Behavioral Science News

June 7, 2024

Top Headlines

Myelination in the Brain May Be Key to 'Learning' Opioid Addiction

June 5, 2024 — Scientists have found that the process of adaptive myelination, which helps the brain learn new skills, can also promote addiction to ...

Using AI to Decode Dog Vocalizations

June 4, 2024 — Have you ever wished you could understand what your dog is trying to say to you? Researchers are exploring the possibilities of AI, developing tools that can identify whether a dog's bark conveys playfulness or ...

Lighting Up the Brain: What Happens When Our 'Serotonin Center' Is Triggered?

May 31, 2024 — Scientists have studied the main source of serotonin in the brain -- the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). By studying how activating the brain's 'serotonin center' affects awake animals for the first ...

Antibiotic Pollution Disrupts the Gut Microbiome and Blocks Memory in Aquatic Snails

May 29, 2024 — Antibiotics prevent snails from forming new memories by disrupting their gut microbiome -- the community of beneficial bacteria found in their ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:02pm EDT

Smarter Foragers Do Not Forage Smarter

May 28, 2024 — Why do primates have big brains? In the Panamanian rainforest, scientists pitted large-brained primates against smaller-brained mammals to find out who was the smartest ...

New Deep Learning Model Is 'Game Changer' for Measuring Embryo Development

May 28, 2024 — A new deep learning model performs a task that biologists have struggled with for centuries -- how to measure the incredibly complex process of embryonic development. Scientists have shown that the ...

Tracking Animals Without Markers in the Wild

May 28, 2024 — Researchers developed a computer vision framework for posture estimation and identity tracking which they can use in indoor environments as well as in the wild. They have thus taken an important step ...

Finding the Beat of Collective Animal Motion

May 23, 2024 — Virtual Reality experiments have illuminated the rhythmic glue that could keep animals moving in ...

Caterpillars Can Detect Their Predators by the Static Electricity They Emit

May 24, 2024 — Caterpillars respond defensively to electric fields similar to those emitted by their natural predators, scientists have ...

Cooperative Hunting Requires Less Brainpower Than Previously Thought

May 20, 2024 — Through the use of artificial intelligence technology, a team of scientists has shown that advanced cognitive abilities are unnecessary for cooperative hunting. Their findings suggest that ...

Cuddled Cows Who Work as Therapy Animals Showed a Strong Preference for Women Compared to Men, Study Finds

May 22, 2024 — A new study reveals that cows who are cuddled as therapy animals showed a strong preference for interactions with women when compared to men. In ...

New AI Accurately Predicts Fly Behavior

May 22, 2024 — Researchers trained an AI model to accurately predict male fruit flies' courtship behavior in response to any sight of a female. This breakthrough offers new insight into how the brain processes ...

Ukraine War Caused Migrating Eagles to Deviate from Their Usual Flight Plan, Study Finds

May 20, 2024 — When migrating through Ukraine in 2022, Greater Spotted Eagles were exposed to multiple conflict events that altered their migratory course, ...

Australian Study Proves 'Humans Are Planet's Most Frightening Predator'

May 22, 2024 — A new study demonstrates that kangaroos, wallabies and other Australian marsupials fear humans far more than any other ...

Meerkat Chit-Chat

May 20, 2024 — Researchers unravel the vocal interactions of meerkat groups and show they use two different types of interactions to stay in ...

Study Reveals Consumers Value Animal Welfare More Than Environmental Sustainability When Buying Meat and Dairy Products

May 16, 2024 — The treatment of animals rates higher than green issues when consumers choose meat and dairy products. That's according to a new study, which suggests that while consumers consider ...

Access to Gardens and Citizen Science Helps Encourage Conservation Among Children, Study Shows

May 15, 2024 — Access to gardens and citizen science projects at school can help promote pro-conservation behaviour among pupils, a new study ...

Some Mice May Owe Their Monogamy to a Newly Evolved Type of Cell

May 15, 2024 — What makes the oldfield mouse steadfastly monogamous throughout its life while its closest rodent relatives are promiscuous? The answer may be a previously unknown hormone-generating cell. Scientists ...

Tiger Beetles Fight Off Bat Attacks With Ultrasonic Mimicry

May 15, 2024 — When tiger beetles hear a bat nearby, they respond by creating a high-pitched, ultrasonic noise, and for the past 30 years, no one has known why. In a new study, scientists lay the mystery to rest by ...

Rolling With the Punches: How Mantis Shrimp Defend Against High-Speed Strikes

May 10, 2024 — Mantis shrimp are small creatures known for their superlatives. Their eyes have 12 to 16 different color receptors, versus our own three, and can detect the polarization of light. Their punches are ...

Using Advanced Genetic Techniques, Scientists Create Mice With Traits of Tourette Disorder

May 6, 2024 — In research that may be a step forward toward finding personalized treatments for Tourette disorder, scientists have bred mice that exhibit some of the same behaviors and brain abnormalities seen in ...

Wild Orangutan Treats Wound With Pain-Relieving Plant

May 2, 2024 — A wild orangutan was observed applying a plant with known medicinal properties to a wound, a first for a wild ...

Trotting Robots Reveal Emergence of Animal Gait Transitions

Apr. 30, 2024 — A four-legged robot trained with machine learning has learned to avoid falls by spontaneously switching between walking, trotting, and pronking -- a milestone for roboticists as well as biologists ...

The Double-Fanged Adolescence of Saber-Toothed Cats

Apr. 29, 2024 — How did North America's saber-toothed cats hunt without breaking their unwieldy saber-like canines, which are vulnerable to sideways bending stresses? A paleontologist provides mechanical ...

Test Reveals Mice Think Like Babies

Apr. 26, 2024 — Are mice clever enough to be strategic? A neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals, and who has long worked with mice, wondered why rodents often performed poorly in tests when they ...

Curiosity Promotes Biodiversity

Apr. 25, 2024 — Cichlid fishes exhibit differing degrees of curiosity. The cause for this lies in their genes, as reported by researchers. This trait influences the cichlids' ability to adapt to new ...

Color Variants in Cuckoos: The Advantages of Rareness

Apr. 24, 2024 — Every cuckoo is an adopted child -- raised by foster parents, into whose nest the cuckoo mother smuggled her egg. The cuckoo mother is aided in this subterfuge by her resemblance to a bird of prey. ...

Zebra Finch Chicks Don't Babble for No Reason

Apr. 24, 2024 — Their first vocalizations help young zebra finch males to memorize the songs of ...

How Parasites Shape Complex Food Webs

Apr. 24, 2024 — A new study sheds light on how parasites, often overlooked, can dramatically affect the balance between predator and prey populations. Researchers developed a groundbreaking mathematical framework ...

AI Tool Creates 'Synthetic' Images of Cells for Enhanced Microscopy Analysis

Apr. 22, 2024 — Researchers have developed a method to use an image generation AI model to create realistic images of single cells, which are then used as 'synthetic data' to train an AI model to better ...

Storks Fly With a Little Help from Their Friends

Apr. 17, 2024 — All storks choose to migrate with conspecifics, but young storks rely more on social influences than adults ...

Older Males out-Compete Young Males Outside Breeding Pairs, Bird Study Shows

Apr. 16, 2024 — Young male blue tits are less successful in fathering offspring outside their breeding pair, not because of a lack of experience, but because they are outcompeted by older males, researchers ...

New Tagging Method Provides Bioadhesive Interface for Marine Sensors on Diverse, Soft, and Fragile Species

Apr. 16, 2024 — Tagging marine animals with sensors to track their movements and ocean conditions can provide important environmental and behavioral information. Existing techniques to attach sensors currently ...

Health Behaviors Accumulate and Remain Relatively Stable Throughout Middle Adulthood

Apr. 16, 2024 — According to a recent study, either healthier or unhealthier health behaviors cluster among individuals. These health behavior patterns remain relatively stable in middle adulthood and are predicted ...