FILIAL SOCIAL BOND FORMATION IN FRY OF THE MATERNAL MOUTHBROODING TILAPIA (PISCES: CICHLIDAE): A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (5) ◽  
pp. 567-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Russock
Keyword(s):  
Response Pattern ◽  
Bond Formation ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Significant Decline ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Social Bond ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Passerine Birds ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Precocial Birds

AbstractThe mother - fry relationship in the maternal mouthbrooding species of tilapia has become a model of social bond formation in fish because of the relatively extensive care given to the young. This relationship has been extensively studied in Oreochromis mossambicus. In order to determine if the response pattern observed in O. mossambicus fry has broader applications, the critical experiments of these studies were replicated in two closely related species of maternal mouthbrooding tilapia, O. niloticus and O. esculentus. All fry used in the study were removed from their mother's mouth as eggs and hatched artificially in groups. The fry were also exposed to maternal models in groups, but all fry in the study were tested for their responsiveness or preferential behaviour to maternal models individually. Experiment I determined the responsiveness of fry naive to maternal models in order to establish a baseline for future comparisons. O. niloticus fry exhibited a significant decline in responsiveness to models between days 11 and 12 post-hatching while O. esculentus fry exhibited a significant decline between days 16 and 18, suggesting the possible existence of a sensitive period in these two species. In order to obtain evidence for the existence of a sensitive period, naive fry of both species in Experiment II were exposed to maternal models at their peak of responsiveness and then tested at a later age at which responsiveness in naive fry had fallen significantly. In 15 of the 18 comparisons involving the two species, exposure to a maternal model at the peak of responsiveness for naive fry prevented the later decline in responsiveness. Experiment III examined whether experience with maternal models effected how exclusively fry responded to such models in the future. It was predicted that, like O. mossambicus fry, experienced fry of both species would exhibit a decline in responsiveness to models that formed at least a partial mismatch with the fry's initial schema for maternal stimuli. This prediction was not supported. Experiment IV examined preferential behaviour. It was predicted that fry exposed to a maternal model would later behave preferentially toward whichever model of a pair formed a closer match with their schema, and not necessarily toward the model to which they had been previously exposed. Maternally naive fry were not expected to behave preferentially. These predictions were generally supported, although the effect was less vigorous or consistent than in O. mossambicus. Filial social bond formation in these species of maternal mouthbrooding tilapia appears to be characterized by strong predispositions for maternally relevant visual stimuli which require appropriate experience for their maintenance and for the induction of preferences. Since a similar developmental pattern in seen in (e.g.) song learning in passerine birds, imprinting in precocial birds and filial following in substrate spawning cichlid fish, the phenomenon appears to be of broad significance.

The Neurochemistry of Pair Bonding

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Thomas Curtis ◽  
Zuoxin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Related Species ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Bond Formation ◽  
Psychological Disorders ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Pair Bonding ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Social Attachment ◽  
Recent Developments

The formation and maintenance of social attachments are fundamental to human biology. Because deficits in the ability to form such attachments are associated with a variety of psychological disorders, an understanding of the neural basis of social attachment may provide insights into the causes of such disorders. Comparative studies using several closely related species of voles that display different social organizations and behaviors have begun to provide important insights into the neurochemical events underlying social attachment. Here we review recent developments in the study of social attachment, focusing on the roles of specific neurochemical systems in pair-bond formation.

Song learning in Varied Tits Poecile varia: sensitive period and the effects of night-sleep

Bird Study ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-91
Author(s):  
Jiangxia Yin ◽  
Tingting Xu ◽  
Zhiwei Zhang ◽  
Donglai Li ◽  
Paul Racey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Song Learning ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Night Sleep

Strategic and tactical fighting decisions in cichlid fishes with divergent social systems

Behaviour ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Hick ◽  
Adam R. Reddon ◽  
Constance M. O’Connor ◽  
Sigal Balshine
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Group Living ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Hierarchy Formation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Contest Behaviour

The costs and benefits of engaging in a contest will differ depending on the social situation of the individuals involved. Therefore, understanding contest behaviour can help to elucidate the trade-offs of living in differing social systems and shed light on the evolution of social behaviour. In the current study, we compared contest behaviour in two closely related species of Lamprologine cichlid fish. Neolamprologus pulcher and Telmatochromis temporalis are both pair-breeding cichlids, but N. pulcher are highly social, group-living fish, while T. temporalis display no grouping behaviour. To examine how competition varies by species, sex and familiarity, we staged same-sex conspecific contests over a shelter, a resource that is highly valued by both species, where contestants were either familiar or unfamiliar to one another. When we examined tactical and strategic components of these contests, we found that the highly social species had shorter contests and engaged in fewer costly aggressive acts than did the non-social species. Individuals of the highly social species were also more likely to resolve conflicts through the use of submissive displays, while individuals of the non-social species were more likely to flee from conflict. Familiarity increased the use of submissive displays in the highly social species but not in the less social species. Our findings suggest that conflict resolution behaviour and dominance hierarchy formation are fundamentally linked to the evolution of complex social systems.

Silent Synapses in a Thalamo-Cortical Circuit Necessary for Song Learning in Zebra Finches

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (6) ◽  
pp. 3698-3707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah W. Bottjer
Keyword(s):  
Failure Rate ◽  
Behavioral Plasticity ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Relative Number ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Vocal Behavior ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Silent Synapses

Developmental changes in synaptic properties may act to limit neural and behavioral plasticity associated with sensitive periods. This study characterized synaptic maturation in a glutamatergic thalamo-cortical pathway that is necessary for vocal learning in songbirds. Lesions of the projection from medial dorsolateral nucleus of the thalamus (DLM) to the cortical nucleus lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior nidopallium (LMAN) greatly disrupt song behavior in juvenile birds during early stages of vocal learning. However, such lesions lose the ability to disrupt vocal behavior in normal birds at 60–70 days of age, around the time that selective auditory tuning for each bird’s own song (BOS) emerges in LMAN neurons. This pattern has suggested that LMAN is involved in processing song-related information and evaluating the degree to which vocal motor output matches the tutor song to be learned. Analysis of reversed excitatory postsynaptic currents at DLM→LMAN synapses in in vitro slice preparations revealed a pronounced N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-mediated component in both juvenile and adult cells with no developmental decrease in the relative contribution of NMDARs to synaptic transmission. However, the synaptic failure rate at DLM→LMAN synapses in juvenile males during the sensitive period for song learning was significantly lower at depolarized potentials than at hyperpolarized potentials. In contrast, the failure rate at DLM→LMAN synapses did not differ at hyper- versus depolarized holding potentials in adult males that had completed the acquisition of a stereotyped song. This pattern indicates that juvenile cells have a higher incidence of silent (NMDAR-only) synapses, which are postsynaptically silent at hyperpolarized potentials due to the voltage-dependent gating of NMDARs. Thus the decreased involvement of the LMAN pathway in vocal behavior is mirrored by a decline in the incidence of silent synapses but not by changes in the relative number of NMDA and AMPA receptors at DLM→LMAN synapses. These findings suggest that a developmental decrease in silent synapses within LMAN may represent a neural correlate of behavioral plasticity during song learning.

scholarly journals Song preferences predict the quality of vocal learning in zebra finches

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos A. Rodriguez-Saltos ◽  
Aditya Bhise ◽  
Prasanna Karur ◽  
Ramsha Nabihah Khan ◽  
Sumin Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Schedule ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Vocal Learning ◽  
Song Learning ◽  
Sensitive Period ◽  
Social Reward ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Vocal Development ◽  
Song Preferences

In songbirds, learning to sing is a highly social process that likely involves social reward. Here, we hypothesized that the degree to which a juvenile songbird learns a song depends on the degree to which it finds that song rewarding to hear during vocal development. We tested this hypothesis by measuring song preferences in young birds during song learning and then analyzing their adult songs. Song preferences were measured in an operant key-pressing assay. Juvenile male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) had access to two keys, each of which was associated with a higher likelihood of playing the song of their father or that of another familiar adult ("neighbor"). To minimize the effects of exposure on learning, we implemented a reinforcement schedule that allowed us to detect preferences while balancing exposure to each song. On average, the juveniles significantly preferred the father's song early during song learning, before they were themselves singing. At around post-hatch day 60, their preference shifted to the neighbor's song. At the end of the song learning period, we recorded the juveniles' songs and compared them to the father's and the neighbor's song. All of the birds copied father's song. The accuracy with which the father's song was imitated was positively correlated with the peak strength of the preference for the father's song during the sensitive period. Our results show that preference for a social stimulus, in this case a vocalization, predicted social learning during development.

Filial Imprinting in the Convict Cichlid Fish Cichlasoma Nigrofasciatum

Behaviour ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 65 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 138-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hay Thomas F.
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Preference Test ◽  
Convict Cichlid ◽  
General Increase ◽  
Free Swimming ◽  
Cichlasoma Nigrofasciatum ◽  
Precocial Birds ◽  
Extended Parental Care

The convict cichlid fish, Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum, exhibits extended parental care in both the laboratory and the field. Families of this species were observed in Lake Xiloa', Nicaragua, during part of the breeding season. Young fry (less than 5 days free swimming) could be induced to follow a variety of "dummy" parents when their own parents were restrained at a distance. Older fry fled the dummies in the same manner as they fled predators. Two laboratory experiments were conducted to analyze further the responses of convict cichlid fry to parental dummies. Experiment I demonstrated the following: 1. Fry showed consistent preferences in tests with 5 pairs of mechanically moved dummies. Some of these preferences involve species characteristic cues. 2. Responsiveness to dummies increased over time within a test and over repeated tests. Responsiveness changed non-monotonically with age; those tested at 1 to 3 days free swimming were most responsive, 6 to 8 day old fry were least responsive and 14 to 16 day old fry showed intermediate responsiveness. 3. Preferences were weaker in the older, less responsive fry but were generally in the same direction as in younger fry. Experiment II tested the effects of experience with a particular dummy on the preferences demonstrated in Experiment I. For all ages and for most dummy pairs there was a significant interaction between training condition (preferred vs non-preferred dummy) and preference. Experience with a single dummy also resulted in a general increase in responsiveness to the two dummies in the preference test. The present results are discussed in terms of selection pressures presumed to operate on natural populations of C. nigrofasciatum and also in terms of research on "imprinting" in precocial birds.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document