At the Laboratory of Comparative Cognition, we study how animal perceive, understand, and interact with the world around them. Our research focuses on the evolutionary foundations of cognition and communication, with a special interest in the origins of complex social behavior and language.

By combining long-term fieldwork, experiments in zoos and innovative data analysis methods, we aim to uncover the cognitive processes that underlie these behaviors. This includes studying how individuals learn from one another, how they make decisions, and how they form and maintain social bonds. Our goal is to better understand the evolutionary roots of human cognition by identifying the capacities we share with other species, as well as those that make us unique. Through our work, we contribute to a broader understanding of animal minds and the continuity between human and non-human animals cognitive abilities.

Research topics

• Meaning in non-human animals vocalisations.
• Evolution of animal signals and vocal complexity, with a focus on olive colobus (Procolobus verus) communication system.
• The evolutionary interplay of communication and cooperation in canids.
• The interactions between night vocalisations and sleep in chimpanzees.

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