scholarly journals Social learning about rewards – how information from others helps to adapt to changing environment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Winiarski ◽  
J. Borowska ◽  
R. M. Wołyniak ◽  
J. Jędrzejewska-Szmek ◽  
L. Kondrakiewicz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Automated System ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Voluntary Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Fitness

AbstractBeing a part of a social structure is key for survival and reproduction. Living with conspecifics boosts evolutionary fitness, by providing essential information about the environment. To examine how socially passed olfactory information about the reward affects behavior of individuals we used Eco-HAB, an automated system for tracing voluntary behavior of group-housed mice living under semi-naturalistic conditions. We show that presence of a scent of a rewarded individual has profound effects on social behavior of mice and their ability to find the reward in both familiar and novel environments. As a result, socially-conveyed information has different effects on individual mice. Further, we show that disrupting neuronal plasticity in the prelimbic cortex with nanoparticles gradually releasing TIMP metallopeptidase inhibitor 1, disrupts animals’ social behavior and results in decreased ability to adapt to environmental changes. The experimental paradigm we developed can be further used to study neuronal mechanisms of social learning.

scholarly journals Use of Citizen Science Data for Characterizing Patterns and Drivers of Avian Altitudinal Migration

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Yu Tsai ◽  
Chie-Jen Ko ◽  
Ya-Jung Lu ◽  
Chia Hsieh ◽  
Mao-Ning Tuanmu
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Migration Behavior ◽  
Mountain Regions ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Altitudinal Migration

Altitudinal migration, the seasonal and repeateing movement of animal individuals between breeding and non-breeding areas at different elevations, is a common and important but understudied behavior in birds. Difficulty in characterizing avian altitudinal migration has prevented a comprehensive understanding of both patterns and drivers of this behavior. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated altitudinal migration patterns and underlying mechanisms for a major proportion (~70%) of an entire resident bird community on a subtropical island with an almost 4000-m elevational gradient. We quantified migration tendency of individual bird species based on the seasonal shift in the elevational distribution of their occurrence records in the eBird database. We then built phylogeny-controlled regression models to examine the associations between the birds’ migration tendencies and their functional traits to test major hypotheses on the mechanisms of altitudinal migration. The results showed a common but variable altitudinal migration behavior among the 118 species examined, with 40 and 11 species conducting post-breeding downhill and uphill migration, respectively. The species that have a narrower thermal tolerance range, can tolerate lower temperatures, have a smaller body size, have a more diverse or invertebrate-rich diet, or use an open nest had a higher downhill migration tendency. In contrast, no traits examined showed consistent associations with the uphill migration tendency. This suggests that post-breeding downhill and uphill migrations are driven by different processes and current hypotheses can only explain the former, but not the latter. This relatively comprehensive study demonstrated the power of citizen science data to provide new insights into an old research question from a novel perspective. Using the same approach, we are investigating the behavior in mountain regions around the world. With the global analysis, we will be able to understand the general patterns and mechanisms of avian altitudinal migration and also investigate their variation among mountain regions in different climate zones. In the face of rapid environmental changes in mountain ecosystems, the approach used in this study may also provide essential information for the conservation of mountainous biodiversity.

Inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity increase extinction risk

2019 ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Richard Frankham ◽  
Jonathan D. Ballou ◽  
Katherine Ralls ◽  
Mark D. B. Eldridge ◽  
Michele R. Dudash ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Inbreeding Depression ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Extinction Risk ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Heterozygote Advantage ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Loss Of Genetic Diversity ◽  
Harmful Effects

Inbreeding reduces survival and reproduction (i.e. it causes inbreeding depression), and thereby increases extinction risk. Inbreeding depression is due to increased homozygosity for harmful alleles and at loci exhibiting heterozygote advantage. Inbreeding depression is nearly universal in sexually reproducing organisms that are diploid or have higher ploidies. Impacts of inbreeding are generally greater in species that naturally outbreed than those that inbreed, in stressful than benign environments, and for fitness than peripheral traits. Harmful effects accumulate across the life cycle, resulting in devastating effects on total fitness in outbreeding species.Species face ubiquitous environmental change and must adapt or they will go extinct. Genetic diversity is the raw material required for evolutionary adaptation. However, loss of genetic diversity is unavoidable in small isolated populations, diminishing their capacity to evolve in response to environmental changes, and thereby increasing extinction risk.

A Brief History of Life and Brain Evolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Frederick L. Coolidge
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Cognitive Differences ◽  
Behavioral Features ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Brain Shape ◽  
Evolutionary Fitness

This chapter reviews some of the fundamentals of evolution, particularly adaptations and exaptations. Adaptations are physical or behavioral features that through natural selection aided survival and reproduction. Exaptations are physical or behavioral features that have been co-opted from their initial adaptive functions and subsequently enhanced fitness. The reuse, recycling, or redeployment of brain neurons for purposes other than their original adaption may be considered a central organizing principle of the brain. The chapter reviews the beginnings of life and presents a timeline of life through the evolution of hominins. The term hominin refers to all current and extinct relatives and ancestors of Homo sapiens, including the australopithecines and habilines, within about the last 6 million years. The chapter introduces the hypothesis that Homo sapiens survived and flourished, instead of Neandertals, Denisovans, and other hominins, because of brain shape differences, which created cognitive differences that enhanced the evolutionary fitness of Homo sapiens.

scholarly journals Remotely Sensed Variables of Ecosystem Functioning Support Robust Predictions of Abundance Patterns for Rare Species

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 2086 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Arenas-Castro ◽  
Adrián Regos ◽  
João F. Gonçalves ◽  
Domingo Alcaraz-Segura ◽  
João Honrado
Keyword(s):  
Species Distribution ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Species Abundance ◽  
Habitats Directive ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Abundance Patterns

Global environmental changes are affecting both the distribution and abundance of species at an unprecedented rate. To assess these effects, species distribution models (SDMs) have been greatly developed over the last decades, while species abundance models (SAMs) have generally received less attention even though these models provide essential information for conservation management. With population abundance defined as an essential biodiversity variable (EBV), SAMs could offer spatially explicit predictions of species abundance across space and time. Satellite-derived ecosystem functioning attributes (EFAs) are known to inform on processes controlling species distribution, but they have not been tested as predictors of species abundance. In this study, we assessed the usefulness of SAMs calibrated with EFAs (as process-related variables) to predict local abundance patterns for a rare and threatened species (the narrow Iberian endemic ‘Gerês lily’ Iris boissieri; protected under the European Union Habitats Directive), and to project inter-annual fluctuations of predicted abundance. We compared the predictive accuracy of SAMs calibrated with climate (CLI), topography (DEM), land cover (LCC), EFAs, and combinations of these. Models fitted only with EFAs explained the greatest variance in species abundance, compared to models based only on CLI, DEM, or LCC variables. The combination of EFAs and topography slightly increased model performance. Predictions of the inter-annual dynamics of species abundance were related to inter-annual fluctuations in climate, which holds important implications for tracking global change effects on species abundance. This study underlines the potential of EFAs as robust predictors of biodiversity change through population size trends. The combination of EFA-based SAMs and SDMs would provide an essential toolkit for species monitoring programs.

scholarly journals Trial-and-error copying of demonstrated actions reveals how fledglings learn to ‘imitate’ their mothers

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1849) ◽  
pp. 20162744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noa Truskanov ◽  
Arnon Lotem
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Trial And Error ◽  
Experimental Paradigm ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
House Sparrows ◽  
Unified Process ◽  
Behavioural Repertoire ◽  
Process Level ◽  
Level Analysis

Understanding how humans and other animals learn to perform an act from seeing it done has been a major challenge in the study of social learning. To determine whether this ability is based on ‘true imitation’, many studies have applied the two-action experimental paradigm, examining whether subjects learn to perform the specific action demonstrated to them. Here, we show that the insights gained from animals' success in two-action experiments may be limited, and that a better understanding is achieved by monitoring subjects' entire behavioural repertoire. Hand-reared house sparrows that followed a model of a mother demonstrator were successful in learning to find seeds hidden under a leaf, using the action demonstrated by the mother (either pushing the leaf or pecking it). However, they also produced behaviours that had not been demonstrated but were nevertheless related to the demonstrated act. This finding suggests that while the learners were clearly influenced by the demonstrator, they did not accurately imitate her. Rather, they used their own behavioural repertoire, gradually fitting it to the demonstrated task solution through trial and error. This process is consistent with recent views on how animals learn to imitate, and may contribute to a unified process-level analysis of social learning mechanisms.

Trial by fire: Community Wildfire Protection Plans put to the test

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela J. Jakes ◽  
Victoria Sturtevant
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Community Capacity ◽  
Fire Response ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Response And Recovery

Research has found that community wildfire protection planning can make significant contributions to wildfire mitigation and preparedness, but can the planning process and resulting Community Wildfire Protection Plans make a difference to wildfire response and recovery? In case studies conducted in four USA communities with Community Wildfire Protection Plans in place when wildfires occurred, we saw a range of Community Wildfire Protection Plan projects designed to change the path and intensity of the wildfires. In most of our communities, the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and planning process improved relationships among firefighting agencies, clarified responsibilities and improved communication systems, contributing to fire response efficiency and effectiveness. We found that social learning resulting from the wildfire experience motivated communities to revisit and implement their Community Wildfire Protection Plans, changing the planning frame and scale and increasing the plan’s relevance for response and recovery. We conclude that Community Wildfire Protection Plans and experience with wildfire can also result in greater community capacity that builds resilience and increases adaptive capacity for future environmental changes and disasters.

scholarly journals Cognitive innovations and the evolutionary biology of expertise

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1735) ◽  
pp. 20160427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reuven Dukas
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Internal Communication ◽  
Genetic Networks ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Biochemical Mechanisms ◽  
Communication And Coordination

Animal life can be perceived as the selective use of information for maximizing survival and reproduction. All organisms including bacteria and protists rely on genetic networks to build and modulate sophisticated structures and biochemical mechanisms for perceiving information and responding to environmental changes. Animals, however, have gone through a series of innovations that dramatically increased their capacity to acquire, retain and act upon information. Multicellularity was associated with the evolution of the nervous system, which took over many tasks of internal communication and coordination. This paved the way for the evolution of learning, initially based on individual experience and later also via social interactions. The increased importance of social learning also led to the evolution of language in a single lineage. Individuals' ability to dramatically increase performance via learning may have led to an evolutionary cycle of increased lifespan and greater investment in cognitive abilities, as well as in the time necessary for the development and refinement of expertise. We still know little, however, about the evolutionary biology, genetics and neurobiological mechanisms that underlie such expertise and its development. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Process and pattern in innovations from cells to societies’.

scholarly journals Albert Bandura: December 4, 1925–July 26, 2021

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (9) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Robert A. C. Stewart ◽  
Sarah L. Krivan
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Moral Disengagement ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Albert Bandura

We note, with sadness, the passing of Dr Albert Bandura, pioneer of the theories of social learning and of self-efficacy, and of the concept of moral disengagement, whose research contributions informed current understanding of human behavior. Since 1992, Dr Bandura was a member of the Board of Consulting Editors of Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal.

scholarly journals Improving Social Interactive Learning through Dual Brain Stimulation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafeng Pan ◽  
Giacomo Novembre ◽  
Bei Song ◽  
Yi Zhu ◽  
Yi Hu
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Brain Research ◽  
Interactive Learning ◽  
Body Movement ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Learning Performance

AbstractSocial interactive learning denotes the ability to acquire new information from a conspecific – a prerequisite for cultural evolution and survival. As inspired by recent neurophysiological research, here we tested whether social interactive learning can be augmented by exogenously synchronizing oscillatory brain activity across an instructor and a learner engaged in a naturalistic song-learning task. We used a dual brain stimulation protocol entailing the trans-cranial delivery of synchronized electric currents in two individuals simultaneously. When we stimulated inferior frontal brain regions, with 6 Hz alternating currents being in-phase between the instructor and the learner, the dyad exhibited spontaneous and synchronized body movement. Remarkably, this stimulation also led to enhanced learning performance. A mediation analysis further disclosed that interpersonal movement synchrony acted as a partial mediator of the effect of dual brain stimulation on learning performance, i.e. possibly facilitating the effect of dual brain stimulation on learning. Our results provide a causal demonstration that inter-brain synchrony is a sufficient condition to improve real-time information transfer between pairs of individuals.SignificanceThe study of social behavior, including but not limited to social learning, is undergoing a paradigm shift moving from single- to multi-person brain research. Yet, nearly all evidence in this area is purely correlational: inter-dependencies between brains’ signals are used to predict success in social behavior. For instance, inter-brain synchrony has been shown to be associated with successful communication, cooperation, and joint attention. Here we took a radically different approach. We stimulated two brains simultaneously, hence manipulating inter-brain synchrony, and measured the resulting effect upon behavior in the context of a social learning task. We report that frequency- and phase-specific dual brain stimulation can lead to the emergence of spontaneous synchronized body movement between an instructor and a learner. Remarkably, this can also augment learning performance.

scholarly journals Sex- and age-specific variation of gut microbiota in Brandt’s voles

PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11434
Author(s):  
Xiaoming Xu ◽  
Zhibin Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Laboratory Animals ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Rrna Sequencing ◽  
Food Shortages ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Specific Variation

Background Gut microbiota plays a key role in the survival and reproduction of wild animals which rely on microbiota to break down plant compounds for nutrients. As compared to laboratory animals, wild animals face much more threat of environmental changes (e.g. food shortages and risk of infection). Therefore, studying the gut microbiota of wild animals can help us better understand the mechanisms animals use to adapt to their environment. Methods We collected the feces of Brandt’s voles in the grassland, of three age groups (juvenile, adult and old), in both sexes. We studied the gut microbiota by 16S rRNA sequencing. Results The main members of gut microbiota in Brandt’s voles were Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. As voles get older, the proportion of Firmicutes increased gradually, and the proportion of Bacteroides decreased gradually. The diversity of the microbiota of juveniles is lower, seems like there is still a lot of space for colonization, and there are large variations in the composition of the microbiome between individuals. In adulthood, the gut microbiota tends to be stable, and the diversity is highest. In adult, the abundances of Christensenellaceae and Peptococcus of female were significantly higher than male voles. Conclusions The gut microbiota of Brandt’s vole was influenced by sex and age, probably due to growth needs and hormone levels. Gut microbiota of wild animals were much influenced by their life-history reflected by their age and sex. Future studies will be directed to identify functions of these “wild microbiota” in regulating physiological or behavioral processes of wild animals in different life stage or sexes.

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