The 4th Ultrasonic Vocalizations Conference Speakers Team
Jeffrey Burgdorf
Jeffrey Burgdorf, Ph.D. is a neuropsychopharmacologist and is presently both a Research Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University and the Director of Discovery Science at Aptinyx Inc in Evanston, Illinois. Using rat ultrasonic calls as a model of positive and negative affect, he has contributed to the development of novel therapeutics for psychiatric disorders. Recently, using a neuroethological approach to the study of ultrasonic vocalizations, he has proposed a new model of emotion processing in the brain and is currently developing a novel translational EEG-based measure of emotion based on his findings.
Nicola Simola
Nicola Simola (NS) works in the fields of behavioral pharmacology and behavioral neuroscience. NS holds a MS in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (2003) and a PhD in Pharmacology of Addiction (2007), both from the University of Cagliari. Moreover, NS was Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Texas at Austin (2007-2009) and Visiting Scientist at the University of Chile (2011, 2013, 2019) and at William Paterson University of New Jersey (2019). NS is currently Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Cagliari. NS’s current research activity focuses on the use of experimental rodent models of behavioral pharmacology and immunohistochemistry techniques in the study of neurodegenerative diseases, neuropsychiatric diseases, drug dependence, and neurotoxic/neuroinflammatory effects of synthetic psychostimulants. Since 2010, NS leads a laboratory of bioacoustics at the University of Cagliari which has contributed major findings to the pharmacological characterization of rat vocal communication as a tool to investigate the presence of altered emotionality in experimental models of brain disease. NS is author of more than 90 publications in international journals with impact factor and international scientific books.
Markus Wöhr
Markus Wöhr, Dr. rer. nat. (Ph.D.), is Professor for Biological Psychology and Behavioral Pharmacology at KU Leuven, Belgium. He is a member of the Leuven Brain Institute and the head of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Research Group at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. At present, he is also holding a Young Investigator Group Leader position at the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany.
He has a broad background in animal behavior and pharmacological research in translational models for human mental disorders, with specific training and expertise in behavioral neuroscience of affective and neurodevelopmental disorders. His main research interests are social and affective neuroscience. Together with his teams, he combines genetic, pharmacological, and behavioral approaches and studies neurobiological mechanisms underlying social behavior, acoustic communication through ultrasonic vocalizations, and socio-affective information processing in mice and rats. His long-term goal is to decipher socio-affective communication through ultrasonic vocalizations in rodents with the aim to improve translational research models for affective and neurodevelopmental disorders, most notably autism.
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Stefan Brudzynski
Stefan M. Brudzynski, Ph.D. (Univ. of Łódź), D.Sc. (PAN, Warsaw), is a neurophysiologist and neuroscientist, presently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Professor Brudzynski, a former Director of the Centre of Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology and Biology at Brock University, is the recipient of the prestigious Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society for his contribution to the field of Behavioral Neuroscience.
Professor Brudzynski is editor of two handbooks on mammalian vocalization and ultrasonic vocalization published by Academic Press/ Elsevier and recipient of the Elsevier Award for exceptional contribution to the quality of Behavioural Brain Research. Professor Brudzynski’s main research interests are in the neural regulation of animal behavior, and particularly, central control of ultrasonic vocalization and communication in rodents. His current research is focused on vocal expression of emotional states and brain systems for emotional arousal.
Paul Clarke
Paul Clarke is a British-Canadian behavioural neuroscientist based in Montreal. After degrees and postdoctoral training (Cambridge, KCL Institute of Psychiatry, NIMH-NIH and UBC Vancouver), he joined McGill University’s Dept of Pharmacology and Therapeutics; he is also a member of Concordia University’s Center for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology, also in Montreal. His research interests include brain mechanisms underlying the reinforcing effects of drugs (nicotine, psychostimulants and opioids), the application of biosensors to monitor intracellular signalling in the brain of freely-moving rodents — the behavioural significance of rat ultrasonic vocalizations. Currently, his group is trying to better understand whether distinct types of 50-kHz calls are associated with positive or negative emotional states that are induced either by drugs (or drug withdrawal) or through social interactions.
Wiktoria Mrozek
Dr. Wiktoria Mrozek is a researcher and biological data analyst at the Laboratory of Spatial Memory at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. She has an interdisciplinary background: a BS in Bioinformatics from Jagiellonian University, an MS in Biophysics from the University of Warsaw, and a PhD in Neurobiology from the Nencki Institute. In her doctoral work on the neurobiology of emotion and addiction, she utilized appetitive ultrasonic vocalizations as a key measure to investigate the affective states associated with craving and reward. Her findings have demonstrated a direct link between specific neurochemical pathways in the brain and the emission of USVs.
Bernhard Englitz
Bernhard Englitz studied cognitive science and mathematics in Germany and received his Ph.D. from the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig. After research stays in the US and France, he started his own line of research and lab (Computational Neuroscience Lab) at the Donders Institute @ Radboud University in Nijmegen/Netherlands. His lab works at the intersection of behavior and neural representation, using advanced computational tools in the analysis. A recent focus has been on advancing the methods for localizing and classifying ultrasonic vocalizations to better understand communication under natural conditions.
Robert Kuba Filipkowski
Robert Kuba Filipkowski, Ph.D., is a behavioral neuroscientist with background in molecular and cellular biology, including studies on transgenic animals and gene expression in the brain. Presently, he heads the Behavior and Metabolism Research Laboratory at Mossakowski Medical Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. His research interests include the functional significance and nuclear dynamics of adult hippocampal neurogenesis as well as the communication between rats with ultrasonic vocalizations. His current research is focused on playback studies, i.e. studying rat behavioral and physiological responses to recorded ultrasonic vocalizations.
Nicolas Mathevon
Nicolas Mathevon, is Distinguished Professor of Neurosciences & Bioacoustics at the University of Saint-Etienne, Associate Director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes – University Paris Sciences Lettres, Senior Member of the Institut universitaire de France, Member of Academia Europaea, a former visiting Miller Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a former visiting professor at Hunter College, City University of New York. He is also a National Geographic Explorer and has been President of the International Bioacoustics Society. Author of over 130 scientific publications in international journals (Nature, Nature Communications, PNAS, Current Biology…), Professor Mathevon has been conducting scientific research on animal acoustic communication for over thirty years. Mathevon’s book “The Voices of Nature. How and Why Animals Communicate” (Princeton University Press, 2023; paperback, 2025) won the prestigious top prize RR Hawkins Award together with the PROSE Award for Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences from the Association of American Publishers. It was also awarded Library Journal’s Best Science & Technology Book of the Year.
Kevin Coffey
Kevin Coffey is a Research Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and a MIRECC Investigator at the VA Puget Sound. His lab aims to identify the neural mechanisms underlying substance use disorders and maladaptive decision making. Dr. Coffey’s current focus is on studying the neurobiological consequences and predictors of chronic fentanyl use. To accomplish this, his lab utilizes cutting-edge in-vivo optical neuroscience tools (photometry, optogenetics, MiniScopes, etc.) along with a newly developed oral fentanyl self-administration model for rats and mice. He is also the lead developer for DeepSqueak, a popular software package for bioacoustics analysis that integrates AI algorithms with an intuitive graphical interface to accelerate animal communication research.
Leo Perrier
Léo Perrier is a bioacoustician who investigates the evolution and function of vocal communication in animals. He completed his Ph.D. at the ENES Laboratory, University of Saint-Étienne, where he studied how ultrasonic vocalizations regulate social interactions in the African striped mouse — a cooperatively breeding species living in the deserts of South Africa. His work combined field recordings and laboratory experiments to examine the structure of ultrasonic vocalizations, their social functions, and the flexibility of this form of communication. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Neuchâtel in the Comparative Cognition Laboratory, where he has broadened his focus to a wide range of mammalian species. By analyzing subtle differences in their vocalizations, he seeks to better understand the evolution of animal vocal signals.
Shimpei Ishiyama
Shimpei Ishiyama, Ph.D., is Group Leader of the Research Group for Neurobiology of Positive Emotions at the Department of Neuropeptide Research in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany. His research focuses on systems neuroscience, with previous work addressing the neural correlates of ticklishness in the rat somatosensory cortex. His research has since expanded to investigate playful emotions in rodents, employing in vivo freely moving electrophysiology, behavioral analysis, and neuroanatomy. He is also interested in comparative studies across species, including humans, mice, rats, and hamsters. His work aims to elucidate the neuronal mechanisms underlying naturalistic play behaviors.
Agnieszka Potasiewicz
Dr Agnieszka Potasiewicz obtained her Ph.D. in 2018. The title of her Ph.D. studies was „The effects of ligands of the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on impaired cognitive processes in animal models of schizophrenia”. Currently, she is the post-doc in the Department of Behavioural Neuroscience and Drug Development, Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Cracow, Poland. Agnieszka’s scientific interest is focused on the research of novel pharmacotherapies of the negative symptoms and cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.
Nicholas Jourjine
Nicholas Jourjine, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, where he combines fieldwork and lab experimentation to study the ecology and evolution of vocal communication in wild mice. In the field, he uses passive acoustic monitoring and automated behavior tracking to understand how vocal behaviors influence reproduction and survival in natural populations of house mice (genus Mus). In the lab, he uses tools from quantitative genetics and behavioral neuroscience to identify mechanisms underlying the diversification of vocal behaviors among species of North American deer mice (genus Peromyscus). This work aims to elucidate mechanistic underpinnings of vocal communication and understand how they function in nature.
Kouta Kanno
Dr. Kouta Kanno is an Associate Professor in the Course of Psychology, Faculty of Law, Economics and Humanities, and the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kagoshima University, Japan. He studied behavioral neuroendocrinology during his undergraduate years at Waseda University, obtained his Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo, and began his research on ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) as a postdoctoral fellow at Azabu University. He has since continued to explore mouse USVs throughout his career, focusing on emotional expression and individual differences. His research aims to understand how emotional and motivational states are expressed through ultrasonic vocal signals.
Dr. Kanno participated in the development of USVSEG, an automated segmentation tool for ultrasonic vocalizations, together with Dr. Ryosuke O. Tachibana (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, AIST), and USVCAM, a multi-microphone array system for sound localization in social interactions, together with Dr. Jumpei Matsumoto (University of Toyama). He also maintains a data-sharing platform in Japan for rodent USV datasets.
Lucio Arese
Lucio Arese is an architect, composer, guitarist, pianist, visual artist and filmmaker working in various fields of visual arts and film since 2008. His collaborations include artists, labels, and brands such as Suguru Goto, Jimmy Edgar, Bianco, Ametsub, Yu Miyashita, Mille Plateaux, Armando Testa, MPTBOX, Lovestone Films, Pronovias, Trinnov, Onitsuka Tiger, Asics, McKinsey, Karhu, Jacuzzi, De’Longhi. His work has been presented at onedotzero Adventures in Motion, Ars Electronica, Cyclope, ArtFutura, SIGGRAPH, Interfilm Berlin, SICAF, FICUVAQ, The Lovie Awards, MTV, Bayerischer Rundfunk, IAMAG, Fubiz, Vimeo Staff Picks, IdN Magazine, Stash, The Webby Awards, the 23rd Saatchi New Directors Showcase, and many others. The experimental short film Les Dieux Changeants (2021) was an international success on the film festival circuit, with more than 100 selections and 40 awards worldwide including two Lovie Awards and a nomination for the 2022 Webby Awards. He has given workshops and lectures on his work at the Chiyoda Arts Center 3331 in Tokyo, the High School of Arts in Cuneo, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna.
Alexis Faure
Dr Alexis Faure: At the beginning of his academic career, he wrote his thesis under the supervision of Nicole El Massioui on the role of striatal dopamine in habit learning, then moved to the United States to work under the supervision of Kent C Berridge, where he became interested in the role of dopamine in the context of ‘liking’ vs. ‘wanting’ theory. He then returned to France to work on memory, emotions and motivation using animal models of Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease with Benoît Delatour, Nicole El Massioui and Valérie Doyère. He finally obtained a position as assistant professor to join Dr Sylvie Granon’s team at the NeuroPSI Institute at Paris-Saclay University. He is currently continuing his work on prefrontal neuromodulations supporting social cognition in collaboration with Dr Granon.
Elodie EY
As a starting point, she studied agronomy, with a focus on animal behaviour in Paris. She then did a Master and conducted a PhD thesis in bioacoustics of primates in the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany, with data collection in a National Park in Nigeria. In 2008, she obtained a postdoc position that transferred to a permanent researcher position at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, focusing on social communication in mouse models of autism. Since 2020, she is concentrating on social communication in mice and rats in normal and pathological conditions at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Strasbourg, France. Her research projects aim at better understanding how mice and rats regulate their social interactions within a group. This better understanding of rodent models should help to better interpret impairments in rodent models of autism, increase the robustness of findings and improve animal welfare in laboratory environments.
Miron Kursa
Miron Kursa holds M.Sc. in Physics and Ph.D. in Computer Science, works for Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw, where he teaches data science. He is and expert in intelligent systems, data analysis and computational modelling. His current research considers ensemble learning, automatic knowledge extraction and stochastic modelling of complex phenomena. He had participated in many research projects in a wide range of disciplines, including bioinformatics, neurobiology, remote sensing, audio analysis, agriculture, power engineering and air transport, and developed many novel algorithms and methods.
Experts
Adam Hamed
Adam Hamed, Ph.D. is a neuropsychopharmacologist, pharmacist and neuroscientist, presently researcher in Laboratory of Spatial Memory, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences. His main research is related to individual differences in the activation of the reward system controlled by the emission of ultrasonic vocalization, and biological and neurochemical basis of this phenomena. His research interest is focused on building neurochemical maps (patterns) of activation of the reward system in different behavioral models related to social interactions, drug addiction, and reward prediction. This kind of maps will provide finding new potential mechanisms of drug action in many neuropsychiatric disorders related to reward processing. He will be joining us as an expert during discussion panel.
Jumpei Matsumoto
Jumpei Matsumoto, Ph.D. is a neurophysiologist and neuroscientist. He is an assistant professor in the Department of System Emotional Science in University of Toyama, Japan. He has been studied neural mechanisms of emotion and social behavior using behaving animals. To facilitate such studies, he has developed new tools for measuring and analyzing animals’ natural behavior, such as 3D markerless motion capture systems for interacting animals (Matsumoto et al., 2013). Recently he developed USVCAM (Matsumoto et al., 2022), an acoustic camera system for ultrasound communications in rodents, with Dr. Kouta Kanno (Kagoshima University, Japan). He will be joining us as an expert during discussion panel.
Fabrice de Chaumont
Fabrice de Chaumont, Ph.D. in robotics, is a research engineer in the Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions lab headed by Thomas Bourgeron at Institut Pasteur France. He is originally working in image analysis, machine learning, and developed the Live Mouse Tracker system http://livemousetracker.org with Elodie Ey (IGBMC Strasbourg). He is now involved in the study of ultrasonic vocalizations, he created yet another method to extract USV automatically http://usv.pasteur.cloud and extended Live Mouse Tracker so that ultrasonic vocalizations are now synchronized with behavior analysis. He is always trying to make his systems as friendly as possible and tries to ease the use of big behavior data for everyone.
Paweł Boguszewski
Dr. Boguszewski is a neuroscientist and behaviorist, head of Laboratory of Behavioral Methods, core-facility at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warsaw, Poland. He has been specializing in the design and analysis of animal behavioral tests for basic and applied biomedical research. He is the author of several computer programs for analyzing data from behavioral studies. Dr. Boguszewski is a graduate of the Faculty of Biology at Warsaw University. He received his Ph.D. degree at the Nencki Institute and completed his scientific internship at Yale University in the USA.
Maria Willadsen
Dr. Maria Willadsen is an affective neuroscientist and Emerging PI in the Collaborative Research Center 289 – Treatment Expectation at Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Her research lies at the intersection of affective neuroscience and translational psychopharmacology, investigating how pharmacological treatment and treatment expectations shape emotional processing and trajectories of affective disorders. Using USVs as a high-resolution translational measure of emotional valence in rats, she studies placebo effects and emotional modulation following juvenile social isolation and antidepressant intervention. In her doctoral work, she identified distinct USV signatures differentiating anxiety from fear, refining the behavioral characterization of negative affective states. By combining detailed spectrographic USV analysis with behavioral and pharmacological approaches, her long-term goal is to improve the mechanistic understanding of emotion–treatment interactions and strengthen the translational value of preclinical models of affective disorders.
Theresa Kisko
Dr. Theresa Kisko is a behavioural neuroscientist whose research focuses on the neural and genetic mechanisms underlying social communication, with a particular emphasis on ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) as a window into emotional and social processes. She completed her master’s degree in Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, where she first explored the role of USVs in regulating social play behaviour. Dr. Kisko earned her PhD from Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, investigating how mutations in CACNA1C—a gene associated with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia—disrupt social communication and affective signaling. Currently a senior postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven, she examines how prenatal immune activation and genetic risk converge to shape social behaviour and communication across development. Her research integrates behavioural analysis, genetic models, and molecular approaches to uncover the biological basis of social and emotional communication, aiming to translate findings from rodents to human social function. Dr. Kisko is passionate about advancing our understanding of USVs as a model for socio-affective neuroscience and for identifying mechanisms of resilience in neurodevelopmental disorders.
