We aim to understand how animals detect the Earth’s magnetic field and use it for orientation. In a top-down approach we study the neural circuits involved in the perception of magnetic fields from the processing centers in the brain all the way back to the primary receptor cells. Our model species is the African mole-rat Fukomys anselli, a subterranean mammal and extraordinary magnetic navigator that spends its entire life in total darkness.
We investigate the neuronal navigation circuits with an interdisciplinary neuroethological approach that includes whole brain activity mapping and single-unit recordings in freely moving animals complemented with anatomical and histological techniques. We hope that our work will gain crucial insights into the neuronal machinery that enables animals to detect magnetic fields. An understanding of how mammals detect weak magnetic fields promises advances in the auspicious field of magnetogenetics and provides the missing mechanistical basis to assess and predict effects of man-made electromagnetic fields on vertebrates.
What are we offering?
Mole-rats, tissue clearing, lightsheet microscopy, single-unit electrophysiology
What are we interested in for collaboration?
High-density neural recordings, functional ultrasound imaging, automated anatomical mapping
Discover our homepage here.
To learn more about Dr. Pascal Malkemper, follow him on ORCID, Twitter or Google Scholar.
Methods
- single-unit electrophysiology in freely moving rodents
- behavioral orientation assays
- tissue clearing and lightsheet microscopy
- advanced neurohistology (IHC, EM, synchrotron-XRF)
5 selected publications
- Malkemper EP, Nimpf S, Nordmann GC, Keays DA. (2020) Neuronal circuits and the magnetic sense: central questions. J Exp Biol 223.
- Malkemper EP, Kagerbauer D, Nimpf S, Shaw J, Pichler P, Treiber CD, de Jonge M, Keays DA. (2019) No evidence for magnetite-based magnetoreceptors in the pigeon lagena. Curr Biol 29:R1-R15.
- Nimpf S, Nordmann G, Kagerbauer D, Malkemper EP, Landler L, Papadaki-Anastasopoulou A, Ushakova L, Wenninger-Weinzierl A, Vincent P, Lendl T, Colombini M, Mason MJ, Keays DA. (2019) A putative mechanism for magnetoreception by electromagnetic induction in the pigeon inner ear. Curr Biol 29:1-10.
- Dollas A, Oelschläger HHA, Begall S, Burda H, Malkemper EP. (2019) Brain atlas of the African mole-rat Fukomys anselli. J Comp Neurol 527(11):1885-1900.
- Malkemper EP, Eder SHK, Begall S, Phillips JB, Winklhofer M, Hart V, Burda H. (2015) Magnetoreception in the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus): influence of weak frequency-modulated radio frequency fields. Sci Rep 5:9917.
