The current study explores the social experiences of adolescent and transition-age youths with intellectual disabilities (IDs) and the support mechanisms available to these groups in Saudi Arabia. This study adopts a qualitative methodology with a semi-structured interview constituting the data collection method involving 13 parents with children aged between 11 and 19 years, a critical adolescent period and transition to early adulthood. The results suggest that family, caregivers, community, friendships, and healthcare providers play important roles that impact the quality of life for these groups. The main challenges identified include health-related issues, employment challenges, educational barriers, insufficient services, inadequate community participation, and limited social relationships, with special emphasis on obstacles linked to transition during the 18 to 19-year period when youths must navigate transfers from pediatric to adult services and changes associated with legal rights. This study highlights several reasons it is important to increase awareness and education, while also continuing to improve support systems aimed at dealing with both transition challenges and adolescent needs. The results further illustrate that although support from family provides the foundation for care, systemic changes are needed to promote social inclusion and reduce stigma during critical development periods. The current study contributes to the limited research related to IDs in the context of the Middle East, with special reference to Saudi Arabia. Finally, the discussion highlights several insights that are culturally specific for the development of policy and provision of services associated with the transition from adolescence to early adulthood.

by Fabian Schneider, Helen Blank The human brain makes abundant predictions in speech comprehension that, in real-world conversations, depend on conversational partners. Yet, tested models of predictive processing diverge on how such predictions are integrated with incoming speech: The brain may emphasise either expected information through sharpening or unexpected information through prediction error. We reconcile these views through direct neural evidence from electroencephalography showing that both mechanisms operate at different hierarchical levels during speech perception. Across multiple experiments, participants heard identical ambiguous speech in different speaker contexts. Using speech decoding, we show that listeners learn speaker-specific semantic priors, which sharpen sensory representations by pulling them toward expected acoustic signals. In contrast, encoding models leveraging pretrained transformers reveal that prediction errors emerge at higher linguistic levels. These findings support a unified model of predictive processing, wherein sharpening and prediction errors coexist at distinct hierarchical levels to facilitate both robust perception and adaptive world models.

Scientific Reports, Published online: 24 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-35577-4Application of the expanded theory of planned behavior in predicting Iranian students’ intention to use probiotic products

Nature Communications, Published online: 23 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-68796-4Spin-crossover complexes are promising candidates for molecular bits owing to their magnetic bistability but engineering high-density bits is challenging due to cooperative switching dynamics. Here the authors modulate the cooperative dynamics of surface-confined spin-crossover complex chains.

The Salicaceae Itoa orientalis differs from Salix/Populus in initially bisexual flowers. Zhao et al. show that its XY sex-determination system is fundamentally different from that of Salix/Populus, involving two genes, including one that regulates male function in Asparagus officinalis, suggesting genetic canalization in the evolution of dioecy.

Publication date: Available online 22 January 2026 Source: Applied Animal Behaviour Science Author(s): Kiana McDole, Katrina Merkies

Prezygotic interspecific incompatibility prevents hybridization between species, which limits interbreeding strategies for crop improvement using wild relatives. The Brassica rapa female self-incompatibility determinant, S-locus receptor kinase (SRK), ...

Opportunity for multiple mating should affect the fitness cost of sexual cannibalism for males. We used newly developed microsatellite loci to study multip

Haifeng Jiao and Li Yu introduce migrasomes, large dynamic vesicular structures that form at the tips or intersections of retraction fibers and function in intercellular communication and cellular homeostasis.

Ecology and Evolution, Volume 16, Issue 1, January 2026.

Understanding how living organisms process sensory information from their surroundings and translate it into decisions is a fundamental problem across biological scales -- from biochemical signalling in single-cells to neural computations in animal brains. In this work, we address this challenge by introducing a method to reconstruct general decision processes directly from behavioral observations alone. Our approach is applicable to any biological agent and does not require prior knowledge of its internal mechanisms or its environment.Our agent model is defined by a recurrent dynamics over a discrete set of internal states which encode and process sensory information, and dictate which actions to execute. We validate our method on synthetic agents and demonstrate that we can exactly recover the agent's behavior for non-trivial tasks. Then, we infer agent models from experimental data of rats performing evidence accumulation and of mice making decisions under uncertainty and in changing environments. In both cases, very few internal states suffice to reproduce the observed behavior with high accuracy. Crucially, the immediate interpretability of the inferred dynamics allows to understand the computational process underlying decision making. Our results show that our approach provides a broadly applicable framework for understanding how general agents make decisions in complex environments.

Brain and Behavior, Volume 16, Issue 1, January 2026.

Oviposition site selection is critical for mosquito population dynamics and disease transmission. Gravid mosquitoes rely on chemical cues to identify suitable breeding habitats. However, the sensory mechanisms governing this behavior in Anopheles stephensi remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the role of indole, a microbial volatile associated with aquatic environments, in oviposition site choice and assessed the involvement of sensory organs in its detection. In two-choice oviposition assays, water conditioned with first-instar larvae attracted gravid females (OAI = 0.56), whereas water from fourth-instar larvae was repellent (OAI = -0.20), consistent with avoidance of suboptimal, resource-depleted habitats. Indole elicited strong oviposition attraction across a broad concentration range (0.1-50 M), with no clear dose-response relationship. Surgical ablation of antennae and maxillary palps, the principal olfactory organs in the head, did not abolish indole-mediated preference but significantly reduced behavioral variability, suggesting that these structures modulate, rather than solely mediate, indole detection. Reanalysis of chemosensory organ transcriptomes (antennae, maxillary palps, and legs) in An. gambiae and An. colluzzii, along with quantitative RT-PCR in An. stephensi, revealed the expression of chemosensory genes (including Obp1, Obp13, Obp25, Obp71, Or2, and Or10) in the legs, indicating a potential role for leg chemosensation in oviposition decisions. These findings underscore the complexity of chemoreception and chemoperception in mosquito habitat assessment.

Categorization studies, in which stimuli vary along a category continuum, are becoming increasingly popular in psychological science. These studies demonstrate the effect of category ambiguity on various behavioral and neural measures. In such studies, researchers manipulate objective category levels by varying the physical properties of the stimuli, and then use these levels as predictors of behavior—assuming they map directly onto participants’ perceived locations along the category continuum. This approach might not be optimal, considering the variability in participants’ category boundary locations (their point of subjective equality, or PSE). In this tutorial, we propose addressing this issue by estimating participants’ individual points of subjective equality, adjusting category levels relative to these points, and conducting statistical analyses on the subjective category levels. Implementing this method significantly improves the statistical power of the analysis in both experimental and simulated data. Adjusting stimulus levels by the points of subjective equality is highly suited for social categorization studies, in which points of subjective equality vary significantly. On a broader scale, it can be applied to a variety of categorization, discrimination, and decision-making studies.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 2, January 2026. SignificanceEpigenetic mechanisms, including histone acetylation, are crucial for learning and memory, particularly in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD). Acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2), an enzyme generating acetyl-CoA, regulates histone ...

Nature Communications, Published online: 22 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-68652-5The cellular mechanisms to initiate allergic responses involve various immune cells in the lungs. Here the authors identify a Ly6G+Nur77+ macrophage population involved in initiation of HDM-driven Th2 responses that detect Derp1 allergen through PAR2 and modulate migration of conventional DC to draining lymph nodes via cysteinyl leukotriene production.

Publication date: February 2026 Source: Hormones and Behavior, Volume 178 Author(s): Marcia L. Collaer, Debra Spencer, Karson T.F. Kung, Ajay Thankamony, Ieuan A. Hughes, Carlo Acerini, Umasuthan Srirangalingam, Helena Gleeson, Eileen Luders, Melissa Hines

Nature Communications, Published online: 23 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-68770-0The cancer cell membrane replicates the characteristic molecular profile of its parental cells. Here, authors construct a homotypic membrane-powered biomimetic interface for subtype-specific analysis of breast cancer extracellular vesicles.

Avian brood parasitism is a widespread reproductive strategy in which parasitic birds exploit host nests to raise their offspring, often at a significant cost to the host species. Hosts counter parasitism through various defensive mechanisms, including egg rejection, which the either the visual presence or the vocalisations of the parasite near the nest can trigger. This study aimed to assess the response of Red-backed Shrikes (Lanius collurio), a species formerly commonly parasitised by the Common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) to simulated brood parasitism based solely on auditory cues, using playbacks of cuckoo vocalisations. Over two breeding seasons in eastern Poland, artificial Cuckoo eggs were placed in 63 Shrike nests, followed by playback experiments. The results revealed no significant effect of simulated parasite presence on egg rejection rates, and the playback of the Sparrowhawk call also did not affect the host’s responses. However, the observed pattern suggests a possible influence of incubation advancement on host responses. Defensive behaviour peaked during the egg-laying and early incubation phases, with over 90% of eggs rejected, and fell slightly during advanced egg incubation. These findings suggest that Shrikes do not rely on auditory cues to detect parasitic threats. This study highlights the critical role of the breeding stage in shaping anti-parasitic strategies, and suggests that a strong ability to recognise parasitic eggs may reduce dependence on additional sensory cues. Further research is needed to examine the interplay between auditory and visual stimuli across different host species and geographic regions.

Vezyrakis et al. show that mate choice in house mice depends on the choosing female's own skills. By using experiments and semi-natural observations, their results demonstrate that a combination of male trade-offs and differential female preference can create the necessary conditions for balancing selection to maintain individual variation in innovation.

Publication date: February 2026 Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 232 Author(s): Hannah Salomons, Morgan Ferrans, Candler Cusato, Kara Moore, Vanessa Woods, Emily Bray, Brenda Kennedy, Theadora Block, Laura Douglas, Ashton Roberts, Margaret Gruen, Brian Hare

Osuna-Mascaró and Auersperg report flexible, multipurpose tool use in a cow, expanding the known range of mammalian tool users and underscoring overlooked cognitive capacities in livestock.

Home cage monitoring (HCM) captures longitudinal animal behavioural data without human intervention. However, the systems' complexity is rarely addressed in their design, increasing the risk of data loss, which wastes workhours, resources, and animal lives. To assess the feasibility of implementing modern, robust architectures in complex operant HCM paradigms, the VersatiLe Autonomous DevIce for Scheduled Learning Assessment Via Wi-Fi (VLADISLAV) was developed and employed to test cognitive deficits in the intracerebroventricular streptozotocin-induced rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD). Reliability was modelled against a system architecture common in commercial HCM systems by modelling the failure rate of the devices' critical components across typical durations of animal experiments. VLADISLAV assessed multiple cognitive dimensions of a rat model of sAD with automated, scheduled testing. Its design enabled simultaneous, redundant recording to multiple devices in real time, as well as batch remote control and supervision of tens of VLADISLAVs. VLADISLAV is estimated to reduce component failure rate ~200-fold at {euro}40/device. Data loss due to system failure shouldn't be accepted as a normal occurrence and robust system design is an ethical imperative. VLADISLAV's robustness and utility demonstrate the potential of embedded networked systems, used in other industries and consumer electronics for over a decade. Today, the open source ecosystem enables cost-effective implementation of such architectures in HCM by biomedical researchers with no electronic engineering education, preventing data loss and facilitating researchers' and technicians' day-to-day work. Considering these findings, it is apparent that the implementation of modern architectures in HCM is long overdue.

by Yi Liu, Yixiao Zhai, Pinglu Zhang, Quan Zou, Ximei Luo Spatial transcriptome (ST) technologies have transformed the study of tissue structure by retaining the spatial distribution of gene expression. One major challenge in accurately identifying spatial domains is to extract domain-related information from spatial locations and gene expression. Here, we propose MMSpa, a masked graph attention autoencoder framework specifically designed to improve spatial domain identification. MMSpa incorporates an edge-removal strategy to construct an enhanced spatial graph to fundamentally address cross-domain interference and characterize clearer domain boundaries. By focusing on masked gene expression reconstruction, MMSpa learns stable latent representations that capture core biological features, facilitating the identification of similar spatial subdomains and detecting domain differences across biological samples at the same developmental stage. Comparative analyses using ST datasets from multiple ST technologies and platforms demonstrated that MMSpa outperforms existing methods across various accuracy assessments. Notably, MMSpa excels in challenging scenarios involving highly heterogeneous and complex tissues, and can reveal finer-grained functional tissue domains obscured by other methods. This superior capability positions MMSpa as a powerful tool for uncovering new biological insights and compensating for the lack of spatial annotation in histopathology.

Changes within neurotransmitter systems are associated with variation in anxiety-related behavior. The adenosine signaling pathway has been associated with anxiety and caffeine has been utilized as a modulator. However, studies have not considered the impact of an individual's stress coping style (e.g. proactive, reactive) and corresponding differences in neuromolecular signaling that can influence the behavioral responses. To assess the role of adenosine signaling, we acutely treated reactive and proactive zebrafish with 50 mg/L caffeine and evaluated anxiety-like behavior using a novel tank diving test (NTDT). We then quantified whole-brain gene expression of genes representing distinct parts of the adenosine signaling pathway: adenosine receptors A1B, A2Aa, A2Ab, and A2B (adora1b, adora2aa, adora2ab, and adora2b, respectively) and enzymes adenosine deaminase (ada) and ecto-5'-nucleotidase (nt5e). We found significant main effects of coping style, sex, treatment, and coping style by sex by treatment interaction effect on stress behaviors. Specifically, compared to controls, caffeine reduced stress behavior in only reactive males. We also observed significant differential baseline gene expression within the adenosine signaling pathway between the reactive and proactive strains, where reactive zebrafish expressed higher levels of adenosine receptors A1B, A2Ab, A2B, and adenosine deaminase and lower levels of adenosine receptor A2Aa than proactive zebrafish. These findings indicate that variation in adenosine signaling between the stress coping styles and sexes may be contributing to differences in anxiety-related behavior.