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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Octopus dreams A fantastic piece by Peter Godfrey-Smith, in the form of a review, about the evidence of dreams in cephalopods, their possible convergent evolution, and even the possibility of states similar to daydreaming, as we have them. (blog) pioneerworks.org/broadcast/ce...

pioneerworks.org

The Dreams of Octopus and Cuttlefish | Broadcast

How the skin reveals a world within.

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Reposted by Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)

Naukas.com @naukas.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

No sé si lo sabéis pero... Este sábado 10 de octubre tendremos un evento en SEVILLA!! Estaremos en el Teatro Central fusionando Arte, música, arquitectura, pintura y cine con ciencia en el NAUKAS SEVILLA FUSIÓN!! Un evento Naukas en Andalucía!! No os lo podéis perder naukas.com/2026/10/05/e...

naukas.com

Este sábado 10 de octubre nos vemos en el Teatro Central para el evento Naukas Sevilla FUSIÓN Ciencia y Arte - Naukas

Desde hace muchos años nos habéis estado pidiendo un evento en el sur… y ahora lo tenemos. Os presentamos NAUKAS SEVILLA FUSIÓN 2026, un espectáculo científico artístico que reunirá a divulgadores, in...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

6/7 Both the dangerous hyperthermia and the recovery of functions through new neural circuits strongly recall the case I recently discussed in another thread: an elderly woman who recovered several functions after a deep sleep-like state, also with suspected hyperthermia.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

5/7 The authors suggest that the recovery of normal behavior despite the lack of electrophysiological evidence may be due to increased structural plasticity: new connections that restore functions without restoring the damaged circuits themselves.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

4/7 It is also interesting that, although the rats recovered from their memory impairments, the authors did not find a clear electrophysiological signature distinguishing them from rats that had not received psilocybin.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

3/7 Also, at the tolerated dose, the rats performed almost like control animals in some memory tasks. But at intermediate and high doses, the animals did not survive (hyperthermia). Brains altered in this way may tolerate the serotonergic challenge posed by psilocybin poorly.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

2/7 There are some important caveats before anyone thinks this is a solution to the disease. These were ICV-STZ rats and, although this model is used to study Alzheimer’s-like pathology, it does not fully reproduce human Alzheimer’s disease. (This is a horribly invasive study)

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

1/7 Psilocybin and Alzheimer’s in rats A single tolerated dose of psilocybin reversed spatial memory-related impairments in a rat model of Alzheimer’s. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168010226001045

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We are fish This is a good reminder that "fish" is an artificial term with practical use, but no actual cladistic validity. After all, humans should be classified as fish, too.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Stealing Among Friends (Chimpanzees) In this experiment, chimpanzees stole food slightly less from their friends (61% vs 70% of the time). It is also interesting that they got angrier when a friend stole from them, but their anger subsided more quickly (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Si tengo libertad total para elegir: ¡las libélulas! Tienen una tasa de éxito de casi el 100% Son tremendas, se anticipan a los movimientos de sus presas y son increíblemente buenas volando. Creo que entre tiburones y felinos la cosa anda igualada : )

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Blinking as an Indicator of Cognitive Flexibility We already knew that blinking acts as a 'pause between thoughts', in both humans and other species. Here, they found a correlation between blinking and executive function performance in children aged 2 to 6. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s44...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

5/5 Despite all this, sharks bite only around 100 people per year, with an annual average of fewer than 10 deaths. The authors call for measures to ensure greater respect for sharks, particularly regarding the use of jet skis and other vehicles that make it easier to harass them.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

4/5 Sharks warn us when there is danger, but we do not know how to read their signals. In the paper, the authors describe those shown by grey reef sharks when they feel threatened, including lowering the pectoral fins, arching the body, raising the snout, exaggerated swimming, and so on.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

3/5 Humans are generally quite blind to what sharks consider important and to the signals they use to communicate. We enter their territory, approach them rapidly while cutting off their escape routes, and even touch them.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

2/5 The reasons why sharks attack humans, excluding the extremely rare cases of genuine predatory attacks, can be grouped into three categories: territoriality, responses to a threatening human presence, and responses to physical aggression.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

1/5 Harassing sharks comes at a cost In this review, the authors argue that the common idea that sharks attack humans because they mistake us for other animals is a myth. Instead, most bites appear to be self-defense. (paper) www.frontiersin.org/journals/con...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Porque, como este, hay muchos otros casos fantásticos y recientes relacionados con la diversidad cognitiva, y echo de menos a alguien con la sensibilidad de Sacks para transmitirlos desde una perspectiva significativa : )

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

7/7 It is also intriguing that his scores for interoceptive awareness and sensory sensitivity are extraordinary. Whether these traits are related to HSAM remains unknown, but cases like this may help us understand how autobiographical memory reaches consciousness. The world needs a new Oliver Sacks

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

6/7 For an average person, when a smell or a sound suddenly transports us back into the past, the stimulus usually has to be relatively salient. For KCL, almost anything seems to be enough. In fact, he spends between 5 and 7 hours a day reliving the past.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

5/7 The authors explain this by suggesting that, in these cases, the threshold required for memories to enter awareness is extraordinarily low. For most of us, activation of a memory has to cross a certain threshold before it becomes conscious; in KCL, that threshold seems to be extremely low.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

4/7 This extraordinary autobiographical memory seems to contrast with very ordinary cognitive abilities, including general memory, but this is actually typical of HSAM cases.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

3/7 Before then, they were isolated, occasional memories, but from the age of 3 his autobiographical memory became a continuous stream. KCL is able to recount in detail around half of the days of his life, and these memories keep coming back to him constantly.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2/7 What I found most interesting is that his earliest autobiographical memories date back to when he was just 3 months old. He also has memories from when he was 1 and 2 years old (corroborated by his parents as accurate), but he says that something changed when he was 3.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

1/7 Remembering an entire life Here they study KCL, a 16-year-old with an extraordinary autobiographical memory (HSAM). His general memory and cognition are remarkably ordinary, but his autobiographical memory is absolutely fascinating. (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

3/3 Personally, I suspect that ownership exists in a wide range of species, in relation to territories, burrows, and even social relationships. However, I do not think it will be easy to demonstrate experimentally.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2/3 We know that possession exists in other species, as individuals respect what another individual physically controls. However, there is no clear evidence that animals understand ownership: maintaining some kind of exclusive right over something even when the owner is not present.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

1/3 Dog ownership In this paper, the authors propose that dogs are an ideal model for studying whether ownership exists beyond our own species. This is largely because dogs are so extensively exposed to our social norms. (paper) www.frontiersin.org/journals/eth...

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

2/2 The results add further evidence for REM-like sleep in spiders, in this case in Araneus. This is especially interesting because the previous, well-known findings came from jumping spiders (photo), a very distinctive lineage that diverged from Araneus more than 200 million years ago.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

1/2 Sleeping spiders Here, they used a sound stimulus that simulated an approaching threat (predatory wasp). Immobile spiders, especially at night, either did not respond or took much longer to do so (paper) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... by @roesslerdaniela.bsky.social Photo: B and C sleep

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Meet Veronika the cow, clever octopuses, smart kunekune pigs, and the wonderful Goffin's cockatoos. A documentary by Feuer & Flamme Film for those of you with access to ORF 2. CC @auersperga.bsky.social

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

9/9 The supplementary material is wonderful. It contains the interview notes themselves. They describe how elephants prepare these plants, how they travel kilometers to reach particular trees, the points of agreement between different interviewees, and many other fascinating observations.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

8/9 The study also gives some reason to trust the judgment of these experts. For example, they point out that when elephants enter caves to consume clay and minerals (geophagy), this is not necessarily medicinal behavior and may instead have a nutritional function.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

7/9 The process described is remarkably complex. Elephants reportedly chew a plant, removing fibrous material along the way, combine the resulting bolus with other plants, and finally mix it with their own milk before giving it to their calves. Absolutely astonishing.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

6/9 The amazing part is that, for some of these plants (A. arborescens, B. abyssinica, C. barbatus, and F. natalensis), interviewees report that elephants use them to treat their calves, sometimes even combining plants and mixing them with their own milk.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

5/9 Mode 4 includes plants reportedly sought out or given to elephants when they were sick or vulnerable. For 7 plants, they knew the elephant was ill but they didn't know the exact cause. For 8 plants, the problem was known and a specific medicinal purpose was described.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

4/9 Of these plants, 10 fell into the “Mode 3” category: they were suspected to be used medicinally, but there was no clear evidence that elephants specifically selected them because they were already sick. Another 15 fell within Mode 4, and these are fascinating!

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

3/9 All the experts interviewed had also knowledge of traditional Sabaot medicine. They identified 35 plant species with possible medicinal use. Of the 39 total resources recorded, 34 also had traditional medicinal uses in humans.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

2/9 The earliest historical account of elephants self-medicating dates back to the 2nd-3rd centuries, in Claudius Aelianus’ De natura animalium. It describes an elephant wounded by spears and arrows that sought out olive flowers and treated itself with olive oil, later recovering.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

1/9 Ethnozoology of medicinal plants used by elephants on Mount Elgon (Kenya) The researchers interviewed 8 local experts on elephant behavior, all with more than 20 years of experience, and what they learned is astonishing. (paper) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)

ARAA @araa.at · 24/09/2026

#HotOffThePress 🔥🖊️ “Body awareness in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana)” 🦜 Sept 2026. Scientific Reports. P. Hundegger, R. Folkertsma, @drracheldale.bsky.social, @auersperga.bsky.social & @biotay.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...

doi.org

Body awareness in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Body awareness in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana)

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Qué interesante. Creo que no hay estudios que vayan a ese nivel de detalle acerca de los sueños en la afantasia, lo exploraré! Voz interior sí tienes, no?

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Aunque imperfecta, porque depende mucho de como se defina (es algo que tratan en el artículo), la forma más fiable sigue siendo hablando con la persona. Lo bueno es que correlaciona con otras pruebas, pero estas otras son variables y los efectos se ven claramente cuando el nº de personas es alto.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

7/7 ...and all of this makes the problem of other minds even harder to solve, whether we're talking about humans or other species. Minds are too versatile. Incidentally, here is an answer to a very common question: 63% of people with aphantasia report visual experiences in their dreams.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

6/7 Neither binocular-rivalry priming tasks nor pupillometry tasks, such as imagining a bright light and measuring whether the pupil constricts, show effects strong and reliable enough to serve as objective diagnostic tests.

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Tay (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró) @biotay.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

5/7 Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the article is that there does not seem to be a truly objective and reliable test for aphantasia. At present, none works independently of verbal self-report from the person being studied.

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