Animal Behavior and Cognition

Bees flexibly adjust decision strategies to information content in a foraging task

1. Johannes Spaethe
2. Selma Hutzenthaler
3. Alexander Dietz
4. Karl Gehrig
5. James Foster
6. Anna Stöckl

Reviewed by preLights

Learning and cognition in highspeed decision making

1. Martin Krause
2. Wolfram Schulze
3. Stefan Schuster

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study investigates the adaptability of prey capture by archerfish, which hunt insects by spitting at them and then rapidly turning to reach their landing point on the water surface. The results of elaborate behavioral experiments and measurements show that, even though the visuomotor behavior unfolds very rapidly (in less than 100 ms), it is not hardwired and can adapt to different simulated physics and different prey shapes. The data are convincing and should be of relevance to those interested in rapid decision making in general, beyond the archerfish model.

Reviewed by eLife

A contextual fear conditioning paradigm in head-fixed mice exploring virtual reality

1. Seetha Krishnan
2. Can Dong
3. Heather Ratigan
4. Denisse Morales-Rodriguez
5. Chery Cherian
6. Mark Sheffield

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This useful study presents a virtual reality-based contextual fear conditioning paradigm for head-fixed mice. Solid evidence supports the claim that the reported methods provide a reliable paradigm for studying contextual fear conditioning in head-fixed mice. The approach provides a way to perform multiphoton imaging of neural circuits, and other techniques that are typically performed in head-fixed animals, during behaviors that have traditionally been studied in freely moving animals.

Reviewed by eLife

Tracking butterfly flight in the field from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV): a methodological proof of principle

1. Emmanuel de Margerie
2. Kyra Monmasson

Reviewed by Peer Community in Ecology

Four individually identified paired dopamine neurons signal taste punishment in larval Drosophila

1. Denise Weber
2. Katrin Vogt
3. Anton Miroschnikow
4. Michael J Pankratz
5. Andreas S Thum

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This comprehensive study presents important findings that delineate how specific dopaminergic neurons (DANs) instruct aversive learning in Drosophila larvae exposed to high salt through an integration of behavioral experiments, imaging, and connectomic analysis. The work reveals how a numerically minimal circuit achieves remarkable functional complexity, with redundancies and synergies within the DL1 cluster that challenge our understanding of how few neurons generate learning behaviors. By establishing a framework for sensory-driven learning pathways, the study makes a compelling and substantial contribution to understanding associative conditioning while demonstrating conservation of learning mechanisms across Drosophila developmental stages.

Reviewed by eLife

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