Measures Which Characterize the Individual during the Development of Behavior in Early Life

1941 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
R. V. D. Campbell ◽  
A. A. Weech
Oceans ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Faillettaz ◽  
Eve Johnson ◽  
Patrick Dahlmann ◽  
Alexandra Syunkova ◽  
John Stieglitz ◽  
...  

Understanding the orientation behavior and capabilities in early life history (ELH) of fishes is critical for studying their dispersal but has, surprisingly, never been tested in any pelagic species. We here investigate the ontogeny of orientation and swimming abilities of the pelagic Coryphaena hippurus Linnaeus, 1758 larvae, hereafter mahi-mahi, through their ELH stages using the Drifting In Situ Chamber (DISC) in a laboratory setup. The DISC was deployed in a large (3 m3) circular aquarium in order to control the stimulus perceived by the fish and to identify behavioral response at the individual, developmental stage, and population levels. A total of 79 individual ranging from 7 to 23 days post hatch and from preflexion to early juvenile stages were exposed to a directional light mimicking the sun’s position. Orientation towards the light direction was tested by switching the light by 180° among trials. To compare the orientation among development stages, we scaled the directionality by the swimming ability, therein defined as “directionality competence”. The results show that while mahi-mahi directionality competence increases through ontogeny, they acquire a positive and directional phototaxis behavior at the flexion stage. This potential solar orientation is kept through the early juvenile stage. Mahi-mahi may thus be able to use the sun as a compass in the open ocean as observed in the larval stages of demersal species seeking for settlement habitats. This ability notably develops before the improvement of their swimming capabilities, suggesting that early orientation—even at micro-scale—and swimming capabilities may be equally important for the survival of the ELH stages of pelagic species.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Grova ◽  
Henri Schroeder ◽  
Jean-Luc Olivier ◽  
Jonathan D. Turner

The incidence of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases worldwide has dramatically increased over the last decades. Although the aetiology remains uncertain, evidence is now growing that exposure to persistent organic pollutants during sensitive neurodevelopmental periods such as early life may be a strong risk factor, predisposing the individual to disease development later in life. Epidemiological studies have associated environmentally persistent organic pollutant exposure to brain disorders including neuropathies, cognitive, motor, and sensory impairments; neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In many ways, this expands the classical “Developmental Origins of Health and Disease” paradigm to include exposure to pollutants. This model has been refined over the years to give the current “three-hit” model that considers the individual’s genetic factors as a first “hit.” It has an immediate interaction with the early-life exposome (including persistent organic pollutants) that can be considered to be a second “hit.” Together, these first two “hits” produce a quiescent or latent phenotype, most probably encoded in the epigenome, which has become susceptible to a third environmental “hit” in later life. It is only after the third “hit” that the increased risk of disease symptoms is crystallised. However, if the individual is exposed to a different environment in later life, they would be expected to remain healthy. In this review, we examine the effect of exposure to persistent organic pollutants and particulate matters in early life and the relationship to subsequent neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. The roles of those environmental factors which may affect epigenetic DNA methylation and therefore influence normal neurodevelopment are then evaluated.


1972 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bruce Ross

The recent resurgence of scholarly interest in the Venetian Gasparo Contarini (1483–1542), stimulated in general by the growing interest in Italian religious history and in particular by the discovery of new material, has resulted in the partial emergence of the young patrician from the obscurity which has heretofore enveloped his early years. A succession of studies in the last decade or so have now enabled us to visualize the young Contarini more clearly and have given firmer substance to a once shadowy figure. Viewing his early life from the vantage point of different interests, a number of scholars in various countries have placed Contarini more intelligibly within his milieu, illuminating not merely the individual himself but also the group with which he was associated and the institutions within which he grew to manhood.


2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (42) ◽  
pp. 11955-11960 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea N. Goldstein-Piekarski ◽  
Mayuresh S. Korgaonkar ◽  
Erin Green ◽  
Trisha Suppes ◽  
Alan F. Schatzberg ◽  
...  

Amygdala circuitry and early life stress (ELS) are both strongly and independently implicated in the neurobiology of depression. Importantly, animal models have revealed that the contribution of ELS to the development and maintenance of depression is likely a consequence of structural and physiological changes in amygdala circuitry in response to stress hormones. Despite these mechanistic foundations, amygdala engagement and ELS have not been investigated as biobehavioral targets for predicting functional remission in translational human studies of depression. Addressing this question, we integrated human neuroimaging and measurement of ELS within a controlled trial of antidepressant outcomes. Here we demonstrate that the interaction between amygdala activation engaged by emotional stimuli and ELS predicts functional remission on antidepressants with a greater than 80% cross-validated accuracy. Our model suggests that in depressed people with high ELS, the likelihood of remission is highest with greater amygdala reactivity to socially rewarding stimuli, whereas for those with low-ELS exposure, remission is associated with lower amygdala reactivity to both rewarding and threat-related stimuli. This full model predicted functional remission over and above the contribution of demographics, symptom severity, ELS, and amygdala reactivity alone. These findings identify a human target for elucidating the mechanisms of antidepressant functional remission and offer a target for developing novel therapeutics. The results also offer a proof-of-concept for using neuroimaging as a target for guiding neuroscience-informed intervention decisions at the level of the individual person.


2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan C.K. Wells

Background: Populations in low- and middle-income countries are increasingly experiencing a double burden of malnutrition (DBM), incorporating both persistent levels of child undernutrition and rising prevalence of overweight/obesity at later ages. A growing number of individuals experience both components of the DBM through the life-course, thereby accumulating high susceptibility to noncommunicable disease (NCD). Summary: Measurements of body composition may prove valuable for assessing NCD risk at the level of the individual. The capacity-load model provides a simple conceptual framework for integrating data on different components of body composition to predict NCD risk. Poor growth in early life, indexed by becoming wasted or stunted, constrains the development of lean mass components such as muscle and organ mass, each of which contribute to the metabolic capacity for homeostasis. Catch-up weight gain in early life, or the development of excess weight from childhood onwards, is associated with elevated adiposity, especially abdominal adiposity, which challenges cardio-metabolic homeostasis and elevates NCD risk. Key Messages: A variety of techniques are now available for the measurement of body composition, helping research the association of the DBM with NCD risk. Reference charts allow raw data to be converted to age- and sex-specific z-scores, aiding interpretation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celia Smith ◽  
Emily J.H. Jones ◽  
Tony Charman ◽  
Kaili Clackson ◽  
Farhan Mirza ◽  
...  

Co-regulation of physiological arousal within the caregiver-child dyad precedes later self-regulation within the individual. Despite the importance of unimpaired self-regulatory development for later adjustment outcomes, little is understood about how early co-regulatory processes can become dysregulated during early life. Aspects of caregiver behaviour, such as patterns of anxious speech, may be one factor influencing infant arousal dysregulation. We made day-long, naturalistic biobehavioural recordings in home settings in caregiver-infant dyads using wearable autonomic devices and miniature microphones. We examined the association between arousal, vocalisation intensity and caregiver anxiety. Moments of high physiological arousal in infants were more likely to be accompanied by high caregiver arousal when caregivers had high self-reported trait anxiety. Anxious caregivers were more likely to vocalise intensely at states of high arousal, and produce intense vocalisations that occurred in clusters. High intensity vocalisations were associated with more sustained increases in autonomic arousal for both anxious caregivers and their infants. Caregiver vocal behaviour differs in anxious parents, co-occurs with dyadic arousal dysregulation and could contribute to physiological arousal transmission. Implications for caregiver vocalisation as an intervention target are discussed.


Author(s):  
Rebecca McKnight ◽  
Jonathan Price ◽  
John Geddes

Personality is a difficult concept to define: it is ex­tremely hard to encapsulate what makes a person ‘who they are’ in general terms. Personality is typically thought of as the set of characteristics which make us think, feel, and act in our own unique way. Personality is pervasive; people tend to behave in similar ways throughout life and across differing social and inter­personal contexts. The characteristics of personality, called traits, are a set of common features which are observed in variable degrees in different people. Traits provide a useful structure in which to describe a per­sonality: Box 31.1 shows some common personality traits. Some traits may be perceived as an asset to the individual, while others are more of a nuisance. We all have a little more or a little less of any given trait. The word ‘temperament’ rather than personality is used to describe the behavioural characteristics dis­played by young children. This is because our person­ality takes time to develop; it is shaped by a multitude of environmental, biological, and factors which interact throughout early life. By our late teens or early twenties, the majority of individuals have the set of traits which define the personality we will have for the rest of our lives. Having an understanding of an individual’s per­sonality helps clinicians to predict their patients’ re­sponse to illness and its treatment. The majority of us have some less favourable aspects to our personality, but we work around them and/ or have more prominent favourable traits that allow us to get on with our lives. For a minority of people, their less favourable traits are so prominent that they cause problems for themselves or for those around them. It is these people who we think of as having a personality disorder. It is extremely difficult to draw a line between normal personality and personality disorder, so this simple pragmatic approach is helpful in clinical practice. People with a personality disorder may: … ● have difficulties with social situations and relationships; ● have difficulties controlling their feelings and/ or behaviour; ● react in unusual ways to illness or to treatment; ● behave in unusual ways when mentally ill; ● have more extreme or unusual reactions to stressful events; ● behave in ways that are detrimental to themselves or others ● be more prone to developing other types of mental disorder.


Challenges ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marianne Lønnebotn ◽  
Natalia El-Merhie ◽  
John W. Holloway ◽  
William Horsnell ◽  
Susanne Krauss-Etschmann ◽  
...  

Intrauterine and early life has been accepted as important susceptibility windows for environmental exposure and disease later in life. Emerging evidence suggests that exposure before conception may also influence health in future generations. There has been little research on human data to support this until now. This review gives evidence from epigenetic as well as immunologic research, and from animal as well as human models, supporting the hypothesis that there may be important susceptibility windows before conception in relation to exposure such as obesity, diet, smoking and infections. It is likely that we can identify vulnerability windows in men and women in which interventions may have an impact on several generations in addition to individual health. Establishing vulnerability windows affecting health over future generations, and not only in the now or the near future of the individual, may provide tremendous opportunities for health policy and practice.


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