Archaeological inference and Oldowan behavior.
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Animals↗
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Results for “Tool Use Behavior”
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Pain behaviors observed during six common procedures: results from Thunder Project II.
OBJECTIVE: Patients frequently display behaviors during procedures that may be pain related. Clinicians often rely on the patient's demonstration of behaviors as a cue to presence of pain. The purpose of this study was to identify specific pain-related behaviors and factors that predict the degree of behavioral responses during the following procedures: turning, central venous catheter insertion, wound drain removal, wound care, tracheal suctioning, and femoral sheath removal. DESIGN: Prospective, descriptive study. SETTING: Multiple units in 169 hospitals in United States, Canada, England, and Australia. PATIENTS: A total of 5,957 adult patients who underwent one of the six procedures. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: A 30-item behavior observation tool was used to note patients' behaviors before and during a procedure. By comparing behaviors exhibited before and during the procedure as well as behaviors in those with and without procedural pain (as noted on a 0-10 numeric rating scale), we identified specific procedural pain behaviors: grimacing, rigidity, wincing, shutting of eyes, verbalization, moaning, and clenching of fists. On average, there were significantly more behaviors exhibited by patients with vs. without procedural pain (3.5 vs. 1.8 behaviors; t = 38.3, df = 5072.5; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-1.8). Patients with procedural pain were at least three times more likely to have increased behavioral responses than patients without procedural pain. A simultaneous regression model determined that 33% of the variance in amount of pain behaviors exhibited during a procedure was explained by three factors: degree of procedural pain intensity, degree of procedural distress, and undergoing the turning procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the strong relationship between procedural pain and behavioral responses, clinicians can use behavioral responses of verbal and nonverbal patients to plan for, implement, and evaluate analgesic interventions.
Behavior↗
Music Exposure and Criminal Behavior: Perceptions of Juvenile Offenders.
The purpose of this investigation was to examine young offenders' perceptions of the relationship between exposure to music and their criminal behavior. Using a tool designed for the study, male felony offenders ages 12 to 17 were questioned about their music listening patterns and the perceived influence of listening on their offending fantasies and behavior. Rap music was the predominant choice across all participant profiles. While 72% of respondents believed that music influenced the way they feel at least some of the time, only 4% perceived a connection between music listening and their deviant behavior. Narrative comments provided by the youths were largely consistent with objective data. Most respondents believed in the reflection-rejection theory, in which music is perceived as a mirror of the adolescents' lives rather than a causative factor in their behavior. Two additional theoretical perspectives were espoused: drive reduction theory, which states that music serves as an expressive vehicle (thus reducing the likelihood of emotional and physical outburst); and excitation-transfer theory, wherein residual physiological arousal affects subsequent behavior. In the latter, music was perceived as harmful only when applied to preexisting states of negative arousal.
Journal Article↗
The evolutionary neuroscience of tool making.
The appearance of the first intentionally modified stone tools over 2.5 million years ago marked a watershed in human evolutionary history, expanding the human adaptive niche and initiating a trend of technological elaboration that continues to the present day. However, the cognitive foundations of this behavioral revolution remain controversial, as do its implications for the nature and evolution of modern human technological abilities. Here we shed new light on the neural and evolutionary foundations of human tool making skill by presenting functional brain imaging data from six inexperienced subjects learning to make stone tools of the kind found in the earliest archaeological record. Functional imaging of this complex, naturalistic task was accomplished through positron emission tomography with the slowly decaying radiological tracer (18)flouro-2-deoxyglucose. Results show that simple stone tool making is supported by a mosaic of primitive and derived parietofrontal perceptual-motor systems, including recently identified human specializations for representation of the central visual field and perception of three-dimensional form from motion. In the naïve tool makers reported here, no activation was observed in prefrontal executive cortices associated with strategic action planning or in inferior parietal cortex thought to play a role in the representation of everyday tool use skills. We conclude that uniquely human capacities for sensorimotor adaptation and affordance perception, rather than abstract conceptualization and planning, were central factors in the initial stages of human technological evolution.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Peptide-amine interactions in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus: analysis of galanin and neuropeptide Y in relation to feeding.
The neuropeptide galanin (GAL) has been found to elicit feeding after injection into the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN), where it coexists with norepinephrine (NE), a neurotransmitter believed to be important in the control of natural feeding behavior. Using pharmacological tools, this study investigated the possibility that PVN GAL influences food intake via its direct interaction with the noradrenergic system localized in this nucleus. Tests with alpha-adrenergic receptor blockers demonstrated that GAL-induced feeding, similar to NE-stimulated feeding, depends specifically upon functional alpha 2-receptor sites. Further, experimentation with the catecholamine synthesis inhibitors, alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine and Fla-63, suggested that GAL's action also depends upon the release of endogenous NE. This is in contrast to another hypothalamic peptide, neuropeptide Y, which is also a strong stimulant of food intake and coexists with NE in the PVN. Neuropeptide Y remains effective in eliciting feeding in the presence of alpha 2-receptor antagonists and catecholamine-synthesis inhibitors, suggesting that, unlike GAL, it can act independently of endogenous NE.
Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists↗
An evaluation strategy for rheumatology education.
The number of professional education programs in rheumatology is increasing at a rapid rate. All efforts to establish such programs should include a formal evaluation plan to assess their value. Clear definitions of program objectives and an understanding of the concepts of education program evaluation should be the basis of planning. We have developed an evaluation approach that focuses on education impact as the key measure of program benefits. Impact is measured in three critical areas: Knowledge, clinical performance, and professional behavior. The tools use in this approach include two questionnaires and a trained patient. Educators may use these measure together to generate an overall estimate of education benefits, or they can use them separately to evaluate specific program objectives. This theory-based strategy can serve as a general model for approaching the evaluation of professional education programs in rheumatology.
Clinical Competence↗
The right tool for the job: what strategies do wild New Caledonian crows use?
New Caledonian crows Corvus moneduloides (NC crows) display sophisticated tool manufacture in the wild, but the cognitive strategy underlying these skills is poorly understood. Here, we investigate what strategy two free-living NC crows used in response to a tool-length task. The crows manufactured tools to extract food from vertical holes of different depths. The first tools they made in visits were of a similar length regardless of the hole depth. The typical length was usually too short to extract food from the deep holes, which ruled out a strategy of immediate causal inference on the first attempt in a trial. When the first tool failed, the crows made second tools significantly longer than the unsuccessful first tools. There was no evidence that the crows made the lengths of first tools to directly match hole depth. We argue that NC crows may generally use a two-stage heuristic strategy to solve tool problems and that performance on the first attempt in a trial is not necessarily the 'gold standard' for assessing folk physics.
Analysis of Variance↗
A New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) creatively re-designs tools by bending or unbending aluminium strips.
Previous observations of a New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) spontaneously bending wire and using it as a hook [Weir et al. (2002) Science 297:981] have prompted questions about the extent to which these animals 'understand' the physical causality involved in how hooks work and how to make them. To approach this issue we examine how the same subject ("Betty") performed in three experiments with novel material, which needed to be either bent or unbent in order to function to retrieve food. These tasks exclude the possibility of success by repetition of patterns of movement similar to those employed before. Betty quickly developed novel techniques to bend the material, and appropriately modified it on four of five trials when unbending was required. She did not mechanically apply a previously learned set of movements to the new situations, and instead sought new solutions to each problem. However, the details of her behaviour preclude concluding definitely that she understood and planned her actions: in some cases she probed with the unmodified tools before modifying them, or attempted to use the unmodified (unsuitable) end of the tool after modification. Gauging New Caledonian crows' level of understanding is not yet possible, but the observed behaviour is consistent with a partial understanding of physical tasks at a level that exceeds that previously attained by any other non-human subject, including apes.
Animals↗
Spillage behavior and thiamin deficiency in the rat.
Food spillage, food intake and body weight of four groups of adult rats were monitored daily as they were fed varying responses of deficient, marginal, or high thiamin (B) diet. Food spillage was a more sensitive index of the dietary B1 then either food intake or body weight change. Animals fed the deficient B1 diet exhibited the greatest levels of food spillage followed by the animals fed the marginal B1 diet. Hypophagia and weight loss occurred only among animals fed the marginal B1 diet. Feeding the high B1 diet to animals previously given the deficient and marginal B1 diets completely eliminated the excessive food spillage, and food intake and body weight returned to control levels. These data support the use of spillage behavior as a useful screening tool for detecting behavioral effects of inadequate nutrient intake or chemical intoxication.
Animals↗
An empirical analysis of the BASC Frontal Lobe/Executive Control scale with a clinical sample.
Data from a clinical sample of children and adolescents were used to examine the characteristics of the Frontal Lobe/Executive Control (FLEC) scale of the Behavior Assessment System for Children Parent Rating Scales, including preliminary evidence of the scale's clinical utility and relationship to other behavioral measures of executive function and characteristics of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Results indicate that participants in the ADHD and other clinical groups received very similar scores on the FLEC scale, and both groups were rated significantly higher in behaviors associated with executive dysfunction than were participants in the no diagnosis group. Correlational results indicate that scores on the FLEC scale were significantly correlated with scores on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Parent Form and Conners' Parent Rating Scales Revised-Short Form. Based on our results, the FLEC scale appears to be a useful behavioral rating tool in the assessment of executive function that may serve as a supplement to more traditional measures.
Adolescent↗
Middle Pleistocene handaxes from the Korean Peninsula.
We present four biface assemblages from an archaeologically poorly known region of the Old World: Middle Pleistocene Korea. The handaxes are derived from a series of Middle Pleistocene localities in the Imjin/Hantan River Basins (IHRB) in Korea. The best known of these localities is Chongokni, although a number of equally important sites in the IHRB have been discovered and excavated over the course of the past two decades (e.g., Kumpari, Chuwoli, and Kawoli). Reanalysis of the age of the Chongokni deposits suggests a hominin occupation between 350-300 ka. Comparative study of the IHRB handaxes with the well-known bifacial implements from Olorgesailie (Kenya) and Hunsgi-Baichbal (India) indicates that the often-noted "thick" trait of the East Asian handaxes differs at a statistical level across the various regions of the Old World. The finds from the IHRB sites, and the Chinese sites of Bose and Dingcun that contain handaxes-like implement, question the validity of the Movius Line sensu stricto. However, why East Asian Middle Pleistocene hominins did not consistently produce more refined bifaces across broader regional and/or temporal facies, remains open to question. Thus, the absence of similar sites in wider areas of Early and Middle Pleistocene East Asia suggests that the Movius Line sensu lato is still supportable and warrants additional detailed cross comparative studies of the stone toolkits east and west of the line.
Animals↗
Processes of social learning in the tool use of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and human children (Homo sapiens).
Common chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and 2-year-old human children (Homo sapiens) were presented with a rakelike tool and a desirable but out-of-reach object. One group of subjects observed a human demonstrator use the tool in one way, and another group observed a demonstrator use the tool in another way. Children in both cases did what the model did. Chimpanzee subjects, however, behaved identically in the 2 model conditions. Both groups performed better than subjects who saw no demonstration. This pattern of results suggest that the chimpanzees were paying attention to the general functional relations in the task and to the results obtained by the demonstrator but not to the actual methods of tool use demonstrated. Human children were focused on the demonstrator's actual methods of tool use (her behavior). The different social learning processes used by the 2 species have implications for their different forms of social organization.
Animals↗
Quantification of temperature and injury response in thermal therapy and cryosurgery.
Research on thermal therapy--the heating of pathological tissue using energy source (radiofrequency, microwave, high-intensity focused ultrasound, or laser energy)--and cryosurgery--the freezing of pathological tissue using either liquid or gaseous cryogens--can be classified into two broad categories: basic science and clinical application. The basic science of thermal therapy and cryosurgery is an interdisciplinary research field involving both biology and engineering. Studies from the perspective of biology mainly focus on determining the thermally induced injury mechanisms at the macromolecular, cellular, and tissue (in vitro and in vivo) levels. Studies from the engineering perspective emphasize how to measure and predict the thermal and injury behavior using engineering tools. This article will give a detailed overview of studies relevant to the basic science of thermal therapy and cryosurgery from both the biology and engineering points of view. This includes the experimental observations of cellular and vascular alterations during and after thermal therapy/cryosurgery and the quantification of thermal histories and corresponding injuries using mathematical models.
Animals↗
[Type A behavior pattern in Mexico: use of a new evaluation tool].
Evaluation of type A behavior pattern is a subject of research in Psychology and Medicine because of the associated coronary risk factor. This paper proposes an evaluation instrument to detect subjects with more or less type A related behaviors. The evaluation instrument was applied to a sample of 244 subjects in three different studies and there was a test retest application four years later. The instrument showed reliability and it is offered as a behavioral technology to aid in early diagnosis and prevention of coronary heart disease.
Adult↗
Assessment of treatment-associated changes in behavior and cholinergic therapy of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's disease affects multiple domains of human brain function and has neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, and neurologic manifestations. Behavioral changes should be assessed as part of a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of cholinergic treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The psychometric properties, origin, source of behavioral information, content, and administration requirements of tools used to assess behavior in Alzheimer's disease affect the type of information garnered and the conclusions that can be derived. Assessment of drug-related behavioral changes can be affected by spontaneous remission of neuropsychiatric symptoms, differing baseline severity of behavioral abnormalities, uncertain magnitude of expected treatment effects, and by the influence of disease stages, concurrent medications, and comorbid conditions. Cholinergic therapies ameliorate behavioral alteration in Alzheimer's disease, and changes in behavior should be monitored when such therapy is initiated.
Aged↗
Capuchin monkey tool use and Léon Croizat's ideas on the evolution of human behavior.
This note reviews Léon Croizat's ideas about the evolution of human behavior, based on his evaluation of the tool use capabilities of a capuchin monkey. Croizat theorized mainly on his orthogenetic view to explain such behavior. Interesting enough is the timeframe (1962) and context of his statement and the monkey's model used for such explanation. In this direction, some comments are provided considering the current knowledge of capuchin tool using and its potential implications for modeling hominid evolution.
Animals↗
Tool use, aye-ayes, and sensorimotor intelligence.
Humans, chimpanzees, capuchins and aye-ayes all display an unusually high degree of encephalization and diverse omnivorous extractive foraging. It has been suggested that the high degree of encephalization in aye-ayes may be the result of their diverse, omnivorous extractive foraging behaviors. In combination with certain forms of tool use, omnivorous extractive foraging has been hypothesized to be linked to higher levels of sensorimotor intelligence (stages 5 or 6). Although free-ranging aye-ayes have not been observed to use tools directly in the context of their extractive foraging activities, they have recently been reported to use lianas as tools in a manner that independently suggests that they may possess stage 5 or 6 sensorimotor intelligence. Although other primate species which display diverse, omnivorous extractive foraging have been tested for sensorimotor intelligence, aye-ayes have not. We report a test of captive aye-ayes' comprehension of tool use in a situation designed to simulate natural conditions. The results support the view that aye-ayes do not achieve stage 6 comprehension of tool use, but rather may use trial-and-error learning to develop tool-use behaviors. Other theories for aye-aye encephalization are considered.
Animals↗
Behavioral pattern profile: a tool for the description of behavior to be used in the genetics clinic.
Careful descriptions of dysmorphic features have led to the delineation of hundreds of specific syndromes and patterns of congenital anomalies. The defining of unusual behavior had largely been neglected by clinical geneticists until the study of the natural history of microdeletions revealed that each has unique and characteristic behavior(s). In this study, a simple tool to describe behavior is presented that is to be used in the genetics clinic as part of routine evaluation. The form is meant to simplify recording and does not require the formal training needed for psychological assessments. It is hoped that routine recording of behavior among individuals seen in the genetics clinic will lead to better recognition of unusual behavior among individuals with known conditions, as well as the recognition of conditions characterized only by unusual behavior. Better description of behavioral patterns should lead to the ascertainment of homogeneous groups of affected individuals with abnormalities in the functional pathways that generate patterns of reaction. The genetic and biochemical basis for these patterns of reaction (abnormal behavior) should then be available for both natural history and molecular studies. The tool consists of 12 categories of behavioral features that can be assessed by the medical geneticist. The list was built to allow the observation of as many behavioral aspects as possible, but to keep it to a practical size and to use those features that are simple to describe and quantitate. We expect that its use will produce a rich source of behavioral profiles and will eventually contribute to the better understanding of unusual behavior.
Behavior↗