Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Darwin’s road not taken: white sclera, shared intentionality, niche construction, predator fear, teams and Homo origins
Published: 2023-11-04
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Palaeoanthropologists have yet to pinpoint how Homo evolved from Australopithecus. I propose niche construction ending predator ambush and stalking attacks, white sclera, and ultrafast team cognition were key. Human white sclera allows the quick, distant detection of line-of-sight. This is unique. In other primates, predators eliminate conspicuous-eyed individuals. Consequently, nonhuman [...]
A computer vision toolkit for the dynamic study of air sacs in Siamang with a general application to the study of elastic kinematics in other animals
Published: 2023-10-14
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biology, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Biological structures are defined by elements like bones and cartilage, and elastic elements like muscles and membranes. Computer vision advances have enabled automatic tracking of moving animal skeletal poses. Such developments put us on the verge of gaining insights in complex dynamics otherwise studied in more static terms (e.g., images). However, the elastic soft-tissues of organisms, like [...]
Remarks on an approach to study flocking phenomenon in animals
Published: 2023-02-12
Subjects: Animal Studies, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
In theoretical discussions of the potential effects of collective interactions in such biological systems, statistical physics principles and methodologies have been applied. In order to enhance their capacity for collective computation, it has been suggested that such collective systems should function close to a phase transition, specifically a (pseudo-)critical point. This paper will [...]
Experimental mosaic brain evolution improves main executive function abilities in the guppy
Published: 2022-09-21
Subjects: Behavioral Neurobiology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Executive functions are a set of cognitive control processes required for optimizing goal- directed behaviour. Despite more than two centuries of research on executive functions, both in humans and nonhuman animal species, there is still a knowledge gap of what constitutes the mechanistic basis of evolutionary variation in executive function abilities. Here we show experimentally that changes in [...]
The promise of an evolutionary perspective of alcohol consumption
Published: 2022-08-23
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Other Life Sciences, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Environmental Health
The urgent need for medical treatments of alcohol use disorders has motivated the search for novel molecular targets of alcohol response. Most studies exploit the strengths of lab animals without considering how these and other species may have adapted to respond to alcohol in an ecological context. Here, we provide an evolutionary perspective on the molecular and genetic underpinnings of alcohol [...]
Re-examining extreme sleep duration in bats: implications for sleep phylogeny, ecology and function
Published: 2021-07-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Bats are quoted as sleeping for up to 20 hours a day, an example of extreme sleep duration amongst mammals. Given that duration is one of the primary metrics featured in comparative studies of sleep, it is important that determinations of species-specific sleep duration are well founded. Here, we summarise the evidence for the characterisation of bats as extreme sleepers and discuss whether it [...]