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Multimodal communication research focuses on how different means of signalling coordinate to communicate effectively. This line of research is traditionally influenced by fields such as cognitive and neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and linguistics. With new technologies becoming available in fields such as natural language processing and computer vision, the field can increasingly avail itself of new ways of analyzing and understanding multimodal communication. As a result, there is a general hope that multimodal research may be at the “precipice of greatness” due to technological advances in computer science and resulting extended empirical coverage. However, for this to come about there must be sufficient guidance on key (theoretical) needs of innovation in the field of multimodal communication. Absent such guidance, the research focus of computer scientists might increasingly diverge from crucial issues in multimodal communication. With this paper, we want to further promote interaction between these fields, which may enormously benefit both communities. The multimodal research community (represented here by a consortium of researchers from the Visual Communication [ViCom] Priority Programme) can engage in the innovation by clearly stating which technological tools are needed to make progress in the field of multimodal communication. In this article, we try to facilitate the establishment of a much needed common ground on feasible expectations (e.g., in terms of terminology and measures to be able to train machine learning algorithms) and to critically reflect possibly idle hopes for technical advances, informed by recent successes and challenges in computer science, social signal processing, and related domains.

In several species, individuals form long-lasting social relationships with other group members, which provide them with important fitness benefits. In primates, patterns of social relationships are known to differ between sexes, but little is known about how these differences emerge through development or the role that mothers might have in this process. Here, we investigated how sex differences in social behaviour emerge during the first six years of primate life and how sex-biased maternal investment can foster immatures' social development and social interaction with other group members. For this purpose, we observed 20 males and females aged between zero and six years in a wild group of spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) that was male-philopatric and, therefore, expected to show sex-biased maternal investment. Our results showed no sex difference in the social development of offspring with regards to body contact and grooming, but the probability of play was rather constant throughout age for females, whereas, for males, it became higher than females around two years of age, peaking between three and four years of age. Moreover, we found differences between female and male immatures in the importance of maternal investment (which included the time mothers spent nursing, carrying, grooming, touching and playing with their offspring) for their social integration in the natal group. In particular, maternal investment increased the probability of playing with other group members for sons, but not for daughters. Our findings suggest that mothers, through sex-biased maternal investment, might have a crucial function in the social development of spider monkeys, fostering the abilities that young offspring need to thrive as adults. By shedding light on maternal investment and social development in a still understudied primate species, these findings contribute to understanding the evolutionary roots of human maternal care and social development.

Behavioural contagion is a widespread phenomenon in animal species, which is thought to promote coordination and group cohesion. Among non-human primates, however, there is no evidence of behavioural contagion in Platyrrhines (i.e. primates from South and Central America) yet. Here, we investigated whether behavioural contagion is also present in this taxon, by assessing yawning and scratching contagion in a wild group (N = 49) of Geoffroy’s spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi). We conducted focal samples to examine whether individuals observing the triggering event (i.e. a naturally occurring yawning or scratching event in the group) would be more likely to yawn or scratch in the following 3 min, as compared to individuals who did not observe the triggering event. We ran generalized linear mixed models using a Bayesian approach, and found that the probability of yawning and scratching was higher for individuals observing others yawning and scratching, respectively, as compared to individuals who did not observe such an event. Behavioural contagion did not vary depending on the observer’s sex, kinship or relationship quality with the individual performing the triggering event. These findings provide the first evidence for yawning and scratching contagion in a wild group of spider monkeys, and importantly contribute to the debate about the evolutionary origins of behavioural contagion in primates.

In the published article, there was an error. It was stated that the adjusted steepness values of our study groups were 0.637 in Nürnberg, 0.591 in Cordoba, 0.225 in Gibraltar, 0.165 in Kinztheim-1 and 0.136 in Kintzheim-2. However, there was a mistake in the script used to calculate adjusted steepness. After correcting the mistake in the script, the correct adjusted steepness values are: 0.202 in Nürnberg, 0.203 in Cordoba, 0.156 in Gibraltar, 0.144 in Kinztheim-1 and 0.136 in Kintzheim-2. A correction has been made to Results, Dominance Style, Paragraph 1. The corrected paragraph is shown below. “The study groups varied in their dominance style. Adjusted steepness values decreased as the group size increased, being highest in Cordoba (i.e., 0.203, N = 6) and Nürnberg (i.e., 0.202, N = 5), while decreasing in Gibraltar (i.e. 0.156, N = 19), and being lowest in the two larger groups (i.e., 0.144 in Kintzheim-1, N = 59; and 0.136 in Kintzheim-2, N = 48). Adjusted steepness values decreased as the group size increased, being highest in Nürnberg (i.e., 0.637, N = 5) and Cordoba (i.e., 0.591, N = 6), while decreasing in Gibraltar (i.e., 0.225, N = 19), and being lowest in the two larger groups (i.e., 0.165 in Kintzheim-1, N = 59; and 0.136 in Kintzheim-2, N = 48). Similarly, the proportion of agonistic interactions against the hierarchy was lower in the smaller groups (i.e., 1/64 = 2% in Nürnberg; 6/229 = 3% in Cordoba; and 2/125 = 2% in Gibraltar), and higher in the larger ones (i.e., 177/1,412 = 13% in Kintzheim-1 and 199/1,253 = 16% in Kintzheim-2).” Please note that the steepness values presented in the paper were only given for descriptive reasons and these steepness values were not included in any further analysis. Thus, the results of our statistical analyses in the paper are not affected by this mistake. Moreover, the changes in the steepness values do not affect the order of the steepness values for the various study groups: the correct steepness values remain highest in Nürnberg and Cordoba, while decreasing in Gibraltar, and being lowest in the two larger groups (i.e., Kintzheim-1 and Kintzheim-2). Therefore, this mistake does not affect the interpretation of our results and our conclusions. The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated. Copyright © 2023 Amici, Widdig, von Fersen, Lopez Caicoya and Majolo.

Extensive introgression of genes from domesticated taxa may be a serious threat for the genomic integrity and adaptability of wild populations. Grey wolves (Canis lupus) are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon, but there are no studies yet assessing the potential behavioural effects of dog-introgression in wolves. In this study, we conducted a first systematic comparison of admixed (N = 11) and non-admixed wolves (N = 14) in captivity, focusing on their reaction to unfamiliar humans and novel objects, and the cohesiveness of their social groups. When exposed to unfamiliar humans in the experimental task, wolves were more vigilant, fearful and aggressive than admixed wolves, and less likely to approach humans, but also more likely to spend time in human proximity. When exposed to novel objects, wolves were more aggressive than admixed wolves, less likely to spend time in object proximity, and more likely to interact with objects, but also less vigilant and as fearful as admixed wolves. Finally, social networks were mostly more cohesive in wolves than admixed wolves. Overall, our study suggests that dog admixture may lead to important behavioural changes in wolves, with possible implications for conservation strategies.

Innovation is the ability to solve novel problems or find novel solutions to familiar problems, and it is known to affect fitness in both human and non-human animals. In primates, innovation has been mostly studied in captivity, although differences in living conditions may affect individuals’ ability to innovate. Here, we tested innovation in a wild group of Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus). In four different conditions, we presented the group with several identical foraging boxes containing food. To understand which individual characteristics and behavioural strategies best predicted innovation rate, we measured the identity of the individuals manipulating the boxes and retrieving the food, and their behaviour during the task. Our results showed that success in the novel task was mainly affected by the experimental contingencies and the behavioural strategies used during the task. Individuals were more successful in the 1-step conditions, if they participated in more trials, showed little latency to approach the boxes and mainly manipulated functional parts of the box. In contrast, we found no effect of inhibition, social facilitation and individual characteristics like sex, age, rank, centrality, neophobia and reaction to humans, on the individuals’ ability to innovate.

The relationship between language and thought is controversial. One hypothesis is that language fosters habits of processing information that are retained even in non-linguistic domains. In left-branching (LB) languages, modifiers usually precede the head, and real-time sentence comprehension may more heavily rely on retaining initial information in working memory. Here we presented a battery of working memory and short-term memory tasks to adult native speakers of four LB and four right-branching (RB) languages from Africa, Asia and Europe. In working memory tasks, LB speakers were better than RB speakers at recalling initial stimuli, but worse at recalling final stimuli. Our results show that the practice of parsing sentences in specific directions due to the syntax and word order of our native language not only predicts the way we remember words, but also other non-linguistic stimuli.

This work was conducted while the first author held a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Postdoctoral Researchers (Humboldt ID number 1138999). We acknowledge support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and Leipzig University within the program of Open Access Publishing. The ability to inhibit previously employed strategies and flexibly adjust behavioural responses to external conditions may be critical for individual survival. However, it is unclear which factors predict their distribution across species. Here, we investigated social inhibition and behavioural flexibility in six primate species (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, capuchin monkeys and spider monkeys) differing in terms of phylogenetic relatedness, foraging ecology and social organization. Depending on the social context, individuals could maximize their food intake by inhibiting the selection of a larger food reward in one condition (i.e. inhibition), but not in others, which required them to flexibly switching strategies across conditions (i.e. behavioural flexibility). Overall, our study revealed inter-specific differences in social inhibition and behavioural flexibility, which partially reflected differences in fission-fusion dynamics. In particular, orangutans and chimpanzees showed the highest level of inhibitory skills, while gorillas and capuchin monkeys showed the lowest one. In terms of behavioural flexibility, orangutans and spider monkeys were the best performers, while bonobos and capuchin monkeys were the worst ones. These results contribute to our understanding that inhibition and behavioural flexibility may be linked in more complex ways than usually thought, although both abilities play a crucial role in efficient problem solving. Publisher PDF

Launched on 2021 December 9, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Small Explorer Mission in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The mission will open a new window of investigation—imaging x-ray polarimetry. The observatory features three identical telescopes, each consisting of a mirror module assembly with a polarization-sensitive imaging x-ray detector at the focus. A coilable boom, deployed on orbit, provides the necessary 4-m focal length. The observatory utilizes a three-axis-stabilized spacecraft, which provides services such as power, attitude determination and control, commanding, and telemetry to the ground. During its 2-year baseline mission, IXPE will conduct precise polarimetry for samples of multiple categories of x-ray sources, with follow-on observations of selected targets.

While X-ray Spectroscopy, Timing and Imaging have improved verymuch since 1962, when the first astronomical non-solar source was discovered, especially with the launch of Newton/X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, Rossi/X-ray Timing Explorer and Chandra/Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, the progress of X-ray polarimetry has been meager. This is in part due to the lack of sensitive polarization detectors, in part due to the fate of approved missions and in part because the celestial X-ray sources appeared less polarized than expected. Only one positive measurement has been available until now. Indeed the eight Orbiting Solar Observatory measured the polarization of the Crab nebula in the 70s. The advent of techniques of microelectronics allowed for designing a detector based on the photoelectric effect in gas in an energy range where the optics are efficient in focusing X-rays. Herewe describe the Instrument, which is the major contribution of the Italian collaboration to the SmallExplorer mission called IXPE, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, which will be flown in late 2021. The instrument, is composed of three Detector Units, based on this technique, and a Detector Service Unit. Three Mirror Modules provided by Marshall Space Flight Center focus X-rays onto the detectors. In the following we will show the technological choices, their scientific motivation and the results from the calibration of the Instrument. IXPE will perform imaging, timing and energy resolved polarimetry in the 2-8 keV energy band opening this window of X-ray astronomy to tens of celestial sources of almost all classes., 25 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables (accepted for publication in Astronomical Journal)

Due to be launched in late 2021, the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is a NASA Small Explorer mission designed to perform polarization measurements in the 2-8 keV band, complemented with imaging, spectroscopy and timing capabilities. At the heart of the focal plane is a set of three polarization-sensitive Gas Pixel Detectors (GPD), each based on a custom ASIC acting as a charge-collecting anode. In this paper we shall review the design, manufacturing, and test of the IXPE focal-plane detectors, with particular emphasis on the connection between the science drivers, the performance metrics and the operational aspects. We shall present a thorough characterization of the GPDs in terms of effective noise, trigger efficiency, dead time, uniformity of response, and spectral and polarimetric performance. In addition, we shall discuss in detail a number of instrumental effects that are relevant for high-level science analysis -- particularly as far as the response to unpolarized radiation and the stability in time are concerned., Comment: To be published in Astroparticle Physics