The objective of the present study was to examine whether acute stress and its accompanying fluctuations in stress hormone levels impact the transfer of information across the corpus callosum.

As part of the 25th Anniversary Special Issue of Animal Cognition, we review recent discoveries that have revealed how categorization is mediated in the avian brain and propose a theoretical framework that goes beyond the realm of birds.

Many bird species have outstanding spatial abilities as visible during migration, homing or food caching. Just like in mammals, these spatial functions rely heavily on the integrity of the hippocampus (HC).

Behavior is the key to the mind, but can machines recognize and classify behavior by automated means? This is what biopsychologists and computer scientists could demonstrate by using the deep-learning-based pose-estimation tool DeepLabCut.

Intelligence is highly heritable. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that thousands of alleles contribute to variation in intelligence with small effect sizes.

Mirror self-recognition has also been claimed for bottlenose dolphins but this initial work is highly contested. The problem is: “How do test an animal that cannot touch the mark because it has no arms?”

In humans, stress can alter functional asymmetries. But is this also true for other species like, e.g., dogs, our companion since Thousands of years?

On May 17, 2023, the raw construction of THINK was finalized and a very nice topping out ceremony took place. Politicians from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the city of Bochum as well as representatives of the building agency and our university gave short congratulation addresses.

One major survival-related activity of organisms is to seek food in their environment. To this end, they exploit previously rewarding locations and attempt to approach the cues predictive of the edible items they detect or expect. But foraging is unlikely to be a matter of reinforcement only.

Neuroticism is a personality trait that is associated with high levels of anxiety, anger, and loneliness. Biopsychologists in Bochum have now discovered a link between the cellular microstructure of the amygdala and neuroticism.