Talk Co-hosted by COGS & ECOM: Dr. Cat Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews

Date/Time: Friday, 11/14/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 205

Bio: Cat is a field primatologist who has spent the past 20 years studying wild primates across Africa. She is a Professor in Origins of Mind at the University of St Andrews where she leads the Wild Minds Lab. The main focus of her research is the communication and cognition of wild apes. Through long-term field studies she explores what the behaviour of modern apes living in their natural environment tells us about their minds, as well as about the evolutionary origins of our own behaviour. She is the director of three long-term chimpanzee field-sites in Uganda and Guinea.

Talk Title: Storytelling apes: ape gesture and the evolution of human language

Abstract: Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Three years ago, I was on a remote expedition with a small group of people with whom I had essentially no language in common. Over the weeks we found built huts, mapped the area, cooked, ate, and laughed together. We started to swap a few phrases, but most of our daily life was managed without language. A long list of human behaviours has been proposed as the reason we have language. But decades of research with other apes have shown us that 1) they have rich systems of flexible, intentional, meaningful, communication, and also that 2) apes and other species do not need language to learn from each other, to organize where and when to forage, to learn cultural knowledge about tools and songs, to co-ordinate hunting, or navigate social politics. It starts to look like human language didn’t evolve for anything useful. But could we simply have been looking in the wrong place? Ten years ago, anthropologist Polly Wiessner made the provocative suggestion that fire was the fundamental driver of human social behaviour. While the day-to-day conversations of the forager peoples she worked with were about mundane practicalities and gossip, fireside conversations are different: they are used for telling stories. I will review what we have learned about other apes’ rich systems of communication so far, and ask—at the end of the day—are we the storytelling ape?

Meetings: Dr. Hobaiter will be available for meetings at UConn from 11/12 – 11/14. If you are interested in meeting with her on any of these days or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Attached is the talk flyer for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions.

Dear Members of the UConn Neuro Community,

On behalf of the Neuroscience Steering Committee, you are cordially invited to the 28th ANNUAL NEUROSCIENCE AT STORRS SYMPOSIUM on Thursday, November 6th, 2025, from 3:30pm – 8:30pm in The Dodd Center / Bousfield Building on the Storrs campus.

This annual event is sponsored by IBACS and brings together the brain science community at UConn/UConn HEALTH from across diverse departments, schools, and colleges. The event is supported by the BME department (this year’s host), and the departments of PNB, Psychological Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The 28th Annual NEUROSCIENCE AT STORRS is packed with an inspiring keynote lecture, exciting short-format research talks, and poster presentations. All events are open to interested undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty from across UConn departments and schools.

This year’s Keynote Speaker is Dr. Nima Mesgarani, PhD, Associate Professor at the Zuckerman Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Mesgarani is an internationally recognized scholar and leader in neural engineering and auditory neuroscience. He is a pioneer in the study of neural circuits underlying speech processing and made several key contributions to the development of AI models for automatic speech processing and brain computer interfaces for speech recognition. For information, please visit: https://naplab.ee.columbia.edu/

This is a GENERAL CALL for:

•                     POSTERS: Poster presentations from trainees (graduate students and postdocs) from UConn, UConn HEALTH or other local institutions (DEADLINE for submission: Tuesday, Nov. 4th)

•                     DATA BLITZ TALKS: Each talk is 3 mins and 3-4 PPT slides, 2 mins for questions, and limited to trainees (graduate students or postdocs) from UConn or UConn HEALTH (DEADLINE for submission: Monday, Nov. 3rd)

•                     REGISTRATION: Everyone is welcome, please register as soon as possible!

Please submit your applications for giving a poster presentation or Data blitz talk, as well as registration, at the bottom of the website: https://neuroscience.uconn.edu/28th-annual-neuroscience-at-storrs-2/

Neuroscience at Storrs has always been a fun and interactive showcase for our vibrant brain science community here at UConn, please spread the word and participate!

For general questions, please contact Sabato Santaniello (sabato.santaniello@uconn.edu) in the Biomedical Engineering Department.

Thanks!

The Neuroscience Steering Committee:

Alexander Jackson (PNB)

John Salamone and Heather Read (Psych)

Gregory Sartor (Pharm)

Sabato Santaniello (BME)