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Jan Verpooten

@janverpooten.bsky.social
44 followers 44 following 20 posts
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Reposted by Jan Verpooten
Edgar Dubourg @edgardubourg.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Our paper 'Carving Stories at Their Natural Joints' is out in Psychological Review (@apajournals.bsky.social). It means a lot to me, especially because I got to collaborate with many researchers from different disciplines whose work I truly admire.
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Marcos Nadal @mnadal.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
🧪 Humans have visual preferences for color, curvature, structure and biological motion. Many other species do too. These preferences guide behaviour and are modulated by development, learning, goals, information from other senses, physiological state and ecological context. doi.org/10.1016/j.co...
doi.org
Redirecting
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Elizabeth Margulis @margulisa.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
How does the brain make meaning when listening to wordless music? 🧵 on our new paper out today in @natcomms.nature.com (1/) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Music evokes shared neural representations of imagined narratives across sensory modalities - Nature Communications
When people listen to music, they often imagine remarkably similar stories. The authors show these shared imaginings selectively rely on stimulus-specific patterns in a set of modality-general brain r...
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Does AI already have human-level intelligence? The evidence is clear
The vision of human-level machine intelligence laid out by Alan Turing in the 1950s is now a reality. Eyes unclouded by dread or hype will help us to prepare for what comes next.
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alexandra crouwers @acrwrs.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
with fellow artistic researchers @marjolijndijkman.bsky.social and Nele Möller, I organise Speaking Afield: interdisciplinary walks & discussions with academic and scientific researchers in the field of ecology & biology. Here a few weeks ago with @janverpooten.bsky.social in the Antwerp harbour.
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Tom Wenseleers @twenseleers.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Harmony in the hive? Think again! 🐝⚔️ Insect societies are famous for cooperation, but beneath the surface lies a brutal conflict over who gets to wear the crown! Our new review in Biological Reviews explores the evolutionary battleground caused by such caste fate conflict. 🧵
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
📣 New BBS preprint out now! 📣 "Models casting egalitarian societies as crucibles of equality perpetuate the factually uninformed notion that foragers are somehow more noble. Critiques portray egalitarianism as romantic fantasy. Neither characterization is wholly justified." doi.org/10.1017/S014...
doi.org
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
Egalitarianism is not Equality: Moving from outcome to process in the study of human political organisation
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Colin Allen @wileyprof.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Our special issue on Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness, coedited with Tecumseh Fitch and Adina Roskies, now online royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202... Contributions by (1) Irina Mikhalevich; (2) Eva Jablonka and Simona Ginsburg; (3) Nicholas Humphrey; (cont'd)
royalsocietypublishing.org
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1939
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Andreas De Block @andreasdeblock.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Fukano and Soga offered an interesting reply to our piece. We then had the chance to respond in turn. Our conclusion is clear: it's time to lay the biophilia hypothesis to rest once and for all. www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
cell.com
Biophilia without teeth: revisiting what we have already lost
We are grateful to Fukano and Soga [1] for their thoughtful engagement with our critique of biophilia recently published in TREE [2]. Their letter highlights important themes and opens avenues for pro...
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manvir singh @manvir.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Are dance & infant-directed song human universals? Like many people, I've long thought so. But in a new paper in Current Biology, Kim Hill & I report that the Northern Aché (Paraguay) lacked both behaviors, likely losing them after cultural collapse. Open-access link: www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Loss of dance and infant-directed song among the Northern Aché
Singh and Hill report no evidence of dance or infant-directed song among the Northern Aché of Paraguay, based on 122 months of fieldwork. Their findings challenge claims of these behaviors’ universali...
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Jan Verpooten @janverpooten.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Second essay on the question "Do Animals Make Art?" Two Major Origin Theories That Say “No Way!” Why the Enlightenment “Invention of Art” and the “Creative Explosion” Seem to Rule Out Animal Art—But Do They Really? open.substack.com/pub/janverpo...
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Jan Verpooten @janverpooten.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Second essay on the question "Do Animals Make Art?" Two Major Origin Theories That Say “No Way!” Why the Enlightenment “Invention of Art” and the “Creative Explosion” Seem to Rule Out Animal Art—But Do They Really? open.substack.com/pub/janverpo...
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alexandra crouwers @acrwrs.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
👇 This is ‘Tools (v004)’, a .glb sculpture that is part of @digitalcoleman.art ‘s curation for ‘5x5 EARTH’. More info soon! (For these types of artworks, nfts are actually a good fit! I haven’t minted this much in years, though 😀). #3dscan #digitalart #tezos @objkt.com #stonetool #historyofthings
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Jan Verpooten @janverpooten.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
New commentary out in BBS! Archaeological objects like cave paintings, figurines, and musical instruments are often seen as early art forms uniquely tied to human symbolic cognition. But I've long been struck by how this view overlooks remarkable parallels in the animal world.
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes @dstibbardhawkes.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
After a brief hiatus, the next commentaries to highlight are by @janverpooten.bsky.social and @ctennie.bsky.social, who both demonstrate that complex symbols are not a uniquely human hallmark, but are found throughout nature. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
All that glitters is not gold: The false-symbol problem in archaeology | Behavioral and Brain Sciences | Cambridge Core
All that glitters is not gold: The false-symbol problem in archaeology - Volume 48
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Jan Verpooten @janverpooten.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
New commentary out in BBS! Archaeological objects like cave paintings, figurines, and musical instruments are often seen as early art forms uniquely tied to human symbolic cognition. But I've long been struck by how this view overlooks remarkable parallels in the animal world.
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Andreas De Block @andreasdeblock.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Do we love nature because it’s just in our nature? Probably not. Check out our latest article in TREE, where we make the case! authors.elsevier.com/a/1kZlOcZ3X3...
media.tenor.com
a man is riding a lamborghini on a road with the words i got beef with mother nature below him
ALT: a man is riding a lamborghini on a road with the words i got beef with mother nature below him
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Jan Verpooten @janverpooten.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
If you were to follow just one podcast about biology, physics—essentially life itself—this should be it. In Dunglish: I can’t recommend it enough. Latest episode:
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alexandra crouwers @acrwrs.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Do animals make art? My friend (and PhD advisor) biologist/philosopher @janverpooten.bsky.social is on a quest to answer that question! Do follow his substack here, his first post is already wonderfully interesting: substack.com/home/post/p-... #evolution #artmaking #art #evolutionofart
substack.com
Do Animals Make Art? Issue #1: Introducing a Book Project
Some animals are hailed as 'artists' in the media, but academia remains skeptical. Will art remain one of the last signposts of human uniqueness?
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Jan Verpooten @janverpooten.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Do animals make art? To introduce my book-in-progress on this topic, I’ve written a piece exploring this question. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. open.substack.com/pub/janverpo...
open.substack.com
Do Animals Make Art? Issue #1: Introducing a Book Project
Some animals are hailed as 'artists' in the media, but academia remains skeptical. Will art remain one of the last signposts of human uniqueness?
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PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 26/08/2024
Animal Artefacts Challenge Archaeological Standards for Tracing Human Symbolic Cognition: osf.io/rhejm
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