scholarly journals Pair bonding prevents reinforcing effects of testosterone in male California mice in an unfamiliar environment

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1788) ◽  
pp. 20140985 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Catherine A. Marler

Testosterone (T) can be released by stimuli such as social interactions, and thereby influence future social behaviours. Because the reinforcing effects of T can induce preferences for specific environmental locations, T has the potential to alter behaviour through space use. In a monogamous species, this T pulse may contribute differently to space use in sexually naive (SN) and pair-bonded (PB) males: SN males may be more likely to explore new areas to set up a territory than PB males, which are more likely to defend an existing, established territory. In this study, we test for variation in T-driven space use by examining variation in the formation of conditioned place preferences (CPPs) in SN and PB male California mice. In the three-chambered CPP apparatus, subcutaneous administrations of physiological levels of T were used to repeatedly condition SN and PB males to a side chamber, which is an unfamiliar/neutral environment. The final tests revealed that T-induced CPPs in the side chamber are developed in SN, but not PB males. This study fills a gap in our knowledge about plasticity in the rewarding nature of T pulses, based on past social experience.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radmila Petric ◽  
Matina C. Kalcounis-Rueppell ◽  
Catherine A. Marler

AbstractTransient increases in testosterone (T-pulses) occur after social interactions in males of various vertebrate species, but the functions of T-pulses are poorly understood. Under laboratory conditions, the rewarding nature of T-pulses induces conditioned place preferences (CPPs), but what are the effects in a complex field environment? We present the first evidence that T-pulses administered to males at their nest site in the wild increased time spent at the nest regardless of pup presence in the monogamous, biparental, and territorial California mouse (Peromyscus californicus). Female partners of the T-males, in turn, spent less time at the nest. Independent of treatment, mice produced more ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) when alone, but T-mice produced more USVs than controls. T-males produced USVs with a smaller bandwidth that likely traveled farther. Our combined results provide compelling evidence that T-pulses can significantly shift the behavioral focus and location of individuals in a complex field setting.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M. Grebe ◽  
Annika Sharma ◽  
Sara M. Freeman ◽  
Michelle C. Palumbo ◽  
Heather B. Patisaul ◽  
...  

AbstractContemporary theory that emphasizes the roles of oxytocin and vasopressin in mammalian sociality has been shaped by seminal vole research that revealed interspecific variation in neuroendocrine circuitry by mating system. However, substantial challenges exist in interpreting and translating these rodent findings to other mammalian groups, including humans, making research on nonhuman primates crucial. Both monogamous and non-monogamous species exist within Eulemur, a genus of strepsirrhine primate, offering a rare opportunity to broaden a comparative perspective on oxytocin and vasopressin neurocircuitry with increased evolutionary relevance to humans. We performed oxytocin and arginine vasopressin 1a receptor autoradiography on 12 Eulemur brains from seven closely related species to (1) characterize receptor distributions across the genus, and (2) examine differences between monogamous and non-monogamous species in regions part of putative “pair-bonding circuits”. We find some binding patterns across Eulemur reminiscent of olfactory-guided rodents, but others congruent with more visually oriented anthropoids, consistent with lemurs occupying an ‘intermediary’ evolutionary niche between haplorhine primates and other mammalian groups. We find little evidence of a “pair-bonding circuit” in Eulemur akin to those proposed in previous rodent or primate research. Mapping neuropeptide receptors in these nontraditional species questions existing assumptions and informs proposed evolutionary explanations about the biological bases of monogamy.


Author(s):  
Mark Porter

This chapter takes, as its starting provocation, Tanya Kevorkian’s suggestion that performances of Bach’s cantata compositions would originally have taken place within a somewhat noisy social environment. Drawing from the wider field of literature on listening and noise in other historical and contemporary contexts, it examines the potential for sonic interactions between different actors to set up patterns of social resonance. It draws out the consequences of taking these sonic and social interactions seriously in understandings of musical performance and experience. Many analyses consider noise primarily as a distraction to attentive listening. This chapter, however, highlights its role in processes of meaning making and in establishing different sets of relationships between performers, congregation, and the divine.


Behaviour ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 157 (6) ◽  
pp. 515-539
Author(s):  
Riva J. Riley ◽  
Thomas P. Roe ◽  
Elizabeth R. Gillie ◽  
Andrea Manica

Abstract Many social animals acquire social behaviours during development, and social experience during development can be vital for acquiring necessary social behaviours in adulthood. We investigated the development of a distinctive tactile interaction behaviour in Bronze Cory catfish, in which adults interact with one another tactilely during foraging and during group responses to threats. We found that larvae respond to applied tactile stimulation with a flight response significantly less often as larvae matured. This habituation to tactile stimulation is consistent with developing appropriate adult social behaviour. We also found that social exposure affects the larval response to tactile interactions with conspecifics, and that isolation in early life leads to a greater likelihood of responding to tactile interactions with conspecifics with a flight response. This suggests that social exposure is important for developing social tactile interaction behaviour and underscores the particular importance of early experience in social development.


1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-47
Author(s):  
Keith D. Ballard ◽  
Terence J. Crooks

Data on rate and qualitative features of social interactions and on peer social involvement in play were obtained from repeated observation measures taken across 14 to 23 weeks on two children randomly selected from each of 6 kindergartens. Session-by-session variability was found to be a feature of the social interaction and social play data, and there was evidence that social behaviours may vary systematically across different kindergarten settings. A case is made for obtaining normative data in each setting of interest in order to identify atypical behaviour and to evaluate the social validity of intervention outcomes.


Parasitology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Dana M. Hawley ◽  
Amanda K. Gibson ◽  
Andrea K. Townsend ◽  
Meggan E. Craft ◽  
Jessica F. Stephenson

Abstract An animal's social behaviour both influences and changes in response to its parasites. Here we consider these bidirectional links between host social behaviours and parasite infection, both those that occur from ecological vs evolutionary processes. First, we review how social behaviours of individuals and groups influence ecological patterns of parasite transmission. We then discuss how parasite infection, in turn, can alter host social interactions by changing the behaviour of both infected and uninfected individuals. Together, these ecological feedbacks between social behaviour and parasite infection can result in important epidemiological consequences. Next, we consider the ways in which host social behaviours evolve in response to parasites, highlighting constraints that arise from the need for hosts to maintain benefits of sociality while minimizing fitness costs of parasites. Finally, we consider how host social behaviours shape the population genetic structure of parasites and the evolution of key parasite traits, such as virulence. Overall, these bidirectional relationships between host social behaviours and parasites are an important yet often underappreciated component of population-level disease dynamics and host–parasite coevolution.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 20150307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Astúa ◽  
Rafael A. Carvalho ◽  
Paula F. Maia ◽  
Arthur R. Magalhães ◽  
Diogo Loretto

The Didelphidae are considered solitary opossums with few social interactions, usually limited to mating-related or mother–pouch young interactions. Anecdotal reports suggest that additional interactions occur, including den sharing by a few individuals, usually siblings. Here, we report novel observations that indicate opossums are more social than previously thought. These include nest sharing by males and females of Marmosa paraguayana , Gracilinanus microtarsus and Marmosops incanus prior to the onset of the breeding season and without signs of sexual activity; this is taken to indicate early pair-bonding matching and cooperative nest building. We also recorded den sharing among recently weaned siblings of Didelphis aurita and Caluromys philander . In addition, we observed 13 individuals of Didelphis albiventris representing three age classes resting without agonistic interactions in a communal den. These are the first reports of gregarious behaviour involving so many individuals, which are either unrelated or represent siblings from at least two litters, already weaned, sharing the same den with three adults. Sociality in opossums is probably more complex than previously established, and field experimental designs combining the use of artificial nests with camera traps or telemetry may help to gauge the frequency and extent of these phenomena.


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