Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Social Behavior (social + behavior)
Kinds of Social Behavior Selected AbstractsSocial Behavior of Larvae of the Neotropical Processionary Weevil Phelypera distigma (Boheman) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Hyperinae)ETHOLOGY, Issue 7 2004James T. Costa Socially gregarious behavior among free-living leaf-eating insect larvae occurs mostly among Lepidoptera, Symphyta, and a few Chyrsomelidae (Coleoptera). However, the Neotropical hyperine curculionid Phelypera distigma has also evolved this lifestyle, exhibiting a suite of social behaviors unique among beetles. The larvae are nomadic processionary foragers that punctuate foraging bouts with rosette-shaped resting formations (cycloalexy). Larvae also vibrate or bob their heads rapidly when moving, especially when in contact with conspecifics, and this suggests acoustic or vibrational communication. In this study we used observational and experimental approaches to investigate the basis of processionary, cycloalexic,and head-vibration behavior of this species. Larvae used both trail pheromones and thigmotactic signals to organize themselves into head-to-tail processionary columns. The trail pheromone, produced from the center of the abdomen, remains active for up to 4 h. Processions are not consistently led by particular individuals, but dynamically change over time and often temporarily break into two or more subprocessions. Subprocessions reunite through use of the trail pheromone. We found no evidence that head-bobbing generates attraction through substrate-borne or acoustic signals, but this behavior functions in direct contact to excite group activity. Time-lapse videography used to analyze cycloalexic group formation showed that larvae transition from feeding in a line along the leaf margin to cycloalexic formations on the upper leaf surface via a coordinated back-up movement that brings the posterior tip of their abdomens into contact. We identify three phases of cycloalexic formation: line-up, back-up, and an adjustment phase. Complete assembly can be achieved in as little as 5 s, but often the two phases establishing the basic rosette lasts 5,10 min, while the adjustment phase slowly tightens the group over a period of up to an hour. Collectively these studies present the first documented case of chemical trail marking in a beetle, and provide insight into a remarkable social-behavioral repertoire convergent in key respects with the better-studied social caterpillars and sawflies. [source] The Taxonomy, Model and Message Strategies of Social BehaviorJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2007TSUEN-HO HSU ABSTRACT In an era of rising social awareness, both academics and practitioners have been concerned about the effectiveness of pro-social consumer influence strategies. The main assumption here is that for social marketing to succeed one must first understand the factors underlying pro-social consumer behavior. Firstly, drawing on two dimensions (i.e. the welfare receiver and restitution intention) the authors first identify four types of social behavior (altruism, compensation, reciprocity, and egoism). Next, the model describes social behavior as a result of preceding social behavior motivation and actual social behavior intention. Norms and economic evaluation have an impact on social behavior motivation, which in turn influences social behavior intention, eventually leading to actual social behavior. Actual control factors, such as the availability of resources and opportunities, decide whether social behavior intention can really translate into actual social behavior. Finally, authors propose message strategies (incorporating message appeal, message frame and central/peripheral processing) for each type of social behavior. [source] Power and Wisdom: Toward a History of Social BehaviorJOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 4 2003Akop P. Nazaretyan Cross-disciplinary studies carried out lately by Russian scholars discovered a causal relationship between the three variables: technological potential, cultural regulation quality, and social sustainability. The patterns called techno-humanitarian balance law, states that the higher production and war technologies' power, the more refined the behaviorregulation means (consolidated values and norms, etc.) that are required for self-preservation of the society. The article shows that the law has controlled social selection for all of human history and prehistory, discarding unbalanced social organisms, as far as they could not cope with ecological and (or) geopolitical crises, which had been caused by their own activities. It also shows how successive growth of instrumental opportunities in long-term retrospection has dramatically led to the consecutive perfection of cultural and psychological regulation mechanisms. Relevant calculations, comparative-anthropological evidence, and historical illustrations are provided. Regularities in mental processes are described that precede and accompany crisis-causing behavior, to certain extent regardless of population's historical and cultural peculiarities. [source] Representational Models Associated With Fear of Failure in Adolescents and Young AdultsJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2003David E. Conroy As a descriptive trait, fear of failure (FF) has been associated with serious problems in achievement and health. Psychodynamic theories emphasizing interpersonal processes and early object relations are often used to explain the etiology of FF despite little comprehensive research on such theories in the FF domain. The present study employed the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior to study associations between FF and representational models of self and others among 211 high school and college-aged students and athletes. FF was strongly associated with hostile representational models of self while failing (large effect size). This hostility paralleled the manner in which high FF participants reported being treated by their parents and most significant instructors (all moderate effect sizes). Overall, results supported the complementary nature of these theoretical perspectives and provided further evidence for interpersonal theories of FF. [source] The Riverside Behavioral Q-sort: A Tool for the Description of Social BehaviorJOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2000David C. Funder The Riverside Behavioral Q-sort (RBQ) is a flexible technique for gathering a wide-ranging description of the behavior of individuals in dyadic social interaction. Ratings of RBQ items can attain adequate reliability to reflect behavioral effects of experimental manipulations and to manifest meaningful correlations with a variety of personality characteristics. The RBQ's flexibility, validity, and relative ease of use may facilitate the more frequent inclusion of behavioral data in personality and social psychology. [source] Self-image and burnout in psychiatric staffJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 5 2000M. Jeanneau phd Burnout was tested for in 754 mental health workers and related to self-image as assessed with Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB, Benjamin 1974). A positive relation was found between burnout and negative self-image, and between the experience of personal accomplishment and positive self-image. Compared to self-image, gender, age and work setting did not explain any variance in burnout. Highly burned-out persons had a significantly more negative self-image than staff who had rated themselves as low burnout. Finally, the relation between self-image and burnout was studied in 210 subjects who had completed their self-image ratings one year before burnout was measured, with the same results: a negative self-image was related to higher burnout one year later. One general conclusion is that a tendency in staff to treat themselves in negative ways may function as a negative filter for coping with difficulties at work and thus be a risk factor for burnout. [source] Biological Motion Displays Elicit Social Behavior in 12-Month-OldsCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2009Jennifer M. D. Yoon To test the hypothesis that biological motion perception is developmentally integrated with important social cognitive abilities, 12-month-olds (N = 36) were shown a display of a human point-light figure turning to observe a target. Infants spontaneously and reliably followed the figure's "gaze" despite the absence of familiar and socially informative features such as a face or eyes. This suggests that biological motion displays are sufficient to convey rich psychological information such as attentional orientation and is the first evidence to show that biological motion perception and social cognitive abilities are functionally integrated early in the course of typical development. The question of whether common neural substrates for biological motion perception and analysis of gaze direction underlies the functional integration seen behaviorally is discussed. [source] Language, Social Behavior, and the Quality of Friendships in Adolescents With and Without a History of Specific Language ImpairmentCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2007Kevin Durkin Language is drawn on extensively in friendships but has received scant attention in the developmental literature. This study compared friendship quality in 16-year-old adolescents with and without specific language impairment (SLI), testing the extent it is predicted by individual differences in social behaviors and language ability. Participants were 120 adolescents with SLI and 118 typically developing (TD) adolescents. After considering the effects of nonverbal IQ and prosocial and difficult behavior, language measures were found to be associated with friendship quality. The TD participants enjoyed normal friendships, whereas the participants with SLI were more likely to exhibit poorer quality (although 60% experienced good quality of friendships). Longitudinal analyses identified early language difficulties as predictive of poorer friendship quality in adolescence. [source] Behavioral Phylogeny of Corbiculate Apidae (Hymenoptera; Apinae), with Special Reference to Social BehaviorCLADISTICS, Issue 2 2002Fernando B. Noll The phylogenetic relationships among the four tribes of corbiculate bees (Euglossini, Bombini, Meliponini, and Apini) are controversial. There is substantial incongruence between morphological and molecular data, and the single origin of eusociality is questionable. The use of behavioral characters by previous workers has been restricted to some typological definitions, such as solitary and eusocial. Here, I expand the term "social" to 42 characters and present a tree based only on behavioral characters. The reconstructed relationships were similar to those observed in morphological and "total evidence" analyses, i.e., Euglossini + (Bombini + (Meliponini + Apini)), all of which support a single origin of eusociality. [source] Change of self-image in patients with neurotic, borderline and psychotic disturbancesCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY & PRACTICE), Issue 4 2003Åke Granberg Changes in the self-image of severely disturbed psychiatric patients diagnosed with Kernberg's (1981) structural interview as having neurotic, borderline and psychotic personality organization (NPO, BPO and PPO) were studied in a naturalistic 5-year follow-up programme of milieu treatment. Self-image was measured with Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Benjamin, 1974) introject ratings. After treatment all patients had changed in the affiliation dimension of the self-image, while there was almost no change in the interdependence dimension. A more detailed analysis showed that for the NPO and PPO patients the higher overall affiliation was due to a less attacking self-image, while for the BPO patients it was due to more self-love. Both at intake and follow-up the PPO patients' ratings showed a positive self-image and those of the BPO patients showed high self-control. These ratings contrast with the diagnostic descriptions of such patients. It is suggested that these differences in perspective might lead to interpersonal problems.,Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Oxytocin and estrogen receptor , and , knockout mice provide discriminably different odor cues in behavioral assaysGENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2004M. Kavaliers Social behavior involves both the recognition and production of social cues. Mice with selective deletion (knockout) of either the gene for oxytocin (OT) or genes for the estrogen receptor (ER) -, or -, display impaired social recognition. In this study we demonstrate that these gene knockout mice also provide discriminably different social stimuli in behavioral assays. In an odor choice test, which is a measure of social interest and discrimination, outbred female Swiss-Webster mice discriminated the urine odors of male knockouts (KO: OTKO, ,ERKO, ,ERKO) from the odors of their wildtype littermates (WT: OTWT, ,ERWT, ,ERWT). Females showed marked initial choices of the urine odors of OTWT and ,ERWT males over those of OTKO and ,ERKO males, and ,ERKO males over ,ERWT males. The odors of OTKO and ,ERKO males also induced aversive, analgesic responses, with the odors of WTs having no significant effects. Odors of both the ,ERWT and ,ERKO males induced aversive, analgesic responses, with the odors of the WT inducing significantly greater analgesia. The odors of restraint stressed WT and KO males also elicited analgesia with, again, females displaying significantly greater responses to the odors of stressed OTKO and ,ERKO males than their WTs, and significantly lower analgesia to the odors of stressed ,ERKO than ,ERWT males. These findings show that the KO mice are discriminated from their WTs on the basis of odor and that the various KOs differ in the relative attractiveness/aversiveness of their odors. Therefore, in behavioral assays one causal route by which gene inactivation alters the social behavior of knockout mice may be mediated through the partners' modified responses to their odors. [source] Social behavior and comparative genomics: new genes or new gene regulation?GENES, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2002G. E. Robinson Molecular analyses of social behavior are distinguished by the use of an unusually broad array of animal models. This is advantageous for a number of reasons, including the opportunity for comparative genomic analyses that address fundamental issues in the molecular biology of social behavior. One issue relates to the kinds of changes in genome structure and function that occur to give rise to social behavior. This paper considers one aspect of this issue, whether social evolution involves new genes, new gene regulation, or both. This is accomplished by briefly reviewing findings from studies of the fish Haplochromis burtoni, the vole Microtus ochrogaster, and the honey bee Apis mellifera, with a more detailed and prospective consideration of the honey bee. [source] Response of small rodents to manipulations of vegetation height in agro-ecosystemsINTEGRATIVE ZOOLOGY (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2008Jens JACOB Abstract Some small mammal populations require human interference to conserve rare or threatened species or to minimize adverse effects in plant production. Without a thorough understanding about how small rodents behave in their environment and consideration of how they react to management efforts, management will not be optimal. Social behavior, spatial and temporal activity patterns, predator avoidance and other behavioral responses can affect pest rodent management. Some of these behavioral patterns and their causes have been well studied. However, their impact on pest rodent management, especially for novel management approaches, is not always clear. Habitat manipulation occurs necessarily through land use and intentionally to reduce shelter and food availability and to increase predation pressure on rodents. Rodents often respond to decreased vegetation height with reduced movements and increased risk sensitivity in their feeding behavior. This seems to result mainly from an elevated perceived predation risk. Behavioral responses may lessen the efficacy of the management because the desired effects of predators might be mediated. It remains largely unknown to what extent such responses can compensate at the population level for the expected consequences of habitat manipulation and how population size and crop damage are affected. It is advantageous to understand how target and non-target species react to habitat manipulation to maximize the management effects by appropriate techniques, timing and spatial scale without causing unwanted effects at the system level. [source] Social behavior in fission,fusion groups of red uakari monkeys (Cacajao calvus ucayalii)AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 12 2009Mark Bowler Abstract Primates living in large groups that divide to forage must have social systems compatible with this mode of living. Uakari monkeys (Cacajao spp.) live in large groups and exhibit a form of fission,fusion grouping, but their social organization is poorly understood. We present some of the first data on social behavior for this genus based on a study on Cacajao calvus ucayalii. They traveled in multimale multifemale groups of highly variable sizes, with bachelor units on the periphery. Adult males were affiliative, and adult females associated with more than one adult male. Adult females typically traveled with their dependent offspring and an older juvenile within the group. In parties of two or more males, individuals engaged in previously unreported display behaviors and acted together to aggressively chase other males. Breeding was seasonal, and mating occurred away from other group members. We speculate on the social organization of C. calvus ucayalii, in which dispersal may be bisexual and peripheral males are affiliative with one another. Affiliated males appear to cooperate in fighting and displaying to other males for access to females during the breeding season. Am. J. Primatol. 71:976,987, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Production and perception of sex differences in vocalizations of Wied's black-tufted-ear marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii)AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2009Adam S. Smith Abstract Males and females from many species produce distinct acoustic variations of functionally identical call types. Social behavior may be primed by sex-specific variation in acoustic features of calls. We present a series of acoustic analyses and playback experiments as methods for investigating this subject. Acoustic parameters of phee calls produced by Wied's black-tufted-ear marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii) were analyzed for sex differences. Discriminant function analyses showed that calls contained sufficient acoustic variation to predict the sex of the caller. Several frequency variables differed significantly between the sexes. Natural and synthesized calls were presented to male,female pairs. Calls elicited differential behavioral responses based on the sex of the caller. Marmosets became significantly more vigilant following the playback of male phee calls (both natural and synthetic) than following female phee calls. In a second playback experiment, synthesized calls were modified by independently manipulating three parameters that were known to differ between the sexes (low-, peak-, and end-frequency). When end-frequency-modified calls were presented, responsiveness was differentiable by sex of caller but did not differ from responses to natural calls. This suggests that marmosets did not use end-frequency to determine the sex of the caller. Manipulation of peak-and low-frequency parameters eliminated the discrete behavioral responses to male and female calls. Together, these parameters may be important features that encode for the sex-specific signal. Recognition of sex by acoustic cues seems to be a multivariate process that depends on the congruency of acoustic features. Am. J. Primatol. 71:324,332, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Social behavior in laboratory rats: Applications for psycho-neuroethology studiesANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 4 2006Yutaka YAMAMURO ABSTRACT The social behavior in laboratory animals occurs in conspecific groups. In the past two decades, the physiological basis of the social behavior in laboratory rats has been gradually elucidated through various neural approaches. In addition, the relevance of social related behavior for psycho-neuroethology studies has been extensively proposed. An analysis of social recognition behavior of new conspecifics is a useful approach for the study of memory without aversive alternatives such as fear, pain and anxiety. Furthermore, it is considered that artificial or experimental social isolation can induce altered emotional states in laboratory rats. This article reviews the past findings regarding social behavior and aspects of its expression, and discusses further possibilities for animal models of human neuro-psychiatric disorders. [source] Social behavior and the evolution of neuropeptide genes: lessons from the honeybee genomeBIOESSAYS, Issue 5 2007Reinhard Predel Honeybees display a fascinating social behavior. The structural basis for this behavior, which made the bee a model organism for the study of communication, learning and memory formation, is the tiny insect brain. Neurons of the brain communicate via messenger molecules. Among these molecules, neuropeptides represent the structurally most-diverse group and occupy a high hierarchic position in the modulation of behavior. A recent analysis of the honeybee genome revealed a considerable number of predicted (200) and confirmed (100) neuropeptides in this insect.1 Is this quantity merely the result of advanced mass spectrometric techniques and bioinformatic tools or does it reflect the expression of more of these important messenger molecules, more than known from other insects studied so far? Our analysis of the data suggests that the social behavior is by no means correlated with a specific increase in the number of neuropeptides. Indeed, the honeybee genome is likely to contain fewer neuropeptide genes, neuropeptide paralogues and neuropeptide receptor genes than the solitary fruitfly Drosophila. BioEssays 29:416,421, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] THE INTERACTION OF ANTISOCIAL PROPENSITY AND LIFE-COURSE VARYING PREDICTORS OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR: DIFFERENCES BY METHOD OF ESTIMATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 2 2007GRAHAM C. OUSEY Recent criminological research has explored the extent to which stable propensity and life-course perspectives may be integrated to provide a more comprehensive explanation of variation in individual criminal offending. One line of these integrative efforts focuses on the ways that stable individual characteristics may interact with, or modify, the effects of life-course varying social factors. Given their consistency with the long-standing view that person,environment interactions contribute to variation in human social behavior, these theoretical integration attempts have great intuitive appeal. However, a review of past criminological research suggests that conceptual and empirical complexities have, so far, somewhat dampened the development of a coherent theoretical understanding of the nature of interaction effects between stable individual antisocial propensity and time-varying social variables. In this study, we outline and empirically assess several of the sometimes conflicting hypotheses regarding the ways that antisocial propensity moderates the influence of time-varying social factors on delinquent offending. Unlike some prior studies, however, we explicitly measure the interactive effects of stable antisocial propensity and time-varying measures of selected social variables on changes in delinquent offending. In addition, drawing on recent research that suggests that the relative ubiquity of interaction effects in past studies may be partly from the poorly suited application of linear statistical models to delinquency data, we alternatively test our interaction hypotheses using least-squares and tobit estimation frameworks. Our findings suggest that method of estimation matters, with interaction effects appearing readily in the former but not in the latter. The implications of these findings for future conceptual and empirical work on stable propensity/time-varying social variable interaction effects are discussed. [source] Self-organized and highly ordered domain structures within swarms of Myxococcus xanthusCYTOSKELETON, Issue 3 2006Andrew E. Pelling Abstract Coordinated group movement (swarming) is a key aspect of Myxococcusxanthus' social behavior. Here we report observation of domain structures formed by multiple cells within large three-dimensional swarming groups grown on amorphous glass substrates, using the atomic force microscope (AFM). Novel analyses revealed that ,90% of the wild type swarms displayed some form of preferential cell alignment. In contrast, cells with mutations in the social and adventurous motility systems displayed a distinct lack of cell alignment. Video microscopy observations of domain features of in vivo swarming M.xanthus cells were also consistent with the AFM data. The results presented here reveal that unique domain formation within swarms of wild type cells is a biologically driven process requiring the social and adventurous motility systems and is not a statistical phenomenon or thermodynamic process arising from liquid crystal behavior. Cell Motil. Cytoskeleton 63, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Individual variation and hormonal modulation of a sodium channel , subunit in the electric organ correlate with variation in a social signalDEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 10 2007He Liu Abstract The sodium channel ,1 subunit affects sodium channel gating and surface density, but little is known about the factors that regulate ,1 expression or its participation in the fine control of cellular excitability. In this study we examined whether graded expression of the ,1 subunit contributes to the gradient in sodium current inactivation, which is tightly controlled and directly related to a social behavior, the electric organ discharge (EOD), in a weakly electric fish Sternopygus macrurus. We found the mRNA and protein levels of ,1 in the electric organ both correlate with EOD frequency. We identified a novel mRNA splice form of this gene and found the splicing preference for this novel splice form also correlates with EOD frequency. Androgen implants lowered EOD frequency and decreased the ,1 mRNA level but did not affect splicing. Coexpression of each splice form in Xenopus oocytes with either the human muscle sodium channel gene, hNav1.4, or a Sternopygus ortholog, smNav1.4b, sped the rate of inactivation of the sodium current and shifted the steady-state inactivation toward less negative membrane potentials. The translational product of the novel mRNA splice form lacks a previously identified important tyrosine residue but still functions normally. The properties of the fish , and coexpressed ,1 subunits in the oocyte replicate those of the electric organ's endogenous sodium current. These data highlight the role of ion channel , subunits in regulating cellular excitability. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007. [source] Social experience organizes parallel networks in sensory and limbic forebrainDEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2007Eun-Jin Yang Abstract Successful social behavior can directly influence an individual's reproductive success. Therefore, many organisms readily modify social behavior based on past experience. The neural changes induced by social experience, however, remain to be fully elucidated. We hypothesize that social modulation of neural systems not only occurs at the level of individual nuclei, but also of functional networks, and their relationships with behavior. We used the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), which displays stereotyped, visually triggered social behaviors particularly suitable for comparisons of multiple functional networks in a social context, to test whether repeated aggressive interactions modify behavior and metabolic activity in limbic,hypothalamic and sensory forebrain regions, assessed by quantitative cytochrome oxidase (a slowly accumulating endogenous metabolic marker) histochemistry. We found that aggressive interactions potentiate aggressive behavior, induce changes in activities of individual nuclei, and organize context-specific functional neural networks. Surprisingly, this experiential effect is not only present in a limbic,hypothalamic network, but also extends to a sensory forebrain network directly relevant to the behavioral expression. Our results suggest that social experience modulates organisms' social behavior via modifying sensory and limbic neural systems in parallel both at the levels of individual regions and networks, potentially biasing perceptual as well as limbic processing. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007 [source] Effects of excessive glucocorticoid receptor stimulation during early gestation on psychomotor and social behavior in the rat ,DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Karine Kleinhaus Abstract Severe psychological stress in the first trimester of pregnancy increases the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring. To begin to investigate the role of glucocorticoid receptors in this association, we determined the effects of the glucocorticoid dexamethasone (2,mg/kg), administered to pregnant rats on gestation days 6,8, on maternal behaviors and schizophrenia-relevant behaviors in the offspring. Dams receiving dexamethasone exhibited increased milk ejection bouts during nursing. Offspring of dexamethasone-treated dams (DEX) showed decreased juvenile social play and a blunted acoustic startle reflex in adolescence and adulthood, effects that were predicted by frequency of milk ejections in the dams. DEX offspring also showed increased prepulse inhibition of startle and reduced amphetamine-induced motor activity, effects not correlated with maternal behavior. It is postulated that over-stimulation of receptors targeted by glucocorticoids in the placenta or other maternal tissues during early gestation can lead to psychomotor and social behavioral deficits in the offspring. Moreover, some of these deficits may be mediated by alterations in postnatal maternal behavior and physiology produced by early gestational exposure to excess glucocorticoids. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 52:121,132, 2010 [source] The effects of selective breeding for differential rates of 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations on emotional behavior in ratsDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Jeffrey Burgdorf Abstract Fifty-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations have previously been shown to be positively correlated with reward and appetitive social behavior in rats, and to reflect a positive affective state. In this study, rats selectively bred for high and low rates of 50-kHz vocalizations as juveniles were tested as adults in a battery of behavioral tests for social/emotional behaviors. We found that animals selectively bred for high rates of 50-kHz vocalizations exhibited more crosses into the center area of the open field apparatus, were more likely to show a preference for a dilute sucrose solution (.8%) compared to tap water, and were less aggressive than randomly bred animals. Conversely, animals bred for low rates of 50-kHz calls produced more fecal boli during both open field testing and "tickling" stimulation, and made less contact with conspecifics in a social interaction test compared to randomly bred animals. We also observed that low line rats have elevated brain levels of cholecystokinin (CCK) in the cortex, which is consistent with literature showing that CCK content in the cortex is positively correlated with rates of aversive 22-kHz USVs. Conversely, high line animals had elevated levels of met-enkephalin in several brain regions, which is consistent with the role of endogenous-opioids in the generation 50-kHz USVs and positive affect. These results suggest that animals bred for high rates of 50-kHz may show a stress resilient phenotype, whereas low line rats may show a stress prone phenotype. As such these animals could provide novel insights into the neurobiology of emotion. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 34,46, 2009 [source] Maternal behavior changes after immune challenge of neonates with developmental effects on adult social behaviorDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2003Kathryn E. Hood Abstract To examine whether maternal responsiveness during interactions with endotoxin-treated pups contributes to long-term effects on social development, neonatal mice were fostered on postnatal day 1 to dams from three selectively bred lines that differ in social behaviors. On day 5, neonates were administered saline or 0.5 mg/kg endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, i.p.). Observations of undisturbed dams and litters on days 2, 4, 6, and 8 showed modest line differences in maternal behaviors. At the peak intensity of the transient illness induced by endotoxin (3 hr postinjection on day 5), dams increased licking and decreased time off-nest for endotoxin, but not saline-treated pups. As adults, fostered-reared males were observed in brief social interactions. Males exposed to endotoxin early in life showed changes in adult social behaviors that depended on foster dam line as well as individual differences in maternal responsiveness. Maternal responsiveness to stressed neonates can ameliorate the social,developmental effects of early illness. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 42: 17,34, 2003. [source] Accelerated nervous system development contributes to behavioral efficiency in the laboratory mouse: A behavioral review and theoretical proposalDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2001Ian Q. Whishaw Abstract The emergence of the laboratory mouse as a favored species for genetic research has posed a number of problems for scientists interested in the reflection of genetic influences in mouse behavior. It is commonly thought that rat behavior, which has been studied more extensively than mouse behavior, could be easily generalized to mice. In this article, a number of categories of behavior displayed by the mouse (motor, spatial, defensive, social) are reviewed and contrasted with the same categories of behavior displayed by the rat. The comparison suggests that mouse behavior is simpler and more dependent upon elementary actions than the behavior of the rat. We suggest that the behavioral simplification in the mouse adapts it for a different ecological niche than that occupied by the rat. We propose that this simplification may be mediated by accelerated brain maturation during development. We further propose that this developmental acceleration in the mouse renders it less dependent upon complex social behavior and plastic nervous system changes associated with learning than the rat. This difference poses problems for the development of relevant methods of behavioral analysis and interpretation. Since the mouse's biological adaptations will be reflected in laboratory behavior, suggestions are made for behavioral approaches to the study and interpretation of mouse behavior. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 39: 151,170, 2001 [source] Sickness and Aggressive Behavior in Dominant and Subordinate Mice,ETHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Daniel W. H. Cohn Sick animals show a set of organized behavioral changes (sickness behavior), which is the result of a motivational re-organization of the behavior as a whole. Sickness behavior display can be influenced by the social context. In this work, we sought to investigate the regulation of sickness behavior within a pair of mice in the presence of an intruder mouse. Dominant and subordinate mice were treated with the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and were challenged with the presence of an intruder mouse. LPS effects depended on ranking and social context. Even though dominant mice displayed more agonistic interaction towards the intruder, subordinate mice displayed agonistic behavior towards the intruder when their dominant companion was treated with LPS. The results show that, not only sickness behavior is differentially expressed among different social ranks, but also that sickness behavior is related to different reactions among surrounding animals. These data are relevant for a biological approach to the relation between sickness behavior and social behavior. [source] Relationship between Serum Testosterone, Dominance and Mating Success in Père David's Deer StagsETHOLOGY, Issue 9 2004Li Chunwang We conducted an experiment in the Beijing Milu Park to study the social behavior of male Père David's deer, and related social behavior to social position and serum testosterone level of the stags during rut. We classified the stags into three rank classes according to their rutting behavior: ,harem master', ,challenger' and ,bachelor'. We monitored the behaviors of four ,harem masters', five ,challengers' and five ,bachelors', and analyzed serum testosterone levels in blood samples of those 14 stags using radioimmunoassay. We defined the effectiveness value, E = A/T, to assess the effectiveness of herding or mating attempts made by stags (,T' represents the frequency of herding or mating attempts made by a stag and ,A' represents the frequency of herding or mating attempts accepted by hinds). We found that: (1) the ,harem masters' and the ,challengers' displayed more frequent rut and locomotive behaviors but fewer ingestion behaviors than the ,bachelors'; (2) serum testosterone levels in the ,harem masters' and the ,challengers' were higher than that in the ,bachelors'; (3) effectiveness value of herding attempts differed significantly between the three types of stags, being highest in the ,harem masters' and the lowest in the ,bachelors'; and (4) effectiveness value of mating attempts was significantly greater for the ,harem masters' than for the ,challengers'. We conclude that: (1) reproductive behavior of the Père David's deer stags is strongly associated with social rank; (2) social roles of Père David's deer stags during the rut are related to the testosterone secretion; and (3) rank class affects the mating opportunity of the stags. [source] Intra- and Inter-seasonal Variation in the Socio-Spatial Behavior of Adult Male Collared Lizards, Crotaphytus collaris (Reptilia, Crotaphytidae)ETHOLOGY, Issue 1 2001Troy A. Baird When individuals maintain strong inter-seasonal philopatry to the same territories, males may be able to re-establish territory occupancy without intense intra-sexual aggression, and instead spend more time courting females early in the reproductive season. Furthermore, when some males have prior experience defending the same territories, it may be necessary for young males to exhibit higher levels of aggression because they are establishing a territory for the first time. We tested these hypotheses by examining within-season (1992 and 1997) temporal variation in the social behavior of adult male collared lizards of known age and prior territorial experience in a population where inter-season philopatry to territories is high. Contrary to expectations, the frequency of aggression exhibited by males with and without prior territorial experience did not differ. The frequency of intra-sexual aggression was higher in 1992 than in 1997, perhaps because male competitors were more abundant in 1992. Although there was an interactive effect of year, male display and patrol were low at the beginning of the reproductive season in Apr. and May, reached peaks during midseason in June, and then decreased as reproduction ended in July. The size of territories showed a similar pattern, with males defending larger areas in June. Our data support the philopatry hypothesis in that the establishment of territories occurred without high levels of aggression early in the season, perhaps because territory boundaries have been well defined by high rates of patrol and advertisement during the middle of the previous season. Inter-sexual interactions were most frequent in June rather than at the beginning of the reproductive season. Adult females are producing their second clutches and yearling females are producing their first clutches in June. The high rate of inter-sexual encounters in June supports the hypothesis that males allocate more time to courtship when females are receptive because there are more reproductively active females at this time. The temporal pattern of activities in adult Crotaphytus collaris appears to function as a compromise between competing intra- and inter-sexual social demands on males, allowing males to maximize mating opportunities as well as maintain future access to productive territories. [source] Decision-making in Parkinson's disease patients with and without pathological gamblingEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 1 2010M. Rossi Background and purpose:, Pathological gambling (PG) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is a frequent impulse control disorder associated mainly with dopamine replacement therapy. As impairments in decision-making were described independently in PG and PD, the objective of this study was to assess decision-making processes in PD patients with and without PG. Methods:, Seven PD patients with PG and 13 age, sex, education and disease severity matched PD patients without gambling behavior were enrolled in the study. All patients were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychiatric and cognitive evaluation, including tasks used to assess decision-making abilities under ambiguous or risky situations, like the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), the Game of Dice Task and the Investment Task. Results:, Compared to PD patients without gambling behavior, those with PG obtained poorer scores in the IGT and in a rating scale of social behavior, but not in other decision-making and cognitive tasks. Conclusions:, Low performance in decision-making under ambiguity and abnormal social behavior distinguished PD patients with PG from those without this disorder. Dopamine replacement therapy may induce dysfunction of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala-ventral striatum system, thus increasing the risk for developing PG. [source] Nonconscious influences of religion on prosociality: a priming studyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 5 2007Isabelle Pichon Past literature on the automaticity of social behavior indicates that priming a concept automatically activates related behavioral schemas. In the two present studies we examined the impact of religion on prosociality. In the first study, we tested the impact of subliminal priming of religious concepts on prosocial behavior intentions. We found a main effect of this priming, moderated by valence: prosocial behavior tendencies were stronger when positive religious words had previously been subliminally primed. In the second study, we examined the accessibility of prosocial concepts, after the supraliminal activation of religion. Indeed, we found that not only were religion-related attributes more accessible when primed, but positive religious primes were also able to activate prosocial concepts. While previous research has shown the religion-prosociality link at the explicit level and in terms of the role of individual religiousness, these results indicate that religious concepts by themselves can nonconsciously activate prosocial behavioral schemas. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||