Please have a look at some of our publications listed below

Predispositions

Elisabetta Versace, Benjamin L. de Bivort; Multiple weak biases support adaptive choices without prior experience: a self-supervised strategy. Proc Biol Sci 1 February 2026; 293 (2064): 20251878. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.1878

Freeland, L.V., Emmerson, M.G., Vasas, V. et al. (2025)Assessing preferences for adult versus juvenile features in young animals: Newly hatched chicks spontaneously approach red and large stimuli. Learn Behav 53, 145–156. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13420-024-00638-z

Wang, S., Vasas, V., Freeland, L., Osorio, D. & Versace, E., 2024. Spontaneous biases enhance generalization in the neonate brain. iScience, 27(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110195

Torrisi, A., De Almeida Nolasco, I.S., Versace, E. & Benetos, E., 2024. Exploratory analysis of early-life chick calls. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals and Robots (VIHAR). Available at.

Bliss L, Vasas V, Freeland L, Roach R, Ferrè ER, Versace E ( 2023 ) . A spontaneous gravity prior: Newborn chicks prefer stimuli that move against gravity . Biology Letters vol. 19 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0502

Gibbons, M,, Versace, A. Crump, B. Baran, & L. Chittka, Motivational trade-offs and modulation of nociception in bumblebees, (2022) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 119 (31) e2205821119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2205821119

Pallante, V., Rucco, D. & Versace, E. Young chicks quickly lose their spontaneous preference to aggregate with females. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 75, 78 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03012-5

Lorenzi, E., Lemaire, B.S., Versace, E., Matsushima, T. and Vallortigara, G. (2021) 'Resurgence of an inborn attraction for animate objects via thyroid hormone T3', Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 15. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.675994.

Rosa-Salva, O., Mayer, U., Versace, E., Hébert, M., Lemaire, B.S. and Vallortigara, G. (2021) 'Sensitive periods for social development: Interactions between predisposed and learned mechanisms', Cognition, vol. 213, 104552. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104552.

Versace, E., Damini, S., & Stancher, G. (2020). Early preference for face-like stimuli in solitary species as revealed by tortoise hatchlings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 117(39), 24047–24049. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011453117

Hébert, M., Versace, E., & Vallortigara, G. (2019). Inexperienced preys know when to flee or to freeze in front of a threat. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(46), 22918–22920.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915504116

Versace, E., Ragusa, M., & Vallortigara, G. (2019). A transient time window for early predispositions in newborn chicks. Scientific reports, 9(1), 18767. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-55255-y

Lorenzi, E., Pross, A., Rosa-Salva, O., Versace, E., Sgadò, P., & Vallortigara, G. (2019). Embryonic Exposure to Valproic Acid Affects Social Predispositions for Dynamic Cues of Animate Motion in Newly-Hatched Chicks. Frontiers in physiology, 10, 501. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00501

Versace, E., Damini, S., Caffini, M. and Stancher, G. (2018) 'Born to be asocial: newly hatched tortoises avoid unfamiliar individuals', Animal Behaviour, vol. 138, pp. 187-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.02.012.

Sgadò, P., Rosa-Salva, O., Versace, E. et al. Embryonic Exposure to Valproic Acid Impairs Social Predispositions of Newly-Hatched Chicks. Sci Rep 8, 5919 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-24202-8

Versace, E., Martinho-Truswell, A., Kacelnik, A., & Vallortigara, G. (2018). Priors in Animal and Artificial Intelligence: Where Does Learning Begin?. Trends in cognitive sciences, 22(11), 963–965. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2018.07.005

Learning and imprinting

Loconsole, M., Malaman, B., Stancher, G. & Versace, E. (2025) ‘Crossmodal pitch–luminance association in tortoises’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1553(1), pp. 233–239. doi: 10.1111/nyas.70063.

Elisabetta Versace, Laura Freeland, Michael G. Emmerson; First-sight recognition of touched objects shows that chicks can solve Molyneux's problem. Biol Lett 1 April 2024; 20 (4): 20240025. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0025

Maria Loconsole, Gionata Stancher, Elisabetta Versace; Crossmodal association between visual and acoustic cues in a tortoise (Testudo hermanni). Biol Lett 1 July 2023; 19 (7): 20230265. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0265

Lonardo, L., Versace, E. and Huber, L. (2022) ‘Recognition of rotated objects and cognitive offloading in dogs’, iScience, 25(2), 103820. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.103820

Vallortigara, G. and Versace, E. (2022) Filial Imprinting. In: Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 2726–2728.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7

Versace, E., Ragusa, M., Pallante, V., & Wang, S. (2021). Attraction for familiar conspecifics in young chicks (Gallus gallus): An interbreed study. Behavioural Processes, 193, 104498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104498

Lemaire, B.S., Rucco, D., Josserand, M. et al. Stability and individual variability of social attachment in imprinting. Sci Rep 11, 7914 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86989-3

Versace, E., Rogge, J. R., Shelton-May, N., & Ravignani, A. (2019). Positional encoding in cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). Animal cognition, 22(5), 825–838. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-019-01277-y

Rosa-Salva, O., Fiser, J., Versace, E., Dolci, C., Chehaimi, S., Santolin, C., & Vallortigara, G. (2018). Spontaneous Learning of Visual Structures in Domestic Chicks. Animals, 8(8), 135. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani8080135

Artificial minds, robotics and computational tools

Özentürk, U., Chen, Z., Jamone, L. & Versace, E., 2024. Robotics for poultry farming: Challenges and opportunities. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2024.109411

Chen, E. Versace and L. Jamone, "3D Localization of Objects Buried within Granular Material Using a Distributed 3-Axis Tactile Sensor," 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 2024, pp. 5621-5626, doi: 10.1109/IROS58592.2024.10802276.

Nolasco, I., Singh, S., Morfi, V., Lostanlen, V., Strandburg-Peshkin, A., Vidaña-Vila, E., Gill, L., Pamuła, H., Whitehead, H., Kiskin, I., Jensen, F. H., Morford, J., Emmerson, M. G., Versace, E., Grout, E., Liu, H., Ghani, B., & Stowell, D. (2023). Learning to detect an animal sound from five examples. Ecological Informatics, 77, 102258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2023.102258

Asymmetries and lateralisation

Versace, E., Sgadò, P., George, J. et al. Light-induced asymmetries in embryonic retinal gene expression are mediated by the vascular system and extracellular matrix. Sci Rep 12, 12086 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14963-8

Versace, E., Caffini, M., Werkhoven, Z., & de Bivort, B. L. (2020). Individual, but not population asymmetries, are modulated by social environment and genotype in Drosophila melanogaster. Scientific reports, 10(1), 4480. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61410-7

Experimental evolution

Barghi, N., Versace, E., & Schlötterer, C. (2020). Rapid sex-specific adaptation to high temperature in Drosophila. eLife, 9, e53237. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.53237

Insect behaviour/cognition

Gibbons, M., Versace, E., Crump, A., Baran, B. and Chittka, L. (2025). Reassessment confirms motivational trade-offs and modulation of nociception in bumble bees. Animal Behaviour, Article 123390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123390

Alexander Davidson, Ishani Nanda, Anita Ong, Lars Chittka, Elisabetta Versace; Duration discrimination in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Biol Lett 1 November 2025; 21 (11): 20250440. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0440

Hsu, SK., Lai, WY., Novak, J. et al. Reproductive isolation arises during laboratory adaptation to a novel hot environment. Genome Biol 25, 141 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-024-03285-9

Gibbons, M., Pasquini, E., Kowalewska, A., Read, E., Gibson, S., Crump, A., Solvi, C., Versace, E. & Chittka, L., 2024. Noxious stimulation induces self-protective behavior in bumblebees. iScience, 27(8).https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110440

Perception and movement in humans

Chen, Z., Crucianelli, L., Versace, E. & Jamone, L. (2025) ‘Exploring tactile perception for object localization in granular media: a human and robotic study’, Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), Prague, Czech Republic, pp. 1–6. doi: 10.1109/ICDL63968.2025.11204359.

Vikatou, T., Jubb, C., Angioi, M., Versace, E., Abdallah, D., Weber, X., Cavallaro, A. and Morrissey, D. (2026) ‘Usability testing of digitally augmented visual feedback for remote exercise rehabilitation of injured dancers and athletes: a mixed-methods feasibility study’, Physical Therapy in Sport. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2026.02.001

Abdallah, D., Angioi, M., Redding, E., Ackroyd, B., Galvan, C. and Versace, E. (2022) ‘MotionPerfection: An agile tool for the visualisation, analysis, annotation, and record of motor practice’, SoftwareX, 20, p. 101247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2022.101247

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