Overview
Background
My research investigates the neural circuits and genetic mechanisms that drive complex social behaviours, with a focus on mating decisions in animal models.
What I study I use Drosophila melanogaster to understand how the brain evaluates social cues and translates them into behavioural decisions — particularly during courtship and mating. My work connects circuit-level neuroscience with whole-animal behaviour.
How I work My approach is highly interdisciplinary, combining:
- Behavioural experiments and quantitative analysis
- Deep learning-based animal tracking and pose estimation
- Analysis of connectome datasets to map neural circuit architecture
- Genetic and imaging tools to link neurons to behaviour
Collaborations and students I welcome collaborations and prospective students with backgrounds in neuroscience, computer vision, data science, or animal behaviour. If you are interested in how the brain controls social decisions — and in using modern computational tools to answer those questions — feel free to get in touch.
Availability
- Dr Leandro Scholz is:
- Available for supervision
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)
- Doctoral (Research) of Neuroscience, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Neural circuits underlying complex behavioural sequences
How does the brain organise and executes multi-step behavioural sequences? I investigate complex behaviours with a focus on courtship and mating in Drosophila melanogaster. Using connectome analysis, genetic tools, and quantitative behavioural assays, I aim to identify the neural circuit motifs that structure behavioural transitions. A key goal is linking synaptic-resolution circuit architecture to the temporal organisation of behaviour in freely moving animals.
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Female mating decisions and the drivers of remating
study of the behavioural, neural, and physiological factors that determine whether a female Drosophila will mate for a second time after an initial mating. This includes investigating how post-mating signals, sperm status, and social context interact to shape female receptivity over time. Understanding what drives remating decisions provides insight into female agency, cryptic choice, and the evolutionary dynamics of mating systems.
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Internal states as modulators of social behaviour
Internal states such as hunger, reproductive status, and prior experience profoundly shape how animals respond to social stimuli. I am interested in how these states are encoded in the nervous system and how they bias behavioural decisions during courtship and mating interactions. I use Drosophila melanogaster as a genetically tractable model to dissect the neural substrates of state-dependent behavioural flexibility.
Works
Search Professor Leandro Scholz’s works on UQ eSpace
2025
Journal Article
Plug-and-Play automated behavioral tracking of zebrafish larvae with DeepLabCut and SLEAP: pre-trained networks and datasets of annotated poses
Scholz, Leandro A., Mancienne, Tessa, Stednitz, Sarah J., Scott, Ethan K. and Lee, Conrad C. Y. (2025). Plug-and-Play automated behavioral tracking of zebrafish larvae with DeepLabCut and SLEAP: pre-trained networks and datasets of annotated poses. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.04.657938
2025
Journal Article
Brain-wide impacts of sedation on spontaneous activity and auditory processing in larval zebrafish
Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Muller, Eli, Lee, Conrad, Scholz, Leandro A., Arnold, Joshua, Munn, Brandon, Wainstein, Gabriel, Shine, James M. and Scott, Ethan K. (2025). Brain-wide impacts of sedation on spontaneous activity and auditory processing in larval zebrafish. The Journal of Neuroscience, 45 (15) e0204242025. doi: 10.1523/jneurosci.0204-24.2025
2024
Other Outputs
Neural and behavioural responses to repetitive visual looming stimuli in zebrafish larvae
Scholz, Leandro (2024). Neural and behavioural responses to repetitive visual looming stimuli in zebrafish larvae. PhD Thesis, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/a12f2ca
2021
Journal Article
Estimation of heat and mass transfer coefficients in a pilot packed-bed solid-state fermentation bioreactor
Finkler, Anelize Terezinha Jung, Weber, Mariana Zanlorenzi, Fuchs, Gustavo Alexandre, Scholz, Leandro Aluisio, de Lima Luz Jr, Luiz Fernando, Krieger, Nadia, Mitchell, David Alexander and Jorge, Luiz Mário de Matos (2021). Estimation of heat and mass transfer coefficients in a pilot packed-bed solid-state fermentation bioreactor. Chemical Engineering Journal, 408 127246, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2020.127246
2021
Journal Article
Broad frequency sensitivity and complex neural coding in the larval zebrafish auditory system
Poulsen, Rebecca E., Scholz, Leandro A., Constantin, Lena, Favre-Bulle, Itia, Vanwalleghem, Gilles C. and Scott, Ethan K. (2021). Broad frequency sensitivity and complex neural coding in the larval zebrafish auditory system. Current Biology, 31 (9), 1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.103
2020
Journal Article
Altered brain-wide auditory networks in a zebrafish model of fragile X syndrome
Constantin, Lena, Poulsen, Rebecca E., Scholz, Leandro A., Favre-Bulle, Itia A., Taylor, Michael A., Sun, Biao, Goodhill, Geoffrey J., Vanwalleghem, Gilles C. and Scott, Ethan K. (2020). Altered brain-wide auditory networks in a zebrafish model of fragile X syndrome. BMC Biology, 18 (1) 125, 125. doi: 10.1186/s12915-020-00857-6
2020
Journal Article
BIAFLOWS: A collaborative framework to reproducibly deploy and benchmark bioimage analysis workflows
Rubens, Ulysse, Mormont, Romain, Paavolainen, Lassi, Bäcker, Volker, Pavie, Benjamin, Scholz, Leandro A., Michiels, Gino, Maška, Martin, Ünay, Devrim, Ball, Graeme, Hoyoux, Renaud, Vandaele, Rémy, Golani, Ofra, Stanciu, Stefan G., Sladoje, Natasa, Paul-Gilloteaux, Perrine, Marée, Raphaël and Tosi, Sébastien (2020). BIAFLOWS: A collaborative framework to reproducibly deploy and benchmark bioimage analysis workflows. Patterns, 1 (3) 100040, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.patter.2020.100040
2020
Other Outputs
Baseline Experiments
Constantin, Lena, Scott, Ethan, Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Poulsen, Rebecca and Scholz, Leandro Aluisio (2020). Baseline Experiments. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/06dea52
2020
Other Outputs
Auditory Sensitivity Experiments
Constantin, Lena, Scott, Ethan, Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Poulsen, Rebecca, Scholz, Leandro Aluisio and Bissett, Wyatt (2020). Auditory Sensitivity Experiments. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/aa37c6d
2020
Other Outputs
Multisensory Experiments
Constantin, Lena, Scott, Ethan, Vanwalleghem, Gilles, Poulsen, Rebecca and Scholz, Leandro Aluisio (2020). Multisensory Experiments. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/cf6e784
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Leandro Scholz is:
- Available for supervision
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Media
Enquiries
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