Prof. Dr. Manfred Gahr

Primary research focus: Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience

Second research focus: Cellular & Systems Neuroscience

Keywords: sexual dimorphism hormones song system birds

Research methods: Interdisciplinary approach combing behavioral (bioacoustic) research in the field and in the lab with neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, endocrinology, transcriptomics and genomics

Brief research description: We study the neuroendocrine mechanisms controlling the development of the song controlling circuits of birds, in particular songbirds. We aim on understanding how developmental programs lead to male and female specific differentiation of the neural song control circuit, on understanding how fluctuations of gonadal hormones in adult birds affect the song control circuits, and what are the consequences of the endophenotype of song circuit for the song behaviour. We further aim to understand the genomic underpinning of the development of the male and female song control circuits, in particular the activity of the androgen and estrogen driven gene networks of selected birds species, those in which both male and female sing or those in which only the male sings.

Current or graduated GSN students: Dr. Alena Lemazina, Dr. Shouwen Ma

Selected publications:

Frankl-Vilches C, Kuhl H, Werber M, Klages S, Kerick M, Bakker A, de Oliveira E, Reusch C, Capuano F, Vowinckel J, Leitner S, Ralser M, Timmermann B, Gahr M (2015) Insights from the canary genome as for the evolution of species-specific hormone-sensitivity of singing behaviour. Genome Biol. 16:19. doi: 10.1186/s13059-014-0578

Gill LF, Goymann W, ter Maat A, Gahr M (2015) Patterns of call communication between group-housed zebra finches change during the breeding cycle. eLife 2015 Oct6;4. Doi: 10.7554eLife.07770

Hoffmann S, Trost L, Voigt C, Leitner S, Lemazina A, Sagunsky H, Abels M, Kollmannsperger A, Ter Maat A, Gahr M (2019). Duets in the wild: Inter-individually coordinated motor control enables cooperative behavior. Nature Commun. 2019 Jun 12;10(1):2577. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10593-3.

Ko M-C, Frankl-Vilches C, Bakker A, Gahr M (2021) Female singing birds express sex-specific gene networks in the song control system regardless of sexually dimorphic singing. Front. Neurosci., 31 May 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fnins.2021.680530.

Arnold F, Staniszewski MS, Pelzl L, Ramenda C, Gahr M, Hoffmann S. (2022) Vision and vocal communication guide 3 D bird flock formation during flight. Nat Ecol Evol 2022 Jun 30. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01800-4