Animal Behavior and Cognition

Evaluation Summary:

The paper presents a Bayesian model framework for estimating individual perceptual uncertainty from continuous tracking data, taking into account motor variability, action cost, and possible misestimation of the generative dynamics. While the contribution is mostly technical, the analyses are well done and clearly explained. The paper provides therefore a didactic resource for students wishing to implement similar models on continuous action data.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This work provides an insightful analysis of how animals can use different types of sniffing to quickly find the sources of odorants in natural, often turbulent, environments. As it turns out, the air near the ground is less turbulent but does not provide high precision information about the location of sources that are far away. To get that kind of information, animals have to pause and sniff in the air. Authors show that the relative balance between sniffing near the ground and in the air shifts as the animals approach the source and that this shift matches optimal strategies that can be pursued based on partially observable statistical models of the environment. The paper also includes a very useful set of simulations of odorant flow in the presence of obstacles that will be made publicly available.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

The research detailed in this manuscript investigates whether young chicks represent the absence of objects. This work is important to multiple fields of inquiry such as ethology and neuroscience, and is the first time this ability has been studied spontaneously in such a population, as opposed to after many trials of experience. The data effectively support most of the conclusions, though a few elements need clarification, especially in regards to possible sex-dependent representations of absence.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

The study by Kano et al. provides experimental evidence that specific features of the human eye, namely shape and sclera depigmentation, enhance the ability to detect gaze direction of individuals. The study is notable for being the first to adopt a comparative experimental approach, testing both humans and chimpanzees, to demonstrate that white sclera can enhance gaze discrimination in both species, particularly when visibility is poor.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer#2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This article will be of interest to behavioral ecologists studying activity patterns in wild animals. Using accelerometry, rather than polysomnography, opens up exciting opportunities for studying animal sleep under natural conditions for relatively long periods.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This report presents findings of broad interest to behavioral, systems, and cognitive neuroscientists. The combination of a complex behavioral paradigm and sophisticated modeling provides significant insight and a novel approach to studying higher cognition in primates. Key clarifications are needed that have to do with better justification for the modeling strategy, selective comparisons within the data, and a more thorough consideration that subjects may employ a more passive strategy.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This paper builds on a previously published computational model of the insect central complex developed to generate a biologically plausible neural circuit for producing visually guided navigation behavior to show how the same model can be used to produce navigation behavior in response to multimodal sensory information. In particular, the authors show that olfactory navigation as well as wind-guided navigation can be seamlessly integrated with visual behaviors. The work is significant, valuable and of broad interest to circuit and computational neuroscientists.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

Olfactory coding is still an open question in neuroscience. Therefore, this paper is of potential interest to a broad audience of neuroscientists. It undertakes a thorough investigation of how olfactory sensory neurons drive avoidance or attraction in flies and also addresses how combinations of active ORNs can become behaviorally meaningful. It has great potential value for clarifying how animals map sensory input to valence.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

The authors show that a widely arborizing inhibitory interneuron AL reduces the variability of olfactory responses in at Drosophila Kenyon postsynapses in the mushroom body calyx, which receive inputs from the projection neurons (PNs) in the antennal lobe. The data support a model in which APL neurons, which also receive inputs from PNs, mediate scaled GABAergic feedback to normalize of postsynaptic responses in the calyx. The conclusions, based on detailed analysis of one odorant are mostly well supported by the data.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Evaluation Summary:

This study gives us information about the potential of the endocannabinoid system to become a novel target for the treatment of Williams-Beuren syndrome. The authors found there is an alteration of brain cannabinoid type-1 receptor (CB1R) in a mouse model of Williams-Beuren syndrome (CD mice). Modulation of CB1R by JZL184 treatment improved social and cognitive phenotypes and also cardiac function of CD mice. This study will be of great interest to researchers and clinicians in the field of genetic diseases.

(This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)