Chiara, V. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2026

AnimalTA: A simple yet flexible tool for video tracking and manual corrections.

O_LIVideo-tracking programs have now become an essential tool for researchers measuring animal behavior across biological fields. The panel of available programs is growing rapidly, providing researchers with numerous specific tools that will match their precise needs. However, their proliferation may complicate post-tracking data processing, and some programs do not even provide tools for correcting tracking errors or analysing tracking data. In the case of commercial software, the loss of access to a program due to budget limitations or researchers mobility from one institution to another could prevent them from accessing and visualizing their tracking data. C_LIO_LIThere is therefore a growing need for an accessible and flexible tool to handle post-tracking processes such as the correction and analysis of tracking data obtained across different video-tracking programs. C_LIO_LIWe present here the latest update of the video tracking and analysis program AnimalTA. With this new release, we propose to solve the above-mentioned problems by providing the scientific community with a program that will allow for data importation from other video-tracking programs. Like in its previous versions, AnimalTA remains a free, open-source, and highly user-friendly program, ensuring that it will always be accessible without restriction. Now, with this new importation option, users who performed their tracking with other programs can benefit from AnimalTAs complete toolset of data visualization, correction, and analysis. C_LIO_LIFinally, this article gives an overview of the other main improvements associated with this new release. The program is now faster in both video importation and tracking, proposes an amplified toolset for data visualization and correction, and features new options for data analysis. C_LI

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2025

Complexity shapes uniqueness: Neuropil volumes and synaptic clusters shape behavioural plasticity under challenging environments in the invasive Argentine ants

Adaptation to new environments is key for organisms survival, but also for their invasiveness in their introduced areas. Behaviour is considered the fastest phenotype allowing adaptation, but its plasticity can involve costs as neural development. Although individuals investment in cognition was pointed out as unnecessary for colony behaviour in eusocial insects, recent studies are highlighting the behavioural dependence on neural traits in eusocial insects. The costs of producing behavioural and neural plastic offspring could exceed the investments of eusocial insects, in which one or certain reproductives must produce multiple offspring. Thus, we wanted to analyse the link between the neuroanatomy and the behavioural variability of Linepithema humile, an invasive species organised in supercolony units containing millions of individuals, to understand its adaptive mechanisms. We repeatedly tested same aged callow workers of L. humile in behavioural tests of increasing environmental complexity and analysed the volume of their brain functional areas (neuropils) and the synaptic clusters abundance in the mushroom body calices (information processing). Given the potential large cost of plasticity, we expected to find homogeneous interindividual neuronal structures and behavioural responses. Although L. humile is considered a monomorphic species, body size conditioned behavioural and neural traits and determined individuals efficiency in exploring simple environments. Contrary to our expectations, the increase in environmental complexity revealed the behavioural plasticity of Linepithema humile workers as well as its correlation with neuropil volumes and synaptic clusters. Our results highlight the relevance of the central complex and the mushroom bodies on exploration efficiency rather than optic and olfactory lobes. Behavioural plasticity under complex environments relied on the synaptic connections of the olfactory processing area (dense lip), while individuals with higher number of synaptic connections on the visual processing area (collar) explored complex environments less efficiently. Our results suggest that behavioural differences that correlate with morphological traits might promote adaptive mechanisms in simple environments, whereas neurologically based plastic behavior may be necessary to adapt in complex environments.

animal behavior and cognition↗