Social behaviors

Recent articles

Two heatmap-like mouse silhouettes overlaid with a grid of ones and zeroes.

How artificial agents can help us understand social recognition

Neuroscience is chasing the complexity of social behavior, yet we have not answered the simplest question in the chain: How does a brain know “who is who”? Emerging multi-agent artificial intelligence may help accelerate our understanding of this fundamental computation.

By Eunji Kong
16 January 2026 | 5 min read

Home makeover helps rats better express themselves: Q&A with Raven Hickson and Peter Kind

The “Habitat”—a complex environment with space for large social groups—expands the behavioral repertoire of rodent models, Hickson and Kind say.

By Holly Barker
4 December 2025 | 0 min watch
Mother mouse with pups.

Oxytocin shapes both mouse mom and pup behavior

Distressed pups emit distinct cries for help, which depend on oxytocin neurons in their hypothalamus.

By Claudia López Lloreda
11 September 2025 | 5 min read

Hitting city streets to record rat behaviors: Q&A with Emily Mackevicius, Ralph Peterson

Capturing the rodents’ vocalizations and movements in the wild offers an opportunity to study naturalistic behaviors in a complex urban environment, Mackevicius and Peterson say.

By Marta Hill
19 August 2025 | 0 min watch
Peggy Mason at her desk.

Up and out with Peggy Mason

Mason helped define the rodent prosocial behavior field, but now she’s changing course.

By Sydney Wyatt
15 August 2025 | 12 min read
Two prairie voles.

Oxytocin prompts prairie voles to oust outsiders, fortifying their friendships

The “love hormone” drives the neurobiology behind platonic bonds in animals usually studied for their romantic attachments.

By Holly Barker
8 August 2025 | 7 min read
Two mice sleeping.

Soft touch quells loneliness in mice

Touch modulates one of two dueling types of hypothalamic neurons that, thermostat-like, balance an animal’s drive for social interaction.

By Angie Voyles Askham
26 February 2025 | 6 min read
A young child in a blue shirt sits in a red chair and speaks to an adult at the edge of the frame.

AI tool estimates social ability by analyzing speech

The system’s code and training data—drawn from one of the largest databases of speech recordings from autistic people—are openly available.

By Charles Q. Choi
13 February 2025 | 5 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Prenatal viral injections prime primate brain for study

The approach makes it possible to deploy tools such as CRISPR and optogenetics across the monkey brain before birth.

By Angie Voyles Askham
22 January 2026 | 5 min read
Researcher Russell Poldrack's face closeup, with a scanner seen out of focus behind him.

A brief history of precision self-scanning

When a researcher solved a logistical problem by going rogue, the idea proved remarkably infectious.

By Lauren Gravitz
21 January 2026 | 14 min read
Pyramidal neurons in the mouse hippocampus.

Sensory profiles in autism, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 19 January.

By Jill Adams
20 January 2026 | 2 min read

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