News Detail

We invited you to our next Jour fixe on 4 July 2023.

In the first part (15:15 - ca. 15:35), the Assembly of Members (2-year Fellows, 5 year Fellows, Senior Fellows and "fellows") elected three new members to the Executive Committee  - replacing Violeta Ivanova-Rohling (Postdoctoral Fellow / Dept. of Physics), from July 2023, and replacing Gruia Badescu (Research Fellow / Dept. of History and Sociology) and Noelia Martinez Doallo (Postdoctoral Fellow / Dept. of Law) from October 2023. A re-election/2nd term of office of Noelia was possible. Gruia and Violeta already served two terms in the EC.

The election was held in person and digitally.

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After the election (at about 15:35/15.40) - when all Associated Fellows, Visiting Fellows, Senior Fellows, ZUKOnnect and Herz Fellows etc.....could join the Jour fixe, Daniela Rößler (Postdoctoral Fellow / Biology) reported on "REM sleep-like state in spiders – are they dreaming?!?"

Abstract:

Sleep is thought to be a universal behavior across the animal kingdom. However, shockingly little is known about the evolution and function of sleep, and different phases of sleep. We recently discovered a sleep-like state in jumping spiders with astounding parallels to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep in vertebrates. By observing juvenile spiders that are temporarily translucent, we found evidence for a REM sleep-like state: periodic bouts of retinal movements coupled with limb twitching and stereotyped leg curling behaviors during nocturnal resting. That these characteristic REM sleep–like behaviors exist in a highly visual, long-diverged lineage challenges our understanding of this sleep state. At the same time, this finding may hold important questions and answers about the origin, evolution and function of REM sleep.

What happened after publishing this research?

The media happened! Since REM sleep in humans is the phase associated with the most intense and narrative dreaming, the most urgent question that the media asked was whether spiders dream and if so, what they are dreaming about. In order to address this question, we need to consider a potential adaptive function of dreaming that may apply to other, if not all, animals. Daniela talked a little about the limits but also possibilities of future research in this direction as well as shared her experience with the flood of media inquiries and what she has learned from this, quite overwhelming, experience.

Further reading:

Rößler, D. C., Kim, K., & De Agrò, M. (2022). Regularly occurring bouts of retinal movements suggest an REM sleep–like state in jumping spiders. Proceedings of the. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2204754119

Rattenborg, N. C., & Ungurean, G. (2022). The evolution and diversification of sleep. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.004