Cognition

Mary, the 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, loves using a hose to rinse off.

These Elephants Can Use Hoses to Shower—and Even 'Sabotage' Each Other, Study Suggests

Mary, a 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, is the “queen of showering,” but her companion Anchali seems to have figured out how to exploit that habit to play pranks

As the story goes, the makers of the first talking board asked the board what they should call it; the name “Ouija” came through.

The Ouija Board Can't Connect Us to Paranormal Forces—but It Can Tell Us a Lot About Psychology, Grief and Uncertainty

The game was born from Americans' obsession with Spiritualism in the 19th century. Since then, it's functioned as a reflection of their deep-seated beliefs and anxieties for more than a century

Cats are known for their ability to squeeze into tight spaces.

Cats May Be Aware of Their Body Size, Suggests Study of Their Famously 'Liquid' Behavior

A scientist used at-home experiments to test whether cats hesitated when moving through increasingly shorter or narrower openings

Researchers mapped all 139,255 neurons in the brain of an adult fruit fly, which are linked by more than 50 million synapses.

Scientists Unveil the First-Ever Complete Map of an Adult Fruit Fly's Brain, Captured in Stunning Detail

The brain diagram, called a connectome, could revolutionize researchers' understanding of the human brain, which has many parallels with a fruit fly's

Bluestreak cleaner wrasse eat parasites off other fish at coral reefs.

These Tiny Fish Will Assess Themselves in a Mirror Before Taking on a Foe

New findings suggest bluestreak cleaner wrasse understand how their body size stacks up against a rival

Dogs are highly attuned to the emotions of humans, according to the results of a new study about stress.

The Smell of Human Stress Leads Dogs to Make More Pessimistic Decisions, Study Suggests

Canines that smelled the sweat of anxious people were less likely to approach a bowl that might have contained food, indicating humans' emotions can affect dogs' behavior

Elephants at Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, on May 3, 2024. Elephants use low, rumbling vocalizations to call to others and while caring for their young.

African Elephants May Call Each Other by Name

In a new study, a computer model was able to identify the recipient of an elephant's call more than a quarter of the time, which scientists say is significantly greater than chance

Scientists trained three carrion crows to produce one, two, three or four vocalizations based on various visual or auditory cues.

Crows Can 'Count' Up to Four Like Human Toddlers, Study Suggests

Three carrion crows engaged in a simplified version of counting when prompted, and the birds showed signs of planning out their responses

A map of excitatory neurons from the new research. The team cataloged around 57,000 cells and 150 million connections between neurons.

Scientists Imaged and Mapped a Tiny Piece of Human Brain. Here's What They Found

With the help of an artificial intelligence algorithm, the researchers produced 1.4 million gigabytes of data from a cubic millimeter of brain tissue

Memorable, large images and scenes are associated with a longer perception of time, a new study suggests.

Are Days Passing Too Quickly? Memorable Experiences Might Help Dilate Your Sense of Time, Research Suggests

How we process time is linked to things we see, according to a new study, which found memorable, non-cluttered imagery can make moments seem to last longer

To create mouse-rat "chimeras," researchers injected rat stem cells into mouse embryos that lacked some genes for brain development.

Researchers Breed Mice With Hybrid Brains Containing Cells From Rats

In one experiment, rat neurons helped mice restore their senses of smell—the first time any animal has perceived the world through the sensory hardware of another species

Scientists are at odds about how intelligent T. rex was.

How Intelligent Was T. Rex? Scientists Suggest the Dinosaurs Were Like 'Smart, Giant Crocodiles'

A new paper refutes the idea that T. rex was as brainy as a baboon, furthering the debate on the extinct reptile's intellect

For each bad night of sleep in a one-month period, participants reported feeling three months older, on average, than they really are.

Bad Sleep Can Make You Feel Years Older Than You Really Are, Study Suggests

After just two nights of short sleep, a person’s “subjective age,” or how old they feel, can spike by more than four years

In a modified version of the mirror self-recognition experiment, eastern garter snakes showed signs that they recognize their own scent.

Can Snakes Recognize Themselves? One Species Has Passed a Modified 'Mirror Test' Based on Smell

Eastern garter snakes might recognize their own scents, suggesting the reptiles are more cognitively complex than thought, according to a new study

Black-capped chickadees' ability to remember where they've stashed food helps them survive barren winters.

Black-Capped Chickadees Are Masters of Memory—and Scientists Are Finding Out Why

The small birds use brain “barcodes” to remember where they stash food, according to new research

Several species of birds participated in the study, including this hyacinth macaw.

Watch Pet Parrots Learn to Play Tablet Games—With Their Tongues

Scientists are studying how the intelligent, social birds interact with touchscreens to help design mobile apps that serve as enrichment for the birds

Dogs may understand more words than humans likely realize, according to new research.

Dogs Can Understand the Words for Several Objects, Such as Toys and Leashes, Study Finds

Your dog may know the word "ball" is associated with their favorite round squishy toy, according to new research that measured brain waves

These digitally edited images show how Victor Sharrah perceives faces.

This Extremely Rare Neurological Condition Makes Faces Appear Distorted or 'Like a Demon'

For the first time, scientists have recreated what one patient suffering from prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO, sees when he looks at faces

The otherworldly form of the octopus has inspired millennia of fear and awe from humans.

Ten Wild Facts About Octopuses: They Have Three Hearts, Big Brains and Blue Blood

These bizarre creatures have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and for humans, they’ve inspired horror, admiration and culinary prestige

Asian elephants were observed burying calves between 3 months and 1 year old that had died after experiencing infections and malnutrition.

Asian Elephants Bury Their Dead, New Research Suggests

In India, five dead calves were found buried on their backs in irrigation ditches, with evidence that multiple herd members had participated in the burials

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