scholarly journals Rat Ultrasonic Vocalizations as Social Reinforcers—Implications for a Multilevel Model of the Cognitive Representation of Action and Rats’ Social World

2021 ◽  
pp. 411-438
Author(s):  
Tobias Kalenscher ◽  
Lisa-Maria Schönfeld ◽  
Sebastian Löbner ◽  
Markus Wöhr ◽  
Mireille van Berkel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Stimulus Condition ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Control Stimulus ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
Ultrasonic Control ◽  
Negative Reinforcer ◽  
Social Reinforcers

AbstractRats are social animals. For example, rats exhibit mutual-reward preferences, preferring choice alternatives that yield a reward to themselves as well as to a conspecific, over alternatives that yield a reward only to themselves. We have recently hypothesized that such mutual-reward preferences might be the result of reinforcing properties of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) emitted by the conspecifics. USVs in rats serve as situation-dependent socio-affective signals with important communicative functions. To test this possibility, here, we trained rats to enter one of two compartments in a T-maze setting. Entering either compartment yielded identical food rewards as well as playback of pre-recorded USVs either in the 50-kHz range, which we expected to be appetitive or therefore a potential positive reinforcer, or in the 22-kHz range predicted to be aversive and therefore a potential negative reinforcer. In three separate experimental conditions, rats chose between compartments yielding either 50-kHz USVs versus a non-ultrasonic control stimulus (condition 1), 22-kHz USVs versus a non-ultrasonic control stimulus (condition 2), or 50-kHz versus 22-kHz USVs (condition 3). Results show that rats exhibit a transient preference for the 50-kHz USV playback over non-ultrasonic control stimuli, as well as an initial avoidance of 22-kHz USV relative to non-ultrasonic control stimuli on trend-level. As rats progressed within session through trials, and across sessions, these preferences diminished, in line with previous findings. These results support our hypothesis that USVs have transiently motivating reinforcing properties, putatively acquired through association processes, but also highlight that these motivating properties are context-dependent and modulatory, and might not act as primary reinforcers when presented in isolation. We conclude this article with a second part on a multilevel cognitive theory of rats’ action and action learning. The “cascade” approach assumes that rats’ cognitive representations of action may be multilevel. A basic physical level of action may be invested with higher levels of action that integrate emotional, motivational, and social significance. Learning in an experiment consists in the cognitive formation of multilevel action representations. Social action and interaction in particular are proposed to be cognitively modeled as multilevel. Our results have implications for understanding the structure of social cognition, and social learning, in animals and humans.

scholarly journals Analysis of Mouse Vocal Communication (AMVOC): A deep, unsupervised method for rapid detection, analysis, and classification of ultrasonic vocalizations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Stoumpou ◽  
César D M Vargas ◽  
Peter F Schade ◽  
Theodoros Giannakopoulos ◽  
Erich D Jarvis
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Detection Analysis ◽  
Latent Features ◽  
Convolutional Autoencoder ◽  
Unsupervised Deep Learning ◽  
Experimental Use

Some aspects of the neural mechanisms underlying mouse ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) are a useful model for the neurobiology of human speech and speech-related disorders. Much of the research on vocalizations and USVs is limited to offline methods and supervised classification of USVs, hindering the discovery of new types of vocalizations and the study of real-time free behavior. To address these issues, we developed AMVOC (Analysis of Mouse VOcal Communication) as a free, open-source software to analyze and detect USVs in both online and offline modes. When compared to hand-annotated ground-truth USV data, AMVOC's detection functionality (both offline and online) has high accuracy, and outperforms leading methods in noisy conditions, thus allowing for broader experimental use. AMVOC also includes the implementation of an unsupervised deep learning approach that facilitates discovery and analysis of USV data by clustering USVs using latent features extracted by a convolutional autoencoder and isimplemented in a graphical user interface (GUI), also enabling user's evaluation. These results can be used to explore the vocal repertoire space of the analyzed vocalizations. In this way, AMVOC will facilitate vocal analyses in a broader range of experimental conditions and allow users to develop previously inaccessible experimental designs for the study of mouse vocal behavior.

scholarly journals Tackle Prostate Cancer: A Doctoral Student's Response

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-156
Author(s):  
Luis E. Lacourt
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
High School ◽  
Social Cognitive Theory ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Community Resources ◽  
High School Football ◽  
Football Game

This first hand reflection as a doctoral counseling student narrates my social action response after learning my diagnosis with prostate cancer. I discuss my experience, review facts about prostate cancer, and apply Bandura’s (1977) Social Cognitive Theory, a SWOT analysis, and Eriksen’s (1997) social action stages to my activities. These illustrate how I used my story and unique community resources to create awareness and raise funds through an event at a high school football game. Possibilities for additional advocacy events are also discussed.

Ontogeny of Ultrasonic Vocalizations in the Woodmouse (Apodemus Sylvaticus L.). I: Temporal Organization

Behaviour ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 108 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 241-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Gyger ◽  
Francoise Schenk ◽  
André Pontet
Keyword(s):  
Locomotor Activity ◽  
Muscular Activity ◽  
Apodemus Sylvaticus ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Total Production ◽  
Ontogenetic Changes ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Plus Maze ◽  
Contact Calls

AbstractWe have studied the ontogeny of ultrasonic vocalizations in the woodmouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, a high vocalizing palearctic murid species. Vocalization and behaviour were recorded as the pups were daily isolated for three minutes at ambiant temperature in two different experimental conditions: a plus-maze and a cup. The temporal organization of the vocalizations was analysed using log survivor functions of the intervals between the calls. These functions provided a reliable bout criterion indicating that ultrasound production by the youngest pups was clustered in bouts. Ontogenetic changes in the ultrasound production appeared different when measured in calls or in bouts per time unit. The call rate decreases from PND 11 onwards, whereas the bout rate remains elevated up to PND 15. Ultrasound production and locomotor activity arc associated from PND 11 onwards. The high ultrasound production by two-week old pups in the plus-maze is related to a very high locomotor activity in this experimental condition. We have identified four different steps in the ontogeny of ultrasonic vocalisations in the woodmouse: 1) Just after birth, the pups emit very few ultrasounds. 2) Around PND 3, there is a tremendous vocal output: the pups vocalize in a tonic mode, almost continuously. 3) The tonic mode goes gradually into a phasic mode in which ultrasounds are clustered in bouts; the total production decreases as the pups grow up. From PND 11 onward, most of the calls are produced during locomotion. 4) Around PND 15 there are mainly single calls, like in the adults. The very intense and frequent calls emitted during the second step are known to be distress calls. Since their production is accompanied by a high muscular activity, that might also delay cooling of the pups. The calls emitted by two-week old pups might serve as contact calls increasing the cohesion between the pups at the time of the first excursions out of the nest. In this way, these calls might diminish the predation risk and would facilitate a possible protection or retrieval by the mother.

scholarly journals Pascal Boyer: Den ganske historie om religion (nogensinde)

2003 ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Jeppe Sinding Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Partial Explanation ◽  
Cognitive Representations ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Cognition And Culture ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
Cognitive Study

This review article was occasioned by the publication of Pascal Boyer’s Religion Explained. The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought (2001), the title of which left this reviewer in some doubt and intent on investigating whether Boyer’s ambition has been fulfilled. Here, it must be noted that this reviewer is generally positive about the rewarding aspects of the ‘cognitive turn’ in the study of religion and Boyer’s earlier substantial contributions to this, but he is also wary of the fallacy of ‘partial explanation’: explaining a part does not amount to an explanation of the whole.After a presentation of the reviewer’s perspective and involvement in a research group working on religious narrative, cognition and culture, a substantial step-by-step review of the contents and structure of Boyer’s argument is presented. Then follows a discussion of the central concepts of domain specificity concerning cognitive representations and the ‘counter-intuitive’ nature of religious thought and, further, Boyer’s subsequent ideas concerning rituals and the ramifications for social formations and historical developments in what he calls ‘The Full History of All Religion (ever)’. Next, the reviewer offers some ‘critical intuitions’ and questions the return of (a new mode of) psychologism in the human sciences and Boyer’s dependence upon earlier theorizing which is not clearly noted nor acknowledged, but which has consequences for the epistemic status of his project and for those who follow the same tracks in the cognitive study of religion. It turns out that the methodology is based on extreme individualistic and scientistic attitudes, where ‘higher-order’ theoretical objects are explained (away?) by lower-order phenomena. In short, Boyer (and others) stops where culture begins and, as a consequence, religion is transformed into an epiphenomenal category without any causal effects. In the chosen theoretical perspective, religions ‘mean’ nothing; there exist ‘nothing but’ the cognitive representations of individual individuals – but in this manner, the currently dominating approach in the cognitive study of religion perpetuates a Cartesian mystique and a dubious physicalist dualism concerning the mind and the objects it ‘cognizes’. Cognitive theory is definitely an advance in the study of religion but it takes more than materialist fideism to make it convincing. The work of language, culture etc. has to be accounted for more seriously and in more detail.

scholarly journals Response Calls Evoked by Playback of Natural 50-kHz Ultrasonic Vocalizations in Rats

2022 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annuska C. Berz ◽  
Markus Wöhr ◽  
Rainer K. W. Schwarting
Keyword(s):  
Affective State ◽  
D2 Receptor ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Sprague Dawley ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Adult Rats ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Positive Affective State ◽  
Lower Frequencies

Rats are highly social animals known to communicate with ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) of different frequencies. Calls around 50 kHz are thought to represent a positive affective state, whereas calls around 22 kHz are believed to serve as alarm or distress calls. During playback of natural 50-kHz USV, rats show a reliable and strong social approach response toward the sound source. While this response has been studied in great detail in numerous publications, little is known about the emission of USV in response to natural 50-kHz USV playback. To close this gap, we capitalized on three data sets previously obtained and analyzed USV evoked by natural 50-kHz USV playback in male juvenile rats. We compared different rat stocks, namely Wistar (WI) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) and investigated the pharmacological treatment with the dopaminergic D2 receptor antagonist haloperidol. These response calls were found to vary broadly inter-individually in numbers, mean peak frequencies, durations and frequency modulations. Despite the large variability, the results showed no major differences between experimental conditions regarding call likelihood or call parameters, representing a robust phenomenon. However, most response calls had clearly lower frequencies and were longer than typical 50-kHz calls, i.e., around 30 kHz and lasting generally around 0.3 s. These calls resemble aversive 22-kHz USV of adult rats but were of higher frequencies and shorter durations. Moreover, blockade of dopamine D2 receptors did not substantially affect the emission of response calls suggesting that they are not dependent on the D2 receptor function. Taken together, this study provides a detailed analysis of response calls toward playback of 50-kHz USV in juvenile WI and SD rats. This includes calls representing 50-kHz USV, but mostly calls with lower frequencies that are not clearly categorizable within the so far known two main groups of USV in adult rats. We discuss the possible functions of these response calls addressing their communicative functions like contact or appeasing calls, and whether they may reflect a state of frustration. In future studies, response calls might also serve as a new read-out in rat models for neuropsychiatric disorders, where acoustic communication is impaired, such as autism spectrum disorder.

scholarly journals Biological and Acoustic Sex Differences in Rat Ultrasonic Vocalization

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 459
Author(s):  
Charles Lenell ◽  
Courtney K. Broadfoot ◽  
Nicole E. Schaen-Heacock ◽  
Michelle R. Ciucci
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Rat Model ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Neurological Diseases ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalization ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Communicative Intent ◽  
Environment Stress

The rat model is a useful tool for understanding peripheral and central mechanisms of laryngeal biology. Rats produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) that have communicative intent and are altered by experimental conditions such as social environment, stress, diet, drugs, age, and neurological diseases, validating the rat model’s utility for studying communication and related deficits. Sex differences are apparent in both the rat larynx and USV acoustics and are differentially affected by experimental conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this review paper is to highlight the known sex differences in rat USV production, acoustics, and laryngeal biology detailed in the literature across the lifespan.

scholarly journals Experiential Service Learning: Promoting Competency-based Education for Gerontology Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 763-764
Author(s):  
Theresa Abah
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Self Instruction

Abstract Service-learning is an effective pedagogical approach meant to deepen learners understanding of course content by linking scholarship and social action when structurally organized based on attainment of professional core competencies. The recent COVID-19 pandemic caused a rethinking of the way service learning practicum is delivered, especially as it relates to training health professionals who engage collaboratively with older persons (individuals aged 65 years and older). This poster examines the challenges faced by gerontology students as they transitioned to fully virtual learning and practicum format, the lessons learned, and how to close the gap between theory and practice for better programmatic processes. The data used to gather students experiences include; student reflective journals, class discussions and survey questions to students (n=44). The analytic framework utilized is the Social Cognitive Theory, (SCT)- which explains how individuals can master concepts through verbal and physical persuasion, including peer modelling. The goal is to promote leaners self- regulatory skills to achieve the course learning objectives, as obtained from the SCT six strategies for setting achievable goals, through: Feedback, self-instruction, self-monitoring, use of support and goal setting. Some of the lessons learned suggest students benefit more from service learning when they receive continuous feedback about how to develop intergenerational relationships with older adult partners assigned to in the community (68%), than from goal setting strategies (24%). The implication for practice is: there is a need to develop structured service-learning guidelines for undergraduate students in gerontology program to be prepared to better serve older adults.

Electrolytic Isolation of Twin-Type Shock Deformation Structures

1967 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 318-319
Author(s):  
F. I. Grace ◽  
L. E. Murr
Keyword(s):  
Grain Boundaries ◽  
Thin Foil ◽  
Electrolyte Composition ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Average Current Density ◽  
Electron Transmission ◽  
Deformation Structures ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Average Current ◽  
Specimen Edge

During the course of electron transmission investigations of the deformation structures associated with shock-loaded thin foil specimens of 70/30 brass, it was observed that in a number of instances preferential etching occurred along grain boundaries; and that the degree of etching appeared to depend upon the various experimental conditions prevailing during electropolishing. These included the electrolyte composition, the average current density, and the temperature in the vicinity of the specimen. In the specific case of 70/30 brass shock-loaded at pressures in the range 200-400 kilobars, the predominant mode of deformation was observed to be twin-type faults which in several cases exhibited preferential etching similar to that observed along grain boundaries. A novel feature of this particular phenomenon was that in certain cases, especially for twins located in the vicinity of the specimen edge, the etching or preferential electropolishing literally isolated these structures from the matrix.

Site of Lysosome Production During Hepatic Injury

1969 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 348-349
Author(s):  
Nalin J. Unakar
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Golgi Apparatus ◽  
Mouse Liver ◽  
Hepatic Injury ◽  
Close Approximation ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Toxic Injury

The increased number of lysosomes as well as the close approximation of lysosomes to the Golgi apparatus in tissue under variety of experimental conditions is commonly observed. These observations suggest Golgi involvement in lysosomal production. The role of the Golgi apparatus in the production of lysosomes in mouse liver was studied by electron microscopy of liver following toxic injury by CCI4.

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