{
  "abstract": "In the wild, a mouse must flexibly perform multiple computations at once, rapidly navigating, sampling its environment, forming and using memories, and balancing internal needs. Capturing the self-paced, low-repetition, complex nature of decision making in the wild while preserving the experimental control needed to interpret its process remains a challenge. Here we show that lab mice, without food restriction, learn to forage for hidden resources cued by ambiguous sounds in a dynamic environment by spatiotemporally reorganizing their existing behavioral repertoire. Using a novel closed-loop assay, we required mice to sit still to receive informative but hard-to-localize sound cues emanating from one correct location they must find, out of 157 possible locations in a large arena. With experience, mice become efficient hunters. Efficient hunting cannot be explained by an increase in a particular behavioral module, but instead, mice reorganize existing behaviors into clustered bouts of high-quality sampling and site-checking. Looking forward, this work establishes an approach for studying the neural, molecular, and evolutionary basis of naturalistic decision-making in mice.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Janelia Research Campus, HHMI"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "N. Shettigar"
    },
    {
      "name": "L.-Q. Zhang"
    },
    {
      "name": "J. Teran"
    },
    {
      "name": "L. Schuster"
    },
    {
      "name": "A. Sohn"
    },
    {
      "name": "K. Branson"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "E. J. Dennis"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3mrjd82je4x4q.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.09.02.748903",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748903v1.full",
  "id": "3mrjd82je4x4q",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748903v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "animal behavior and cognition"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2805|Memory and Neural Mechanisms"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7211905055",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748903v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3mrjd82je4x4q.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:50Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.09.02.748903",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.02.748903v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:animal behavior and cognition",
      "subfield": "zoology-behaviour"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Mus musculus mice self-organize existing behaviors into structured bouts as they become expert hunters.",
  "title_text": "Mus musculus mice self-organize existing behaviors into structured bouts as they become expert hunters.",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:50Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3mrjd82je4x4q",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}