Welcome to THE Cognitive Neuroethology Lab at Penn
Our Approach
At the CNL we study the Integrative Biology of Adaptive Cognition, how the brain evolved to control complex and flexible behaviors, in rodents, in the wild. My research program aims to bridge the gap between neuroscience, evolution, and ecology.
Whatever behavior we study in the “here/now” is dependent on a series of levels of influence , the environment in which it is being measured, its life experience and the evolutionary history of the species studied.
Our Research
Our research will center on the question “How do flexible behaviors arise?” We will approach this question with two species, deer mice in the lab and Agoutis in the wild and with a myriad of tools.
Our Tools
We will study brain and behavior using the latest technologies in wireless neurophysiology to record natural uncostrained animal behaviors in the lab and in the wild. We will combine our work in neurophysiology with genetics, biologging and field work.
Our PI
Asst. Prof. Juan Ignacio Sanguinetti Scheck (Nacho). Comes from the small piece of farmland that is Uruguay. He is a neuroscientist, trained in Uruguay, Germany and the US. At night he becomes a theater and improv performer, writer, singer, painter.