Animal Behavior and Cognition

Individuality transfer: Predicting human decision-making across task conditions

1. Hiroshi Higashi

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This revised paper provides a valuable and novel neural network-based framework for parameterizing individual differences and predicting individual decision-making across task conditions. The methods and analyses are solid yet could benefit from further validation of the superiority of the proposed framework against other baseline models. With these concerns addressed, this study would offer a proof-of-concept neural network approach to scientists working on the generalization of cognitive skills across contexts.

Reviewed by eLife

New idtracker.ai: rethinking multi-animal tracking as a representation learning problem to increase accuracy and reduce tracking times

1. Jordi Torrents
2. Tiago Costa
3. Gonzalo G de Polavieja

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study introduces an advance in multi-animal tracking by reframing identity assignment as a self-supervised contrastive representation learning problem. It eliminates the need for segments of video where all animals are simultaneously visible and individually identifiable, and significantly improves tracking speed, accuracy, and robustness with respect to occlusion. This innovation has implications beyond animal tracking, potentially connecting with advances in behavioral analysis and computer vision. The strength of support for these advances is compelling overall, although there were some remaining minor methodological concerns.

Reviewed by eLife

The olfactory receptor SNIF-1 mediates foraging for leucine-rich diets in C. elegans

1. Ritika Siddiqui
2. Nikita Mehta
3. Gopika Ranjith
4. Marie-Anne Felix
5. Changchun Chen
6. Varsha Singh

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important work is the first to suggest a model that the nematode C. elegans prefers specific bacteria (its major food source) that release high amounts of the known attractant isoamyl alcohol when supplemented with exogenous leucine and has also identified a likely receptor for the odorant isoamyl alcohol. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, and the manuscript would be improved by changes to the text that clarify and address the distinction between "supplemented" versus "enriched". The renaming of srd-12 to snif-1 should also be addressed.

Reviewed by eLife

Sex-Dependent Vulnerability to PTSD-Like Behaviors in iNOS Knockout Mice

1. Bruna F. Ferreira
2. Isabela Pavan-Silva
3. Sabrina F. Lisboa

Reviewed by PREreview

Information, certainty, and learning

1. Justin A Harris
2. Charles R Gallistel

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This paper presents fundamental research showing that the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian conditioned responding are lawfully related to temporal characteristics of an animal's conditioning experience. It showcases a rigorous experimental design, several different approaches to data analysis, careful consideration of prior literature, and a thorough introduction. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling. The paper will have a general appeal to those interested in the behavioral and neural analysis of Pavlovian conditioning.

Reviewed by eLife

Fitness drivers of division of labor in vertebrates

1. Irene García-Ruiz
2. Dustin Rubenstein

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study develops an individual-based model to investigate the evolution of division of labor in vertebrates, comparing the contributions of group augmentation and kin selection. The model incorporates several biologically relevant features, including age-dependent task switching and separate manipulation of relatedness and group-size benefits. However, the evidence remains incomplete to support the authors' central claim that group augmentation is the primary driver of vertebrate division of labor. Key modelling assumptions, such as limited opportunities for task synergy, the structure of helper and floater dynamics, and the relatively narrow parameter space explored, continue to restrict the potential for kin selection to produce division of labor, thereby limiting the generality of the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Colony demographics shape nest construction in Camponotus fellah ants

1. Harikrishnan Rajendran
2. Roi Weinberger
3. Ehud Fonio
4. Ofer Feinerman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents an important finding that ant nest structure and digging behavior depend on ant age demographics for a ground-dwelling ant species (Camponotus fellah). By asking whether ants employ age-polyethism in excavation, the authors address a long-standing question about how individuals in collectives determine the overall state of the task they must perform. The experimental evidence that the age of the ants and the group composition affect the digging of tunnels is convincing, and their model is able to replicate the colony's excavation dynamics qualitatively, results that may prove to be a key consideration for interpreting results from other studies in the field of social insect behavior.

Reviewed by eLife

Geomagnetic and visual cues guide seasonal migratory orientation in the nocturnal fall armyworm, the world’s most invasive insect

1. Yi-Bo Ma
2. Gui-Jun Wan
3. Yi Ji
4. Hui Chen
5. Bo-Ya Gao
6. Dai-Hong Yu
7. Eric J Warrant
8. Yan Wu
9. Jason W Chapman
10. Gao Hu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental study presents experimental evidence on how geomagnetic and visual cues are integrated in a nocturnally migrating insect. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling. The work will be of broad interest to researchers studying animal migration and navigation.

Reviewed by eLife

Overcoming distortion in multidimensional predictive representation

1. Euan Prentis
2. Akram Bakkour

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript makes a valuable contribution to understanding learning in multidimensional environments with spurious associations, which is critical for understanding learning in the real world. The evidence is based on model simulations and a preregistered human behavioral study, but remains incomplete because of inconclusive empirical results and insufficiencies in the modeling. Moreover, there are open questions about the nature and extent to which the behavioral task induced semantic congruency.

Reviewed by eLife

WNKs regulate mouse behavior and alter central nervous system glucose uptake and insulin signaling

1. Ankita B Jaykumar
2. Derk Binns
3. Clinton A Taylor
4. Anthony Anselmo
5. Sachith Gallolu Kankanamalage
6. Shari G Birnbaum
7. Kimberly M Huber
8. Melanie H Cobb

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study seeks to expand the understanding of insulin and glucose responses in the brain, specifically by implicating a family of protein kinases responsive to insulin. The significance of the study to the field is valuable, given this study is very emblematic of the new field of interoception (Brain-Body physiology). The evidence supporting the conclusions about brain glucose utilization is convincing and is relevant to many age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disorder.

Reviewed by eLife