By using drones to film from above, scientists from the University of Exeter and the Center for Whale Research observed details of killer whales’ social lives as never before. The research not only provides insights into the importance of these animals’ relationships but also has conservation implications.

Read the whole story at my Animal Minds blog: Drone Footage Reveals Killer Whales’ Secret Social Lives.

In recent years, psychologists and neuroscientists have begun to investigate how magic effects — tricks such as sleight-of-hand, illusion, and misdirection — exploit quirks of attention and perception in humans. With a new experiment with Eurasian jays, researchers are now expanding their focus to include other species’ reactions to magic tricks. What can the results tell us about how other animals perceive their worlds?

Read the story at my Animal Minds blog: What Can Magic Tricks Reveal About Animal Minds?

How can we assess consciousness in nonverbal animals? A team of philosophers, biologists, and psychologists suggest that failing a conditioning test when distracted could be an indication of awareness of the "now."

Read more at my Animal Minds blog: A Test for Animal Consciousness.

Researchers reared baby bats under normal conditions or in helium-enriched conditions, in which the speed of sound was increased by 15%. The results suggest that time perception is innate in echolocating bats and that bats encode the world in terms of time rather than space.

Read the whole story at my Animal Minds blog: How Do Echolocating Bats Perceive Distance?

I have two articles in the Spring/Summer 2021 issue of Pediatrics Nationwide.

Researchers identify sex-specific deficits in measures of working memory and affective processing associated with suicidal behavior in youth with depression - read the whole story here.

Pediatric patients treated with adequate medications and asthma family education can significantly improve irrespective of asthma severity - read the whole story here.