Evolution of behavioural control from chordates to primates

This article outlines a hypothetical sequence of evolutionary innovations, along the lineage that produced humans, which extended behavioural control from simple feedback loops to sophisticated control of diverse species-typical actions. I begin with basic feedback mechanisms of ancient mobile animals and follow the major niche transitions from aquatic to terrestrial life, the retreat into nocturnality in early mammals, the transition to arboreal life and the return to diurnality. Along the way, I propose a sequence of elaboration and diversification of the behavioural repertoire and associated neuroanatomical substrates. This includes midbrain control of approach versus escape actions, telencephalic control of local versus long-range foraging, detection of affordances by the dorsal pallium, diversified control of nocturnal foraging in the mammalian neocortex and expansion of primate frontal, temporal and parietal cortex to support a wide variety of primate-specific behavioural strategies. The result is a proposed functional architecture consisting of parallel control systems, each dedicated to specifying the affordances for guiding particular species-typical actions, which compete against each other through a hierarchy of selection mechanisms. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Systems neuroscience through the lens of evolutionary theory’.

Chemical and Behavioural Strategies along The Spectrum of Host Specificity in Ant-Associated Silverfish

Background Host range is a fundamental trait to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of symbionts. Increasing host specificity is expected to be accompanied with specialization in different symbiont traits. We tested this specificity-specialization association in a large group of 16 ant-associated silverfish species by linking their level of host specificity with their degree of behavioural integration into the colony and their accuracy of chemically deceiving the host’s recognition system, i.e. the cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile. Results As expected, facultative associates and host generalists (targeting multiple unrelated ants) tend to avoid the host, whereas host-specialists (typically restricted to Messor ants) were bolder, approached the host and allowed inspection. Generalists and host specialists regularly followed a host worker, unlike the other silverfish. Host aggression was extremely high toward non-ant-associated silverfish and modest to low in ant-associated groups. Surprisingly, the degree of chemical deception was not linked with host specificity as most silverfish, including facultative ant associates, imitated the host’s CHC profile. Messor specialists retained the same CHC profile as the host after moulting, in contrast to a host generalist, suggesting an active production of the cues (chemical mimicry). Host generalist and facultative associates flexibly copied the highly different CHC profiles of alternative host species, pointing at passive acquisition (chemical camouflage) of the host’s odour. Conclusions Overall, we found that behaviour that seems to facilitate the integration in the host colony was more pronounced in host specialist silverfish. Chemical deception, however, was employed by all ant-associated species, irrespective of their degree of host specificity.

Social learning in swarm robotics

In this paper, we present an implementation of social learning for swarm robotics. We consider social learning as a distributed online reinforcement learning method applied to a collective of robots where sensing, acting and coordination are performed on a local basis. While some issues are specific to artificial systems, such as the general objective of learning efficient (and ideally, optimal) behavioural strategies to fulfill a task defined by a supervisor, some other issues are shared with social learning in natural systems. We discuss some of these issues, paving the way towards cumulative cultural evolution in robot swarms, which could enable complex social organization necessary to achieve challenging robotic tasks. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The emergence of collective knowledge and cumulative culture in animals, humans and machines’.

Coping During Covid-19 Workbook

2020 saw the world affected by an unprecedented pandemic. Alongside the healthrisks, the COVID-19 pandemic has created mental health difficulties for a largenumber of people. Many people are feeling anxious or depressed, in ways that they might never have before.This eight module Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Workbook is designed to support those who are struggling with symptoms of anxiety and depression because of the COVID-19 crisis. This workbook has been created to provide psycho-education and self-help techniques to manage COVID-19 related distress.The workbook includes a variety of cognitive and behavioural strategies including;mindfulness exercises, gradual exposure to feared situations, physical coping skills, reducing unhelpful behaviours that contribute to anxiety (e.g. avoidance), reducing worry, maintaining identity and testing out beliefs about COVID-19.It is recommended that this workbook can be completed by anyone who is over the age of eighteen. The Coping During COVID-19 Workbook doesn’t replace formal psychological or medical support but may be an additional resource.

Inter-individual differences of calling and exploratory behaviour in a lebinthine cricket species hint at different mate-finding strategies

Individual fitness can be boosted by behavioural strategies that maximise mate-finding probability while minimising predation risk. Animals that use acoustics to find mates may benefit from using both stationary calling and active exploration, but these also expose them to different types of predators. Studying calling and searching behaviours concurrently allows us to understand their evolutionary trade-offs between survival and reproduction. Unlike most other crickets, lebinthine males alternate between singing and exploration to find females, which offer a unique and excellent opportunity to test for inter-individual differences and behavioural syndrome between call properties and exploratory behaviours. Our data demonstrate that call properties and exploratory behaviour were repeatable. We did not, however, find that call properties correlate with exploration as some consistently exploratory individuals produce longer calls while others produce shorter calls. Our study suggests that lebinthine males use different combinations of calling and exploratory behaviours to cope with unpredictable risk–benefit scenarios.

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Three Players on Behavioural Strategy of P2P Lending Participants: A Sustainable Operations Perspective

In China, most of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms do not possess operational sustainability due to excessive defaults. To address this problem, the conflict of interests among P2P lending participants is discussed using a stakeholder approach. An evolutionary game model (EGM) of three players is developed to analyse the interactions among regulatory authorities, P2P lending platforms, and borrowers. Then, the asymptotic of the equilibrium and evolutionary stability strategies of the EGM are analysed. Results indicate that either the P2P lending platforms or borrowers will choose “noncompliant operation” or “default” strategies from a short-term perspective, and the strict supervision of the P2P lending platform in the short term is necessary for the sustainable operation of the platform. When supervision is intensified in the early stage and regulatory pressure becomes a normal state, P2P lending platforms and borrowers will actively select “compliant operation” and “repayment” strategies even if there is a lack of regulation in the future. Meanwhile, the behavioural strategies of P2P lending participants can be changed to conform to the sustainability of P2P lending by reducing the costs of strict supervision and increasing the damage caused by general supervision, reward and punishment coefficient for P2P lending platforms, repayment incentives of borrowers, and defaulting opportunity costs. Finally, suggestions for regulating the behaviours of P2P lending participants and promoting sustainability of P2P lending industry are discussed.

Formation of constructive strategies of behaviour of primary school pupils in conflict with their peers

The article deals with the problem of primary schoolchildren’s conflict behaviour. The necessity of forming constructive strategies of children's behaviour in conflict through the implementation of the developed programme is shown. The results of ascertaining experiment conducted on a sample of 60 fourth-formers using the following diagnostic tools are presented – the method of Kenneth W. Thomas & Ralph H. Kilmann’s Conflict Mode Instrument (in the adaptation of Natal’ya Grishina), expert assessment of the behaviour of schoolchildren in a conflict situation by pedagogues and parents, a questionnaire for teachers ‟Signs of conflict” by Yelena Lyutova & Galina Monina). The analysis of the data showed that the majority of primary schoolchildren choose non-constructive behavioural strategies (adaptation, competition, avoidance), and also have an increased level of conflict, which indicated the feasibility of developing and implementing a programme for the formation of constructive behavioural strategies of pupils. 15 group sessions were conducted in the form of training using role-playing games, psychohymnastic exercises, mini-lectures, discussions, and situation analysis. The control experiment, as well as the use of mathematical statistics methods, showed the effectiveness of the work done – the presence of changes in the strategies of behaviour in conflict, in particular, pupils more often choose constructive strategies (cooperation and compromise) and less often destructive ones (rivalry and withdrawal), there was a decrease in the level of conflict.

A Wrinkle in Measuring Time Use for Cognitive Health: How should We Measure Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep?

One new case of dementia is detected every 4 seconds and no effective drug therapy exists. Effective behavioural strategies to promote healthy cognitive ageing are thus essential. Three behaviours related to cognitive health which we all engage in daily are physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep. These time-use activity behaviours are linked to cognitive health in a complex and dynamic relationship not yet fully elucidated. Understanding how each of these behaviours is related to each other and cognitive health will help determine the most practical and effective lifestyle strategies for promoting healthy cognitive ageing. In this review, we discuss methods and analytical approaches to best investigate how these time-use activity behaviours are related to cognitive health. We highlight four key recommendations for examining these relationships such that researchers should include measures which (1) are psychometrically appropriate; (2) can specifically answer the research question; (3) include objective and subjective estimates of the behaviour and (4) choose an analytical method for modelling the relationships of time-use activity behaviours with cognitive health which is appropriate for their research question.

Tactical deception in sociosexual behaviour of stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides): an exploratory study

Tactical deception (TD) is a social strategy in which a subject performs an action to its own benefit causing disadvantage for a competitor. In primates, the cognitive mechanisms involved in TD have been described at different levels. Sneaky mating is a common context within which to study TD because in many primate groups, dominant males monopolize access to females and subordinate males must find a way to copulate with females avoiding the alpha’s presence. The objective of this study was to explore which of the TD behavioural strategies are involved in the male sociosexual behaviour of a group of stump-tailed macaques (Macaca arctoides). We found that the subordinate males participated in more interactions when they were in a section of the enclosure where the alpha male was not present. The alpha male had more copulation interactions, but the beta male’s interactions lasted longer on average. Our data offer evidence in support of the hypothesis that stump-tailed macaques may use TD strategies that are related to operant conditioning.