Pub Date : 2024-09-05DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.01.610616
Haruna FUJIOKA, Tatsuya SAGA
Vespa hornet larvae produce a rhythmic 'rasping' sound by rubbing their mandibles against the cell walls of their nests. The call is thought to be a larval provisioning cue. However, detailed observations of larval calls have been limited to a few species, and it is not known whether the call can be influenced by the external environment, such as light and time of day, or by internal larval states, such as feeding. We conducted laboratory observations of larval calls under workerless conditions to investigate the effects of 1) larval stage and size, 2) daily variation, 3) light conditions, and 4) feeding on sound production. Vespa mandarinia larvae produced sounds regardless of their status, such as position, light condition, time of day, and worker absence. During mastication, the larvae stopped calling. A key finding of this research is the novel discovery that larvae produce sounds at night, which is a previously undocumented behaviour.
{"title":"Laboratory observations reveal that mature Vespa mandarinia larvae continue calling at night","authors":"Haruna FUJIOKA, Tatsuya SAGA","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.01.610616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.01.610616","url":null,"abstract":"Vespa hornet larvae produce a rhythmic 'rasping' sound by rubbing their mandibles against the cell walls of their nests. The call is thought to be a larval provisioning cue. However, detailed observations of larval calls have been limited to a few species, and it is not known whether the call can be influenced by the external environment, such as light and time of day, or by internal larval states, such as feeding. We conducted laboratory observations of larval calls under workerless conditions to investigate the effects of 1) larval stage and size, 2) daily variation, 3) light conditions, and 4) feeding on sound production. Vespa mandarinia larvae produced sounds regardless of their status, such as position, light condition, time of day, and worker absence. During mastication, the larvae stopped calling. A key finding of this research is the novel discovery that larvae produce sounds at night, which is a previously undocumented behaviour.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142226685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-05DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.31.610631
Antoine Cribellier, Serge Poda, Roch Kounbobr Dabire, Abdoulaye Diabate, Olivier Roux, Florian T Muijres
Complex coordinated group behaviors such as bird flocking and fish schooling often rely on intricate interactions among individuals. In these groups, neighbors exhibit strong mutual attraction, alignment, and collision avoidance. Here, we tested whether insect swarms arise from similar simple behavioral rules. Using high-speed videography and agent-based modeling, we identified the behavioral rules governing mating swarms of flying malaria mosquitoes, marking the first such analysis for any insect species. We found that, unlike birds and fish, mosquito swarming behavior is driven primarily by environmental cues like the sunset horizon and ground objects. In fact, interactions between conspecifics are limited to only close-range collision avoidance behaviors. Thus, insect swarming seems fundamentally distinct from bird flocking and fish schooling.
{"title":"The complex swarming dynamics of malaria mosquitoes emerges from simple minimally-interactive behavioral rules","authors":"Antoine Cribellier, Serge Poda, Roch Kounbobr Dabire, Abdoulaye Diabate, Olivier Roux, Florian T Muijres","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.31.610631","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.31.610631","url":null,"abstract":"Complex coordinated group behaviors such as bird flocking and fish schooling often rely on intricate interactions among individuals. In these groups, neighbors exhibit strong mutual attraction, alignment, and collision avoidance. Here, we tested whether insect swarms arise from similar simple behavioral rules. Using high-speed videography and agent-based modeling, we identified the behavioral rules governing mating swarms of flying malaria mosquitoes, marking the first such analysis for any insect species. We found that, unlike birds and fish, mosquito swarming behavior is driven primarily by environmental cues like the sunset horizon and ground objects. In fact, interactions between conspecifics are limited to only close-range collision avoidance behaviors. Thus, insect swarming seems fundamentally distinct from bird flocking and fish schooling.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-05DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.29.610321
Jordan Muraskin, Jason Sherwin
Background: Making quick, accurate decisions is crucial in competitive sports like softball, where perceptual-cognitive skills can significantly impact on-field performance. This study evaluates the long-term effectiveness of a targeted perceptual-cognitive training program, delivered through the uHIT platform, on improving batting performance in collegiate softball players. Methods: A longitudinal analysis was conducted on data collected from both NCAA and NAIA softball teams over multiple seasons. The study used Bayesian statistical methods to assess the impact of cognitive training on on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). The analysis incorporated weighted models to account for variability in games played and differences between teams, and the influence of team and year-division effects was considered. Key metrics, including Decision AUC and Response Time, were tracked to evaluate perceptual-cognitive improvements. Results: The results demonstrated significant improvements in OPS for teams that participated in the cognitive training intervention, with the weighted models indicating a substantial effect of the training on performance. Notably, the intervention was most effective in teams with higher training intensity, as evidenced by the permutation test results. The Bayesian analysis also revealed that the intervention led to statistically significant improvements in decision-making and response times, translating into enhanced on-field performance. Conclusion: The findings support the effectiveness of perceptual-cognitive training in improving real-world athletic performance in softball. The uHIT platform, as an ecologically valid training tool, has demonstrated its potential to serve as a critical component of athletic development programs. Future research should explore the long-term retention of these cognitive gains and their application across different sports and competitive levels.
{"title":"Multiyear Improvement In Batting Skills Following Targeted Perceptual Cognitive Training In Softball","authors":"Jordan Muraskin, Jason Sherwin","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.29.610321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.29.610321","url":null,"abstract":"Background: Making quick, accurate decisions is crucial in competitive sports like softball, where perceptual-cognitive skills can significantly impact on-field performance. This study evaluates the long-term effectiveness of a targeted perceptual-cognitive training program, delivered through the uHIT platform, on improving batting performance in collegiate softball players.\u0000Methods: A longitudinal analysis was conducted on data collected from both NCAA and NAIA softball teams over multiple seasons. The study used Bayesian statistical methods to assess the impact of cognitive training on on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). The analysis incorporated weighted models to account for variability in games played and differences between teams, and the influence of team and year-division effects was considered. Key metrics, including Decision AUC and Response Time, were tracked to evaluate perceptual-cognitive improvements.\u0000Results: The results demonstrated significant improvements in OPS for teams that participated in the cognitive training intervention, with the weighted models indicating a substantial effect of the training on performance. Notably, the intervention was most effective in teams with higher training intensity, as evidenced by the permutation test results. The Bayesian analysis also revealed that the intervention led to statistically significant improvements in decision-making and response times, translating into enhanced on-field performance.\u0000Conclusion: The findings support the effectiveness of perceptual-cognitive training in improving real-world athletic performance in softball. The uHIT platform, as an ecologically valid training tool, has demonstrated its potential to serve as a critical component of athletic development programs. Future research should explore the long-term retention of these cognitive gains and their application across different sports and competitive levels.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-05DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.04.611038
Lior Lebovich, Tom Alisch, Edward S Redhead, Matthew O Parker, Yonatan Loewenstein, Iain D Couzin, Benjamin L de Bivort
Decision-making in animals often involves choosing actions while navigating the environment, a process markedly different from static decision paradigms commonly studied in laboratory settings. Even in decision-making assays in which animals can freely locomote, decision outcomes are often interpreted as happening at single points in space and single moments in time, a simplification that potentially glosses over important spatiotemporal dynamics. We investigated locomotor decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster in Y-shaped mazes, measuring the extent to which their future choices could be predicted through space and time. We demonstrate that turn-decisions can be reliably predicted from flies' locomotor dynamics, with distinct predictability phases emerging as flies progress through maze regions. We show that these predictability dynamics are not merely the result of maze geometry or wall-following tendencies, but instead reflect the capacity of flies to move in ways that depend on sustained locomotor signatures, suggesting an active, working memory-like process. Additionally, we demonstrate that fly mutants known to have sensory and information-processing deficits exhibit altered spatial predictability patterns, highlighting the role of visual, mechanosensory, and dopaminergic signaling in locomotor decision-making. Finally, highlighting the broad applicability of our analyses, we generalize our findings to other species and tasks. We show that human participants in a virtual Y-maze exhibited similar decision predictability dynamics as flies. This study advances our understanding of decision-making processes, emphasizing the importance of spatial and temporal dynamics of locomotor behavior in the lead-up to discrete choice outcomes.
动物的决策往往涉及在环境中航行时选择行动，这一过程与实验室环境中通常研究的静态决策范例明显不同。即使在动物可以自由运动的决策实验中，决策结果也往往被解释为发生在空间的单点和时间的单时刻，这种简化可能会掩盖重要的时空动态。我们研究了黑腹果蝇在 Y 形迷宫中的运动决策，测量了通过空间和时间预测其未来选择的程度。我们证明，可以从果蝇的运动动态可靠地预测其转弯决策，随着果蝇穿过迷宫区域，会出现不同的可预测性阶段。我们的研究表明，这些可预测性动态并不仅仅是迷宫几何形状或墙壁追随倾向的结果，而是反映了苍蝇依靠持续运动特征移动的能力，这表明了一种类似于工作记忆的活跃过程。此外，我们还证明，已知存在感官和信息处理缺陷的苍蝇突变体表现出改变的空间可预测性模式，突出了视觉、机械感觉和多巴胺能信号在运动决策中的作用。最后，为了突出我们分析的广泛适用性，我们将研究结果推广到了其他物种和任务中。我们发现，人类参与者在虚拟 Y 型迷宫中表现出与苍蝇相似的决策可预测性动态。这项研究推进了我们对决策过程的理解，强调了运动行为的空间和时间动态在离散选择结果产生之前的重要性。
{"title":"Spatiotemporal dynamics of locomotor decisions in Drosophila melanogaster","authors":"Lior Lebovich, Tom Alisch, Edward S Redhead, Matthew O Parker, Yonatan Loewenstein, Iain D Couzin, Benjamin L de Bivort","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.04.611038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.04.611038","url":null,"abstract":"Decision-making in animals often involves choosing actions while navigating the environment, a process markedly different from static decision paradigms commonly studied in laboratory settings. Even in decision-making assays in which animals can freely locomote, decision outcomes are often interpreted as happening at single points in space and single moments in time, a simplification that potentially glosses over important spatiotemporal dynamics. We investigated locomotor decision-making in Drosophila melanogaster in Y-shaped mazes, measuring the extent to which their future choices could be predicted through space and time. We demonstrate that turn-decisions can be reliably predicted from flies' locomotor dynamics, with distinct predictability phases emerging as flies progress through maze regions. We show that these predictability dynamics are not merely the result of maze geometry or wall-following tendencies, but instead reflect the capacity of flies to move in ways that depend on sustained locomotor signatures, suggesting an active, working memory-like process. Additionally, we demonstrate that fly mutants known to have sensory and information-processing deficits exhibit altered spatial predictability patterns, highlighting the role of visual, mechanosensory, and dopaminergic signaling in locomotor decision-making. Finally, highlighting the broad applicability of our analyses, we generalize our findings to other species and tasks. We show that human participants in a virtual Y-maze exhibited similar decision predictability dynamics as flies. This study advances our understanding of decision-making processes, emphasizing the importance of spatial and temporal dynamics of locomotor behavior in the lead-up to discrete choice outcomes.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"79 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211752","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-04DOI: 10.1101/2024.08.21.608989
Matthew Peroš, Annaliese Chang, Anastasia Martashvili, Sebastian G. Alvarado
Animal colouration is fundamentally important for social communication within conspecifics to advertising threat to competitors or fitness to possible mates. Social status and animal colouration are covarying traits that are plastic in response to dynamic environments. In the African cichlid, Astatotilapia burtoni, body colouration and behaviour have been extensively reported to vary with social rank. However, the nature of the interaction between these two traits is poorly understood. We hypothesise that pigmentation patterns could be linked to the behavioural repertoires underlying social status and can be resolved to regions on the cichlid body plan. To test this hypothesis, we generated Territorial (T) and Non-territorial (NT) males and employed computer vision tools to quantify and visualise patterns/colour enrichment associated with stereotyped T/NT male behaviour. We report colour-behaviour interactions localised in specific areas of the body and face for two colour morphs, illustrating a more nuanced view of social behaviour and pigmentation. Since behavioural and morphological variation are key drivers of selection in the East African Great Rift Lakes, we surmise our data may be translatable to other cichlid lineages and underline the importance of trait covariance in sexual selection and male competition.
{"title":"Facial and body colouration are linked to social rank in the African cichlid, Astatotilapia burtoni","authors":"Matthew Peroš, Annaliese Chang, Anastasia Martashvili, Sebastian G. Alvarado","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.21.608989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.21.608989","url":null,"abstract":"Animal colouration is fundamentally important for social communication within conspecifics to advertising threat to competitors or fitness to possible mates. Social status and animal colouration are covarying traits that are plastic in response to dynamic environments. In the African cichlid, Astatotilapia burtoni, body colouration and behaviour have been extensively reported to vary with social rank. However, the nature of the interaction between these two traits is poorly understood. We hypothesise that pigmentation patterns could be linked to the behavioural repertoires underlying social status and can be resolved to regions on the cichlid body plan. To test this hypothesis, we generated Territorial (T) and Non-territorial (NT) males and employed computer vision tools to quantify and visualise patterns/colour enrichment associated with stereotyped T/NT male behaviour. We report colour-behaviour interactions localised in specific areas of the body and face for two colour morphs, illustrating a more nuanced view of social behaviour and pigmentation. Since behavioural and morphological variation are key drivers of selection in the East African Great Rift Lakes, we surmise our data may be translatable to other cichlid lineages and underline the importance of trait covariance in sexual selection and male competition.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"256 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The emergence of social structure and organization is essential for the evolution of amniotes, including human beings. Sociability and social hierarchy are two key features to form a social group. However, it remains unknown whether sociability and social hierarchy are genetically separable. In this study, we examined the social hierarchy, social and social novelty preference of PAS1 (placental-accelerated sequence 1) knock-out and knock-in mice. PAS1 is a social enhancer that modulates social hierarchy. We found that PAS1 knock-out mice lack social hierarchy while wallaby/chicken PAS1 knock-in mice establish stable social ranks. Moreover, social and social novelty preference was observed in all PAS1-mutated mice. PAS1 knock-in mice have stronger preference to interact with other mice than wild-type mice (C57BL/6). No aggressive alteration was found in PAS1-mutated mice. Overall, our results showed that PAS1 is an indispensable regulatory element in the formation of social hierarchy while PAS1 regulates one of pathways modulating sociability. Therefore, sociability is genetically separable from social hierarchy in amniotes, providing insights into how social structure and organization evolved.
{"title":"Sociability genetically separable from social hierarchy in amniotes","authors":"Xin Lin, Guangyi Dai, Sumei Zhou, Yangyang Li, Yi-Hsuan Pan, Haipeng Li","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.02.610763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.02.610763","url":null,"abstract":"The emergence of social structure and organization is essential for the evolution of amniotes, including human beings. Sociability and social hierarchy are two key features to form a social group. However, it remains unknown whether sociability and social hierarchy are genetically separable. In this study, we examined the social hierarchy, social and social novelty preference of PAS1 (placental-accelerated sequence 1) knock-out and knock-in mice. PAS1 is a social enhancer that modulates social hierarchy. We found that PAS1 knock-out mice lack social hierarchy while wallaby/chicken PAS1 knock-in mice establish stable social ranks. Moreover, social and social novelty preference was observed in all PAS1-mutated mice. PAS1 knock-in mice have stronger preference to interact with other mice than wild-type mice (C57BL/6). No aggressive alteration was found in PAS1-mutated mice. Overall, our results showed that PAS1 is an indispensable regulatory element in the formation of social hierarchy while PAS1 regulates one of pathways modulating sociability. Therefore, sociability is genetically separable from social hierarchy in amniotes, providing insights into how social structure and organization evolved.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-03DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.01.610713
Tom Major, Lauren Jeffrey, Guillem Limia Russel, Rebecca Bracegirdle, Antonio Gandini, Rhys Morgan, Benjamin Michael Marshall, John F Mulley, Wolfgang Wüster
Understanding the success of animals in novel environments is increasingly important as human-mediated introductions continue to move species far beyond their natural ranges. Alongside these introductions, inhabited and agricultural areas are spreading, and correspondingly most animal introductions occur in populated areas. Commensal species which can live alongside humans by making use of specific conditions, structures, or prey, have a significant advantage. Introduced mammal species often use anthropogenic features in their environment and demonstrate a higher tolerance of human disturbance, but their importance remains understudied in ectotherms. The Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) is an ectotherm which has been introduced beyond the northern extremities of its natural range. To understand their persistence, we radio-tracked snakes daily over two active seasons, including high-frequency tracking of a subset of males. We investigated snake home range size using Autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimators (AKDE). Using AKDE-weighted Habitat Selection Functions we identified preferences for habitat features in a mosaic of habitats, and we used Integrated Step Selection Functions to further explore how these features influence movement. We revealed a particular preference for buildings in male snakes, while females preferred woodland. We demonstrate that the success of this ectothermic predator is likely tied to a willingness to use human features of the landscape.
{"title":"A reliance on human habitats is key to the success of an introduced predatory reptile","authors":"Tom Major, Lauren Jeffrey, Guillem Limia Russel, Rebecca Bracegirdle, Antonio Gandini, Rhys Morgan, Benjamin Michael Marshall, John F Mulley, Wolfgang Wüster","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.01.610713","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.01.610713","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding the success of animals in novel environments is increasingly important as human-mediated introductions continue to move species far beyond their natural ranges. Alongside these introductions, inhabited and agricultural areas are spreading, and correspondingly most animal introductions occur in populated areas. Commensal species which can live alongside humans by making use of specific conditions, structures, or prey, have a significant advantage. Introduced mammal species often use anthropogenic features in their environment and demonstrate a higher tolerance of human disturbance, but their importance remains understudied in ectotherms. The Aesculapian snake (<em>Zamenis longissimus</em>) is an ectotherm which has been introduced beyond the northern extremities of its natural range. To understand their persistence, we radio-tracked snakes daily over two active seasons, including high-frequency tracking of a subset of males. We investigated snake home range size using Autocorrelated Kernel Density Estimators (AKDE). Using AKDE-weighted Habitat Selection Functions we identified preferences for habitat features in a mosaic of habitats, and we used Integrated Step Selection Functions to further explore how these features influence movement. We revealed a particular preference for buildings in male snakes, while females preferred woodland. We demonstrate that the success of this ectothermic predator is likely tied to a willingness to use human features of the landscape.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-03DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.02.610798
Annkathrin Sonntag, Martin Egelhaaf, Olivier J. N. Bertrand, Mathieu Lihoreau
Introduction: When foraging, flying animals like bees are often required to change their flight altitude from close to the ground to above the height of the vegetation to reach their nest or a food source. While the mechanisms of navigating towards a goal in two dimensions are well understood, the explicit use of height as a source for navigation in three dimensions remains mostly unknown. Our study aims to unravel which strategies bumblebees use for height estimation and whether they rely on global or local cues. Methods: We expanded a 2D goal localisation paradigm, where a goal location is indicated by cylindrical landmarks, to the third dimension by using spherical landmarks to indicate a feeder's position in 3D and examined the search pattern of bumblebees. Additionally, we assessed the ability of bees to estimate the height of a feeder based on local landmarks and global references such as the ground floor. Results: The search distribution for a feeder's position in 3D was less spatially concentrated compared to in 2D. Assessing the bees' height estimation ability, we found that bees could estimate a feeder's height using the ground floor as a reference. However, the feeder needed to be sufficiently close to the ground floor for the bees to choose correctly. Discussion: When bumblebees are faced with the challenge of foraging in a 3D environment where the height of a food source and landmark cues are important, they demonstrate the ability to learn and return to a specific flower height. This suggests they rely on ventral optic flow for goal height estimation in bumblebees.
{"title":"Bumblebees locate goals in 3D with absolute height estimation from ventral optic flow","authors":"Annkathrin Sonntag, Martin Egelhaaf, Olivier J. N. Bertrand, Mathieu Lihoreau","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.02.610798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.02.610798","url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: When foraging, flying animals like bees are often required to change their flight altitude from close to the ground to above the height of the vegetation to reach their nest or a food source. While the mechanisms of navigating towards a goal in two dimensions are well understood, the explicit use of height as a source for navigation in three dimensions remains mostly unknown. Our study aims to unravel which strategies bumblebees use for height estimation and whether they rely on global or local cues.\u0000Methods: We expanded a 2D goal localisation paradigm, where a goal location is indicated by cylindrical landmarks, to the third dimension by using spherical landmarks to indicate a feeder's position in 3D and examined the search pattern of bumblebees. Additionally, we assessed the ability of bees to estimate the height of a feeder based on local landmarks and global references such as the ground floor.\u0000Results: The search distribution for a feeder's position in 3D was less spatially concentrated compared to in 2D. Assessing the bees' height estimation ability, we found that bees could estimate a feeder's height using the ground floor as a reference. However, the feeder needed to be sufficiently close to the ground floor for the bees to choose correctly.\u0000Discussion: When bumblebees are faced with the challenge of foraging in a 3D environment where the height of a food source and landmark cues are important, they demonstrate the ability to learn and return to a specific flower height. This suggests they rely on ventral optic flow for goal height estimation in bumblebees.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-03DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.03.610917
Joon Ho Choi, Sungwon Bae, Jiho Park, Minsu Yoo, Chul Hoon Kim, Lukas Ian Schmitt, Ji-Woong Choi, Jong-Cheol Rah
Understanding the neural mechanisms behind short-term memory (STM) errors is crucial for unraveling cognitive processes and addressing related deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders. This study investigates whether STM errors result from misrepresentation of sensory information or a decay in these representations over time. Utilizing 2-photon calcium imaging in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of mice engaged in a delayed match-to-sample task, we identified a subset of PPC neurons exhibiting both directional and temporal selectivity. Contrary to the idea that STM errors primarily stem from mis-encoding during the sample phase, our findings indicate that these errors are more closely associated with a drift in neural activity during the delay period. This drift results in a gradual shift away from the correct representation, ultimately leading to incorrect behavioral responses. These results emphasize the importance of maintaining stable neural representations in the PPC for accurate STM. Our findings also suggest that targeting PPC activity stabilization during delay periods could be a potential therapeutic strategy for mitigating cognitive impairments in disorders like schizophrenia.
{"title":"Short-term memory errors are strongly associated with a drift in neural activity in the posterior parietal cortex","authors":"Joon Ho Choi, Sungwon Bae, Jiho Park, Minsu Yoo, Chul Hoon Kim, Lukas Ian Schmitt, Ji-Woong Choi, Jong-Cheol Rah","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.03.610917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.03.610917","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding the neural mechanisms behind short-term memory (STM) errors is crucial for unraveling cognitive processes and addressing related deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders. This study investigates whether STM errors result from misrepresentation of sensory information or a decay in these representations over time. Utilizing 2-photon calcium imaging in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) of mice engaged in a delayed match-to-sample task, we identified a subset of PPC neurons exhibiting both directional and temporal selectivity. Contrary to the idea that STM errors primarily stem from mis-encoding during the sample phase, our findings indicate that these errors are more closely associated with a drift in neural activity during the delay period. This drift results in a gradual shift away from the correct representation, ultimately leading to incorrect behavioral responses. These results emphasize the importance of maintaining stable neural representations in the PPC for accurate STM. Our findings also suggest that targeting PPC activity stabilization during delay periods could be a potential therapeutic strategy for mitigating cognitive impairments in disorders like schizophrenia.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-09-03DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.03.610928
Dániel Rivas-Blanco, Sophia D. Krause, Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Friederike Range
Inferential reasoning —the process of arriving at a conclusion from a series of premises— has been studied in a multitude of animal species through the use of the "cups task" paradigm. In one of the versions of this set-up, two opaque cups —one baited, one empty— are shaken in front of the animal. As only the baited cup makes a noise when shaken, the animals can locate the reward by inferring that only a baited cup would make noise, that an empty cup would make no noise, or both. In a previous iteration of this paradigm in wolves (Canis lupus) and dogs (Canis familiaris), wolves seemed to outperform dogs. However, due to the lack of control conditions, it was not possible to assess each species' inference capabilities, nor how they related to each other. The current study adds several conditions in which the baited cup, the empty cup, or no cups are shaken, in order to tackle this issue. Our results seem to indicate that wolves and dogs made their choices not based on inference but on the saliency and order of the stimuli presented, something that seems in line with the previous study. We discuss the potential causes behind the animals' performance, as well as proposing alternative paradigms that may be more apt to measure inference abilities in wolves and dogs.
{"title":"Inference in wolves and dogs: The \"cups task\", revisited","authors":"Dániel Rivas-Blanco, Sophia D. Krause, Sarah Marshall-Pescini, Friederike Range","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.03.610928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.03.610928","url":null,"abstract":"Inferential reasoning —the process of arriving at a conclusion from a series of premises— has been studied in a multitude of animal species through the use of the \"cups task\" paradigm. In one of the versions of this set-up, two opaque cups —one baited, one empty— are shaken in front of the animal. As only the baited cup makes a noise when shaken, the animals can locate the reward by inferring that only a baited cup would make noise, that an empty cup would make no noise, or both. In a previous iteration of this paradigm in wolves (Canis lupus) and dogs (Canis familiaris), wolves seemed to outperform dogs. However, due to the lack of control conditions, it was not possible to assess each species' inference capabilities, nor how they related to each other. The current study adds several conditions in which the baited cup, the empty cup, or no cups are shaken, in order to tackle this issue. Our results seem to indicate that wolves and dogs made their choices not based on inference but on the saliency and order of the stimuli presented, something that seems in line with the previous study. We discuss the potential causes behind the animals' performance, as well as proposing alternative paradigms that may be more apt to measure inference abilities in wolves and dogs.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"54 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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