Excited to share this work with an amazing team:
@brunetlab.bsky.social, @deisseroth.bsky.social, @ravi-nath.bsky.social, Scott Linderman, Libby Zhang
Paper in Science:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Youthful antics predict lifespan? Using machine learning & continuous recordings of #killifish behavior from adolescence until death, @brunetlab.bsky.social & @deisseroth.bsky.social find early-life behavior predicted future lifespan! Now published @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪 1/2
Now at Princeton, @clairebedbrook.bsky.social and @ravi-nath.bsky.social led a study during their time as postdocs at Stanford that mapped the full arc of aging in individual vertebrates for the first time, finding that activity levels in young adults may serve as an early predictor of longevity.
These findings suggest an architecture of vertebrate aging where adulthood progresses through a sequence of ordered behavioral stages.
Behavior provides a powerful, non-invasive readout of the aging process.
To study the full arc of aging, we used the African turquoise killifish, a naturally short-lived vertebrate that lives ~4–8 months.
Short lifespan. Big insights.
Aging may feel gradual… but what if it’s not?
In our recent paper, we tracked fish continuously from puberty until death.
This gave us a unique view of how aging unfolds across the adult lifespan.
🧵
But the biggest surprise for me:
Aging did not appear as a simple gradual decline.
Instead, animals transitioned between stable behavioral stages at different points in adulthood.
📷 Andrew Brodhead / Stanford University
One interesting result:
Early-life behavior predicted future lifespan.
Using machine learning, we could identify animals likely to become short-lived vs long-lived long before death.
We built a platform to continuously record behavior across the adult lifespan of individual fish.
This captured behavioral dynamics across timescales ranging from milliseconds of movement to ~250 days of life.
A continuous behavioral record of aging.
Video
On today's podcast, we talk with neuroscientists Claire Bedbrook and Ravi Nath about their new study, which found that an animal's lifespan can be predicted surprisingly early by observing its behavior. @brunetlab.bsky.social @deisseroth.bsky.social
🔗 neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/why-do-...
