Animal Behavior and Cognition

Sex differences in learning from exploration

1. Cathy S Chen
2. Evan Knep
3. Autumn Han
4. R Becket Ebitz
5. Nicola M Grissom

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Chen et al. trained male and female animals on an explore/exploit (2-armed bandit) task. Despite similar levels of accuracy in these animals, authors report higher levels of exploration in male than in female mice. The patterns of exploration were analyzed in fine-grained detail, with the addition of computational modeling: males are less likely to stop exploring once exploring is initiated, whereas females stop exploring once they learn. The results are of broad interest to those interested is sex differences in learning. Inclusion of more primary behavioral data and further justification of the models and parameters is needed to clarify data presentation and interpretation.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Desmosomal connectomics of all somatic muscles in an annelid larva

1. Sanja Jasek
2. Csaba Verasztó
3. Emelie Brodrick
4. Réza Shahidi
5. Tom Kazimiers
6. Alexandra Kerbl
7. Gáspár Jékely

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper is based on digital reconstruction of a serial EM stack of a larva of the annelid Platynereis and presents a complete 3D map of all desmosomes between somatic muscle cells and their attachment partners. This resource is of interest to scientists in several fields: motor control, high-resolution anatomy, and network analyses. With the first comprehensive and complete mapping of muscle-to-body connectivity through desmosomes in an annelid larva, it has the potential to close a missing link and make progress towards understanding in a "holistic" way how a complex neural circuitry controls an equally complex pattern of movement/behavior.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Experimental evidence that chronic outgroup conflict reduces reproductive success in a cooperatively breeding fish

1. Ines Braga Goncalves
2. Andrew N Radford

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper uses controlled exposure to territorial intrusion to show that repeated exposure to conflict between groups compromises fitness in social fish. With a host of results relating to fertility, behavior, and parental investment, its findings will increase confidence in the argument that intergroup conflict is an important factor in social evolution. There are several statistical issues that should be addressed to minimize the possibility of false-positive results.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Little evidence that Eurasian jays protect their caches by responding to cues about a conspecific’s desire and visual perspective

1. Piero Amodio
2. Benjamin G Farrar
3. Christopher Krupenye
4. Ljerka Ostojić
5. Nicola S Clayton

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest across psychology and ecology. It attempts to replicate influential findings that imply Theory of Mind in food-caching decisions of Eurasian Jays. The authors' approach to both attempting to expand on and replicate earlier findings is both rigorous and thoroughly contextualized. The failure to reproduce earlier findings raises important questions for the field.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Echolocating toothed whales use ultra-fast echo-kinetic responses to track evasive prey

1. Heather Vance
2. Peter T Madsen
3. Natacha Aguilar de Soto
4. Danuta Maria Wisniewska
5. Michael Ladegaard
6. Sascha Hooker
7. Mark Johnson

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper on echolocation-mediated responses to prey movements will be of interest to a broad audience, including ethologists and neuroscientists as well as those more generally interested in the natural world. Its strengths come from the use of data from both wild and captive animals of different species of toothed whales, as well as trained harbour porpoises, enabling generalization of the findings and conclusions on sensory-motor feedback.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Impairment of aversive episodic memories during Covid-19 pandemic: The impact of emotional context on memory processes

1. Candela Sofía Leon
2. Matías Bonilla
3. Facundo Antonio Urreta Benítez
4. Luis Ignacio Brusco
5. Jingyi Wang
6. Cecilia Forcato

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Naïve individuals promote collective exploration in homing pigeons

1. Gabriele Valentini
2. Theodore P Pavlic
3. Sara Imari Walker
4. Stephen C Pratt
5. Dora Biro
6. Takao Sasaki

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This study in the field of collective behavior addresses how naïve and experienced individuals (i.e., homing pigeons) pool information in order to navigate while flying back home. The authors show that the passage of information is largely democratic, meaning information passes both ways, and that, unexpectedly, exploration of the route is initiated both by naïve and experienced birds. The work provides a new perspective on information sharing during collective learning.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

The photosensitive phase acts as a sensitive window for seasonal multisensory neuroplasticity in male and female starlings

1. Jasmien Orije
2. Emilie Cardon
3. Julie Hamaide
4. Elisabeth Jonckers
5. Veerle M. Darras
6. Marleen Verhoye
7. Annemie Van der Linden

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to a diverse range of scientist as the questions span animal behavior, neuroscience and sex differences in brain-behavior relations. The study used non-invasive brain imaging to track large changes in structures involved in controlling communication between brain regions. The data reveal exciting sex-specific changes in key brain regions involved in learning and memory. The study is well designed, and the key claims of the manuscript appear to be well supported by the data. The imaging approaches employed are thoughtful and rigorous.

  (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.)

Reviewed by eLife

Fin whale song evolution in the North Atlantic

1. Miriam Romagosa
2. Sharon Nieukirk
3. Irma Cascão
4. Tiago A Marques
5. Robert Dziak
6. Jean-Yves Royer
7. Joanne O'Brien
8. David K Mellinger
9. Andreia Pereira
10. Arantza Ugalde
11. Elena Papale
12. Sofia Aniceto
13. Giuseppa Buscaino
14. Marianne Rasmussen
15. Luis Matias
16. Rui Prieto
17. Mónica A Silva

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study is a valuable contribution to our understanding of vocal variation in acoustic displays of male baleen whales, part of a developing story about cultural change in songs in species other than the relatively well studied humpback whales. The authors present solid evidence of changes at various timescales in 20-Hz song note intervals and call center frequency over decadal time scales and large spatial scales.

Reviewed by eLife

Why the COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic stressor

1. Victoria M. E. Bridgland
2. Ella K. Moeck
3. Deanne M. Green
4. Taylor L. Swain
5. Diane M. Nayda
6. Lucy A. Matson
7. Nadine P. Hutchison
8. Melanie K. T. Takarangi

Reviewed by ScreenIT