animal behavior and cognition papers

Integrating supervised and unsupervised machine learning for behavior segmentation reveals latent frailty signatures and improves aging clocks in isogenic and outbred mice

This study demonstrates that combining supervised expert-defined features with unsupervised behavioral signatures discovered by Keypoint-MoSeq significantly improves the prediction of age and frailty in mice, while revealing that these behavioral aging markers are highly strain-specific and do not generalize across different mouse populations.

Sabnis, G., Miao, D. M., Kumar, V.2026-03-25📄 animal behavior and cognition

Number-Space Association in Macaques

This study demonstrates that while rhesus and crab-eating macaques do not exhibit a systematic spatial bias based on absolute numerical magnitude, they do display directional number-space associations (leftward for decreases, rightward for increases) when responding to relative numerical changes and expectancy violations in comparative contexts.

Annicchiarico, G., Belluardo, M., Vallortigara, G. + 1 more2026-03-25📄 animal behavior and cognition

FIRST EVIDENCE OF OBJECT PLAY IN WILD GELADAS: FUNCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS FOR LATER UTILITY AND RE-ELABORATED OBJECT USE IN ADULTHOOD

This study presents the first evidence of both social and solitary object play in wild geladas, challenging previous assumptions that their specialized grazing ecology precludes such behavior and suggesting that this capacity reflects a biologically rooted potential retained from their arboreal ancestors.

Cordoni, G., Porfiri, M. C., Yitayih Hailie, Y. + 5 more2026-03-25📄 animal behavior and cognition

Pretend Comprehension Enhances Social and Exploratory Behaviors in Human Toddlers and Adults.

This study demonstrates that both toddlers and adults exhibit enhanced social attention and more exploratory, less structured gaze patterns when comprehending pretend actions compared to real ones, suggesting that understanding pretense relies on social processes driven by information seeking and uncertainty.

Gouet, C., Jara, C., Moenne, C. + 2 more2026-03-25📄 animal behavior and cognition

The Friendship Paradox across animal social systems is governed by network structure and biological features

By analyzing 391 empirical animal social networks, this study reveals that the magnitude of the Friendship Paradox (relationship disparity) is jointly determined by network structural properties, such as size and sparsity, and biological attributes, including taxonomic group and individual sociability.

Newman, E. F., Knowles, S. C. L., Firth, J. A.2026-03-25📄 animal behavior and cognition

No evidence of sentinel behaviour in a highly social bird based on an artificial set-up

An experimental study using an artificial feeding station found no evidence of sentinel behavior in sociable weavers, suggesting that their large group size or interspecific associations may render such vigilance unnecessary.

Marmelo, M., Silva, L., Ferreira, A. + 2 more2026-03-24📄 animal behavior and cognition

Validation and optimisation of wearable accelerometer data pre-processing for digital measure implementation and development

This study validates and optimizes a modular, open-source pre-processing pipeline (GENEAcore) for wearable accelerometer data, demonstrating its ability to ensure high-quality, transparent, and traceable digital measures through rigorous calibration, non-wear detection, and behavioral transition analysis that significantly impacts activity duration calculations.

Langford, J., Chua, J. Y., Long, I. + 2 more2026-03-24📄 animal behavior and cognition

Reef fish escape responses selectively match predator attack speeds

This study demonstrates that reef fish selectively trigger escape responses based on the approach speed of visual stimuli, matching their reactions to actual predator attack speeds while ignoring harmless cruising speeds, with species-specific strategies further shaping these behaviors.

Neven, S. L., Faber, L., Martin, B.2026-03-24📄 animal behavior and cognition

A cerebellar cognitive rheostat bidirectionally controls attention

This study reveals that the cerebellum functions as a bidirectional "cognitive rheostat," where the anterior and posterior vermis exert opposing control over attention through distinct neural mechanisms, offering a novel circuit-based strategy to rescue attentional deficits in ADHD models.

Jiang, S., Dong, Z., Song, Z. + 13 more2026-03-24📄 animal behavior and cognition

Scanning and active sampling behaviours emerge from conserved insect neural circuits

This paper demonstrates that diverse insect scanning and active sampling behaviors emerge spontaneously from conserved neural circuits for goal-directed navigation through a minimal model where simple modulation of forward speed unifies exploration and exploitation without requiring specialized scanning modules.

Freas, C. A., Wystrach, A.2026-03-23📄 animal behavior and cognition

Animal collocation revisited: intercohort comparison and a case study comparing call combinations between sexes in common marmosets

This paper introduces and validates a statistically rigorous method called Multiple Distinctive Collocation Analysis using Pearson residuals (MDCA-Pr) to overcome existing limitations in animal collocation analysis, enabling robust identification of non-random signal combinations and accurate comparisons between different cohorts, as demonstrated through simulations and a case study on common marmoset vocalizations.

Howard-Spink, E., Mircheva, M., Burkart, J. M. + 1 more2026-03-22📄 animal behavior and cognition

Male social dominance affects access to mates but not female mate choice in a livebearing fish

In the pygmy halfbeak *Dermogenys colletei*, male social dominance successfully secures mating access through monopolization and increased courtship, yet it does not influence female mate choice, suggesting that intense male-male competition can limit the scope for pre-copulatory female preference.

Goncalves, A., Reuland, C., Daupagne, L. + 3 more2026-03-20📄 animal behavior and cognition

Persistent vulnerability to heroin relapse across the adult lifespan in rats

A rat model study demonstrates that the vulnerability to heroin relapse triggered by drug-associated cues persists for over a year of abstinence, indicating that this risk may be lifelong.

Madangopal, R., Drake, O. R., Pham, D. Q. + 8 more2026-03-20📄 animal behavior and cognition

Behavioral compensation preserves collective behavior when individual members are compromised

This study demonstrates that Western honeybee colonies maintain collective thermoregulation despite individual impairment through decentralized behavioral compensation, where untreated members adjust their social interactions to sustain group-level function.

Nguyen, J. B., Lambert, C. E., Cook, C. N.2026-03-20📄 animal behavior and cognition

Behavioral characterization of dynamic facial expression perception in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) using naturalistic and synthetic stimuli

This study demonstrates that rhesus monkeys perceive facial expressions as context-dependent, functionally meaningful social signals shaped by both expression dynamics and signaler characteristics, rather than relying solely on fixed morphological categories or visual similarity.

Siebert, R., Taubert, N., Giese, M. A. + 1 more2026-03-20📄 animal behavior and cognition

Sequence-level vocal convergence in common marmosets

This study demonstrates that common marmosets develop sequence-level vocal convergence with their social partners after pair formation, specifically altering the arrangement of calls rather than the acoustic structure of individual calls, thereby revealing a flexible mechanism for social bonding in non-human primates.

Wewhare, N., Burkart, J. M., Wierucka, K.2026-03-20📄 animal behavior and cognition

The complex swarming dynamics of malaria mosquitoes emerge from simple minimally-interactive behavioral rules

This study demonstrates that malaria mosquito mating swarms emerge from simple, minimally interactive behavioral rules driven primarily by environmental cues rather than complex social interactions, a finding validated through 3D flight tracking and agent-based modeling.

Cribellier, A., Poda, S., Dabire, R. K. + 3 more2026-03-19📄 animal behavior and cognition

Behavioral and Pharmacological Validation of the Differential Reinforcement of Low-Rate Behavior Paradigm in Non-Human Primates

This study establishes the Differential Reinforcement of Low-Rate (DRL) task in cynomolgus macaques as a translationally relevant platform for screening antidepressant efficacy, demonstrating its ability to distinguish antidepressant-like effects across diverse drug classes while simultaneously identifying dose-limiting side effects like emesis that are not observable in rodent models.

Vanderlip, C. R., Dunn, S. R., Basile, J. L. + 3 more2026-03-19📄 animal behavior and cognition

Behavioral algorithms of ontogenetic switching in larval and juvenile zebrafish phototaxis

This study reveals that zebrafish transition from light-seeking to dark-seeking behavior during ontogeny by shifting their reliance from spatio-temporal visual computations to ambient luminance detection, a strategy governed by parallel processing pathways that enable flexible, goal-oriented navigation.

Capelle, M. Q., Slangewal, K., Eleftheriadi, P. E. + 1 more2026-03-19📄 animal behavior and cognition

Maternal style does not predict infant growth and survival in wild Guinea baboons

A study of wild Guinea baboons found that despite the species' tolerant social system, variation in maternal care style does not significantly predict infant growth or survival, suggesting that factors like disease and predation play a more critical role in this high-capacity habitat.

Aviles de Diego, A., Dal Pesco, F., Mundry, R. + 1 more2026-03-19📄 animal behavior and cognition

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