Felix W. Moll

Neat study suggesting proboscis dexterity is improved by learning in an invertebrate.

Nice commentary on our recent paper on crow stick tool use. To add one piece of information: One of our crows did, in fact, sometimes use the substrate (i.e., the apparatus desk) to adjust its grip—the crow for which stick re-grasping by tossing was too subtle to be reliably detected.

Jolie, an adult female chimpanzee of the Ngogo community in Kibale National Park, Uganda, with sleeping infant son, Zawinul. CREDIT: Kevin Langergraber

After the Ngogo chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female birth rates more than doubled and infant survival increased sharply—showing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/TKmf50XuPjY

As a longtime fan of cool papers in @currentbiology.bsky.social, I am really thrilled to see this out!

This study sets the stage for understanding the origins of novel (vocal) behaviors.

Big shout out to the main architects of this work @xmikezheng20.bsky.social and @cliffscience.bsky.social

A pair of canaries from the canary breeding colony of the Max Planck Institute of Biological Intelligence in Seewiesen, Germany. CREDIT: Stefan Leitner

Researchers gave female canaries testosterone, which causes them to sing. Two-photon in vivo imaging reveals that songs emerge due to changes in brain cell function rather than by increasing the size of a key brain region, as was once thought. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/pn1750XhFL5

Animal tool use: Capturing tool-expertise development with a deep learning network Movement tracking using the deep-learning network DeepLabCut has revealed how a species not known for tool use acquires and refines tool skills. This opens the door to detailed cross-species compariso...

Great Dispatch piece by @milliejohnston.bsky.social et al.. Our crows are very flattered: "Great skill can be found in the dextrous movements of a tool tip. [ ] from cave paintings and papyrus scripts to Da Vinci’s sketches and today’s remote laparoscopic surgery."

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Learned use of an innate sound-meaning association in birds - Nature Ecology & Evolution Over 20 species of geographically and phylogenetically diverse bird species produce convergent whining vocalizations towards their respective brood parasites. Model presentation and playback experimen...

🐦 21 species all produce similar whining noises towards their brood parasites
🐦 Found in areas w/dense parasite-host networks
🐦 Playbacks trigger innate recruit response from all hosts
🐦 --> intermediate b/t innate & learned signals!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#prattle 💬
#bioacoustics

2/2

Awesome, congrats!!

A 2024 study found that ants best humans at tests of collective intelligence.

Learn more on #WorldAnimalDay: https://scim.ag/42nMvQJ

Thanks for sharing! Don't miss out on the videos --> bsky.app/profile/moll...

New York City’s Rats Have a Secret Nightlife—And a Language Humans Can’t Hear A new preprint field study reveals that New York City’s rats aren’t just survivors—they’re talkative city dwellers with their own hidden nightlife. Mapping their movements and conversations could offe...

🌆🐀Scientific American article about the project we're starting on NYC rats!! scientificamerican.com/article/scie...

w/ Emily Mackevicius, Dima Batenkov, @zamakany.bsky.social, @basisresearch.bsky.social

Seeking collaborators and funders 🐀🌆

Thanks Arka! :)

Thank you :)

Eine Rabenkrähe schiebt mit ihrem Schnabel ein Stäbchen in eine Plexiglasbox. Text: "Rabenkrähen können lernen, Werkzeug zielgerichtet einzusetzen.". Rechts oben als Rubrik "Pressemitteilung".

Ein Forschungsteam der @unituebingen.bsky.social zeigt, wie Krähen lernen, ein Stäbchen präzise im Schnabel zu führen, um damit an Futter zu gelangen: 👉 uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet... #Neurobiologie #Biologie #Forschung

Linking it to our previous crow brain anatomy study (Moll et al., 2025, JCN): Our behavioral paradigm offers a scaffold for future studies investigating neuronal correlates of corvid tool use in the avian general motor system and beyond.

At the start of each trial, when the crows pulled the stick from the holder, the stick was often misaligned with the beak. In these cases, the initial pull was followed by brief tosses—momentary re-leases and re-grasps of the stick—to adjust its orientation within the beak and achieve a better grip.

Trained crows dexterously corrected errors when the tool’s working end lost control over the target.

DeepLabCut pose estimation (@trackingactions.bsky.social) revealed high intitial motor variability, which is essenatial for motor learning (Dhawale et al., 2017, Annu. Rev. Neurosci.).

New paper on precise tool use learning in carrion crows @currentbiology.bsky.social. We show that—like New Caledonian crows—expert carrion crows pay close attention to the working end of their tool, suggesting tool integration into their peripersonal space. 🧵 & vids! 👇

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Cool new paper on how neurons in my favorite bird's brain encode time. Congrats Millie and Max!! @milliejohnston.bsky.social , @crowbrain.bsky.social

Exploring Neural Dynamics in the Auditory Telencephalon of Crows Using Functional Ultrasound Imaging Crows, renowned for advanced cognitive abilities and vocal communication, rely on intricate auditory systems. While the neuroanatomy of corvid auditory pathways is partially explored, the underlying n...

Cool new method (functional ultrasound imaging) now established in the crow by @daliao.bsky.social and colleagues:

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/2...

Amazing meeting with amazing people!

Did complex song and dance co-evolve with brain size in the birds-of-paradise (Aves: Paradisaeidae)? Abstract. Complex signaling behaviors, such as avian song and courtship displays, have been associated with increases in both absolute and relative brain s

Our paper on brain size evolution in birds of paradise was recently accepted!

In brief:
•BoPs have big brains, comparable to those of medium-sized corvids
•Neither absolute nor relative brain size appears to have co-evolved with display complexity

doi.org/10.1093/orni...

My latest Aronov lab paper is now published @Nature!

When a chickadee looks at a distant location, the same place cells activate as if it were actually there 👁️

The hippocampus encodes where the bird is looking, AND what it expects to see next -- enabling spatial reasoning from afar

bit.ly/3HvWSum

Our first look at midbrain PAG’s role in singing mouse vocal control. When near each other, these mice produce two divergent vocal modes. Same circuits for USVs and Songs—or different ones? Bets were made..some of us bought beers for others! Led by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social & Clifford Harpole. 👇🏽

Convergent vocal representations in parrot and human forebrain motor networks - Nature Using advanced brain-recording techniques, parrots were found to have a brain organization for vocal control similar to humans, making them an important model for studying speech and for developing potential treatments for communication disorders.

Nature research paper: Convergent vocal representations in parrot and human forebrain motor networks

https://go.nature.com/4iEIBsz

Dual neuromodulatory dynamics underlie birdsong learning - Nature Dopamine release in the basal ganglia of the zebra finch is driven by neurons associated with reinforcement learning and by cholinergic signalling, and tracks performance quality during long-term lear...

Proud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)

Natural behaviour is learned through dopamine-mediated reinforcement - Nature Studies in zebra finches show that dopamine has a key role as a reinforcement signal in the trial-and-error process of learning that underlies complex natural behaviours.

Excited to share our latest work! It’s been a great experience working on this (including building a whole new lab!) 😊

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bridging the fields of cognition and birdsong with corvids Corvids, readily adaptable across social and ecological contexts, successfully inhabit almost the entire world. They are seen as highly intelligent bi…

How might the general motor system and the song system interact and contribute to flexible vocal behavior? We discuss this question in our brand-new review with lead author @daliao.bsky.social:

"Bridging the fields of cognition and birdsong with corvids"

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Exploring Anatomical Links Between the Crow's Nidopallium Caudolaterale and Its Song System The crow's nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) projects densely to the dorsal intermediate arcopallium (AID) and the striatum, paralleling important song system pathways. Connections from the magnocellul...

Now published in JCN: "Exploring Anatomical Links Between the Crow's Nidopallium Caudolaterale and Its Song System"

In crows (which are songbirds!), we show that the song system is paralleled by the 'general motor system' (cf. Feenders, 2008; Farries, 2001).

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....