Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Genetics, Behavioral”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 433 records · Page 24Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Eradication of the melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae, in Japan: importance of behavior, ecology, genetics, and evolution.

The melon fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae, is a destructive insect of cucurbit and other fruits. It invaded the Southwestern Islands of Japan from 1919 to 1974. The sterile insect technique (SIT) was successfully applied from 1972 to 1993 to eradicate the melon fly. Technical research into SIT functions, such as suppression of density, mass-rearing, sterilization, shipment, release, evaluation of efficacy, and quality control of mass-reared insects, was conducted for this eradication project. Fundamental research into the dispersion, mating and oviposition behavior, population dynamics and estimation of density, eradication models, spatial distribution, genetics, and evolution of the melon fly was also undertaken and supported the success of the eradication project.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Effect of verapamil on submissive behavior in genetically bred hypercholinergic rats in a water competition test.

Male hypercholinergic FSL (Flinders Sensitive Line) and control FRL (Flinders Resistant Line) rats were placed on a water deprivation schedule and tested for dominance behavior with FSL/FRL pairs competing for water. FSL rats spent significantly less time drinking than their FRL partners. Acute injection of 10 mg/kg of verapamil, a calcium channel inhibitor, to FSL rats markedly increased their drinking time without influencing water intake in individually tested rats. This effect of the drug was no longer seen after prolonged 4 day treatment. It is suggested that submissiveness of FSL animals in the water competition test might be due to increased fear which is alleviated by verapamil treatment. Tolerance seems to develop to this effect of the drug.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

The matter of scale.

The genetic (and environmental) picture that emerges from a behavior genetic analysis is acknowledged to be a function of the scale upon which the particular trait being analyzed is measured. Differing views exist about how such data should be interpreted. The aim of the present paper is to air such issues and to emphasize that the reporting of substantive results, e.g. in psychiatric studies, should make clear that results are scale dependent, as this qualification may not be apparent to a psychiatric readership.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Visual information and approach behavior in genetically manipulated quail chicks: preference hierarchies and interactions of flash rate, flash amplitude, luminance, and color.

Visual preferences were studied in 18,225 quail chicks (Coturnix coturnix japonica) of three genetic populations, in relation to 185 pairs of systematically varied and combined flash rates, flash amplitudes, luminances, and colors. Results indicate additive and nonadditive interactions between preference values of stimulus elements embedded in complex stimulus information. Flicker preferences changed with changes in overall stimulus liminances, flash amplitudes, and colors. Likewise, color preferences changed with the presence or absence and rate of flicker. Interactions between preference values of stimuli were related to threshold effects and genetic influences. Dominance of flicker over color preference was found in genetic controls, but subjects drawn from the 14th generation of bidirectional genetic selection for color choices preferred the genetically favored colors regardless of flicker. Discussion examines the data from the perspectives of coding and processing stimulus information.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Analyzing correlations of three types in selected lines of Drosophila melanogaster that have evolved stable extreme geotactic performance.

The behavior-genetic analysis of Drosophila melanogaster with geotactic performance as the phenotype is an ideal model system with which to investigate the complex relations between heredity and behavior. As part of a long-term, 38-year study, we report 4 experiments that identify and analyze trait correlations in the selected high- and low-geotaxis lines. We performed F2 correlational analyses and backcrosses to examine 3 types of correlations: (a) genotype-genotype (alcohol dehydrogenase [Adh]-amylase [Amy]), (b) genotype-phenotype (Adh and Amy-geotaxis), and (c) phenotype-phenotype (mate preference-geotaxis). Only the Adh-geotaxis correlation survived meiosis and reappeared in the F2 generation, which indicates a genotype-phenotype correlation, whereas the others did not. The importance of hybrid correlational analysis to the behavior-genetic analysis of a species is discussed.

Alcohol Dehydrogenase↗
PubMed2002

Genetic and behavioral components of the cryptic species boundary between Laupala cerasina and L. kohalensis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae).

Cryptic species are often hypothesized on the basis of differences in courtship signals. These signal differences suggest that mate recognition systems, which include both courtship signals and responses to those signals, have diverged between genetically isolated populations. Cryptic species are therefore thought to represent distinct genetic units, the boundaries of which are maintained by premating incompatibilities, specifically by receiver preferences for conspecific signals. Laupala cerasina and L. kohalensis are sympatric species of swordtail crickets endemic to the big island of Hawaii, that are distinguishable by differences in male courtship song. We first tested whether groupings hypothesized by acoustic similarity reflect genetic groupings, using AFLP data to estimate genetic relationships. Second, we tested whether genetic boundaries are maintained by female preferences for conspecific song characteristics. Phonotaxis trials were used to determine the extent of female preferences for conspecific male song. Results generally support both hypotheses, but suggest the presence of porous species boundaries.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The next challenge for psychiatric genetics: characterizing the risk associated with identified genes.

BACKGROUND: As advances in genetics further our ability to identify genes influencing psychiatric disorders, the next challenge facing psychiatric genetics is to characterize the risk associated with specific genetic variants in order to better understand how these susceptibility genes are involved in the pathways leading to illness. METHODS: To further this goal, findings from behavior genetic analyses about how genetic influences act can be used to guide hypothesis testing about the effects associated with specific genes. RESULTS: Using the phenotype of alcohol dependence as an example, this paper provides an overview of how the integration of behavioral and statistical genetics can advance our knowledge about the genetics of psychiatric disorders. Areas currently being investigated in behavior genetics include careful delineation of phenotypes, to examine the heritability of various aspects of normal and abnormal behavior; developmental changes in the nature and magnitude of genetic and environmental effects; the extent to which different behaviors are influenced by common genes; and different forms of gene-environment correlation and interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how specific genes are involved in these processes has the potential to significantly enhance our understanding of the development of psychiatric disorders.

Alcoholism↗
PubMed2005

Rodent models of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

An ideal animal model should be similar to the disorder it models in terms of etiology, biochemistry, symptomatology, and treatment. Animal models provide several advantages over clinical research: simpler nervous systems, easily interpreted behaviors, genetic homogeneity, easily controlled environment, and a greater variety of interventions. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder of childhood onset that is characterized by inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness. Its diagnosis is behaviorally based; therefore, the validation of an ADHD model must be based in behavior. An ADHD model must mimic the fundamental behavioral characteristics of ADHD (face validity), conform to a theoretical rationale for ADHD (construct validity), and predict aspects of ADHD behavior, genetics, and neurobiology previously uncharted in clinical settings (predictive validity). Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) fulfill many of the validation criteria and compare well with clinical cases of ADHD. Poor performers in the five-choice serial reaction time task and Naples high-excitability rats (NHE) are useful models for attention-deficit disorder. Other animal models either focus on the less important symptom of hyperactivity and might be of limited value in ADHD research or are produced in ways that would not lead to a clinical diagnosis of ADHD in humans, even if ADHD-like behavior is displayed.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A behavioral and genetic dissection of two forms of olfactory plasticity in Caenorhabditis elegans: adaptation and habituation.

Continuous presentation of an olfactory stimulus causes a decrement of the chemotaxis response in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. However, the differences between the learning process of habituation (a readily reversible decrease in behavioral response) and other types of olfactory plasticity such as adaptation (a decrement in response due to sensory fatigue, which cannot be dishabituated) have not been addressed. The volatile odorant diacetyl (DA) was used within a single paradigm to assess the distinct processes of olfactory adaptation and habituation. Preexposing and testing worms to 100% DA vapors caused a chemotaxis decrement that was not reversible despite the presentation of potentially dishabituating stimuli. This DA adaptation was abolished in worms with an odr-10 mutation (encoding a high-affinity DA receptor on the AWA neuron), even though naive chemotaxis remained unaffected. Conversely, DA adaptation remained intact in odr-1 mutants (defective in AWC neuron-mediated olfactory behavior), even though naive chemotaxis to DA decreased. Surprisingly, exposure to vapors of intermediate concentrations of DA (0.01% and 25%) did not cause worms to exhibit any response decrement. In contrast to preexposure to high DA concentrations, preexposure to low DA concentrations (0.001%) produced habituation of the chemotaxis response (a dishabituating stimulus could reverse the response decrement back to baseline levels). The distinct behavioral effects produced by DA preexposure highlight a concentration-dependent dissociation between two decremental olfactory processes: adaptation at high DA concentrations versus habituation at low DA concentrations.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed2005

Drosophila as a novel animal model for studying the genetics of age-related memory impairment.

Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying age-related memory impairment (AMI) is important not only from a scientific viewpoint but also for the development of therapeutics that may eventually lead to the development of drugs to combat memory loss. AMI has been generally considered to be an overall or nonspecific decay of memory processes that results from dysfunction of neural networks. However, behavioral genetics to test this hypothesis have not been performed previously, due, in part, to the long lifespan of animal models. Using Drosophila, the first extensive behavioral-genetic characterization of AMI has been carried out. In Drosophila, memory acquired after a single olfactory conditioning paradigm has three distinct phases: short-term memory (STM), middle-term memory (MTM), and longer-lasting anesthesia-resistant memory (ARM). Significantly, AMI results from the specific decay of only one memory component, amnesiac-dependent MTM, and not other components. Since amnesiac encodes peptides that enhance adenylyl cyclase activity, these studies suggest the importance of the cAMP signaling pathway in AMI in Drosophila, a finding consistent with several models of AMI in mammals. Although many advances have been made in the study of pathways involved in aging, much remains to be elucidated on how these pathways affect memory formation to cause AMI. Due to its short lifespan, powerful genetics, and well-characterized and conserved pathways involved in memory and lifespan, Drosophila will be a useful model system for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying this process.

Aging↗
PubMed1975

Persons, situations, and time: a genetic view of behavioral change in children.

Twin children participating in a longitudinal study were observed at 9, 12, 18, 24, and 30 months of age in two settings: unstructured free play and relatively structured test taking. Behaviors relating to adaptability to the two settings were rated and the scores analyzed for evidence of continuity both across settings and across ages. Age-to-age correlations for the adaptability scores for each setting yielded a simplex pattern of low-moderate order. Correlations of individuals' scores across settings were also of low-moderate order. Within-pair correlations indicated that identical twins were more similar that same-sex fraternal twins in both settings, but correlations were consistently stronger in the playroom setting. Analysis of variance was performed to test for within-pair concordance in the direction and degree of change. Identical pairs remained significantly more similar in adaptability from one setting to another even when change in adaptability occurred. Similar results were found for change across ages; however, these differences were significant only in the playroom setting. Results suggest that situation variables contribute to the low stabilities frequently reported for personality dimensions but that the direction and degree of behavioral change are genetically conditioned.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Genetics of behavioral aging: animal models and the human condition.

Animal models have played an important role in elucidating the nature of aging processes in general, and of behavioral aging specifically. Both aging and the behavioral processes of interest in this context are manifestly complex. Recent scholarship focusing on the nature of systems has provided new and varied conceptual schemata for addressing such intricacy. In this report, animal model systems are viewed in relation to some elementary systems notions. Limitations of the prototypical animal model are discussed, with particular emphasis on the implications of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. These same interactions also provide opportunities. The traditional methods of genetic manipulation and control, combined with the powerful new tools of molecular genetics, and informed by systems considerations, offer broadened research horizons.

Aging↗
PubMed2000

The microstructure of ethanol drinking: genetic and behavioral factors in the control of drinking patterns.

The concept of craving can be examined in many different ways, depending upon the individual definition of the term. Using the concepts and procedures of regulatory behavior analysis, this review explores behavioral studies in rats that have some relationships to some of the possible processes that underlie the concept of craving in humans. Data are reviewed from studies employing both limited and continuous access to ethanol, examining the role of access availability, ethanol initiation, response cost, time since last access, composition of the ethanol containing solution and genetic selection. From this review, it is clear that rat models can implicate important variables involved in the control of human alcohol consumption.

Alcohol Drinking↗