scholarly journals Serotonin in Animal Cognition and Behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Bacqué-Cazenave ◽  
Rahul Bharatiya ◽  
Grégory Barrière ◽  
Jean-Paul Delbecque ◽  
Nouhaila Bouguiyoud ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Specific Behavior ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Behavior And Cognition

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is acknowledged as a major neuromodulator of nervous systems in both invertebrates and vertebrates. It has been proposed for several decades that it impacts animal cognition and behavior. In spite of a completely distinct organization of the 5-HT systems across the animal kingdom, several lines of evidence suggest that the influences of 5-HT on behavior and cognition are evolutionary conserved. In this review, we have selected some behaviors classically evoked when addressing the roles of 5-HT on nervous system functions. In particular, we focus on the motor activity, arousal, sleep and circadian rhythm, feeding, social interactions and aggressiveness, anxiety, mood, learning and memory, or impulsive/compulsive dimension and behavioral flexibility. The roles of 5-HT, illustrated in both invertebrates and vertebrates, show that it is more able to potentiate or mitigate the neuronal responses necessary for the fine-tuning of most behaviors, rather than to trigger or halt a specific behavior. 5-HT is, therefore, the prototypical neuromodulator fundamentally involved in the adaptation of all organisms across the animal kingdom.

scholarly journals Minimal Mindreading and Animal Cognition

2018 ◽  
Vol 95 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-565
Author(s):  
Anna Strasser
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Animal Cognition ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Versus Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Interpretation ◽  
Pluralistic Approach ◽  
Morgan’S Canon ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Fundamental Requirement ◽  
Rule Out

Human and non-human animals are social beings, both have social interactions. The ability to anticipate behavior of others is a fundamental requirement of social interactions. However, there are several ways of how agents can succeed in this. Two modes of anticipation, namely mindreading and behavior-reading, shape the animal mindreading debate. As a matter of fact, no position has yet convincingly ruled out the other. This paper suggests a strategy of how to argue for a mentalistic interpretation as opposed to a behavioral interpretation. The first step suggests considering a pluralistic approach in order to allow for shortcomings such as not having a natural language. Second, a critical examination of the principle called Morgan’s Canon will show that this principle cannot be used as a final argument to rule out mentalistic approaches. Finally, the author argues that the setting of current experiments is responsible for the indistinguishability of mindreading versus behavior-reading and she suggests alternative experimental designs.

Digital Pollution and Its Impact on the Family and Social Interactions

2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2098555
Author(s):  
Shiv Ratan Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Critical Dimensions ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
The Family ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Potential Negative Effect ◽  
Human Attitude ◽  
Impact On Family ◽  
And Behavior

The present study was an attempt to identify the most prevailing means of digital devices and its impact as digital pollution on family and social interactions. Despite the obvious benefits of digital devices, in recent years researchers have taken more concern about its potential negative effect on human attitude and behavior, which in turn affects our society. A total of 613 usable responses were collected from Bangalore, India of excessive users of digital devices, such as a smartphone, computer/laptop, and television. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 23.0, AMOS 23.0, and SmartPLS 3.0. The results indicated that as the use of smartphone and computer/laptop increases, levels of digital pollution also increase, which in turn significantly triggers unfavorable impact on family and social interactions. The study indicated that digital pollution appears as an important predictor, which significantly affects social interaction unfavorably. The present study explored the various critical dimensions within this domain and delineated gaps in our knowledge of digital pollution. It was found that smartphones are more responsible for digital pollution among all the identified digital devices, followed by computer/laptop.

scholarly journals Distinct roles for dopamine clearance mechanisms in regulating behavioral flexibility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clio Korn ◽  
Thomas Akam ◽  
Kristian H. R. Jensen ◽  
Cristiana Vagnoni ◽  
Anna Huber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Dopamine Neurons ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens Core ◽  
Comt Inhibition ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Dopamine Signaling ◽  
Precise Relationship ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Kinetics Of

AbstractDopamine plays a crucial role in adaptive behavior, and dysfunctional dopamine is implicated in multiple psychiatric conditions characterized by inflexible or inconsistent choices. However, the precise relationship between dopamine and flexible decision making remains unclear. One reason is that, while many studies have focused on the activity of dopamine neurons, efficient dopamine signaling also relies on clearance mechanisms, notably the dopamine transporter (DAT), which predominates in striatum, and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), which predominates in cortex. The exact locus, extent, and timescale of the effects of DAT and COMT are uncertain. Moreover, there is limited data on how acute disruption of either mechanism affects flexible decision making strategies mediated by cortico-striatal networks. To address these issues, we combined pharmacological modulation of DAT and COMT with electrochemistry and behavior in mice. DAT blockade, but not COMT inhibition, regulated sub-second dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core, but surprisingly neither clearance mechanism affected evoked release in prelimbic cortex. This was not due to a lack of sensitivity, as both amphetamine and atomoxetine changed the kinetics of sub-second release. In a multi-step decision making task where mice had to respond to reversals in either reward probabilities or the choice sequence to reach the goal, DAT blockade selectively impaired, and COMT inhibition improved, performance after reward reversals, but neither manipulation affected the adaptation of choices after action-state transition reversals. Together, our data suggest that DAT and COMT shape specific aspects of behavioral flexibility by regulating different aspects of the kinetics of striatal and cortical dopamine, respectively.

scholarly journals Despite Appearances: Comparing Emotion Recognition in Abstract and Humanoid Avatars Using Nonverbal Behavior in Social Virtual Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yilu Sun ◽  
Andrea Stevenson Won
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Nonverbal Behavior ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Social Closeness ◽  
Similar Information ◽  
Individual Measure ◽  
And Behavior

The ability to perceive emotional states is a critical part of social interactions, shaping how people understand and respond to each other. In face-to-face communication, people perceive others’ emotions through observing their appearance and behavior. In virtual reality, how appearance and behavior are rendered must be designed. In this study, we asked whether people conversing in immersive virtual reality (VR) would perceive emotion more accurately depending on whether they and their partner were represented by realistic or abstract avatars. In both cases, participants got similar information about the tracked movement of their partners’ heads and hands, though how this information was expressed varied. We collected participants’ self-reported emotional state ratings of themselves and their ratings of their conversational partners’ emotional states after a conversation in VR. Participants’ ratings of their partners’ emotional states correlated to their partners’ self-reported ratings regardless of which of the avatar conditions they experienced. We then explored how these states were reflected in their nonverbal behavior, using a dyadic measure of nonverbal behavior (proximity between conversational partners) and an individual measure (expansiveness of gesture). We discuss how this relates to measures of social presence and social closeness.

scholarly journals Influence of Foreign Workers Engagement Barriers on Management Attitude and Behavior within a Warehouse Organization in Canada

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Sunkanmi Peter Ayenimo ◽  
Dipak Chauhan
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Regression Coefficient ◽  
P Value ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Management Commitment ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Partial Fulfillment ◽  
Management Attitude

This research that was completed in partial fulfillment of a master’s degree at Lough borough University examined the Influence of foreign workers' engagement barriers on Management attitude and behavior within a warehouse Organization located across three sites in Canada. Quantitative data were collected from the three operating sites of an anonymous warehouse Company.350 responses were received out of 515 questionnaires distributed. This project found a positive regression coefficient more than 40% between the variables of management commitment and the variables of the workers' engagement barriers at a 95% confidence level and a P-value less than 5%. Evidence from the open-ended questions suggested language barriers, cultural differences, discriminations, and lack of social interactions amongst the inter-racial workers were the barriers for workers' engagement in the organization.

scholarly journals Perceptual detection depends on spike count integration

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackson J. Cone ◽  
Morgan L. Bade ◽  
Nicolas Y. Masse ◽  
Elizabeth A. Page ◽  
David J. Freedman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Recurrent Neural Networks ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Visual Detection ◽  
Spike Count ◽  
Neuronal Responses ◽  
Neuronal Populations ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractWhenever the retinal image changes some neurons in visual cortex increase their rate of firing, while others decrease their rate of firing. Linking specific sets of neuronal responses with perception and behavior is essential for understanding mechanisms of neural circuit computation. We trained mice to perform visual detection tasks and used optogenetic perturbations to increase or decrease neuronal spiking primary visual cortex (V1). Perceptual reports were always enhanced by increments in V1 spike counts and impaired by decrements, even when increments and decrements were delivered to the same neuronal populations. Moreover, detecting changes in cortical activity depended on spike count integration rather than instantaneous changes in spiking. Recurrent neural networks trained in the task similarly relied on increments in neuronal activity when activity was costly. This work clarifies neuronal decoding strategies employed by cerebral cortex to translate cortical spiking into percepts that can be used to guide behavior.

scholarly journals Cognitive Phenotype and Differential Gene Expression in a Hippocampal Homologue in Two Species of Frog

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 1007-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxiang Liu ◽  
Corbin D Jones ◽  
Lainy B Day ◽  
Kyle Summers ◽  
Sabrina S Burmeister
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Differential Gene Expression ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Distributed Resources ◽  
Cognitive Phenotype ◽  
Spatially Distributed ◽  
Tungara Frogs ◽  
Differential Gene ◽  
Direct Guidance

Synopsis The complexity of an animal’s interaction with its physical and/or social environment is thought to be associated with behavioral flexibility and cognitive phenotype, though we know little about this relationship in amphibians. We examined differences in cognitive phenotype in two species of frog with divergent natural histories. The green-and-black poison frog (Dendrobates auratus) is diurnal, displays enduring social interactions, and uses spatially distributed resources during parental care. Túngara frogs (Physalaemus=Engystomops pustulosus) are nocturnal, express only fleeting social interactions, and use ephemeral puddles to breed in a lek-type mating system. Comparing performance in identical discrimination tasks, we find that D. auratus made fewer errors when learning and displayed greater behavioral flexibility in reversal learning tasks than túngara frogs. Further, túngara frogs preferred to learn beacons that can be used in direct guidance whereas D. auratus preferred position cues that could be used to spatially orient relative to the goal. Behavioral flexibility and spatial cognition are associated with hippocampal function in mammals. Accordingly, we examined differential gene expression in the medial pallium, the amphibian homolog of the hippocampus. Our preliminary data indicate that genes related to learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, and neurogenesis were upregulated in D. auratus, while genes related to apoptosis were upregulated in túngara frogs, suggesting that these cellular processes could contribute to the differences in behavioral flexibility and spatial learning we observed between poison frogs and túngara frogs.

scholarly journals Evolution of cooperation in an epithelium

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (152) ◽  
pp. 20180918 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie Renton ◽  
Karen M. Page
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Voronoi Tessellation ◽  
Evolutionary Game ◽  
Cellular Level ◽  
Structured Populations ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Population Structures ◽  
Fixation Probabilities ◽  
Evolutionary Graph Theory

Cooperation is prevalent in nature, not only in the context of social interactions within the animal kingdom but also on the cellular level. In cancer, for example, tumour cells can cooperate by producing growth factors. The evolution of cooperation has traditionally been studied for well-mixed populations under the framework of evolutionary game theory, and more recently for structured populations using evolutionary graph theory (EGT). The population structures arising due to cellular arrangement in tissues, however, are dynamic and thus cannot be accurately represented by either of these frameworks. In this work, we compare the conditions for cooperative success in an epithelium modelled using EGT, to those in a mechanical model of an epithelium—the Voronoi tessellation (VT) model. Crucially, in this latter model, cells are able to move, and birth and death are not spatially coupled. We calculate fixation probabilities in the VT model through simulation and an approximate analytic technique and show that this leads to stronger promotion of cooperation in comparison with the EGT model.

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