Yawning is contagious for lions, who synchronize their behaviors to help group cohesion

Some animals, including humans, will start yawning after someone else nearby yawns, and a new study suggests this ‘contagious yawning’ helps fuel group cohesion. Researchers observing lions in South Africa found the animals do not just mimic each other’s yawns, they would copy subsequent behaviors. If one lion yawned, then got up and moved somewhere … Read more

Army-funded algorithm decodes brain signals responsible for behaviors like walking and breathing

A machine learning algorithm has shown the ability to link specific behaviors, such as walking and breathing, to their related brain signals – a first step to developing brain-machine interfaces. The algorithm, funded by the US Army, was tested on two monkeys that made various arm and eye movements. The technology successfully isolated the neural … Read more