Together in music

Looking back at the diverse chapters of the “Together in music” volume, three main themes are identified that reoccur. These relate to the relevance of embodied in-the-moment interaction between musicians for the creative processes to develop, the rich multi-dimensionality of the group music-making experience at a micro-, meso-, and macro-level, and the close relationships between social and musical coordination. These themes highlight the need to advance research by investigating ensemble performance and creativity at multiple analytical levels, e.g. taking microtiming, social coordination, and identity into account, and by explicitly considering developments and emergence over time. Furthermore, these themes promote the advancement of methods and techniques to investigate ensemble music-making processes, several of which are identified and illustrated in the book, including pattern detection in behavioral interaction, visualization of relationships between musicians, and innovations in the measurement and analysis of entrainment behavior in timing and intonation.

The Animal Welfare Science of Working Dogs: Current Perspectives on Recent Advances and Future Directions

Working dogs are prevalent throughout our societies, assisting people in diverse contexts, from explosives detection and livestock herding, to therapy partners. Our scientific exploration and understanding of animal welfare have grown dramatically over the last decade. As community attitudes toward the use of animals continue to change, applying this new knowledge of welfare to improve the everyday lives of working dogs will underpin the sustainability of working with dogs in these roles. The aim of this report was to consider the scientific studies of working dogs from the last decade (2011–2021) in relation to modern ethics, human interaction, and the five domains of animal welfare: nutrition, environment, behavioral interaction, physical health, and mental state. Using this framework, we were able to analyze the concept and contribution of working dog welfare science. Noting some key advances across the full working dog life cycle, we identify future directions and opportunities for interdisciplinary research to optimize dog welfare. Prioritizing animal welfare in research and practice will be critical to assure the ongoing relationship between dogs and people as co-workers.

The student with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and remote learning

This is qualitative research that investigated the pedagogical strategies adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic to assist a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) enrolled at the Federal Institute of Rondônia (IFRO). ASD is a term that includes, among other manifestations, autism, and the individual usually presents deficits in communication, social and behavioral interaction at different levels. Thus, the objective was to understand how pedagogical strategies were planned and developed so that the autistic student could follow the classes at home, as well as having greater ease in interacting with classmates. The methodology involved accessing documents in digital media, without personal contact, during the period from June to November 2020. The results indicated that the Virtual Learning Environment (AVA) was adapted through an accessibility tab and monitoring through the remote inclusive monitoring, which is developed by a student under the supervision of a supervisor. Thus, the autistic student had weekly monitoring and support to overcome their learning difficulties, which were more accentuated in remote education.

Colony expansions underlie the evolution of army ant mass raiding

The mass raids of army ants are an iconic collective phenomenon, in which many thousands of ants spontaneously leave their nest to hunt for food, mostly other arthropods. While the structure and ecology of these raids have been relatively well studied, how army ants evolved such complex cooperative behavior is not understood. Here, we show that army ant mass raiding has evolved from a different form of cooperative hunting called group raiding, in which a scout directs a small group of ants to a specific target through chemical communication. We describe the structure of group raids in the clonal raider ant, a close relative of army ants in the subfamily Dorylinae. We find evidence that the coarse structure of group raids and mass raids is highly conserved and that all doryline ants likely follow similar behavioral rules for raiding. We also find that the evolution of army ant mass raiding occurred concurrently with expansions in colony size. By experimentally increasing colony size in the clonal raider ant, we show that mass raiding gradually emerges from group raiding without altering individual behavioral rules. This suggests that increasing colony size can explain the evolution of army ant mass raids and supports the idea that complex social behaviors may evolve via mechanisms that need not alter the behavioral interaction rules that immediately underlie the collective behavior of interest.

Supramammillary neurons projecting to the septum regulate dopamine and motivation for environmental interaction in mice

The supramammillary region (SuM) is a posterior hypothalamic structure, known to regulate hippocampal theta oscillations and arousal. However, recent studies reported that the stimulation of SuM neurons with neuroactive chemicals, including substances of abuse, is reinforcing. We conducted experiments to elucidate how SuM neurons mediate such effects. Using optogenetics, we found that the excitation of SuM glutamatergic (GLU) neurons was reinforcing in mice; this effect was relayed by their projections to septal GLU neurons. SuM neurons were active during exploration and approach behavior and diminished activity during sucrose consumption. Consistently, inhibition of SuM neurons disrupted approach responses, but not sucrose consumption. Such functions are similar to those of mesolimbic dopamine neurons. Indeed, the stimulation of SuM-to-septum GLU neurons and septum-to-ventral tegmental area (VTA) GLU neurons activated mesolimbic dopamine neurons. We propose that the supramammillo-septo-VTA pathway regulates arousal that reinforces and energizes behavioral interaction with the environment.

Bioecological and Behavioral Interaction between Pollinating Bees and the Pioneer Shrub Ludwigia nervosa in Degraded Area Suggests an Exotic Bee as Its Major Pollinator

The flowers of plants of the genus Ludwigia are an important source of food for several species of bees. In the current study, we conducted an experiment with the aim to describe the reproductive biology and phenology of L. nervosa; to identify the species of visiting bees; analyze the foraging behavior of bees; and to investigate whether the reproductive success of the species is related to the foraging activity of bees. We found that the flowers received visits from several native bee species (n = 7), in addition of the exotic honey bees which came to be the dominant species. During visits the majority of the bees foraged in both resources, pollen and nectar. The significantly higher production of fruits in open pollinated pollination experiment compared to artificial cross pollination, suggests honey bees as effective pollinator of this plant species in the study site. Pollen deposition occurs efficiently, given the absence of pollen limitation. Despite massive visitation of honey bees, Ludwigianervosa is attractive to native bees, and therefore it may help to sustain population of both native and exotic pollinators in fragmented humid areas.

“Not as Safe as I Believed”: Differences in Perceived and Self-Reported Cycling Behavior between Riders and Non-Riders

Cycling behavior remains a key issue for explaining several traffic causalities occurring every day. However, recent studies have shown how the assessment of the own safety-related behaviors on the road may substantially differ from how third parties assess them. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between cyclists’ self-reported behavior and the proxy-reported behavior that other (non-cyclist) road users perceive from bike riders. For this purpose, this study used data from two samples: (i) 1064 cyclists (M = 32.83 years) answering the Cycling Behavior Questionnaire—CBQ, and (ii) 1070 non-cyclists (M = 30.83 years) answering an adapted version of the CBQ for external raters—ECBQ. The results show how the self-reported and proxy-reported behaviors of cyclists greatly differ in terms of all behavioral factors composing the CBQ model, i.e., traffic violations, riding errors, and positive behaviors. Also, external raters (non-cyclists) are those targeting significantly riskier behaviors than those self-reported by cyclists. These discrepancies between perceived behaviors may give rise to conflicting viewpoints on the interaction between bicycle riders and other road users. Therefore, this study underscores the importance of behavioral awareness, providing highlights for future studies on the behavioral interaction between cyclists and other road users. Results can be used to improve the road safety of all road users by giving indications on self-and proxy-perceived safety-related behaviors and visibility of protective riding habits.

A relative-motion method for parsing spatio-temporal behaviour of dyads using GPS relocation data

In this paper, we introduce a novel method for classifying and computing the frequencies of movement modes of intra and interspecific dyads, focusing in particular on distance-mediated approach, retreat, following and side by side movement modes.Besides distance, the method includes factors such as sex, age, time of day, or season that cause frequencies of movement modes to deviate from random.We demonstrate and validate our method using both simulated and empirical data. Our simulated data were obtained from a relative-motion, biased random-walk (RM-BRW) model with attraction and repulsion circumferences. Our empirical data were GPS relocation time series collected from African elephants in Etosha National Park, Namibia. The simulated data were primarily used to validate our method while the empirical data analysis were used to illustrate the types of behavioral assessment that our methodology reveals.Our methodology facilitates automated, observer-bias-free analysis of the locomotive interactions of dyads using GPS relocation data, which is becoming increasingly ubiquitous as telemetry and related technologies improve. Our method should open up a whole new vista of behavioral-interaction type analyses to movement and behavioral ecologists.

Bridges Don’t Make Themselves: Using Community-Based Theater to Reshape Relationships: Rethinking the Idea of Abundance in ABCD

Community-based theater has a variety of manifestations, and the plurality with which these manifestations are occurring is increasing. As such, the diversity and complexity derived from these social sites of public engagement requires further understanding. This article is based upon a multi-case study of two community-based theaters: one in Middle Appalachia, and the other on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Together these sites of performative expression are acting as social interventions for differing reasons within their respective contexts. Through intensive and communicative processes, the theaters provide examples of how co-created performances at the community level simultaneously catalyze relationships and alter how relationships are experienced to engage community members in discussion and performances. As a complex behavioral interaction, the two theaters simultaneously manifest dimensions of ‘abundance’, as well as expand upon normative conceptions of asset-based community development. Through process and contextual modeling, the work provides in-depth exploration to these interpersonal endeavors to assist in how socio-cultural differences as well as narrative reconstruction co-join to enact the individuality of identity across working groups as an overall discursive process.

Linear vector models of time perception account for saccade and stimulus novelty interactions

Various models (e.g. scalar, state-dependent network, and vector models) have been proposed to explain the global aspects of time perception, but they have not been tested against specific visual phenomena like perisaccadic time compression and novel stimulus time dilation. Here, we tested how the perceived duration of a novel stimulus is influenced by 1) a simultaneous saccade, in combination with 2) a prior series of repeated stimuli in human participants. This yielded a novel behavioral interaction: pre-saccadic stimulus repetition neutralizes perisaccadic time compression. We then tested these results against simulations of the above models. Our data yielded low correlations against scalar model simulations, high but non-specific correlations for our feedforward neural network, and correlations that were both high and specific for a vector model based on identity of objective and subjective time. These results demonstrate the power of global time perception models in explaining disparate empirical phenomena and suggest that subjective time has a similar essence to time’s physical vector.