Tracking singing insects with Sylvain Hugel
04 January 2023
A native cricket of the island of Rodrigues. Photo: S. Hugel
A research scientist at the Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neuroscience (INCI) in Strasbourg, the neurobiologist Sylvain Hugel is also passionate about zoology. In a recent interview for the university's daily Savoir(s) (Knowledge(s)), he explains why he is fascinated with insects and singing crickets.
In his USIAS Fellowship Changes in short-term neuronal plasticity as a process by which populations evolve to become distinct species, awarded in 2021, Sylvain Hugel focuses on the cricket insect to see how their neural networks evolved in a way that means that females only recognise the song of male crickets of “their” group.
