scholarly journals Stimulus Salience Determines the Defensive Behaviors Elicited by Aversively Conditioned Compound Auditory Stimuli

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hersman ◽  
Todd E. Anthony
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Compound Stimulus ◽  
Aversive Conditioning ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mouse Hearing ◽  
Threat Stimuli

SUMMARYAnimals exhibit distinct patterns of defensive behavior according to their perceived imminence of potential threats. Ethoexperimental [1, 2] and aversive conditioning [3-5] studies indicate that as the probability of directly encountering a threat increases, animals shift from behaviors aimed at avoiding detection (e.g. freezing) to escape (e.g. undirected flight). What are the neural mechanisms responsible for assessing threat imminence and controlling appropriate behavioral responses? Fundamental to addressing these questions has been the development of behavioral paradigms in mice in which well-defined threat-associated sensory stimuli reliably and robustly elicit passive or active defensive responses [6, 7]. In serial compound stimulus (SCS) fear conditioning, repeated pairing of sequentially presented tone (CS1) and white noise (CS2) auditory stimuli with footshock (US) yields learned freezing and flight responses to CS1 and CS2, respectively [6]. Although this white noise-induced transition from freezing to flight would appear to reflect increased perceived imminence due to the US being more temporally proximal to CS2 than CS1, this model has not been directly tested. Surprisingly, we find that audio frequency properties and sound pressure levels, not temporal relationship to the US, determine the defensive behaviors elicited by SCS conditioned auditory stimuli. Notably, auditory threat stimuli that most potently elicit high imminence behaviors include frequencies to which mouse hearing is most sensitive. These results argue that, as with visual threats [8], perceived imminence and resulting intensity of defensive responses scale with the salience of auditory threat stimuli.

scholarly journals Stimulus salience determines defensive behaviors elicited by aversively conditioned serial compound auditory stimuli

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hersman ◽  
David Allen ◽  
Mariko Hashimoto ◽  
Salvador Ignacio Brito ◽  
Todd E Anthony
Keyword(s):  
White Noise ◽  
Compound Stimulus ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Serial Compound ◽  
Temporal Relationships ◽  
The Us ◽  
Stimulus Salience ◽  
Primary Determinant ◽  
Conditioned Responses

Assessing the imminence of threatening events using environmental cues enables proactive engagement of appropriate avoidance responses. The neural processes employed to anticipate event occurrence depend upon which cue properties are used to formulate predictions. In serial compound stimulus (SCS) conditioning in mice, repeated presentations of sequential tone (CS1) and white noise (CS2) auditory stimuli immediately prior to an aversive event (US) produces freezing and flight responses to CS1 and CS2, respectively (Fadok et al., 2017). Recent work reported that these responses reflect learned temporal relationships of CS1 and CS2 to the US (Dong et al., 2019). However, we find that frequency and sound pressure levels, not temporal proximity to the US, are the key factors underlying SCS-driven conditioned responses. Moreover, white noise elicits greater physiological and behavioral responses than tones even prior to conditioning. Thus, stimulus salience is the primary determinant of behavior in the SCS paradigm, and represents a potential confound in experiments utilizing multiple sensory stimuli.

Dorsal premammillary nucleus differentially modulates defensive behaviors induced by different threat stimuli in rats

2003 ◽  
Vol 345 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.Caroline Blanchard ◽  
Chun I Li ◽  
David Hubbard ◽  
Chris M Markham ◽  
Mu Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Threat Stimuli

scholarly journals Action selection based on multiple-stimulus aspects in the wind-elicited escape behavior of crickets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nodoka Sato ◽  
Hisashi Shidara ◽  
Hiroto Ogawa
Keyword(s):  
Escape Behavior ◽  
Movement Direction ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Stimulus Velocity ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Multiple Stimulus ◽  
Stimulus Parameters ◽  
Direction Control ◽  
Escape Responses

ABSTRACTAnimals detect approaching predators via sensory inputs through various modalities and immediately show an appropriate behavioral response to survive. Escape behavior is essential to avoid the predator’s attack and is more frequently observed than other defensive behaviors. In some species, multiple escape responses are exhibited with different movements. It has been reported that the approaching speed of a predator is important in choosing which escape action to take among the multiple responses. However, it is unknown whether other aspects of sensory stimuli, that indicate the predator’s approach, affect the selection of escape responses. We focused on two distinct escape responses (running and jumping) to a stimulus (short airflow) in crickets and examined the effects of multiple stimulus aspects (including the angle, velocity, and duration) on the choice between these escape responses. We found that the faster and longer the airflow, the more frequently the crickets jumped, meaning that they could choose their escape response depending on both velocity and duration of the stimulus. This result suggests that the neural basis for choosing escape responses includes the integration process of multiple stimulus parameters. It was also found that the moving speed and distance changed depending on the stimulus velocity and duration during running but not during jumping, suggesting higher adaptability of the running escape. In contrast, the movement direction was accurately controlled regardless of the stimulus parameters in both responses. The escape direction depended only on stimulus orientation, but not on velocity and duration.Summary statementWhen air currents triggering escape are faster and longer, crickets more frequently jump than run. Running speed and distance depend on stimulus velocity and duration, but direction control is independent.

White Noise and Black Boxes: Social Justice Discourses and Social Media Practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-318
Author(s):  
Didem Uca
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
White Noise ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Black Boxes ◽  
The Us ◽  
Media Practices ◽  
Digital Spaces

Social media has long been a powerful tool for marginalized individuals to connect and form communities. Yet the digital tools used to facilitate these modes of communication, including the hashtag, can also be overpowered by misuse from users outside of these communities. This essay analyzes recent efforts by people of colour in Germany and the US to curate digital spaces by creating and utilizing hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeTwo that center their voices, while also discussing appropriation and right-wing responses to progressive social justice activism that threaten the hashtag’s ability to make meaningful content available to the users who need it.

Sequential arousal and airway-defensive behavior of infants in asphyxial sleep environments

1997 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna S. Lijowska ◽  
Nevada W. Reed ◽  
Barbara A. Mertins Chiodini ◽  
Bradley T. Thach
Keyword(s):  
Defensive Behavior ◽  
Complete Sequence ◽  
Bedding Material ◽  
Limb Movements ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Stereotyped Behaviors ◽  
Motor Activities ◽  
Eyes Open ◽  
Multiple Measurements

Lijowska, Anna S., Nevada W. Reed, Barbara A. Mertins Chiodini, and Bradley T. Thach. Sequential arousal and airway-defensive behavior of infants in asphyxial sleep environments. J. Appl. Physiol. 83(1): 219–228, 1997.—Infants are prone to accidental asphyxiation. Therefore, we studied airway-defensive behaviors and their relationship to spontaneous arousal behavior in 41 healthy sleeping infants (2–26 wk old), using two protocols: 1) infant was rebreathing expired air, face covered by bedding material; and 2) infant was exposed to hypercarbia, face uncovered. Multiple measurements of respiratory and motor activities were recorded (video, polygraph). The infants’ response to increasing hypercarbia consisted of four highly stereotyped behaviors: sighs (augmented breaths), startles, thrashing limb movements, and full arousal (eyes open, cry). These behaviors occurred abruptly in self-limited clusters of activity and always in the same sequence: first a sigh coupled with a startle, then thrashing, then full arousal. Incomplete sequences (initial behaviors only) occurred far more frequently than the complete sequence and were variably effective in removing the bedding covering the airway. In both protocols, as inspired CO2increased, incomplete arousal sequences recurred periodically and with increasing frequency and complexity until the infant either succeeded in clearing his/her airway or was completely aroused. Spontaneous arousal sequences, identical to those occurring during hypercarbia, occurred periodically during sleep. This observation suggests that the infant’s airway-defensive responses to hypercarbia consist of an increase in the frequency and complexity of an endogenously regulated, periodically occurring sequence of arousal behaviors.

Auditory effects to complement the absence of visual information

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 169
Author(s):  
Tomoaki Nakamura ◽  
Yukio P. Gunji
Keyword(s):  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Movement Speed ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Main Interest ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Visual Interaction ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Expected Position

The majority of research on audio–visual interaction focused on spatio-temporal factors and synesthesia-like phenomena. Especially, research on synesthesia-like phenomena has been advanced by Marks et al., and they found synesthesia-like correlation between brightness and size of visual stimuli and pitch of auditory stimuli (Marks, 1987). It seems that main interest of research on synesthesia-like phenomena is what perceptual similarity/difference between synesthetes and non-synesthetes is. We guessed that cross-modal phenomena of non-synesthetes on perceptual level emerge as a function to complement the absence or ambiguity of a certain stimulus. To verify the hypothesis, we investigated audio–visual interaction using movement (speed) of an object as visual stimuli and sine-waves as auditory stimuli. In this experiment objects (circles) moved at a fixed speed in one trial and the objects were masked in arbitrary positions, and auditory stimuli (high, middle, low pitch) were given simultaneously with the disappearance of objects. Subject reported the expected position of the objects when auditory stimuli stopped. Result showed that correlation between the position, i.e., the movement speed, of the object and pitch of sound was found. We conjecture that cross-modal phenomena on non-synesthetes tend to occur when one of sensory stimuli are absent/ambiguous.

Scrutinizing integrative effects in a multi-stimuli detection task

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Pannunzi ◽  
Alexis Pérez-Bellido ◽  
Alexandre Pereda Baños ◽  
Joan López-Moliner ◽  
Gustavo Deco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Signal Detection Theory ◽  
Compound Stimulus ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Tactile Stimuli ◽  
Auditory Detection ◽  
Theoretical Hypothesis ◽  
Multisensory Enhancement ◽  
Tactile Detection ◽  
Level Of Processing

The level of processing at which different modalities interact to either facilitate or interfere with detection has been a matter of debate for more than half a century. This question has been mainly addressed by means of statistical models (Green, 1958), or by biologically plausible models (Schnupp et al., 2005). One of the most widely accepted statistical frameworks is the signal detection theory (SDT; Green and Swets, 1966) because it provides a straightforward way to assess whether two sensory stimuli are judged independently of one another, that is when the detectability (d′) of the compound stimulus exceeds the Pythagorean sum of the d′ of the components. Here, we question this logic, and propose a different baseline to evaluate integrative effects in multi-stimuli detection tasks based on the probabilistic summation. To this aim, we show how a simple theoretical hypothesis based on probabilistic summation can explain putative multisensory enhancement in an audio-tactile detection task. In addition, we illustrate how to measure integrative effects from multiple stimuli in two experiments, one using a multisensory audio-tactile detection task (Experiment 1) and another with a unimodal double-stimulus auditory detection task (Experiment 2). Results from Experiment 1 replicate extant multisensory detection data, and also refuse the hypothesis that auditory and tactile stimuli integrated into a single percept, leading to any enhancement. In Experiment 2, we further support the probabilistic summation model using a unimodal integration detection task.

scholarly journals Stress responses to conspecific visual cues of predation risk in zebrafish

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Acosta Oliveira ◽  
Renan Idalencio ◽  
Fabiana Kalichak ◽  
João Gabriel dos Santos Rosa ◽  
Gessi Koakoski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predation Risk ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Prey Fish ◽  
Alarm Signals ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Antipredator Behaviors ◽  
Cortisol Increase

Chemical communication relating to predation risk is a trait common among fish species. Prey fish under threat of predation can signal risk to conspecific fish, which then exhibit defensive responses. Fish also assess predation risk by visual cues and change their behavior accordingly. Here, we explored whether these behavioral changes act as visual alarm signals to conspecific fish that are not initially under risk. We show that shoals of zebrafish (Danio rerio) visually exposed to a predator display antipredator behaviors. In addition, these defensive maneuvers trigger antipredator reactions in conspecifics and, concomitantly, stimulate the hypothalamus-pituitary-interrenal axis, leading to cortisol increase. Thus, we conclude that zebrafish defensive behaviors act as visual alarm cues that induce antipredator and stress response in conspecific fish.

scholarly journals Rapid spatial learning controls instinctive defensive behavior in mice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruben Vale ◽  
Dominic A. Evans ◽  
Tiago Branco
Keyword(s):  
Defensive Behavior ◽  
Escape Behavior ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Defensive Strategy ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Spatial Environment ◽  
Defensive Action ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Innate Behaviors

SummaryInstinctive defensive behaviors are essential for animal survival. Across the animal kingdom there are sensory stimuli that innately represent threat and trigger stereotyped behaviors such as escape or freezing [1-4]. While innate behaviors are considered to be hard-wired stimulus-responses [5], they act within dynamic environments, and factors such as the properties of the threat [6-9] and its perceived intensity [1, 10, 11], access to food sources [12-14] or expectations from past experience [15, 16], have been shown to influence defensive behaviors, suggesting that their expression can be modulated. However, despite recent work [2, 4, 17-21], little is known about how flexible mouse innate defensive behaviors are, and how quickly they can be modified by experience. To address this, we have investigated the dependence of escape behavior on learned knowledge about the spatial environment, and how the behavior is updated when the environment changes acutely. Using behavioral assays with innately threatening visual and auditory stimuli, we show that the primary goal of escape in mice is to reach a previously memorized shelter location. Memory of the escape target can be formed in a single shelter visit lasting less than 20 seconds, and changes in the spatial environment lead to a rapid update of the defensive action, including changing the defensive strategy from escape to freezing. Our results show that while there are innate links between specific sensory features and defensive behavior, instinctive defensive actions are surprisingly flexible and can be rapidly updated by experience to adapt to changing spatial environments.

scholarly journals A role for cerebral cortex in the suppression of innate defensive behavior

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Natale ◽  
Maria Esteban Masferrer ◽  
Senthilkumar Deivasigamani ◽  
Cornelius T. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Defensive Behavior ◽  
Surgical Removal ◽  
Aversive Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Defensive Behaviors ◽  
Cortical Regions ◽  
Neuron Function ◽  
Stressful Stimulus

AbstractThe cerebral cortex is involved in the control of cognition and the processing of learned information and it appears to have a role in the adaptation of behavior in response to unpredictable circumstances. In addition, the cortex may have a role in the regulation of innate responses since rodents, cats or primates with surgical removal or accidental destruction of cortical regions show excessive irritability, aggression and rage elicited by threatening stimuli. However, it remains unclear whether cortex has an acute role in suppressing innate threat responses because the imprecision and chronic nature of these lesions leaves open the possibility that compensatory processes may underlie some of these phenotypes. In the present study we used pharmacogenetic inhibition to precisely, rapidly and reversibly suppress cortical pyramidal neuron function and examine its contribution to defensive behaviors elicited by a variety of innately aversive stimuli. Inhibition of cortex caused an increase of defensive responses elicited by an aggressive conspecific, a novel prey, and a physically stressful stimulus. These findings are consistent with a role of cortex in the acute inhibition of innate defensive behaviors.

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