Brain Functional Asymmetry of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): the Example of Auditory Laterality

The aim of this study was to verify whether chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) demonstrate an auditory laterality during the orientation reaction, and which hemisphere is responsible for processing the emotional stimuli and which for the species-specific vocalizations. The study involved nine chimpanzees from the Warsaw Municipal Zoological Garden. They were tested individually in their bedrooms. Chimpanzees approached a tube filled with food, located in the centre of the cage. Randomly selected sounds were played from the speakers when the subject was focused on getting food. Individual reactions were observed and outcomes reported. The four types of sound used: thunderstorm, dog barking, chimpanzee vocalization and a zookeeper’s voice. To test whether chimpanzees demonstrate auditory laterality we used a single sample X2 test. The existence of auditory laterality has been confirmed. The sound of the storm caused the orientation reaction to the left, while chimpanzee vocalization - to the right. On this basis we can conclude that among chimpanzees, arousing stimuli are being processed by the right hemisphere, and species-specific vocalizations by the left. However, the set of stimuli was limited so the study did not unequivocally resolve this issue.

Orientational Reaction as a Way of Adjusting to Space

In order to have a proper impression of a city, observer needs to move and participate in the city’s life. One of the most important functions of the image of our surroundings is to enable orientation and guidance of movement towards a certain goal. Urban structures that are reflected through disposition and appearance of streets, through a specific landscape arrangement, and ultimately through specific dimensioning and shaping of architecture, can often help to create a place that is easy to read. The increase in vividness of a space enables easier visual identification as well as orientation in space. That type of visual stimulation is expressed through orientation reaction, which stimulates easier adjustment of the subject to a certain space. Perception is defined as the level of sensitivity to visual stimuli in space, which are often connected to the level of interest of the subject. This research aims to identify the role of reference points in terms of the subject’s movement and orientation in the process of understanding both the unknown and the known surroundings.

Selected Coordination Motor Abilities in Elite Wrestlers and Taekwon-Do Competitors

Introduction. The aim of the study was to compare CMAs in elite wrestlers and taekwon-do competitors. Material and methods. Forty-nine Greco-Roman wrestlers and ITF taekwon-do competitors were included in the study. The wrestlers were 21.9±2.74 years old, while the taekwon-do competitors were 22.7±5.78 years old. The former group had between 7 and 14 years' training experience and the latter group had from 6 to 16 years' experience. All subjects were elite sportspeople (between first class and international master class levels). Five CMAs were assessed using 14 indices. Computer tests from the Vienna Test System were employed in the study. Results. It was shown that there were no significant differences in CMA levels between wrestlers and taekwon-do competitors. Wrestlers from higher sports classes outperformed competitors who possessed lower sports classes in the majority of CMA indices. Statistically significant differences were observed for simple reaction, movement coupling and high frequency of movements. Taekwon-do competitors at the international master sports class (IM) level scored better than athletes who were at national master class (NM) and first class (I) levels in spatial orientation, reaction time, movement coupling and high frequency of movements. Regardless of the type of combat sport, competitors demonstrated high individual differences in CMAs, which may indicate that a focus on coordination improvement could increase training effectiveness. Conclusions. Further research on identifying predominant CMAs in sportspeople at different levels of competition, particularly in those achieving significant sports successes may be conducted. Tests to thoroughly diagnose coordination should be employed in such investigations.

Role of Orientation in Perception of Emotions

Our study examined whether perception of novel emotions, as with perception of novel objects, elicits a cardiac orientation reaction. Using a habituation-dishabituation paradigm, data from 11 adult subjects showed that orientation to both novel emotions and novel objects elicited a heart-rate deceleration. Results suggest that the orientation reaction may be an integral part of perception of emotion. Perception of emotions, therefore, is a complex, multistep process that includes an early orientation reaction.

Posthatching Effects of Repeated Prehatching Stimulation With an Alien Sound

The experiment investigates the domestic chick's response to a sound heard repeatedly before hatching. The stimulus chosen for this was an alien sound found to suppress post-hatching activity: a guinea pig vocalisation. Experimental embryos were exposed on the 20th day of incubation to this sound at half-minute intervals for about one hour, and the embryos' beak-clapping was used as the index of their response. Beakclaps were suppressed by the sound stimulus. During 100 presentations there was evidence of recovery of the response - the activity-suppressing effect waned - but this recovery was unstable and beak-clapping was still suppressed below the initial level when prehatching stimulation came to an end. Control embryos were incubated in the same way, but not exposed to the sound stimulus. After hatching each chick was tested separately under conditions intended to simulate being brooded. Each was exposed to a series of the same calls as those which experimental chicks had experienced before hatching. Three response indices were used: (a) the number of beakclaps in each 30-second trial (b) the number of seconds during which the eyes were open in each trial and (c) the number of vocalisations. Eye-opening was unaffected by the pre-hatching stimulation: in both groups it was maximal at the beginning of post-hatching stimulation and declined rapidly. Beak-clapping fell slightly during stimulation in the control group but the fall became of borderline significance only after stimulation came to an end; in the experimental group it appeared to be unaffected by the sound stimulus. The level of vocalisation differed as a result of pre-hatching experience: in the experimental group it rose slowly from the prestimulation baseline level, reached a peak and then fell, while in the control group it remained at the prestimulus level in all chicks but one. Interpretation takes into account the different effects recorded, considering (a) the three different response indices (b) the suppressing effect of the sound stimulus (demonstrated before hatching) and (c) the known fact that different elements in a response wane (and presumably also recover) at different rates. It is suggested that the "eyes open" results can be understood in terms of an "orientation" reaction which wanes rapidly then recovers under the conditions of post-hatching life. In controls the beak-clapping response after hatching showed something of the activity-suppressing effect of the stimulus whereas this activity-suppressing effect appeared to have waned completely in experimental chicks. In controls vocalisations were not elicited by the stimulus while experimental chicks responded to stimulation by an increase in vocalisations. This increase, however, occurred only after a delay which suggested an initial, brief, recovery of the suppressing effect of the alien sound stimulus.

Cardiac Index of the Orientation Reaction as a Function of Anticipation Interval

A study was conducted to investigate the form of the heart-rate (HR) response in anticipation of a brief visual stimulus and to determine whether the form of the response changed over trials. 14 college undergraduates were exposed to 12 presentations of a visual stimulus which they were asked to identify. Half the Ss were presented with the stimulus every 10 sec., half every 15 sec. HR was recorded for each second during the anticipation intervals. The results indicated that the cardiac anticipatory response in the 10-sec. group was triphasic—a slight deceleration, followed by an acceleration, followed by a deceleration of approximately equal magnitude, and that the response habituated during the last block of four trials. In the 15-sec. interval the anticipatory response was observed to be primarily biphasic (acceleration-deceleration) and still appeared to be in the process of development by Trial 12. The triphasic HR response was interpreted as an index of the cardiac orientation reaction which habituated as a temporal “neuronal model” was formed.