Shay Stern

Family-based selection: an efficient method for increasing phenotypic variability This article introduces a model comparing various selection regimes for increasing phenotypic variability. Individuals with the same genotype, reared in id

Our new study modeling selection for (behavioral) variability has been covered in a lovely @genetics-gsa.bsky.social podcast featuring first author Shraddha Lall and @ecoevogal.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

congrats kate!

congrats!

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C. elegans enthusiasts - join me and @stern-lab.bsky.social ‪‪for a pre #worm25 meeting online workshop on *Monitoring inter-individual diversity across multiple levels and timescales* - Jun 26, 2025 12:30 PM Eastern Time
us06web.zoom.us/j/8544967372...

please share!

A simple animal’s response to sickness highlights the nervous system’s surprising degrees of flexibility Upon infection, the C. elegans worm reshuffles the roles of brain cells and flips the functions of some of the chemicals it uses to regulate behavior.

picower.mit.edu/news/simple-...

Sources of behavioral variability in C. elegans: Sex differences, individuality, and internal states Animal behavior varies across different timescales. This includes rapid shifts in behavior as animals transition between states and long-term changes …

How do different sources of variation, acting on distinct timescales, integrate to shape behavioral diversity?
It was a pleasure writing this review with Meital Oren-Suissa @meital.bsky.social and Steve Flavell.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Modulation by NPY/NPF-like receptor underlies experience-dependent, sexually dimorphic learning - Nature Communications Experience-dependent decision-making is vital for survival. Here, authors uncover how the neuromodulator npr-5 regulates sex- and state-specific learning in C. elegans, shaping behavioral responses.

After a long wait, our paper is out! We show that differences in learning between the sexes are modulated by the NPY receptor, which gates sensory perception. Great work by PhD student, soon to be Dr, Sonu Kurien

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sensation is dispensable for the maturation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex Vertebrates stabilize gaze using a neural circuit that transforms sensed instability into compensatory counterrotation of the eyes. Sensory feedback tunes this vestibulo-ocular reflex throughout life....

Big paper from @paigel.bsky.social in our lab:

Sensory feedback is always crucial for proper development, right? Wrong!

Crazier still, the motor system is the slowest part of a developing reflex circuit!

Surprises abound in this bluetorial c’mon along….

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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After 4yrs of work, "Mind Matter" exhibit opens this week! I am the curator. It was a collaboration between Peabody Museum @yaleuniversity.bsky.social and @wutsaiyale.bsky.social. The exhibit includes original drawings from Cajal & Golgi never exhibited before peabody.yale.edu/news/mind-ma... 1/