Animal Behavior and Cognition

DeePosit, an AI-based tool for detecting mouse urine and fecal depositions from thermal video clips of behavioral experiments

1. David Peles
2. Shai Netser
3. Natalie Ray
4. Taghreed Suliman
5. Shlomo Wagner

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript presents an important machine-learning-based approach to the automated detection of urine and fecal deposits by rodents, key ethological behaviors that have traditionally been very poorly studied. The strength of evidence for the claim is solid, showing accuracy near 90% across several contexts. Training and testing for the specific contexts used by other experimenters, however, is probably warranted to make the model most relevant to the data that may be analyzed.

Reviewed by eLife

Switching perspective: Comparing ground-level and bird’s-eye views for bumblebees navigating dense environments

1. Annkathrin Sonntag
2. Odile Sauzet
3. Mathieu Lihoreau
4. Martin Egelhaaf
5. Olivier Bertrand

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  In this useful study, the authors tested the ability of bumblebees to use bird-view and ground-view for homing in cluttered landscapes using modeling and behavioral experiments, claiming that bumblebees rely most on ground-views for homing. However, due to a lack of analysis of the bees' behavior during training and a lack of information as to how the homing behavior of bees develops over time, the evidence supporting their claims is currently incomplete. Moreover, there was concern that the experimental environment was not representative of natural scenes, thus limiting the findings of the study.

Reviewed by eLife

A cross-species framework for investigating perceptual evidence accumulation

1. Sucheta Chakravarty
2. Cristina Delgado-Sallent
3. Gary A Kane
4. Hongjie Xia
5. Quan H Do
6. Ryan A Senne
7. Benjamin B Scott

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This translational study presents a direct cross-species comparison (between mice, rats, and humans) of choice behavior in the same perceptual decision-making task. The study is rare in opening a window on the evolution of decision-making, and the results will be important for many disciplines including behavioral sciences, psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. While the strength of the evidence presented is solid, the manuscript would benefit from additional information and analyses to strengthen and clarify its main conclusions.

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 J Langdon
9. Catharine A 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 is convincing, but the computational analysis based on the optimisation of different Q-learning models is incomplete. The findings will be of interest to behavioural neuroscientists and clinicians with an interest in risk, decision making, and gambling disorders.

Reviewed by eLife

Prefrontal working memory signal controls phase-coded information within extrastriate cortex

1. Mohsen Parto-Dezfouli
2. Isabel Vanegas
3. Mohammad Zarei
4. William H Nesse
5. Kelsey L Clark
6. Behrad Noudoost

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study investigates how the maintenance of a spatial location in working memory affects the representation of visual information in area V4 of monkeys. As such, it is important not only for understanding vision but also for determining how working memory impacts perceptual signals and their underlying circuits. The data provide convincing evidence of a direct communication between prefrontal circuits that store spatial information and V4, which, under the current experimental conditions, manifests mainly as changes in temporal activity patterns (oscillations).

Reviewed by eLife

Screening for links between behaviour and acute hyperthermia and hypoxia resistance in rainbow trout using isogenic lines

1. Henri Lagarde
2. Delphine Lallias
3. Florence Phocas
4. Lionel Goardon
5. Marjorie Bideau
6. François Guyvarc’h
7. Laurent Labbé
8. Mathilde Dupont-Nivet
9. Xavier Cousin

Reviewed by Peer Community in Animal Science

Modeling collective behavior in groups of mice housed under semi-naturalistic conditions

1. Xiaowen Chen
2. Maciej Winiarksi
3. Alicja Puścian
4. Ewelina Knapska
5. Thierry Mora
6. Aleksandra M Walczak

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable work investigates the social interactions of mice living together in a system of multiple connected cages. It provides solid evidence for a statistical approach capturing changes in social interactions after manipulating prefrontal cortical plasticity. This research will be of broad interest to researchers studying animal social behavior.

Reviewed by eLife

Maternal behavior influences vocal practice and learning processes in the greater sac-winged bat

1. Ahana Aurora Fernandez
2. Nora Serve
3. Sarah-Cecil Fabian
4. Mirjam Knörnschild

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This important study provides insights into the role of maternal behavior in the learning and ontogeny of vocalization. It finds evidence that the maternal behavior of sac-winged bats (Saccopteryx bilineata) can influence the learned territorial songs of their pups. The behavioral analyses are convincing, using longitudinal acoustic recordings and behavioral monitoring of individual mother-pup pairs across development and multiple wild bat colonies. The work will be relevant to a broad audience interested in the evolution and development of social behavior as well as sensory-motor learning.

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 the methodology (machine vision and gaze pose estimation) and behavioral apparatus for examining social interactions between pairs of marmoset monkeys. Their results enable unrestrained social interactions under more rigorous conditions with detailed quantification of position and gaze. It has been difficult to study social interactions using artificial stimuli, as opposed to genuine interactions between unrestrained animals. This study makes an important contribution to studying social neuroscience within a laboratory setting; the approach is novel and well-executed, backed by convincing evidence.

Reviewed by eLife

Interdependence between SEB-3 receptor and NLP-49 peptides shifts across predator-induced defensive behavioral modes in Caenorhabditis elegans

1. Kathleen T Quach
2. Gillian A Hughes
3. Sreekanth H Chalasani

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents a valuable finding on predator threat detection in C. elegans and the role of neuropeptide systems in defensive behavioral strategies. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid, although additional analyses and control experiments would strengthen the claims of the study. Overall, the work is of interest to the C. elegans community as well as neuroethologists and ecologists studying predator-prey interactions.

Reviewed by eLife