E. Versace

Noxious stimulation induces self-protective behaviour in bumblebees

This study shows bumblebees groom noxiously-stimulated antennae more than other body parts or controls, indicating they may experience pain.

Assessing preferences for adult vs juvenile features in young animals: newly-hatched chicks spontaneously approach red and large stimuli

This study shows that newly hatched chicks prefer red and large stimuli, suggesting they use these features to distinguish adults from juveniles without prior experience.

Pitch-size crossmodal correspondence in tortoises (Testudo hermanni)

The paper shows tortoises associate small visual discs with high pitch sounds and large discs with low pitch sounds, suggesting crossmodal associations are evolutionarily ancient.

Newborn chicks prefer stimuli that move against gravity

Newborn chicks show a preference for upward-moving stimuli over downward ones, suggesting an innate attraction to movement against gravity as a cue of animacy.

Motivational trade-offs in bumblebees

This study shows bumblebees modulate nociceptive avoidance by prioritizing higher sucrose rewards, indicating a form of pain perception through motivational trade-offs.

Pre- and post-mating reproductive isolation evolve independently during rapid adaptation to high temperature

Visual Field Analysis: a reliable method to score left- and right eye-use using automated tracking

The paper introduces Visual Field Analysis, an automated tool for measuring left- and right-eye use in animals, validated in chicks with perfect correlation to manual methods.

Recognition of familiar objects in tortoise hatchlings (Testudo spp.)

This study shows that tortoise hatchlings react differently to familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics, but not to objects, indicating social behavior is specific to interactions with living animals.

Young domestic chicks spontaneously represent the absence of objects

The paper investigates whether young domestic chicks can represent the absence of objects, finding distinct behavioral responses to presence and absence violations, including a sex-dependent left-eye-bias.

Resurgence of a perinatal attraction for animate objects via thyroid hormone T3

The paper shows that thyroid hormone T3 can re-establish early preferences for moving objects in chicks, suggesting shared molecular mechanisms for plasticity and predisposition.

Young chicks quickly lose their spontaneous preference to aggregate with females

The paper tests if young chicks have an innate sex preference for aggregation and finds that this preference disappears after exposure to same-sex conspecifics.

Stability and individual variability of social attachment in imprinting

This study investigates how filial imprinting preferences develop over time in chicks, showing that prolonged exposure strengthens preferences, while shorter exposure leads to re-evaluation based on innate preferences and past experiences.

A transient time window for early predispositions in newborn chicks

This study shows that a preference for speed changes in newborn chicks is fixed at the species level on day one but disappears by day three, indicating a transient time window for early predispositions.

Positional encoding in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus)

This study investigates how cotton-top tamarins encode positional regularities in an A(X)nB rule task, finding they use relative position encoding rather than absolute.

Evolutionary compromises to environmental toxins: ammonia and urea tolerance in Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster.

This study compares ammonia and urea tolerance between Drosophila suzukii and Drosophila melanogaster, finding D. suzukii more sensitive to these compounds due to less efficient detoxification mechanisms.