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PubMed2006

Pharmacological manipulations of food protection behavior in rats: evidence for dopaminergic contributions to time perception during a natural behavior.

Operant procedures combined with pharmacological manipulations have implicated a role for the dopaminergic system in the perception and production of temporal intervals. Because studies have suggested that animals use temporal information to organize food protection behavior, the current study investigates whether dopaminergic systems are involved in timing during this natural behavior. The experiment examined the influence of a dopaminergic agonist (amphetamine) and an antagonist (haloperidol) on food protection behavior initiated to avoid theft by a conspecific. Amphetamine increased the time spent dodging and decreased the time spent bracing during the consumption of a hazelnut. On the other hand, haloperidol decreased the time spent dodging while showing no systematic changes in bracing. Topographic and kinematic analyses of rat movement conflicted with motivational, motoric, and social accounts of drug-induced changes in food protection behavior organization. These observations provide evidence that rats use temporal information to organize movements in the natural behavior of protecting food from theft by a conspecific, and this organization is influenced by both a dopaminergic agonist and an antagonist.

Agonistic Behavior↗
PubMed1997

Handling and isolation in three strains of rats affect open field, exploration, hoarding and predation.

Male albino (Al), brown hooded (Br) and black hooded (Bl) rats were raised in social isolation or in pairs, with or without systematic handling. At 90 and 180 days of age, the animals were individually tested for activity in an open field (Of), exploratory behavior in a complex environment, food hoarding (Hd) and insect predation (Pd). Multivariate analysis of the results showed significant influences of all three factors (strain, handling and social isolation) and interactions among them. Strain affected Of, Hd and Pd, with contrastingly high performances of Br in Of, Al in Hd and Bl in Pd. Handling increased Of and exploration scores in both test series. Isolation induced higher performances in all the four behaviors in the second test series. Accentuated and stable individual differences occurred in the performances off all the behaviors. The results emphasize the subtleness and complexity of the interplay of genetic and environmental influences and stress the independence of the regulatory processes of different behaviors.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Correlation between head direction cell activity and spatial behavior on a radial arm maze.

This study assessed the activity of head direction (HD) cells during performance of a spatial reference memory task on a radial arm maze. Rats were trained to select a maze arm located in a constant position in relation to a salient extramaze visual landmark. HD cell discharge properties remained relatively stable across task acquisition in most rats. Following acquisition, rotation of the landmark by 90 degrees or 180 degrees usually led to a corresponding shift in the maze arm selected and the HD cell's preferred firing direction. When the cell's preferred direction did not shift, rats usually selected the wrong arm. HD cell activity was not influenced by the rat's approach to the goal, reward consumption, or exit from the reward area. This demonstration of landmark control over behavior and the cell's preferred direction supports the hypothesis that HD cells contribute to an absolute representation of the environment that can be used to guide spatial behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Plasma cortisol and appetitively motivated arousal in monkeys.

A disagreement exists in the literature as to whether plasma glucocorticoids are a sensitive index of emotional arousal. In order to provide further data on this subject, arousal in adult male rhesus monkeys was produced by classical appetitive conditioning done once every 48 hr. Monkeys showed significantly more aroused behavior during CS+ sessions than during CS- sessions. Concurrent with these behavioral changes, appetitive conditioning suppressed the increase in plasma cortisol that took place in control conditions. This dissociation between cortisol and arousal provides additional data for the conclusion that plasma glucocorticoids are an insensitive index of arousal. The fact that glucocorticoids decrease dramatically under similar experimental conditions in rats suggests that hormonal regulatory mechanisms for this rodent species may differ from that for primates.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Do humans ape? Or do apes human? Imitation and intention in humans (Homo sapiens) and other animals.

A. Whiten, D. M. Custance, J.-C. Gomez, P. Teixidor, and K. A. Bard (1996) tested chimpanzees' (Pan troglodytes) and human children's (Homo sapiens) skills at imitation with a 2-action test on an "artificial fruit." Chimpanzees imitated to a restricted degree; children were more thoroughly imitative. Such results prompted some to assert that the difference in imitation indicates a difference in the subjects' understanding of the intentions of the demonstrator (M. Tomasello, 1996). In this experiment, 37 adult human subjects were tested with the artificial fruit. Far from being perfect imitators, the adults were less imitative than the children. These results cast doubt on the inference from imitative performance to an ability to understand others' intentions. The results also demonstrate how any test of imitation requires a control group and attention to the level of behavioral analysis.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Functional neural regeneration in the feeding system of Aplysia: behavioral recovery correlated with changes in buccal motor output.

1. We tested for functional neural regeneration in the feeding system of Aplysia after bilateral transections or crushes of the cerebral-buccal connectives (CBCs) with the use of behavioral analyses and electrophysiological recordings. 2. Both types of lesion selectively abolished rhythmic consummatory behavior, dramatically increasing bite latency and interbite interval, and decreasing bite magnitude. Appetitive feeding behavior was not affected. 3. About 2 wk after CBC crush, bite latency, bite magnitude, and interbite interval began to recover, as rhythmic biting reappeared; complete recovery of rhythmic biting occurred within 60 days. Rhythmic biting never recovered after transection of the CBCs. 4. The recovery of rhythmic biting was correlated with changes in buccal motor output, which were assessed with the use of in vivo recordings from buccal nerve 4 in freely moving Aplysia. Initially, some bursting in nerve 4 occurred without overt bites; with full recovery of biting, a 1:1 correspondence between bursts in nerve 4 and overt bites returned. 5. CBC lesions caused a functional separation between biting and swallowing; at early times postlesion, subjects displayed apparently normal rhythmic swallowing even though rhythmic biting had been eliminated. However, there was a disruption of the 1:1 correspondence between nerve 4 bursts and swallows, which persisted until consummatory feeding fully recovered. 6. Transection of the CBCs in animals that had fully recovered from a previous CBC crush again abolished rhythmic biting, suggesting that the recovery of consummatory feeding behavior was due to functional neural regeneration of cerebral-buccal connections.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Predatory behavior in the cat elicited by lower brain stem and hypothalamic stimulation: a comparison.

The predatory attack of a cat against a rat elicited by lateral hypothalamic, ventral midbrain and ventromedial periaqueductal gray stimulation has been compared. Regardless of the region stimulated, the attack behaviors were found to be identical with respect to response topography, preference for the rat as an attack object, the distance at which the cats would approach and attack a rat and the success in finding and attacking the rat when the cats were blindfolded. However, the minimum current required to elicit the predatory attack by periaqueductal gray stimulation was 3-4 times less than that required to elicit the same behavior by ventral midbrain and lateral hypothalamic stimulation. The difficulty in reconciling these results with the preeminent role assigned to the hypothalamus in the organization of predatory aggressive behavior was considered.

Aggression↗
PubMed1993

The behavioral theory of timing: transition analyses.

Gibbon and Church (1990, 1992) have recently confirmed an important, parameter-free prediction of the behavioral theory of timing (Killeen & Fetterman, 1988): The times of exiting from a bout of activity are positively correlated with the times of entrance to it. The correlations were slightly less than predicted, however, and the correlations between the start of an activity and the time spent engaged in that activity were negative, rather than zero. We adapted their serial model as an augmented (one-parameter) version of the behavioral theory, positing a lag between the receipt of a pulse from the pacemaker and transition into the next class of responses. The augmented version of the behavioral theory further improved the correspondence between the theory and the correlational data reported by Gibbon and Church. It also accounts for previously unpublished data from our laboratory derived from a new timing technique, the "peak choice" procedure. We show that the measured variance of movement times from one key to another closely approximates the estimated variance of transition times recovered from fits of the augmented model to the data. Such correspondence both attests to the correct identification of this source of variance and suggests ways to remove it, both from behavior and from our models of behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Response-initiated imaging of operant behavior using a digital camera.

A miniature digital camera, QuickCam Pro 3000, intended for use with video e-mail, was modified so that snapshots were triggered by operant behavior emitted in a standard experimental chamber. With only minor modification, the manual shutter button on the camera was replaced with a simple switch closure via an I/O interface controlled by a PC computer. When the operant behavior activated the I/O switch, the camera took a snapshot of the subject's behavior at that moment. To illustrate the use of the camera, a simple experiment was designed to examine stereotypy and variability in topography of operant behavior under continuous reinforcement and extinction in 6 rats using food pellets as reinforcement. When a rat operated an omnidirectional pole suspended from the ceiling, it also took a picture of the topography of its own behavior at that moment. In a single session after shaping of pole movement (if necessary), blocks of continuous reinforcement, in which each response was reinforced, alternated with blocks of extinction (no reinforcement), with each block ending when 20 responses had occurred. The software supplied with the camera automatically stored each image and named image files successively within a session. The software that controlled the experiment also stored quantitative data regarding the operant behavior such as consecutive order, temporal location within the session, and response duration. This paper describes how the two data types--image information and numerical performance characteristics-can be combined for visual analysis. The experiment illustrates in images how response topography changes during shaping of pole movement, how response topography quickly becomes highly stereotyped during continuous reinforcement, and how response variability increases during extinction. The method of storing digital response-initiated snapshots should be useful for a variety of experimental situations that are intended to examine behavior change and topography.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Effects of runway shift and stay rules on rats' serial pattern learning in the T-maze.

Rats received three-trial series on a T-maze consisting of extended visually distinct left-black and right-striped side runways. During the first phase of training, when allowed to select baited runways within these series, they predominantly alternated their choices. During the second phase, rats received forced-choice serial pattern training of series consisting of two rewarded (R) trials and one nonrewarded (N) trial in two fixed orders, RRN and RNR. In Experiment 1, the rats in the runway shift rule group always received the second R trial when forced down a runway opposite that on the preceding trial in the series and the N trial when forced down the same runway. The rats in the runway stay rule group always received the second R trial when forced down the same runway and the N trial when forced down the opposite runway. In Experiment 2, each rat was conditionally trained with both runway outcome rules as determined by the central alley lighting and the type of food in the side alleys. The rats took longer to reduce their running speed on the N trial within each sequence under the runway stay rule than under the runway shift rule. They also took longer to acquire serial pattern responding for the RNR than for the RRN series only under the runway stay rule condition. When subsequently reexposed to series of free-choice trials on the final phase, rats maintained spontaneous alternating choice patterns under the runway shift rule conditions but either seldom alternated their choices (Experiment 1) or greatly reduced choice alternations (Experiment 2) under the runway stay rule condition. We discussed these effects in terms of rats' natural foraging strategies and as a factor that interacts with other within- and between-series variables that affect serial pattern behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Predation, aggression, and activity levels in food-deprived sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus and L. gibbosus): motivational interactions.

Three experiments investigated the effects of food deprivation on several behavioral categories in two species of sunfish. In Experiment 1, predatory behavior and general activity were observed under five levels of deprivation. For both species, predation measures increased in a similar negatively accelerating manner with increasing deprivation, while activity changed in a more complex fashion. Experiment 2 examined the effects of deprivation on activity in a novel environment and showed that the deprivation effects of Experiment 1 were masked by the response to the new setting. In Experiment 3, measures of aggression toward intruders of each species were recorded from resident fish of both species under three levels of food deprivation. Both species were more aggressive toward conspecifics, and bluegills were more aggressive overall. Aggression was significatly influenced by food deprivation, with the effects dependent on the species making up the pair. Theories of motivational summation, generalized drive, and activity-mediated aggression were unable to explain the differential effects of hunger on the three behavioral categories observed. A dynamic boundary-state model of behavior control was found to predict the motivational interactions observed between distinct behavioral control systems.

Aggression↗
PubMed1989

Nicotine as a discriminative stimulus: a neurobiobehavioral approach to studying central cholinergic mechanisms.

A major goal of basic nicotine research is to obtain information useful to the clinician in determining why and how people become dependent on this substance via the use of tobacco products. To accomplish this, the basic scientist must first develop an animal model of nicotine action that is parallel to its effects in humans. This review describes such a model, based on the ability of nicotine to exert discriminative stimulus (DS) control over behavior. The nicotine DS, as studied in the rat, mouse, or subhuman primate, appears to provide information analogous to human subjective reports concerning the effects of smoking. Findings indicate that nicotine is specific and selective in its actions, explaining, in part, why tobacco is dependence-producing. The nicotine DS effect is stereoselective and appears to be the result of an action at specific central nicotinic cholinergic (N-Ch) receptors located in at least two brain areas, the hippocampus and midbrain reticular formation. Whether acetylcholine is the mediator of nicotine's effects at these receptor sites, as was once thought, has yet to be clearly determined. Finally, these N-Ch receptors appear to have a wide distribution and may also sit on presynaptic dopamine neurons, helping to explain some of nicotine's additional behavioral and/or rewarding effects.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Behavior of sodium-deficient rats: the search for a salty taste.

Sodium-deficient rats display an appetite for solutions that humans judge as salty tasting whether or not the solutions contain sodium salts. When offered a choice between a pair of sodium salts, sodium-deficient rats generally preferred the more salty tasting. They tended to do the same for a pair of non-sodium salts and for a pair of sodium and non-sodium salts. The results show that human psychophysical judgments of saltiness are a good predictor of the choices that rats will make when sodium deficient--the more salty, the more preferred. The data support the thesis that the appetite of the sodium-deficient rat is not for sodium but for a salty taste.

Animals↗