Explanipedia

Lateralized cerebellar connectivity differentiates auditory pathways in echolocating and non-echolocating whales Open

Sophie A Flem, Gregory S. Berns, Ben Inglis, Dillon Niederhut, Eric W. Montie , et al. · 2025

We report the first application of diffusion tractography to a mysticete, which was analyzed alongside three odontocete brains, allowing the first direct comparison of strength and laterality of auditory pathways in echolocating and non-ec…

Sensorimotor synchronization to rhythm in an experienced sea lion rivals that of humans Open

Peter F. Cook, Carson Hood, Andrew Rouse, Colleen Reichmuth · 2025

Is human beat keeping unique among vertebrates? The only non-human data showing consistent and lagless beat matching to novel stimuli, including music, come from Ronan , a trained sea lion [Cook et al., J. Comp. Psychol. , 127(4):412–427].…

Manatee cognition and behavior: a neurobiological perspective on an unusual constellation of senses and a unique brain Open

Peter F. Cook, Gordon B. Bauer, Roger L. Reep · 2025

The nervous systems of manatees are strikingly unique across multiple dimensions. Manatees have the largest lissencephalic (smooth) brains in the animal kingdom, and demonstrate unusual somatosensory anatomy and physiology in the periphera…

Neurobiological adaptations supporting vocal plasticity have accumulated in the marine carnivores Open

Peter F. Cook, Andrew A. Rouse, Eva K. Sawyer, Karla L. Miller, Gregory S. Berns · 2025

The evolutionary neurobiology of mammalian vocal learning is poorly understood. Pinnipeds are among the most promising model clades for addressing this knowledge gap^1–4. The whole clade has been adaptively endowed with exquisite…

An Ecological and Neural Argument for Developing Pursuit-Based Cognitive Enrichment for Sea Lions in Human Care Open

Peter F. Cook, Colleen Reichmuth · 2024

While general enrichment strategies for captive animals attempt to elicit variable and species-typical behaviors, approaches to cognitive enrichment have been disappointingly one-size-fits-all. In this commentary, we address the potential …

The Future of Comparative Cognition? Conservation! Open

Heidi E. Harley, Peter F. Cook, Gordon B. Bauer · 2024

The field of comparative cognition is in a good position to support conservation efforts in a quickly changing world.Given that cognition is central to real-time adaptation, we have a responsibility to advocate for the often-overlooked rel…

Twenty Years of Managed Epilepsy for a Stranded Male Guadalupe Fur Seal (Arctocephalus townsendi) Secondary to Suspect Domoic Acid Toxicosis Open

Todd L. Schmitt, Judy St. Leger, Ben Inglis, Nancy Stedman, Hendrik H. Nollens , et al. · 2023

Many wild otariids (sea lions and fur seals) strand along the California coast annually with seizures following presumed exposure to harmful algal blooms (HABs). This is a long-term case study of a stranded subadult male Guadalupe fur seal…

An ecological approach to measuring synchronization abilities across the animal kingdom Open

Molly J. Henry, Peter F. Cook, Koen de Reus, Vivek Nityananda, Andrew A. Rouse , et al. · 2021

In this perspective paper, we focus on the study of synchronization abilities across the animal kingdom. We propose an ecological approach to studying nonhuman animal synchronization that begins from observations about when, how and why an…

The Sensory World of Otariids Open

Frederike D. Hanke, Colleen Reichmuth, Peter F. Cook · 2021

Otariids face many unique challenges with respect to lifestyle and habitat. They need to find suitable foraging areas in the open ocean, detect and capture moving prey in near darkness, identify suitable mating partners in traditional terr…

The Mind of a Sea Lion Open

Peter F. Cook, Colleen Reichmuth, Frederike D. Hanke · 2021

The mind of a sea lion links sensory information gathered from the surrounding environment to the decision operations, or cognitive processes, that enable behavioral responses based on judgement and experience. Here, we illustrate the sea …

The Relevance of Ecological Transitions to Intelligence in Marine Mammals Open

Gordon B. Bauer, Peter F. Cook, Heidi E. Harley · 2020

Macphail's comparative approach to intelligence focused on associative processes, an orientation inconsistent with more multifaceted lay and scientific understandings of the term. His ultimate emphasis on associative processes indicated fe…

An MRI protocol for anatomical and functional evaluation of the California sea lion brain Open

Peter F. Cook, Vanessa Hoard, Sudipto Dolui, Blaise B. Frederick, Richard Redfern , et al. · 2020

We describe a research MRI protocol for in vivo evaluation of pinniped brains using standard human clinical MRI hardware and pulse sequences. Our intended application is to study development of California sea lions ( Zalophus californianus…

Clinical signs and mortality of non‐released stranded California sea lions housed in display facilities: the suspected role of prior exposure to algal toxins Open

Claire A. Simeone, Deborah Fauquier, Jennifer Skidmore, Peter F. Cook, Kathleen M. Colegrove , et al. · 2019

Stranded California sea lions considered unable to survive in the wild are often placed in public display facilities. Exposure to the biotoxin domoic acid (DA) is a common cause of stranding, and chronic effects are observed long after ini…

Awake fMRI Reveals Brain Regions for Novel Word Detection in Dogs Open

Ashley Prichard, Peter F. Cook, Mark Spivak, Raveena Chhibber, Gregory S. Berns · 2018

How do dogs understand human words? At a basic level, understanding would require the discrimination of words from non-words. To determine the mechanisms of such a discrimination, we trained 12 dogs to retrieve two objects based on object …

Jealousy in dogs? Evidence from brain imaging Open

Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns · 2018

Domestic dogs are highly social and have been shown to be sensitive not only to the actions of humans and other dogs but to the interactions between them. We used the C-BARQ scale to estimate dogs' aggressiveness, and we used noninvasive b…

The degeneracy of behavior and the rise of neuroimaging to measure affective states in dogs Open

Peter F. Cook, Gregory S. Berns · 2018

It is gratifying and significant that so many scientists from diverse fields are arguing in-depth regarding a particularly complex set of social emotions in a non-human animal. Emotions play a fundamental role in decision making and inform…

Awake fMRI Reveals Covert Arousal in Aggressive Dogs Under Social Resource Threat Open

Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns · 2017

Domestic dogs are highly social, and have been shown sensitive not only to the actions of humans and other dogs but to the interactions between them. To examine the canine neurobiological response to observed interactions between a human a…

Studying dog emotion beyond expression and without concern for feeling Open

Peter F. Cook · 2017

Studies of dog emotion have focused on the expression of social emotion, either because this is taken to suggest human-like feeling states in dogs or because it has been the most accessible signal of dog emotional processing. I argue for a…

The evolutionary biology of dance without frills Open

Andrea Ravignani, Peter F. Cook · 2016

Awake canine fMRI predicts dogs’ preference for praise <i>vs</i> food Open

Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns · 2016

Dogs are hypersocial with humans, and their integration into human social ecology makes dogs a unique model for studying cross-species social bonding. However, the proximal neural mechanisms driving dog-human social interaction are unknown…

Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs’ Preference for Praise Versus Food Open

Peter F. Cook, Ashley Prichard, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns · 2016

Dogs are hypersocial with humans, and their integration into human social ecology makes dogs a unique model for studying cross-species social bonding. However, the proximal neural mechanisms driving dog-human social interaction are unknown…

Beat Keeping in a Sea Lion As Coupled Oscillation: Implications for Comparative Understanding of Human Rhythm Open

Andrew A. Rouse, Peter F. Cook, Edward W. Large, Colleen Reichmuth · 2016

Human capacity for entraining movement to external rhythms-i.e., beat keeping-is ubiquitous, but its evolutionary history and neural underpinnings remain a mystery. Recent findings of entrainment to simple and complex rhythms in non-human …

Rhythmic entrainment: Why humans want to, fireflies can’t help it, pet birds try, and sea lions have to be bribed Open

Margaret Wilson, Peter F. Cook · 2016

Regional brain activations in awake unrestrained dogs Open

Peter F. Cook, Andrew M. Brooks, Mark Spivak, Gregory S. Berns · 2015

Because of its accessibility, tractability, evolutionary history, and social intelligence, the domestic dog is increasingly used as a model animal in behavioral studies. Although this has led to new insights into canine cognition, understa…

Awake fMRI reveals a specialized region in dog temporal cortex for face processing Open