idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instance:
Share on: 
10/22/2025 16:07

New Emmy Noether Group in Bonn explores Animal Behavior through AI

Katrin Berkler Presse und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Fraunhofer-Institut für Intelligente Analyse- und Informationssysteme IAIS

    Dr. France Rose, a researcher at the interface of biology and computer science, has been successful in the Emmy Noether Program of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Her new research group began work at the University of Bonn in October 2025.

    Dr. Rose’s Emmy Noether Group aims at harnessing Artificial Intelligence to deepen our understanding of how behavior and neural activity interplay in freely moving animals. „This is a great time for this research thanks to advances in recording technologies for animal behavior. Technologies tracking animal movement now provide better spatial and temporal precision in 3D, while brain recordings are increasingly available from freely moving animals. Behavior and language have many similarities: both unfold over time and contain multiple layers of meaning. Novel deep learning techniques excel at uncovering patterns in language – and can do the same for behavior, helping us detect subtle motifs we haven't seen before. Some of these methods even directly learn from the data itself! Bringing this together, we can now study more natural and complex behaviors in controlled settings, further connecting brain activity to behavior,“ shares Dr. Rose.

    Leveraging her expertise in Computational Biology, Dr. Rose develops new tools for behavioral science, working with various species, including flies, mice, and fish. She is creating innovative deep learning techniques that allow automatic analysis of movement patterns and neural processes, eliminating the need for manual annotations. Her work aims to establish a robust framework for understanding the diversity of animal behavior, which could improve the diagnosis and treatment of musculoskeletal and neural disorders in the future.

    Interdisciplinary networking at the Lamarr Institute

    Dr. France Rose's Emmy Noether Group is part of the working group led by Prof. Dr. Jürgen Gall, Principal Investigator at the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. This connection to an established research unit offers ideal conditions for implementing the goals of the Emmy Noether Program: giving outstanding young scientists the opportunity to conduct independent research at an early stage while being embedded in an excellent research environment.

    A great asset for Bonn as a research location

    “We are delighted about the funding for Dr. France Rose and the recognition of her outstanding research,” says Dr. Brendan Balcerak Jackson, Managing Director of the Lamarr Institute at the University of Bonn. “The Emmy Noether Program offers excellent young scientists the opportunity to conduct independent research and take on responsibility at an early stage – a great benefit for Bonn as a research location.” Dr. Rose's work combines basic research in behavioral biology with the latest methods of machine learning, thereby contributing to an understanding of neural processes and decision-making mechanisms with unprecedented precision.


    Contact for scientific information:

    Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

    Katrin Berkler, Head of Press
    c/o Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Informationssystems IAIS
    info@lamarr-institute.org

    Caroline Winter, Press contact
    c/o University of Bonn
    +49 228 73 69342
    caroline.winter@uni-bonn.de
    https://www.lamarr-institute.org


    Images

    Criteria of this press release:
    Journalists, Scientists and scholars
    Biology, Chemistry, Information technology, Medicine
    transregional, national
    Personnel announcements, Research projects
    English


     

    Help

    Search / advanced search of the idw archives
    Combination of search terms

    You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

    Brackets

    You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

    Phrases

    Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

    Selection criteria

    You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

    If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).