Animal behavior

Recent articles

Two prairie voles touch snouts in a tank.

Brain gene expression syncs between bonded prairie voles

The overlapping activity in the animals’ nucleus accumbens may underpin pair bonding, a new preprint suggests.

By Shaena Montanari
10 January 2025 | 5 min read
Illustration of cranes attempting to assemble a structure out of very small black squares.

In case you missed it: Standout news stories from 2024

These five stories—on the pregnant brain, a failed imaging method and more—top our list of some of the most notable neuroscience research findings this year.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 2 min read
Research image of neurons firing in the hippocampus of Egyptian fruit bats.

Egyptian fruit bats’ neural patterns represent different experimenters

The findings underscore the importance of accounting for “experimenter effects” on lab animals.

By Sneha Khedkar
13 August 2024 | 4 min read
Neuroscientist Nacho Sanguinetti deadpanning the camera as he sits at his desk with a photo cutout of an agouti on his computer.

Improvising to study brains in the wild: Q&A with Nacho Sanguinetti-Scheck

A joke at a neuroscience summer program nearly a decade ago ignited a lifelong research interest for this Uruguayan scientist—one that plays on his comedic strengths.

By Rebecca Horne
9 July 2024 | 7 min read
Close-up image of a dead fly with visible growths protruding from its abdomen due to Entomophthora fungus infection.

Mind control in zombie flies: Q&A with Carolyn Elya

A parasitic fungus compels its insect host to behave in strange ways by hijacking secretory neurons and circadian pathways.

By Shaena Montanari
25 June 2024 | 5 min read

Dancing in the dark: Honeybees use antennae to decode nestmates’ waggles

The insects align their antennae with their body’s angle to a dancer—information that vector-processing circuitry in the brain deciphers into a flight path, a new study suggests.

By Shaena Montanari
3 April 2024 | 0 min watch
A 3D map shows the point at which elephant seals begin spiraling during REM sleep.

Wild and free: Understanding animal behavior beyond the lab

Technological advancements have made it possible to study animals in more natural settings, but researchers are debating what that really means and whether natural is always better.

By Shaena Montanari
20 March 2024 | 9 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Who funds your basic neuroscience research? Help The Transmitter compile a list of funding sources

We want to hear from you about the sources of funding for your research.

By Claudia López Lloreda
28 March 2025 | 1 min read
University of Puerto Rico building.

The future of neuroscience research at U.S. minority-serving institutions is in danger

Cuts to federally funded programs present an existential crisis for the University of Puerto Rico’s rich neuroscience community and for research at minority-serving institutions everywhere.

By Carmen S. Maldonado-Vlaar
28 March 2025 | 5 min read
Astrocytes in a mouse brain.

Unexpected astrocyte gene flips image of brain’s ‘stalwart sentinels’

The genetic marker upends the accepted orientation of non-star-like astrocytes in the glia limitans superficialis.

By Lauren Schenkman
28 March 2025 | 5 min read