Decision Architectures in Ethology: Linking Molecules, Brains, Behavior, and Ecology

A unifying challenge in ethology is to understand how animals construct and use internal decision rules to navigate complex, changing environments. Across taxa, behavior emerges from interactions among molecular signals, neural circuits, development, and ecological and social context, yet these elements are often studied in isolation. Bringing them together under the lens of “decision architectures” offers a way to compare species, levels of organization, and timescales, and to discover general principles of how choices are structured, constrained, and modified by experience and evolution. Situating ethological research in this framework opens space for contributions that are mechanistic, theoretical, and comparative, while remaining grounded in real organisms behaving in naturalistic or ecologically relevant settings.We invite researchers working at any level of analysis, from molecular and hormonal mechanisms, through neural circuits and whole-organism behavior, to ecological and evolutionary dynamics, to contribute to this Research Topic. We particularly welcome empirical, theoretical, and modeling studies that clarify how decision architectures are built, modulated (for example, by sterols, neuromodulators, or developmental processes), and expressed across contexts and taxa. Submissions may include original research, methods papers, reviews, perspectives, and concept or synthesis articles that use ethological thinking to connect mechanism, function, development, and phylogeny. By bringing together work across species and disciplines, this collection aims to map general principles of decision-making and highlight how integrative ethology can inform cognition, welfare, and responses to rapid environmental change.If you are interested in submitting or have any questions please contact the journal email: ethology@frontiersin.org Topic editors: Allison Perkeybile, Marijke Achterberg Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81542/decision-architectures-in-ethology-linking-molecules-brains-behavior-and-ecology