Extensions, elaborations, and explanations of the role of evolution and learning in the control of social behavior

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-276
Author(s):  
Michael Domjan ◽  
Brian Cusato ◽  
Ronald Villarreal
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Pavlovian Conditioning ◽  
Maladaptive Behavior ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Homeostatic Model ◽  
Conditioned Responses ◽  
Reproductive Consequences

Reactions to the target article included requests for extensions and elaborations of the schema we proposed and discussions of apparent shortcomings of our approach. In general, we welcome suggestions for extension of the schema to additional kinds of social behavior and to forms of learning other than Pavlovian conditioning. Many of the requested elaborations of the schema are consistent with our approach, but some may limit its generality. Many of the apparent shortcomings that commentators discussed do not seem problematic. Our schema encourages a broad view of the behavioral consequences of Pavlovian conditioning – including learned modifications of responding to the unconditioned stimulus. Costs and benefits addressed by our schema are the long-range reproductive consequences of learning – not the immediate reinforcing consequences of particular conditioned responses. Our approach allows the evolution of learning to yield maladaptive behavior and can be extended to characterize dynamic social interactions. We clarify that ours is not a homeostatic model involving ideal set points, and we clarify and defend our application of Pavlovian concepts to the analysis of social play.

scholarly journals Exploring Interactions between the Gut Microbiota and Social Behavior through Nutrition

Genes ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Pasquaretta ◽  
Tamara Gómez-Moracho ◽  
Philipp Heeb ◽  
Mathieu Lihoreau
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Nutritional Ecology ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Nutritional Geometry ◽  
Social Animals

Microbes influence a wide range of host social behaviors and vice versa. So far, however, the mechanisms underpinning these complex interactions remain poorly understood. In social animals, where individuals share microbes and interact around foods, the gut microbiota may have considerable consequences on host social interactions by acting upon the nutritional behavior of individual animals. Here we illustrate how conceptual advances in nutritional ecology can help the study of these processes and allow the formulation of new empirically testable predictions. First, we review key evidence showing that gut microbes influence the nutrition of individual animals, through modifications of their nutritional state and feeding decisions. Next, we describe how these microbial influences and their social consequences can be studied by modelling populations of hosts and their gut microbiota into a single conceptual framework derived from nutritional geometry. Our approach raises new perspectives for the study of holobiont nutrition and will facilitate theoretical and experimental research on the role of the gut microbiota in the mechanisms and evolution of social behavior.

scholarly journals Rat ultrasonic vocalizations and novelty-induced social and non-social investigation behavior in a seminatural environment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrek Heinla ◽  
Xi Chu ◽  
Anders Agmo ◽  
Eelke Snoeren
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Behaviors ◽  
Ultrasonic Vocalizations ◽  
Sensory Cues ◽  
Social Investigation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Vocal Signals ◽  
Transfer Of Information

Although rats are known to emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), it remains unclear whether these calls serve an auditory communication purpose. For USVs to be part of communication, the vocal signals will need to be a transfer of information between two or more conspecifics, and with the possibility to induce changes in the behavior of the recipient. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate the role of USVs in rats' social and non-social investigation strategies when introduced into a large novel environment with unfamiliar conspecifics. We quantified a wide range of social and non-social behaviors in the seminatural environment, which could be affected by subtle signals, including USVs. We found that during the first hour in the seminatural environment the ability to vocalize did not affect how quickly rats met each other, their overall social investigation behavior, their passive social behavior nor their aggressive behavior. Furthermore, the non-social exploratory behaviors and behaviors reflecting anxiety/stress-like states were also unaffected. These results demonstrated that a disability to vocalize did not result in significant disadvantages (or changes) compared to intact conspecifics regarding social and non-social behaviors. This suggests that other (multi)sensory cues are more relevant in social interactions than USVs.

scholarly journals Brain games: Toward a neuroecology of social behavior

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 424-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-François Gariépy ◽  
Steve W. C. Chang ◽  
Michael L. Platt
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Nonhuman Animals

AbstractIn the target article, Schilbach et al. defend a “second-person neuroscience” perspective that focuses on the neural basis of social cognition during live, ongoing interactions between individuals. We argue that a second-person neuroscience would benefit from formal approaches borrowed from economics and behavioral ecology and that it should be extended to social interactions in nonhuman animals.

Ecological heuristics for learning

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-251
Author(s):  
Paul M. Bronstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Aggressive Behavior ◽  
Pavlovian Conditioning ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Components Of Behavior

Domjan, Cusato & Villarreal's target article is reviewed in the context of historical difficulty for learning studies in discriminating between learned and unlearned components of behavior. The research surveyed in the target article meets the criterion of differentiating between some learned and the unlearned aspects of social behavior, with Pavlovian conditioning shown repeatedly as a route by which reproductive and aggressive behavior is modulated.

Teaching interactions are based on motor behavior embodiment

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludovic Marin
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
The State ◽  
Target Article ◽  
State Of Mind

AbstractIn Kline's target article, the role of motor behavior in teaching is missing. However, it is so important that we cannot avoid taking into account the movements of another person when performing our own movements. Moreover, the state of mind is embodied. Consequently, teaching should integrate the role of motor behavior to enhance teacher/learner social interactions.

The role of frontal activation in the regulation and dysregulation of social behavior during the preschool years

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan A. Fox ◽  
Louis A. Schmidt ◽  
Susan D. Calkins ◽  
Kenneth H. Rubin ◽  
Robert J. Coplan
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Externalizing Problems ◽  
Maladaptive Behavior ◽  
Eeg Asymmetry ◽  
Frontal Eeg Asymmetry ◽  
Behavioral Style ◽  
Preschool Period ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

AbstractWe examined whether the interaction of resting frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry and social behavior during peer play was related to the occurrence of maladaptive behavior in preschoolers. Two independent cohorts of children were observed interacting in same-age and -gender play quartets at 4 years of age. Each child was also seen individually for a psychophysiology session during which time measures of EEG activity were recorded. We found that highly sociable children who exhibited greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry were more likely to exhibit externalizing problems than sociable children who exhibited greater relative left frontal EEG asymmetry. We also found that shy children who exhibited greater relative right frontal EEG asymmetry were more likely to exhibit internalizing problems than shy children who exhibited left frontal EEG asymmetry. These findings suggest that the pattern of frontal EEG asymmetry in combination with social behavioral style is a significant predictor of maladaptive behavior problems during the preschool period.

Theories of anterior cingulate cortex function: Opportunity cost

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 693-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clay B. Holroyd
Keyword(s):  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Hierarchical Organization ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Target Article

AbstractThe target article highlights the role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in conflict monitoring, but ACC function may be better understood in terms of the hierarchical organization of behavior. This proposal suggests that the ACC selects extended goal-directed actions according to their learned costs and benefits and executes those behaviors subject to depleting resources.

scholarly journals Predicting Trustworthiness Across Cultures: An Experiment

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Zylbersztejn ◽  
Zakaria Babutsidze ◽  
Nobuyuki Hanaki
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cultural Distance ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
Thin Slices ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Target Agent

We contribute to the ongoing debate in the psychological literature on the role of “thin slices” of observable information in predicting others' social behavior, and its generalizability to cross-cultural interactions. We experimentally assess the degree to which subjects, drawn from culturally different populations (France and Japan), are able to predict strangers' trustworthiness based on a set of visual stimuli (mugshot pictures, neutral videos, loaded videos, all recorded in an additional French sample) under varying cultural distance to the target agent in the recording. Our main finding is that cultural distance is not detrimental for predicting trustworthiness in strangers, but that it may affect the perception of different components of communication in social interactions.

It is time to inhibit Pavlovian conditioning

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-261
Author(s):  
John Limber
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Pavlovian Conditioning ◽  
Predictive Capability ◽  
Forward Models ◽  
Feed Forward ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Concept Of Information

Despite a promising introduction, Domjan et al.'s target article fails to capitalize on the concept of information intrinsic to control theory. The authors limit their application of feed-forward models to simple nondynamic cases. Their applications to social behavior are stimulus-occasioned responses. Agents might as well be dogfood! The notion of “conditioning” is generalized without warrant to explain virtually any acquired predictive capability.

The Development of Social Behavior Following Neonatal Amygdala Lesions in Rhesus Monkeys

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. 1388-1411 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Bauman ◽  
P. Lavenex ◽  
W. A. Mason ◽  
J. P. Capitanio ◽  
D. G. Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Nonhuman Primate ◽  
Rhesus Monkeys ◽  
Ibotenic Acid ◽  
Fear Response ◽  
Behavior Development ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Amygdala Lesions

We examined the role of the amygdala in the development of nonhuman primate social behavior. Twenty-four rhesus monkeys received bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of either the amygdala or the hippocampus or received a sham surgical procedure at 2 weeks of age. Subjects were reared with their mothers and were provided daily access to social rearing cohorts. The subjects were weaned at 6 months of age and then observed while paired with familiar conspecifics at 6 and 9 months of age and with unfamiliar conspecifics at 1 year of age. The subjects were also observed during daily cohort socialization periods. Neither amygdala nor hippocampus lesions altered fundamental aspects of social behavior development. All subjects, regardless of lesion condition, developed a species-typical repertoire of social behavior and displayed interest in conspecifics during social encounters. The amygdala lesions, however, clearly affected behaviors related to fear processing. The amygdala-lesioned subjects produced more fear behaviors during social encounters than did control or hippocampus-lesioned subjects. Although the heightened fear response of the amygdala-lesioned subjects was consistent across different testing paradigms and was observed with both familiar and novel partners, it did not preclude social interactions. In fact, the amygdala-lesioned subjects displayed particular social behaviors, such as following, cooing, grunting, presenting to be groomed, and presenting to be mounted more frequently than either control or hippocampus-lesioned subjects. These findings are consistent with the view that the amygdala is not needed to develop fundamental aspects of social behavior and may be more related to the detection and avoidance of environmental dangers.

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