Animal Behavior and Cognition

Context-dependent oviposition reveals strong association between acceptance and preference in the Mediterranean fruit fly

1. Benoît Facon
2. Madeline Chauve
3. Virginie Ravigné
4. Bruno Serrate
5. Myriam Robejean
6. Antoine Fraimout
7. Julien Foucaud

Reviewed by Peer Community In Zoology

Endogenous precision of the number sense

1. Arthur Prat-Carrabin
2. Michael Woodford

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important research investigates the precision of numerosity perception in two types of tasks and concludes that human performance aligns with an efficient coding model optimized for current environmental statistics and task goals. The proposed model receives compelling evidence from two numerosity perception experiments and a reanalysis of an existing dataset of risky decision-making. These findings have theoretical implications for our understanding of numerosity perception and decision-making as well as the ongoing debate on different efficient coding models.

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. Guijun Wan
3. Yi Ji
4. Hui Chen
5. Bo-Ya Gao
6. Dai-Hong Yu
7. Eric 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

New idtracker.ai rethinks multi-animal tracking as a representation learning problem to increase accuracy and reduce tracking time

1. Jordi Torrents
2. Tiago Costa
3. Gonzalo 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, which is supported through compelling evidence, has implications beyond animal tracking, potentially connecting with advances in behavioral analysis and computer vision.

Reviewed by eLife

Dynamic modulation of social gaze by sex and familiarity in marmoset dyads

1. Feng Xing
2. Alec G Sheffield
3. Monika P Jadi
4. Steve WC Chang
5. Anirvan S Nandy

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study establishes a methodology (machine vision and gaze pose estimation) and behavioral apparatus for examining social interactions between pairs of marmoset monkeys. It has been difficult to study social interactions using artificial stimuli rather than genuine interactions between unrestrained animals. This study makes a fundamental contribution to social neuroscience research in a laboratory setting. Their results are convincing showing that the study of unrestrained social interactions is possible with detailed quantification of position and gaze. The methodology presented here is relevant to research in social neuroscience, neuroethology, and primatology.

Reviewed by eLife

Audiovisual cues must be predictable and win-paired to drive risky choice

1. Brett A Hathaway
2. Dexter R Kim
3. Salwa BA Malhas
4. Kelly M Hrelja
5. Lauren Kerker
6. Tristan J Hynes
7. Celyn Harris
8. Angela Langdon
9. Catharine Winstanley

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides a nuanced analysis of the impact of cues on cost/benefit decision-making deficits in male rats that could have translational relevance to many addictive disorders. The main findings are that cues paired with rewarded outcomes increase the proportion of risky outcomes, whereas risky choice is reduced when cues are paired with reward loss. The experimental data are compelling, whereas the computational analysis based on the optimisation of different Q-learning models is solid. The findings will be of interest to behavioural neuroscientists and clinicians with an interest in risk, decision making, and gambling disorders.

Reviewed by eLife

Fitness drivers of division of labor in vertebrates

1. Irene García-Ruiz
2. Dustin R 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 findings are solid in showing that, within the specific structure of the model and the parameter space explored, group augmentation can robustly favor the evolution of differentiated helper roles, particularly when age-dependent task switching and dominance dynamics are allowed to evolve. However, the evidence only partially supports the authors' broader claim that group augmentation is the primary driver of vertebrate division of labor. Several modelling assumptions, including the limited scope for synergistic task benefits, the restriction of helper effects to group-size-mediated benefits, and the relatively narrow exploration of cost and benefit parameters, constrain the potential for kin selection to generate division of labor and limit the generality of the conclusions.

Reviewed by eLife

Infanticide in a colonial cooperative bird is not associated with direct reproductive benefits

1. Rita Covas
2. Liliana R. Silva
3. André C. Ferreira
4. Pietro B. D’Amelio
5. Rita Fortuna
6. Delphine Duval
7. Matthieu Paquet
8. Claire Doutrelant

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

The self-interest of adolescents overrules cooperation in social dilemmas

1. Xiaoyan Wu
2. Hongyu Fu
3. Gökhan Aydogan
4. Chunliang Feng
5. Shaozheng Qin
6. Yi Zeng
7. Chao Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important work investigates cooperative behaviors in adolescents using a repeated Prisoner's Dilemma game. The approach used in the study is solid. The impact of this work could be further enhanced with more rigorous modelling procedures and more modeling selection/comparison details, as well as by framing the findings in terms of the specific game-theoretic context, rather than general cooperation. Findings from this study will be of interest to developmental psychologists, economists, and social psychologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Neural connectome of the ctenophore statocyst

1. Kei Jokura
2. Sanja Jasek
3. Lara Niederhaus
4. Pawel Burkhardt
5. Gáspár Jékely

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This fundamental work significantly advances our understanding of gravity sensing and orientation behavior in the ctenophore, an animal of major importance in understanding the evolution of nervous systems. Through comprehensive reconstruction with volumetric electron microscopy, and time-lapse imaging of cilia motion, the authors provide compelling evidence that the aboral nerve net coordinates the activity of balancer cilia. The resemblance to the ciliomotor circuit in marine annelids provides a fascinating example of how neural circuits may convergently evolve to solve common sensorimotor challenges.

Reviewed by eLife