Behavioral Science News

December 5, 2023

Top Headlines

Fighting Fruit Flies Help Researchers Understand Why We Stay Angry

Nov. 29, 2023 — Researchers are homing in on the neurons, circuits, and mechanisms responsible for persistent aggression in fruit ...

This 'Gross' Mixture Has Big Benefits for the Study of Bacteria

Nov. 30, 2023 — Researchers have discovered that growing bacteria on agar mixed with organs is an efficient and effective way to study infectious ...

Scientist Discovers Potential Brain Link Between Stress, Emotional Eating

Nov. 27, 2023 — Scientists describe how they identified a molecule that may trigger over-consumption of comfort foods after a threatening ...

Brittle Stars Can Learn Just Fine -- Even Without a Brain

Nov. 29, 2023 — We humans are fixated on big brains as a proxy for smarts. But headless animals called brittle stars have no brains at all and still manage to learn through experience, new research reveals. These shy marine creatures have no brain to speak of -- ...

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updated 11:08pm EST

Combined Use of Alcohol and THC Can Affect Rat Brains, Study Finds

Nov. 30, 2023 — The increased legalization of cannabis over the past several years can potentially increase its co-use with alcohol. Concerningly, very few studies have looked at the effects of these two drugs when ...

Reading the Mouse Mind from Its Face: New Tool Decodes Neural Activity Using Facial Movements

Nov. 20, 2023 — Facemap uses a mouse's facial movements to predict brain activity, bringing researchers one step closer to understanding brain-wide signals driven by ...

New Deep Learning AI Tool Helps Ecologists Monitor Rare Birds Through Their Songs

Nov. 15, 2023 — Researchers have developed a new deep learning AI tool that generates life-like birdsongs to train bird identification tools, helping ecologists to ...

Hormonal Contraceptives in Teens May Alter Risk Assessment, Rat Study Suggests

Nov. 13, 2023 — Hormonal contraceptives taken by adolescents may influence development of the brain in a way that alters the recognition of risks, a new study in ...

Poison Dart Frogs: Personality Determines Reproductive Strategies

Nov. 9, 2023 — Unlike their relatives, individuals of the poison frog Allobates femoralis are not poisonous but are captivating due to their different behavioral profiles: They successfully reproduce with different ...

Research Connecting Gut Bacteria and Oxytocin Provides a New Mechanism for Microbiome-Promoted Health Benefits

Nov. 2, 2023 — Researchers found that the hormone oxytocin, known to be involved in regulating feeding and social behavior and until now to be produced mostly in ...

Climate-Smart Cows Could Deliver 10-20x More Milk in Global South

Oct. 31, 2023 — A team of animal scientists is set to deliver a potential game changer for subsistence farmers in Tanzania: cows that produce up to 20 times the milk of indigenous ...

Practicing Mindfulness Can Help People Make Heart-Healthy Eating Choices

Nov. 2, 2023 — A study found that participants in a mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program improved health behaviors that lower blood pressure. When people who had elevated blood pressure participated ...

Roosters Might Recognize Themselves in the Mirror

Oct. 26, 2023 — Scrape, cluck, lay eggs -- that's it? Anyone involved in chicken farming knows that the animals are capable of much more. Researchers have found evidence that roosters could recognize themselves in a ...

Something in the Eyes: Java Sparrows in Love Show Enhanced Eye Rings

Oct. 25, 2023 — Pair-bonded Java sparrows show enlarged eye rings to signal breeding ...

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Summaries
Headlines

Casas Del Turuñuelo, a Site of Repeated Animal Sacrifice in Iron Age Spain

Nov. 22, 2023 — The Iron Age site of Casas del Turuñuelo was used repeatedly for ritualized animal sacrifice, according to a multidisciplinary ...

'Dim-Witted' Pigeons Use the Same Principles as AI to Solve Tasks

Oct. 25, 2023 — A new study provides evidence that pigeons tackle some problems just as artificial intelligence would -- allowing them to solve difficult tasks that would vex ...

Critical Step Made for Managing Brushtail Possums

Oct. 17, 2023 — Researchers say mapping the genetic code of the brushtail possum will benefit those working to both conserve and control the ...

Scientists Generate First Single-Cell 'Atlas' of the Primate Brain to Help Explore Links Between Molecules, Cells, Brain Function and Disease

Oct. 12, 2023 — As part of the effort to better understand the evolution of the brains in people and animals, a research team has generated the world's largest primate brain-wide atlas. ...

Scientists Unveil Detailed Cell Maps of the Human Brain and the Nonhuman Primate Brain

Oct. 12, 2023 — A group of international scientists have mapped the genetic, cellular, and structural makeup of the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain. This understanding of brain structure allows for a ...

Honey Bees May Inherit Altruistic Behavior from Their Mothers

Oct. 12, 2023 — True altruism is rare behavior in animals, but a new study has found that honey bees display this trait. Additionally, they found that an evolutionary battle of genetics may determine the parent they ...

Win-Win in Muscle Research: Faster Results and Fewer Laboratory Animals Thanks to New Method

Oct. 12, 2023 — To study muscle diseases, scientists rely on the mouse as a model organism. Researchers have now developed a new method that is not only faster and more efficient than conventional ones but also ...

Not Lazy at All: Honey Bee Drones

Oct. 11, 2023 — Sometimes it is worthwhile to look at the details, to study aspects that seem to be uninteresting or were previously ignored, and see noteworthy phenomena come to light. Researchers showed that male ...

Fruit Fly Serenade: Neuroscientists Decode Their Tiny Mating Song

Oct. 11, 2023 — An extremely supportive atmosphere for new ideas laid the foundation for an 'Aha moment' about a toggle-switch in the fruit fly brain. Do humans have one, ...

Consistent Metabolism May Prove Costly for Insects in Saltier Water

Oct. 6, 2023 — Increased salinity usually spells trouble for freshwater insects like mayflies. A new study finds that the lack of metabolic responses to salinity may explain why some freshwater insects often ...

Fear of Humans Pervades the South African Savanna

Oct. 5, 2023 — Mammals living in South Africa's Greater Kruger National Park, home to one of the world's largest remaining lion populations, are far more afraid of hearing human voices than lion ...

New Type of Tiny Wasp Comes With Mysterious, Cloud-Like Structures at Ends of Antennae

Oct. 4, 2023 — Fossil researchers have discovered a novel genus and species of tiny wasp with a mysterious, bulbous structure at the end of each ...

Unique Voice Print in Parrots

Oct. 3, 2023 — Individual voice could help birds be recognized in a flock, no matter what they ...

Pheromones Influence Death Feigning Behavior in Beetles

Oct. 2, 2023 — In the natural world, predators play a significant role in shaping how animals defend themselves. A previously documented tactic called 'death feigning' involves prey insects faking death ...

Insights Into Early Snake Evolution Through Brain Analysis

Sep. 29, 2023 — Recent study sheds new light on the enigmatic early evolution of snakes by examining an unexpected source: their brains. The results emphasize the significance of studying both the soft parts of ...

Boo to a Goose -- New Animal Behaviour Tech Aims to Save Wildlife

Sep. 28, 2023 — Facial recognition software used to study the social behavior of individual Greylag Geese in Europe will soon be used to monitor one of the rarest geese in the world, the Cape Barren Goose in South ...

Vision in the Brain: Hardwired for Action

Sep. 28, 2023 — Brain circuits for vision develop without any kind of input from the retina in ...

Whales Around the World Play With Kelp Clumps

Sep. 27, 2023 — A new article has analyzed another understudied behavior in baleen (filter-feeding) whales such as humpback whales in different populations across the northern and southern hemispheres. They appeared ...

Study Shows How a Single Neuron's Parallel Outputs Can Coordinate Many Aspects of Behavior

Sep. 27, 2023 — In C. elegans worms, a single neuron named HSN uses multiple chemicals and connections to orchestrate egg-laying and locomotion over the course of several ...

Unleashing the Power of AI to Track Animal Behavior

Sep. 27, 2023 — Scientists have created a non-invasive movement tracking method called GlowTrack that uses fluorescent dye markers to train artificial intelligence to capture movement, from a single mouse digit to ...

Wednesday, November 22, 2023