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04.07.2025

Tebrik ederim Gökçe!!!

Congratulations to Gökçe Dogu for finishing her Master thesis and graduating the GSN M.Sc.!
For her thesis "Social Interactions of Mongolian Gerbils in a Perceptual Decision-Making Task", she established a social version of our SIT paradigm, in which one animal (“Expert”) knows the task and another (“Rookie”) does not. In doing so, Gökçe reversed the common question of whether social presence enhances task performance, instead asking how task-based asymmetries in experience affect social interactions and hierarchies. To this end, she developed or helped developing a sophisticated data acquisition and analysis pipeline including video tracking via SLEAP and DeepLabCut, supervised behavior classification via simBA, and ultrasonic vocalization analysis using USVSEG and USVCAM. Her most striking observation was the emergence of a coordinated behavior termed “Joint Foraging” casued by the knowledge asymmetry, in which the naïve gerbil (Rookie) almost invariably approached and synchronized movements with the experienced animal (Expert) during reward-seeking intervals, accompanied by a marked rise in vocalizations predominantly from the Rookie. Thus, her thesis provides robust evidence for the nuanced and flexible nature of gerbil social cognition, demonstrating how task-related knowledge and environmental contingencies shape social interactions and hierarchies.

Gökçe will contiue investigating natural, unrestricted social behavior in rodents, as she will move on to do a PhD with the lab of Prof. Tobias Bonhoeffer at the MPI for Biological Intelligence. We are convinced that she will succeed brilliantly! Nonetheless, we are heartbroken to have to let her go after such a long time in our lab.. at least there is hope for many shared coffee breaks ;)
All the best and a BIG thank you!!!

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