Behavioral plasticity
- Multimodal mechanosensing enables treefrog embryos to escape egg-predators
Highlighted Article: Red-eyed treefrog embryos use both their lateral line and vestibular systems to sense the disturbance cues in egg-predator attacks that inform escape-hatching decisions.
- Smashing mantis shrimp strategically impact shells
Highlighted Article: Mantis shrimp strike shells repeatedly, sequentially and with predictable behavioral variation that corresponds to shell shape. Physical modeling demonstrates that mantis shrimp use an impact strategy that maximizes shell damage.
- Brain mitochondrial bioenergetics change with rapid and prolonged shifts in aggression in the honey bee, Apis mellifera
Summary: Brain mitochondrial function changes with aggressive social interactions and corresponds to age-related shifts in aggression in the honey bee.
- Pheromones modulate responsiveness to a noxious stimulus in honey bees
Highlighted Article: Alarm and aggregation pheromones modulate the subjective evaluation of aversive stimuli in an insect, thus contributing to behavioral plasticity beyond their stereotyped role as chemical messengers.
- Monoaminergic integration of diet and social signals in the brains of juvenile spadefoot toads
Summary: Early effects of diet modify monoamine levels and the monoamine response to social signals in the brain of plains spadefoot toads, a species in which diet and body condition influence social preferences.
- The lateral line confers evolutionarily derived sleep loss in the Mexican cavefish
Highlighted Article: Increased sensory input from the lateral line contributes to the evolution of sleep loss in Mexican cavefish, providing a model for investigating how the sensory systems modulate sleep.