Tales of Diverse Hearing and Sound Localization Specialty: From Owls to Humans
- Speaker
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Jose Pena, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Invitation Only
The 2025 lecture series in neuroscience and autism science is “Diverse Brains.” There is a remarkable variety and complexity of brains across the phylogenetic tree, from tardigrades to humans. In this series, scientists will delve into how differences in brain structure and function contribute to the diverse ways species perceive, interact with and experience the world. Discussions will center around observations that highlight the range and breadth of how neural activity of diverse brains enacts the arc from sensation to action.
2025 Lecture Series Themes
Biology: Mechanisms of Evolution
Mathematics and Computer Science: Discovering Mathematics Through Computers
Presidential Lectures are free public colloquia centered on four main themes: Biology, Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and Neuroscience and Autism Science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are intended to foster discourse and drive discovery among the broader NYC-area research community. We invite those interested in the topic to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Processes in our brain govern how we perceive our senses, driving our behavioral interactions and shaping how we make predictions about our surroundings. Across different species, a diversity of brain structures and functions are involved in discerning differences in sensory inputs and influencing behavior. Research shows that our sense of hearing is no exception.
In this lecture, Jose Pena will describe his team’s research into hearing functions across species, including humans and owls. The work indicates that while significant differences exist in neural coding and processing of sound, the basic properties of brain function remain similar from species to species.
About the Speaker
Pena is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He obtained his MD and Ph.D. from the University of the Republic in Uruguay and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, researching how humans and animals sleep and hear. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the International Society for Neuroethology and a board member of the ALBA Network. He received the International Society for Neuroethology’s Mosaic Prize in recognition of his contributions and commitment to inclusion and diversity practices in science.