Articles tagged with Animal Learning
Researchers found that lead levels in songbirds' drinking water impaired their ability to produce normal vocalizations and attract mates. The study suggests that even low levels of lead can have negative effects on the brain and learning abilities of these birds.
Researchers found that gifted dogs can rapidly learn novel words in social contexts but not in exclusion-based tasks. The study tested two exceptional dogs, Whisky and Vicky Nina, who learned new words after hearing them just four times.
A new study shows that big bumblebees selectively remember the location of flowers with high nectar concentrations. In contrast, smaller bumblebees invest equally in learning the locations of artificial flowers regardless of sucrose concentration.
A study published in Science found that the perirhinal cortex accumulates information from multiple senses and sends it back to the rest of the cortex, enabling coordinated learning. Without this connection, animals struggle to retain information, resembling patients with anterograde amnesia like H.M.
A new study by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft scientists has identified a region of the thalamus as a key source of signals encoding past experiences in the neocortex. This discovery sheds light on how the brain forms sensory memories, which are essential for perceiving our environment and interacting with it.
A study by University of Sussex scientists suggests that neurons in the sensory cortex can decipher meaning and regulate bodily responses. Researchers found that even in sensory parts of the cortex, there were neurons directly linking learned sequences to motor responses, and some responded to rewards or outcomes.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University used positive reinforcement to train a robot named Spot to perform several tasks in days, compared to months. The team devised a reward system that works for robots like treats do for dogs, earning numeric points for correct behaviors.
Researchers found neurons in the striosome contribute to both positive reinforcement learning and negative-reinforcement learning, highlighting the complex motivation-processing hub in this brain region. Understanding its function is critical for developing better treatments for mental illnesses such as depression and addiction.
Scientists discovered that a specific brain pathway is crucial for motivation but not for reward-driven learning. The research may lead to more precise interventions and effective therapies for psychiatric disorders.
Researchers propose a new understanding of how animals decide when to create new mental maps in response to changing environments. By mathematically modeling the process as probabilistic reasoning, scientists can better interpret experiments that rely on measuring remapping for learning and memory research.
A study found that animals who try to sound 'bigger' are often skilled sound learners. Researchers analyzed the sounds and body size of 164 mammals and discovered that those who fake their size are frequently good at learning new sounds. This discovery may provide insight into human speech evolution.
Research by Marta Moita and her team found that social animals acquire fear of freezing through auto-conditioning, which requires both pain and immobility. The team discovered a neural map in the brain's fear-learning center and auditory system that underlies this learning mechanism.
Scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute mapped the brain's complex calculations to link distinct events separated in time, shedding light on anxiety and trauma-related disorders. The hippocampus uses bursts of activity to form associations, saving energy by encoding information in synapses rather than constant electrical activity.
Scientists discovered widespread synaptic changes in sea slugs that learn to reject non-food objects, offering insight into human learning's impact on the brain. The study found that synaptic modifications occur in concert across various brain areas.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have developed a brain-computer interface technology that can readjust itself in real-time to ensure smooth operation. The system uses electrodes smaller than a hair to record neural activity, allowing users to control devices with greater precision and accuracy.
Researchers found that diet can alter the way sugar tastes in fruit flies, using the same molecular pathways as learning and memory. They discovered that certain diets promote long life also enhance taste perception, and that eating high amounts of sugar suppresses sweet taste perception.
Researchers found that rejuvenating immune cells, specifically microglia, significantly improved brain repair and learning abilities in animal models. This discovery challenges the long-held assumption that microglia drive inflammation after brain injuries.
Researchers found that novelty activates dopamine neurons, promoting associative learning in animals and humans. This discovery has implications for improving learning strategies and designing more efficient machine learning algorithms.
A University of Exeter study found that grey squirrels with strong left-right preferences performed poorly on a learning task, suggesting a negative relationship between laterality and cognitive performance. The researchers measured the speed of learning among over 30 squirrels to assess both learning and lateralization.
A new study by OIST researchers reveals that giant land tortoises have impressive powers of long-term recall, demonstrating their ability to recognize individual keepers and learn complex tasks. The study also found that tortoises trained in groups learned faster than those trained alone.
Researchers found that fruit flies can build and update mental maps of their surroundings by linking visual features to compass neurons, allowing them to adapt to changing environments. This flexible mapping ability has implications for how other animals navigate in the wild and may even influence human navigation.
Researchers studied mouse brain activity while learning tasks, finding neural networks become more focused and selective over time. The team developed computational models to inform decision-making neuroscience, revealing the role of inhibitory neurons in cognition.
Researchers found that optimal learning occurs when failure rates are 15%, resulting in 85% accuracy. This '85% Rule' is based on machine-learning experiments and may apply to human perceptual learning as well.
Researchers found that mice no longer use the primary motor cortex to control movements once they have mastered a task. After mastering a movement, mice may stop relying on primary motor cortex, suggesting multiple movement control systems in the brain.
Researchers found that women using hormonal contraception experienced reduced benefits from exposure therapy compared to those not taking oral contraceptives. Symptom severity decreased after therapy, but improved more for those without hormonal contraception.
Researchers at Swansea University found that common shore crabs can learn the path of a maze to find food and recall it two weeks later. The study showed significant improvement in navigation time and accuracy over four weeks.
A new study by UC San Francisco researchers reveals that two distinct types of slow brain waves, slow oscillations and delta waves, compete to determine whether new information is consolidated or forgotten. Disrupting one type of wave enhances memory retention, while disrupting the other leads to forgetting.
A new deep learning toolkit, DeepPoseKit, has been developed to measure animal body posture with high speed and accuracy. The tool can be applied to study wild animals in challenging field settings and provides an accessible system for non-experts to apply machine learning to their behavioral research.
The study demonstrates the evolution of associative learning in an artificial organism without a brain, allowing it to navigate complex environments and adapt to changing signals. This breakthrough has huge implications for developing robots that can learn from experiences as effectively as humans do.
Researchers at Columbia University identified a neural circuit in the auditory cortex where cells' responses became specialized for learned songs. This flexibility helps birds adapt to new songs and offers clues about humans' ability to learn languages.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an automated, robotic training device that allows mice to learn at their own pace. They found that cortical synapses are more plastic than expected and maintain a pathway for fast sensory input.
Rockefeller scientists have found that an animal's education relies on both what experiences it acquires and when it acquires them. Studying fruit flies, researchers showed that a single odor can become either appealing or disgusting depending on the timing of its encounter relative to a reward.
Pitt and CMU researchers reveal that mastering a new skill involves the generation of new neural activity patterns, which enable new behavioral abilities. Long-term learning leads to the emergence of these patterns, allowing individuals to perform complex tasks.
Researchers found that West African green monkeys quickly learned the meaning of unfamiliar drone sounds and mimicked an East African vervet monkey's call to warn against eagles. This suggests that alarm call structure is deeply rooted in evolutionary history.
A new study found that blind adults develop rich insights into animal appearance by inferring from biological classifications and linguistic communication. Blind participants organized animals similarly to sighted ones in shape and texture groups, but disagreed on color groups.
A new Johns Hopkins University study found that rewards can improve learning incrementally but mask the true knowledge animals have attained. The researchers trained mice, rats, and ferrets on various tasks with and without rewards, revealing a distinction between knowledge and performance.
A recent study led by IGB demonstrates complex learning behaviour in Atlantic sturgeons. The fish trained to search for food in a sandy environment showed improved feeding behavior and increased formation of the transcription factor neurod1 in their brains.
Researchers found that slime molds can store knowledge of salty environments through absorption, allowing for up to a month of retention. The study suggests that the substance itself supports the slime mold's memory, rather than just the environment.
A team of USC researchers developed an AI-controlled robotic limb that can learn a new walking task in 5 minutes and adapt to other tasks without programming. The robot uses bio-inspired algorithms to build an internal map of its limb and environment, enabling it to develop personalized movements.
Research demonstrates somatosensory cortex, responsible for touch, also participates in reward learning. The findings suggest that learning and memory may permeate the brain, challenging conventional wisdom on brain function.
Researchers found that bees can recognize colors as symbolic representations for basic math operations and use this information to solve problems. The study suggests that advanced numerical cognition may be found widely in nature among non-human animals.
Columbia engineers create a robot that learns what it is from scratch with zero prior knowledge of physics or motor dynamics. The robot uses deep learning to create a self-model, allowing it to adapt and learn from its own experiences.
Researchers decipher how brain's cortex processes sensory information and optimizes synaptic connections through feedback systems. This study sheds light on the mechanisms of perceptual learning and its potential applications in computerized learning systems and artificial intelligence.
Researchers have found that great apes and ravens develop planning capacities through associative learning, rather than human-like mental simulations. The new model shows how animals can learn to make decisions that lack immediate benefits but lead to meaningful outcomes in the future.
Researchers found that participants who believed they were multitasking transcribed more words per second and scored better on comprehension quizzes. The study suggests that our perception of multitasking can influence how well we engage with tasks.
Researchers identified the paraventricular thalamus as a key player in tracking important details for animals to learn. The study's findings suggest that the brain can adapt its focus on good and bad outcomes based on context, which could lead to new treatments for drug addiction.
Researchers found no significant differences between synthetic and live tissue models in terms of stress levels during training. This study suggests that synthetic models can be used without sacrificing educational quality, reducing the need for live animal use.
A new mathematical model describes the distribution of sensory errors in learning, revealing that animals explore and track a range of possibilities to compensate for variabilities. The study found that birds combine their hypotheses with new information from their ears while singing, surprisingly accurately.
A team of scientists found that big game animals like bighorn sheep and moose learn to migrate by passing cultural knowledge across generations. The researchers used GPS tracking data to show that translocated animals took decades to learn how to navigate their new habitats, and those that did became more likely to migrate.
A human study found that short training sessions spaced out over weeks improved retention of arbitrary associations, unlike a single 20-minute session. Neuroimaging data showed increased brain engagement in learning-related regions.
Researchers found that experienced animals form memories using different plasticity mechanisms than naive subjects, suggesting the way our neurons form new connections depends on their prior history. Previously activated neurons were more excitable, making them capable of different kinds of plasticity.
A recent study published in Nature Communications reveals that serotonin plays a crucial role in learning by influencing an animal's decision-making strategies. When the interval between trials was short, mice relied on their working memory, while longer intervals activated their long-term memory, allowing them to learn from past rewar...
A new study finds that swamp sparrows create time-honored song traditions by faithfully copying the most popular songs, with some lasting hundreds of years. The birds' cultural conformity generates extremely stable traditions in their bird song, rivaling those of humans.
A new study uses deep learning to automate wildlife data collection, improving the ability to study and conserve wildlife. The technology can accurately identify species, count individuals, and describe behavior, saving significant volunteer time.
Researchers isolated striosome neuron activity using optical neural imaging technology to shed light on their role in reinforcement learning. The study found that striosomal neurons fire more actively in response to odor cues associated with water rewards, indicating they are involved in anticipating the outcome of a stimulus.
Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a method using deep reinforcement learning to create realistic computer animations. The system, dubbed DeepMimic, can simulate various skills, including acrobatic feats like break dancing and martial arts, and respond naturally to changes in the environment.
In a study on ring-tailed lemurs, researchers found that those who learned to solve tasks received more affiliative behaviors, such as grooming, from others. This increased their social position and became more influential within their group.
Princeton University researchers found that lemurs who solve problems gain more social connections and attention from others. By observing the behavior of successful individuals, other lemurs are more likely to adopt similar skills and strategies.
Researchers found that three-month-old infants can learn same and different relations in just six trials, with better performance when presented with fewer examples but more comparison opportunities. This finding suggests that humans' talent for relational learning is present from infancy and may even be a precursor to language learning.
Researchers found that mosquitoes associate odors with unpleasant mechanical shocks, leading them to avoid those scents. The insects' ability to process and learn from odor information relies on dopamine in the brain.