Main Focus
During my PhD, I am investigating the vocal abilities of nightingales, birds that engage in complex song duels against conspecifics. Male nightingales sing hundreds of songs in response to conspecifics whereby they engage in song-matching: listening to and repeating the songs sung by their rivals. These birds offer an excellent new model system in neuroethology to study auditory vocal integration, in a neuroethological framework spanning from behavioral field recordings to lab-based dissection of neural circuits involved in complex singing.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
• 2020 – present: GSN-IMPRS PhD student, Neural Circuits for Vocal Communication Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany
• 2016 – 2019: International MSc in Neuroscience, University of Trieste, Italy
• 2013 – 2016: BSc in Biology, University of Padova, Italy
Research Experience
• 2019: Research assistant, Animal Cognition and Neuroscience Lab, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, Italy
• 2018: Erasmus+ Traineeship student, Department of Behavioral Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany