Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Behavior Control”

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 1,297 records · Page 72Linked to original sources
PubMed1994

Self-control across species (Columba livia, Homo sapiens, and Rattus norvegicus).

Data from six previous studies of self-control behavior were compared against predictions made by the matching law and by molar maximization. The studies involved pigeons (Columba livia), rats (Rattus norvegicus), and 3-year-old, 5-year-old, and adult humans (Homo sapiens) who had received food as the reinforcer, and adult humans who had received points exchangeable for money as the reinforcer. Neither theory proved to be an accurate or better predictor for all groups. In contrast to the predictions of these theories, self-control was shown to vary according to species, human age group, and reinforcer quality. When the reinforcer was food, the self-control of different species was found to be negatively correlated with metabolic rate; that is, larger species showed greater self-control. These results suggest that allometric scaling may prove useful in describing and predicting species differences in self-control.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Utility of the theory of planned behavior for understanding exercise during breast cancer treatment.

Preliminary evidence indicates that physical exercise may be an effective strategy for helping cancer patients cope with the negative side-effects of their treatment. The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of the theory of planned behavior in understanding cancer patients' motivation to exercise during treatment. A total of 164 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer within the previous 2 years participated in the study. A retrospective design was used wherein these women were asked to recall their beliefs and exercise behavior during cancer treatment using a self-administered, mailed questionnaire. Results showed that: (1) the salient beliefs of breast cancer patients concerning exercise were different from those of the healthy population; (2) intention and perceived behavioral control were significant determinants of exercise during cancer treatment; and, (3) attitude and subjective norm were significant determinants of intention. It was concluded that the theory of planned behavior may be a viable framework on which to base interventions designed to promote exercise during cancer treatment. The results of this study are preliminary, however, and more sophisticated research designs to examine this question are warranted.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

Excitotoxic amino acid injections into the medial amygdala facilitate maternal behavior in virgin female rats.

The inhibitory role of the medial amygdala (MA) in maternal behavior control was explored. Injections of N-methyl-D,L-aspartic acid (NMA), an excitotoxic amino acid, into the MA resulted in a dramatic facilitation of maternal behavior in virgin female rats when pups were presented to them 12 days following the injections. This effect was specific to MA in that NMA injections into the basolateral amygdala were ineffective. The facilitatory effect of NMA injections into MA was found to be hormone dependent in that ovariectomies abolished the effect. Subsequent experiments provided evidence that NMA injections into MA induced a pseudopregnant state lasting about 13 days, and that maternal behavior was greatly facilitated only when pups were presented to such females coincident with pseudopregnancy termination. When pups were presented 24 days following injections of NMA into MA, rather than 12 days, only a modest facilitation of maternal behavior was observed. It was concluded that NMA injections into MA influence maternal behavior in two ways: By inducing an hormonal state stimulatory for maternal behavior and by removing neural inhibition over maternal behavior.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1997

Autonomic and vasomotor regulation.

The cerebellum not only modulates the systemic circulation, but also profoundly influences cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and metabolism (rCGU), and initiates long-term protection of the brain from ischemia. Electrical stimulation of the rostral ventral pole of the fastigial nucleus (FN), elevates arterial pressure (AP), releases vasoactive hormones, elicits consummatory behavioral and other autonomic events and site specifically elevates rCBF independently of changes in rCGU. Cerebral vasodilation results from the antidromic excitation of axons of brain stem neurons which innervate cerebellum and, through their collaterals, neurons in the rostral ventrolateral reticular nucleus (RVL). RVL neurons initiate cerebral vasodilation over polysynaptic vasodilator pathways which engage a population of vasodilator neurons in the cerebral cortex. In contrast, intrinsic neurons of FN, when excited, elicit widespread reductions in rCGU and, secondarily, rCBF, along with sympathetic inhibition. Electrical stimulation of FN can reduce the volume of a focal cerebral infarction produced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery by 50%. This central neurogenic neuroprotection is long lasting (weeks) and is not due to changes in rCBF or rCGU. Rather, it appears to reflect alterations in neuronal excitability and/or downregulation of inflammatory responses in cerebral vessels. The FN, therefore, appears to be involved in widespread autonomic, metabolic, and behavioral control, independent of motor control. The findings imply that the FN receives inputs from neurons, probably widely represented in the central autonomic core, which may provide continuing information processing of autonomic and behavioral states. The cerebellum may also widely modulate the state of cortical reactivity to ischemia, hypoxia, and possibly other neurodegenerative events.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Information in the behavior stream.

The dynamic of a series of responses for four pigeons is analyzed using a discrete fast Fourier transform (FFT) and a measure of behavior's predictability. FFTs of moment-to-moment response rates reliably exhibited a continuous distribution for three of the four birds, with most of the power falling in the low frequencies-red noise. An information analysis of the predictability of a series of inter-response times (IRTs) reveals that there is some gain in prediction by knowing past behavior; moreover, predictability increases the more past behaviors are taken into account. However, the further into the future these predictions are extended, the less reliable they become-entropy. These findings suggest that the dynamic controlling behavior at the level of the individual response is, to some extent, deterministic and probably chaotic.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1979

Comparison of established and innovative weight-reduction treatment procedures.

A central component of a commonly used weight-loss procedure developed by Stuart (1967), which emphasizes situational engineering (SE), was compared to eating behavior control (EBC), a treatment employing reinforcement of changes in eating habits. A third treatment encouraged development of individuals' own applications of a model of self-control and attempted to provide effective feedback regarding progress toward weight-loss goals. This self-initiated treatment (SI) was designed to be less directive than many behavioral treatment packages and to be more realistic about the expectations of subjects and the actual eating habits of overweight and normalweight people. Following baseline, treatment lasted six weeks and followup lasted 16 weeks. While all treatments produced weight losses, EBC surpassed SE during treatment. SI losses during treatment did not differ from SE or EBC, but SI was the only group that lost weight throughout followup, indicating the possible utility of more subtle, less directive interventions than those that have often been associated with behavioral approaches. The results of SE question the applicability to clinical procedures of the external cue hypersensitivity theory of obesity (Schachter and Rodin, 1974), to which SE is closely related.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2002

Effortful control: factor structure and relation to externalizing and internalizing behaviors.

Effortful control, a temperamentally based ability to inhibit a dominant response and activate a subdominant response, was assessed on 3 occasions using a comprehensive, age-appropriate behavioral battery in this 4-year longitudinal study of children (N = 103) from toddlerhood to early school age. The focus was twofold: to explore the structure of effortful control in a normally developing sample and to examine the relations between effortful control and adaptive functioning. Exploratory factor analyses supported the contention that effortful control is a complex, multidimensional construct with longitudinally stable factors. Effortful control was also significantly associated with mother-reported total behavior problems in a nonlinear fashion, with lower and higher levels of effortful control contributing to higher total problem scores. These findings have implications for the assessment of temperament in children and, most importantly, for the study of nonlinear contributions of temperament to early childhood behaviors.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The insect frontal ganglion and stomatogastric pattern generator networks.

Insect neural networks have been widely and successfully employed as model systems in the study of the neural basis of behavior. The insect frontal ganglion is a principal part of the stomatogastric nervous system and is found in most insect orders. The frontal ganglion constitutes a major source of innervation to foregut muscles and plays a key role in the control of foregut movements. Following a brief description of the anatomy and development of the system in different insect groups, this review presents the current knowledge of the way neural networks in the insect frontal ganglion generate and control behavior. The frontal ganglion is instrumental in two distinct and fundamental insect behaviors: feeding and molting. Central pattern-generating circuit(s) within the frontal ganglion generates foregut rhythmic motor patterns. The frontal ganglion networks can be modulated in-vitro by several neuromodulators to generate a variety of motor outputs. Chemical modulation as well as sensory input from the gut and input from other neural centers enable the frontal ganglion to induce foregut rhythmic patterns under different physiological conditions. Frontal ganglion neurons themselves are also an important source of neurosecretion. The neurosecretory material from the frontal ganglion can control and modulate motor patterns of muscles of the alimentary canal. The current and potential future importance of the insect stomatogastric nervous system and frontal ganglion in the study of the neural mechanisms of behavior are discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Behavioral precursors to accidents and resulting physical impairment.

The main goal of the study was to determine, within a model of emotional and behavioral regulation, if there are developmental precursors to accidents and resulting physical impairment. Data collected at ages 8 and 14 with 147 males and 142 females using peer nomination and teacher rating were related to the number of types of accidents the subjects had been in and impairment as a result of an accident by the age of 27 when the subjects were interviewed on their health. The results showed that 44% of the men and 14% of the women had been in an accident. Severe effects on health were obtained for 19% of the men and 5% of the women. Accidents and impairment were most frequent among individuals whose behavior had been characterized by low emotional and behavioral control. The most generalized predictor of accidents and impairment was noncompliance in childhood. In adulthood, heavy drinking increased the risk of accidents. Aggression and conduct problems were the most significant precursors to male impairment, although several subgroups of men who were impaired were found. For females, the predictions of accidents and impairment were less accurate than for males.

Accident Proneness↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of limited paternal exposure to xenobiotic agents on the development of progeny.

This report represents a series of investigations of the postnatal functional sequelae of paternal exposure to opioids and other xenobiotic agents. In separate studies, young adult male mice were exposed to (1) morphine; (2) levorphanol or its nonanalgesic isomer dextrorphan; or (3) 80% nitrous oxide/20% oxygen. Males (5-8/group) were injected twice daily for 5 1/2 or 8 1/2 days with opioids or saline, or received a single 4 hour inhalation exposure to nitrous oxide/oxygen or compressed air. At 6-8 1/2 days post-treatment, each male was housed with 3 drug-naive nulliparous females. With the exception of birth weights of litters, no alterations in reproductive indices were observed. Changes in reproductive endocrine parameters included marked attenuation of serum luteinizing hormone response to castration in both young adult (8 week) and older (18 week) F1 morphine offspring, when compared with saline-derived groups. The morphine progeny showed decrements in body weight and delayed onset of maturational indices through four generations of selective inbreeding. Similar developmental delays occurred in F1 offspring originating from paternal levorphanol, dextrorphan and nitrous oxide groups, when compared with their respective controls. Behavioral study of F1 offspring revealed alterations in: water maze performance and learning, if preceded by unavoidable footshock, in morphine offspring at 8 and 18 weeks; aberrant swim patterns in both levorphanol and dextrorphan progeny at 6 1/2 and 8 1/2 weeks. Nitrous oxide progeny showed a blunting of hypothermic response to pharmacologic challenge at 16 weeks, in comparison to compressed air controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed2006

A cognitive neuroscience perspective on psychopathy: evidence for paralimbic system dysfunction.

Psychopathy is a complex personality disorder that includes interpersonal and affective traits such as glibness, lack of empathy, guilt or remorse, shallow affect, and irresponsibility, and behavioral characteristics such as impulsivity, poor behavioral control, and promiscuity. Much is known about the assessment of psychopathy; however, relatively little is understood about the relevant brain disturbances. The present review integrates data from studies of behavioral and cognitive changes associated with focal brain lesions or insults and results from psychophysiology, cognitive psychology and cognitive and affective neuroscience in health and psychopathy. The review illustrates that the brain regions implicated in psychopathy include the orbital frontal cortex, insula, anterior and posterior cingulate, amygdala, parahippocampal gyrus, and anterior superior temporal gyrus. The relevant functional neuroanatomy of psychopathy thus includes limbic and paralimbic structures that may be collectively termed 'the paralimbic system'. The paralimbic system dysfunction model of psychopathy is discussed as it relates to the extant literature on psychopathy.

Affect↗
PubMed1991

Independent associations of educational attainment and ethnicity with behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The authors examined the independent associations of educational attainment and ethnicity with behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular disease using data from the 1989 baseline survey for the New York State Healthy Heart Program. This telephone survey used the Centers for Disease Control Behavioral Risk Factor Survey interview instrument and was conducted in eight communities (total population, approximately 1.24 million people) in New York State. The response rate was 65.5% (n = 4,179); 3,606 subjects aged 20-64 years with self-described ethnicity of white (n = 1,935), black (n = 1,035), or Hispanic (n = 636) and of known educational status were retained in the analysis. After adjustment for age, sex, and ethnicity, significant associations were found between educational attainment and smoking, lack of regular exercise, overweight, diet atherogenicity, and knowledge about blood pressure and cholesterol. After adjustment for age, sex, and educational attainment, associations were found between ethnicity and most of these same variables. Blacks and Hispanics generally had less favorable risk factor profiles. These data indicate that the differences in cardiovascular disease risk profiles between whites and blacks or Hispanics cannot be fully explained by underlying differences in educational attainment. The differing patterns of risk factor distribution by educational attainment within ethnic groups have implications for the segmentation of risk reduction programs.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Chronic behavioral disorders of human REM sleep: a new category of parasomnia.

Four men, aged 67-72 years, had 4-month to 6-year histories of injuring themselves or their spouses with aggressive behaviors during sleep, often during attempted dream enactment. A 60-year-old woman had disruptive though nonviolent sleep and dream behaviors. Polysomnography did not detect seizures but did document REM sleep pathology with variable loss of chin atonia, extraordinarily increased limb-twitch activity, and increased REM ocular activity and density. A broad range of REM sleep behaviors was recorded on videotape, including stereotypical hand motions, reaching and searching gestures, punches, kicks, and verified dream movements. Stage 3-4 slow wave sleep was elevated for age in all patients. NREM sleep was devoid of harmful behaviors, although three men had periodic myoclonus. There was no associated psychiatric disorder, whereas serious neurologic disorder was closely associated in four cases: olivo-ponto-cerebellar degeneration, Guillain-Barré syndrome, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and an atypical dementia. Two patients had immediate and lasting sleep behavioral suppression induced by clonazepam, and another patient had the same response with desipramine. All instances of drug discontinuation prompted immediate relapse. In four cases there was associated dream hyperactivity, which resolved with behavioral control. These REM sleep neurobehavioral disorders constitute another category of parasomnia, replicate findings from 21 years ago in cats receiving pontine tegmental lesions, and offer additional perspectives on human behavior, neurophysiology, pharmacology, and dream phenomenology.

Aged↗
PubMed1999

Scaling and percolation in the small-world network model.

In this paper we study the small-world network model of Watts and Strogatz, which mimics some aspects of the structure of networks of social interactions. We argue that there is one nontrivial length-scale in the model, analogous to the correlation length in other systems, which is well-defined in the limit of infinite system size and which diverges continuously as the randomness in the network tends to zero, giving a normal critical point in this limit. This length-scale governs the crossover from large- to small-world behavior in the model, as well as the number of vertices in a neighborhood of given radius on the network. We derive the value of the single critical exponent controlling behavior in the critical region and the finite size scaling form for the average vertex-vertex distance on the network, and, using series expansion and Padé approximants, find an approximate analytic form for the scaling function. We calculate the effective dimension of small-world graphs and show that this dimension varies as a function of the length-scale on which it is measured, in a manner reminiscent of multifractals. We also study the problem of site percolation on small-world networks as a simple model of disease propagation, and derive an approximate expression for the percolation probability at which a giant component of connected vertices first forms (in epidemiological terms, the point at which an epidemic occurs). The typical cluster radius satisfies the expected finite size scaling form with a cluster size exponent close to that for a random graph. All our analytic results are confirmed by extensive numerical simulations of the model.

Disease Outbreaks↗
PubMed1988

Effects of scopolamine on repeated acquisition of radial-arm maze performance by rats.

Rats repeatedly acquired the performance of selecting only the four baited arms in an automated eight-arm radial maze, with the arms containing food pellets randomly assigned prior to each session. During each 14-trial (trial: obtain all four pellets) daily session, the number of errors (selecting nonbaited arms or repeating arm selections) showed a within-session decline, and choice accuracy for the first four arm selections showed a positive acceleration across trials for all rats. An index-of-curvature statistic, calculated for total errors, was used to quantify both the within- and between-session improvement of performance. Scopolamine (0.03 to 0.3 mg/kg, ip), but not methylscopolamine (0.3 mg/kg), reduced the accuracy of the first four selections of each trial and increased total within-session errors for all rats. Session times also were increased by scopolamine. An examination of within-session accuracy showed only slight signs of improvement at the higher dosages of scopolamine. The results indicate that behavior in transition states maintained by reinforcement contingencies in the radial maze is similar to that maintained by extended chained schedules, despite the fact that some of the stimuli controlling behavior in the maze are absent at the moment behavior is emitted.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Genetic selection for novelty-induced rearing behavior in mice produces changes in hippocampal mossy fiber distributions.

Previous investigations in mice revealed the existence of a set of genes that influence variations in hippocampal anatomy as well as variations in behavioral responses to novelty. In particular, a positive genetic correlation was found between the size of the intra- and infrapyramidal mossy fiber (iip-MF) projection and rearing frequency in an open-field. On the basis of these findings, we hypothesized that genetic selection for rearing would entail correlated changes in hippocampal morphology. This was tested in the inbred selection lines SRH (selection for rearing: high) and SRL (selection for rearing: low). As expected, the SRH mice appeared to possess iip-MF terminal fields that were larger than those of the SRL mice. Because the behavioral difference between the two lines is most probably caused by a single genetic unit, these animals represent valuable material for molecular-genetic investigations into the mechanisms that control behavioral and neuroanatomical variation.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Heterosexual, autosexual and social behavior of adult male rhesus monkeys with medial preoptic-anterior hypothalamic lesions.

Bilateral radiofrequency lesions were made in the medial preoptic-anterior hypothalamic (MP-AH) area of 6 adult male rhesus monkeys; 5 sham-lesioned subjects served as controls. Behavioral analysis consisted of observations on copulatory behavior, yawning, masturbation and some aspects of social behavior. MP-AH lesions reduced or completely eliminated the display of manual contacts of the partner, mounts, intromissions and ejaculations without interfering with masturbation. Yawning, a sexually dimorphic behavior, was not affected either, Measure of several social behaviors indicated no evidence of social withdrawal or other aberrance of social interactions, which might have led to the decline in heterosexual behavior. The results with regard to copulatory behavior were consistent with the effects of MP-AH lesions in rats, cats and dogs. In rhesus monkeys it appears as though the MP-AH region is specifically involved in the mediation of heterosexual copulation and is not vital to the performance of other forms of male sexual activity such as masturbation. Also the MP-AH is not critical for the display of all sexually dimorphic behaviors. The types of behavioral change in MP-AH lesioned subjects differed to some extent from those following castration, indicating that the effects of the lesions cannot be explained as basically that of functional castration.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessment of disordered eating in females: instrument validation.

The purpose of this study was to validate an instrument capable of assessing 10 dimensions related to disordered eating and weight control behaviors. All subjects were female and ranged in age from 14 to 40. Of these females 68 were bulimics, 12 were compulsive eaters, and 24 eating disorders. The Disordered Eating and Weight Control Instrument (DEWCI) was administered. Differences between the groups were investigated by constructing three dummy variables contrasting the groups, correlating the scales with the dummy variables, and determining which correlations were significant. Eight of the DEWCI scales significantly (p less than .005) differentiated between the three groups. This instrument may therefore have utility for use with female populations.

Adult↗