Whale Chatter - Resilient Aging Brains - Young Neuroscientists

[Breedlove, S]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ai-new-sperm-whale-communication

 AI eavesdropped on whale chatter. It may have helped find something new

By Kathryn Hulick

Dolphins whistle, humpback whales sing and sperm whales click. Now, a new analysis of sperm whale codas — a unique series of clicks — suggests a previously unrecognized acoustic pattern. The finding, reported November 12 in Open Mind, implies that the whales’ clicking communications might be more complex — and meaningful — than previously realized.

But the study faces sharp criticism from marine biologists who argue that these patterns are more likely to be recording artifacts or by-products of alertness rather than language-like signals.

For decades, biologists have known that both the number and timing of clicks in a coda matter and can even identify the clan of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Sperm whales in the eastern Caribbean Sea off the coast of Dominica, for example, often use a series of two slow and three quick sounds: “click…click… click-click-click.”

Relying on artificial intelligence and linguistics analysis, the new study finds that sometimes this series sounds more like “clack…clack… clack-clack-clack,” says Shane Gero, a marine biologist at Project CETI, a Dominica-based nonprofit studying sperm whale communication.

Project CETI linguist Gašper Beguš wonders about the meanings a coda might convey. “It sounds really alien,” almost like Morse code, says Beguš, of the University of California, Berkeley. Based on his team’s result, he now speculates that sperm whales might use clicks or clacks “in a similar way as we use our vowels to transmit meaning.”

Not everyone agrees with that assessment.

The comparison to vowels is “completely nonsense,” says Luke Rendell, a marine biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who has studied sperm whales for more than 30 years. “There’s no evidence that the animals are responding in any way to this [new pattern].”
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https://www.thetransmitter.org/aging/aging-adaptation-learning-brains-recipe-resilience/

 Aging as adaptation: Learning the brain’s recipe for resilience

By Dana Rubi Levy, Kevin Mastro, Michael Ryan

Any seasoned baker knows the importance of being flexible. If you are missing an ingredient or hosting a guest with dietary restrictions, you might need to swap yogurt for eggs or oil for butter. The final product may differ, but it can still be rich and satisfying.

In much the same way, our brain constantly makes substitutions and adjustments in response to the inevitable changes in our internal and external environments. To understand these changes, scientists often compare the brain and behavior of older people, aged 60 and up, with those of younger people, aged 20 to 30. Despite considerable individual variability, older people—on average—have slower processing speeds, rely more on past experience to solve problems, and have less behavioral flexibility.

These findings have shaped our theories about how age-related changes in the brain drive behavior. In recent years, however, a conceptual shift has emerged, raising questions about whether some age-related changes are not solely the result of cognitive decline. Instead, some may be adaptive and address age-related constraints, such as changes in metabolism and increased inflammation. Moreover, scientists have begun to question whether young adulthood, characterized by a period of highly flexible decision-making, is the right benchmark to assess cognition across the lifespan. Given the evolving landscape of the aging brain, change is necessary, and not all deviations from the young-adult “benchmark” should be seen as decline.

The main challenge for neuroscientists is to determine which of these age-related adaptations are beneficial and which are detrimental. In other words, which substitutions retain the original flavors, and which result in a dish that falls flat?

© 2025 Simons Foundation
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https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/11/15/nx-s1-5609389/neuroscience-funding-falters-trump-careers-autism-alzheimers

 As funding falters, young brain scientists rethink careers in research

Jon Hamilton

A decades-long boom in brain science in the United States may be heading for a bust.

Ongoing disruptions in federal funding are causing many young brain scientists to reconsider their career choice, according to leaders of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), which represents more than 37,000 researchers and clinicians.

If those scientists change fields or leave the country, SfN officials say, it could hobble the nation's efforts to understand and treat brain disorders including Alzheimer's, autism, Parkinson's and schizophrenia.

"The U.S. has been a world leader in research for decades, and that leadership position is now at risk," says John Morrison, a professor at the University of California, Davis and president of SfN.

Morrison expects that discussions about federal funding are likely to have a prominent place in the group's annual five-day meeting, which begins Saturday in San Diego and is expected to attract about 20,000 brain scientists.

"It's hard to escape, because we're all being directly affected by it," Morrison says.

In the months since President Trump took office, the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation have been buffeted by cuts, grant terminations, and abrupt policy changes.

Federal health officials have said those measures reflect an effort to reduce fraud and waste, end support of 'woke' science, and align research with the administration's priorities.

But the process has been unsettling for young scientists like Clara Zundel, a postdoctoral researcher at Wayne State University in Detroit.

   © 2025 npr


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