Topic: fine kinematics

The concept that discrete actions act as an atomic basis of behavior has pervaded ethology from Lorenz and Tinbergen’s foundational studies to the current computational era. Recent research corroborates these atomic units, showing that laboratory mice choose actions that appear syllabic: i.e. both discontinuous in time and syntactically structured. Yet, little is known about how these syllables vary across phylogeny, where species adapt both behavior and physiology to form ecological niches. Here, we address this question by analyzing the syllabic repertoire and distribution of 18 species and