violently collide at 100,000 times/sec and extreme performing superfast muscles contract up to 250 times/sec. While focused on songbirds, I use a comparative approach to find unifying principles of motor control and discover new model systems across the vocal vertebrates, from birds to fish, from mice to whales.
Contacts:
Associate professor Martin Hanczyc
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy
martin@sdu.dk
Allan Haurballe Madsen
Secretariat at the Faculty of Science
alhm@sdu.dk
2nd European workshop: “Physiological mechanisms of song learning”
4-5 February 2013 at University of Southern Denmark
Room O77, Campusvej 55, Odense, Denmark
Description
Birdsong has inspired lovers, musicians, poets, naturalists, and scientists throughout human history. This fascination is fueled both by our appreciation of the natural beauty of these acoustic compositions and the intrinsic similarity with our own faculty of speech.
Like human infants, songbirds learn their elaborate vocalizations through imitation learning. This learning process displays many parallels to human speech acquisition and takes place in a neural network dedicated to song learning and production. Over the past decades, songbirds have emerged as a productive model to understand the neural mechanisms that underlie imitative vocal learning. More recently, songbirds have also developed into an important model system to answer some of the most fundamental questions in behavioral neuroscience.
This workshop brings together the European birdsong community presenting new advances in research areas aiming at uncovering the physiological and neural mechanisms involved in vocal learning in songbirds, from cellular physiology and genetics to behavior.
Speakers
Johan Bolhuis - Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Boris Chagnaud - Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, Germany
David Clayton - University of London, Great Britain
Coen Elemans - University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Manfred Gahr - Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany
Nicole Geberzahn - CNRS Paris, France
Richard Hahnloser - ETH / University of Zurich, Switzerland
Arthur Leblois - Université Paris Descartes, France
Katharina Riebel - Leiden University, the Netherlands
Constance Scharff - Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Organisor
Coen Elemans, Syddansk Universitet
Registration and additional information
http://www.celemans.com/2013workshop.html
Contact
coen@biology.sdu.dk