Inferring internal states across mice and monkeys using facial features

Alejandro Tlaie, Muad Y. Abd El Hay, Berkutay Mert, Robert Taylor, Pierre-Antoine Ferracci, Katharine Shapcott, Mina Glukhova, Jonathan W. Pillow, Martha N. Havenith and Marieke L. Schölvinck ()
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Alejandro Tlaie: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Muad Y. Abd El Hay: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Berkutay Mert: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Pierre-Antoine Ferracci: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Katharine Shapcott: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Mina Glukhova: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Jonathan W. Pillow: Princeton University
Martha N. Havenith: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society
Marieke L. Schölvinck: Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in cooperation with the Max Planck Society

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Animal behaviour is shaped to a large degree by internal cognitive states, but it is unknown whether these states are similar across species. To address this question, here we develop a virtual reality setup in which male mice and macaques engage in the same naturalistic visual foraging task. We exploit the richness of a wide range of facial features extracted from video recordings during the task, to train a Markov-Switching Linear Regression (MSLR). By doing so, we identify, on a single-trial basis, a set of internal states that reliably predicts when the animals are going to react to the presented stimuli. Even though the model is trained purely on reaction times, it can also predict task outcome, supporting the behavioural relevance of the inferred states. The relationship of the identified states to task performance is comparable between mice and monkeys. Furthermore, each state corresponds to a characteristic pattern of facial features that partially overlaps between species, highlighting the importance of facial expressions as manifestations of internal cognitive states across species.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60296-1

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