Research work on an ethological interpretation of emotional displays at the Memory and Neurodynamics Lab, conducted by Pritha Ghosh and Aruneek Biswas, working with Dr. Vishnu Sreekumar, explored the question “why are emotions like happiness more perceivable than jealousy in affective displays” employing an ethological framework — the study of animal behaviour. They delivered an oral presentation at Behaviour 2025 on 29 August, the world’s oldest and one of the most prestigious conferences in ethology.

Ethology distinguishes between cues (incidental byproducts) and signals (behaviours shaped to communicate). Signals are often multimodal – expressed through more than one channel – making them easier to detect. The team hypothesized that emotions that are well-perceived (such as happiness or anger) are associated with signals, while those that are not (like jealousy and loneliness) are associated with cues. They further hypothesize that the former should be more multimodal,  i.e., more easily perceived in both visual and auditory modalities. Preliminary data support this idea: emotions associated with signal-like evolutionary antecedents are better perceived in both modalities.

September 2025