Sam Reiter

Sam Reiter with trees in the background
Sam Reiter
Associate Professor
BS, Neuroscience, Brown University, 2009
PhD, Neuroscience, NIH-Brown University Graduate Partnership Program, 2014

Sam Reiter is currently an Associate Professor and head of the Computational Neuroethology Unit at the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology (OIST). He did PhD work at Brown University and the US National Institutes of Health, and postodoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. His research interests center around understanding general principles of animal behavior and its neural basis, combining experimental and computational approaches. His lab currently focuses on studying coleoid cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish, and squid), animals with a range of fascinating and unique behaviors, large and nearly unexplored brains, and which live in greater variety around Okinawa than anywhere else in the world. Recent and ongoing work concerns visual perception, sleep, motor control, and collective behavior.  

Professional Experience

  • Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.  2005-2010
  • U.S. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD, USA.  2010-2014
  • Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany 2014-2019

Select Publications

  • Pophale A, Shimizu K, Mano T, Iglesias T L., Martin K, Hiroi M, Asada K, Andaluz G P, Dinh T T V, Meshulam L, Reiter S (2023) Wake-like skin patterning and neural activity during octopus sleep, Nature, 619:122-128.
  • Woo T, Liang X, Evans D, Fernandez O, Kretschmer F, Reiter S, Laurent G (2023) The dynamics of pattern matching in camouflaging cuttlefish, Nature, 619:122-128.
  • Norimoto H, Fenk L, Li HH, Tosches M, Gallego-Flores T, Hain D, Reiter S, Kobayashi R, Macias A, Klinkmann M, Laurent G (2020) A claustrum in reptiles and its role in slow-wave sleep, Nature 578(7795):413-418.
  • Reiter S, Huelsdunk P, Woo T, Lauterbach M, Eberle J, Anne Akay L, Longo A, Meier-Credo, J, Kretschmer F, Langer J, Kaschube M, Laurent G (2018) Elucidating the control and development of skin patterning in cuttlefish, Nature 562, pages361–366(2018).
  • Shein-Idelson M, Ondracek JM, Liaw H-P, Reiter S, Laurent G (2016) Slow waves, sharp waves, ripples, and REM in sleeping dragons. Science 352:590–595.
  • Reiter S, Campillo Rodriguez C, Sun K, Stopfer M (2015) Spatiotemporal Coding of Individual Chemicals by the Gustatory System. Journal of Neuroscience 35:12309–12321.