Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “subordinate behavior”

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 1,441 records · Page 80Linked to original sources
PubMed2004

Inbreeding in the Seychelles warbler: environment-dependent maternal effects.

The deleterious effects of inbreeding can be substantial in wild populations and mechanisms to avoid such matings have evolved in many organisms. In situations where social mate choice is restricted, extrapair paternity may be a strategy used by females to avoid inbreeding and increase offspring heterozygosity. In the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis, neither social nor extrapair mate choice was used to avoid inbreeding facultatively, and close inbreeding occurred in approximately 5% of matings. However, a higher frequency of extra-group paternity may be selected for in female subordinates because this did reduce the frequency of mating between close relatives. Inbreeding resulted in reduced individual heterozygosity, which, against expectation, had an almost significant (P = 0.052), positive effect on survival. Conversely, low heterozygosity in the genetic mother was linked to reduced offspring survival, and the magnitude of this intergenerational inbreeding depression effect was environment-dependent. Because we controlled for genetic effects and most environmental effects (through the experimental cross-fostering of nestlings), we conclude that the reduced survival was a result of maternal effects. Our results show that inbreeding can have complicated effects even within a genetic bottlenecked population where the "purging" of recessive alleles is expected to reduce the effects of inbreeding depression.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Chronic psychosocial stress regulates the expression of both GR and MR mRNA in the hippocampal formation of tree shrews.

A persistent hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and thus elevated glucocorticoid levels are main neuroendocrine features of depressive symptomatology in humans. The broad range of effects that are set off by glucocorticoids is mediated by glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs), which themselves are subject to autoregulation. In order to investigate the impact of long-lasting psychological stress on corticosteroid receptor mRNA expression in the hippocampal formation, we employed the psychosocial stress paradigm in male tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri). By in situ hybridization studies and semiquantitative evaluation of stress-induced changes of GR and MR mRNA expression at the single-cell level, brain tissue from subordinate animals which were exposed to 27 days (1 h/day) of social confrontation was compared to that of nonstressed animals. Four weeks of stress exposure resulted in a downregulation of GR mRNA in the dentate gyrus and hippocampal subfields CA1 and CA3 of subordinate male tree shrews compared to controls. The MR mRNA content in these subfields of the anterior hippocampus was also clearly reduced. On the contrary, in a more posterior location on the longitudinal axis of the tree shrew hippocampus, the MR message was increased in subfields CA1 and CA3 and in the dentate gyrus. These results suggest a relevance of the stress-induced regulation of both corticosteroid receptor subtype mRNAs in a naturalistic challenging situation. Moreover, the differential regulation of MR mRNA along the rostrocaudal axis of the hippocampus adds another feature to the heterogenous composition of this structure.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

Homosexual and bisexual men's coping with the AIDS epidemic: qualitative interviews with 10 non-HIV-tested homosexual and bisexual men.

This paper describes how the threat of HIV infection is appraised and coped with by homosexual and bisexual men. Very little is known about men who do not want to be HIV tested, thus non-HIV-tested homosexual and bisexual men have been interviewed in depth about themes concerning their lives during the AIDS epidemic. Men with sexual risk behaviour appeared to be very reluctant to participate, and therefore six men with safe sexual behaviour and four men with unsafe sexual behaviour were interviewed. The results showed that all the men were well informed about AIDS and preventive measures. Reasons for not wanting a test were fear of psychological distress caused by a possible positive test and the fact that no treatment is available. The men who had adopted safe sex appraised their sex lives to have suffered a minor loss but found that sexuality played a subordinate role compared to trust and friendship. The men with risk behaviour considered sexuality to play an important role in their lives. They found condoms a barrier to intimacy and used defensive strategies to manage stress. Most of them were able to exchange social support with their network but had difficulties in setting their own limits. All four men had experienced undertreated traumatic events in their past. The results indicate that knowledge of AIDS and satisfactory social support do not necessarily result in safe sexual behaviour. The role of undertreated traumatic events forming barriers against adopting safe sexual practices should be further studied. Proposals are put forward for future health education programmes.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed2006

Social rank and response to the "male effect" in the Australian Cashmere goat.

The present study was conducted to determine if the social status of Australian Cashmere goats affects their response to the male effect in terms of LH secretion, ovulation and expression of estrus. Australian Cashmere goats were kept isolated from the males during 5 months. The index of success (SI) of each goat was calculated to establish their social rank. In the first experiment, the ten most dominant and the 10 most subordinate goats were separated from the original herd and housed in two pens (5 dominant and 5 subordinate animals in each pen). An androgenized wether was then introduced into each pen. Luteinizing hormone (LH) was measured every 20 min from 2h before to 4h after introduction of the male in the goats of first pen and from 4 to 8h after male introduction in the second pen. In the second experiment, the remaining 50 goats were exposed in their original pen to two androgenized wethers. Their association index with the males (AI) was calculated for each of these 50 goats, and the intervals from exposure to the males to the onset of estrus and to ovulation were determined. During the first 4h after male introduction, the dominant goats had more LH pulses (0.65+/-0.06 compared with 0.3+/-0.09; P<0.05) and greater LH mean concentrations (1.79+/-0.14 ng/ml compared with 1.30+/-0.15 ng/ml, P=0.05) than the subordinate animals. Although not significantly different, the AI was 35% greater for high and medium ranking goats than for low ranking animals (0.031+/-0.004, 0.032+/-0.005 and 0.023+/-0.005, respectively, P>0.05). Although the number of goats ovulating in response to male exposure was similar between dominance groups (high: 100%, medium: 94% and low ranking: 92%), the high and medium dominance goats showed a greater incidence of expression of estrus than low-dominance goats (94.4%, 89.5% and 53.8%, respectively, P<0.05). It is concluded that the social rank of the Australian Cashmere goat influences their response to the male effect in terms of early LH secretion and expression of estrus.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Non-specific effect of fear conditioning and specific effect of social defeat on social recognition memory performance in female rats.

The so called "emotion learning" literature describes the ability of distressing and aversive unconditioned stimuli to classically condition a learned avoidance response. In order to investigate the impact of experience with noxious stimuli in one conditioning context on learning and memory performance in a separate, non-aversively motivated task, juvenile recognition ability was examined in adult female rats exposed previously to one of two environmental stressors. In particular, experimental adult rats were either socially defeated by exposure to an aggressive conspecific rat or fear conditioned using single or multiple pairings with footshock prior to performance of the social recognition task. Experiment 1 established that repeated exposure to a single juvenile resulted in social memory formation reflected in decreased social investigation from the first to the second exposure. Experiment 2 documented that both single and multiple pairings of an environment with footshock produced robust freezing behavior (90-95% suppression of activity). In addition, fear conditioning produced a non-specific 5-60% increase in social investigation time in both single and multiple-pairing fear conditioned groups which confounded the ability of the social recognition measure to assess effects of fear conditioning on learning and memory performance per se. In contrast, Experiment 3 documented that when social recognition memory performance was impaired to 85% of control levels by imposition of a 2 h delay, exposure to a social defeat stressor reinstated optimal social recognition memory performance. These findings suggest that the after effects of fear conditioning include non-specific alteration of social investigation whereas exposure to conspecific aggression enhances subsequent social recognition memory.

Aggression↗
PubMed2004

A test of the generality of perceptually based categories found in infants: attentional differences toward natural kinds by New World monkeys.

A preference to novelty paradigm used to study human infants (Quinn, 2002) examined attention to novel animal pictures at subordinate, basic and superordinate levels in tamarins. First, pairs of pictures were presented in phases, starting with a monkey species (subordinate level) and ending with mammal and dinosaur sets (superordinate levels). After each phase, tests paired novel pictures from the familiarized set with a novel broader category. Look rates toward each picture were coded. Tamarins looked significantly longer at a novel species after being familiarized with a monkey species, a species-specific effect. Subjects attended equivalently to novel primate species after habituation to four monkey species, but looked significantly longer at pictures of mammals, marking a more global-level inclusion and exclusion. Superordinate testing revealed that more novel and diverse sets were differentiated attentionally. The evidence implies that natural categorical representation occurs at an attentional level in primates in ways similar to human infants, and is affected by recent exposure and category variability.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Shifts in a fish's resource holding power during a contact paired interaction: the influence of a copper-contaminated diet in rainbow trout.

The influence of sublethal chronic dietary copper (Cu) exposure on the dominant-subordinate relationship between pairs of juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) was examined. Fish were fed either a normal (11 mg Cu kg(-1) food) or Cu-contaminated (721 mg Cu kg(-1) food) diet for 8 wk. Paired interactions were observed--control versus control, Cu-exposed versus Cu-exposed, and control versus Cu-exposed fish--using a computer-aided video tracking system to measure duration of interactions, total distance moved, and the number of encounters during each contest. In concurrence with game theory, each interaction became escalated with a lesser size disparity between contestants. However, in Cu-exposed versus Cu-exposed fish interactions, the dominant-subordinate relationship was decided sooner and with less aggression than a control versus control fish interaction with fish of a similar relative body mass disparity. During control versus Cu-exposed fish interactions, control fish would normally dominate interactions (12 out of 16 bouts) unless the Cu-exposed fish had a 15% body mass advantage. Muscle glycogen and lactate levels after each contest reflected the duration of bouts and winners of the contests, irrespective of Cu exposure. We conclude that Cu-contaminated fish are less able to compete and have lower resource holding power than controls and will withdraw from a contest at a lower level of interaction, unless a size advantage in the Cu-exposed fish increases the probability of winning.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

Daughters on request: about helpers and egg sexes in the Seychelles warbler.

The Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) was an endangered endemic of the Seychelles islands where, until 1988, the entire population of ca. 320 birds was restricted to the one island of Cousin Island (29 ha). Additional breeding populations were successfully established on the islands of Aride (68 ha, 1988) and Cousine (26 ha, 1990) and now with the existence of ca. 2000 warblers on three islands the conservation status of the warbler has improved from endangered to vulnerable. Emigration from the island is extremely rare, so birds that disappeared were known to have died. Almost every bird on Cousin Island has been individually colour ringed and monitored throughout all breeding attempts during a 17-year period (1985-2002; total ca. 2400 birds). These birds were also blood sampled for molecular parentage and sex analyses. Therefore the lifetime reproductive success of many birds is known. Although warblers can breed independently in their first year, some individuals remain in their natal territory as subordinates, and often help by providing nourishment to non-descendant offspring. The frequency of 'helping' is affected by habitat saturation and variation in territory quality (insect prey availability). The long-term benefits of helping are higher for daughters than for sons, and it is therefore no wonder that most helpers are daughters from previous broods. Furthermore, on low-quality territories breeding pairs raising sons gain higher fitness benefits than by raising daughters, and vice versa on high-quality territories. Female breeders adaptively modify the sex of their single-egg clutches according to territory quality: male eggs on low quality and female eggs on high quality. The Seychelles warbler is a beautiful example of behavioural and life-history adaptations to restricted circumstances.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Leary's circle matrix: a comprehensive model for the statistical measurement of Horney's clinical concepts.

Three issues associated with the lack of statistical evaluation of Horney's theory were presented. They are the preference for professional and clinical impression over the use of more objective methods for defining and evaluating behaviors; the difficulty involved in validly assessing the dysfunctional nature of the expansive type; and the disregard of many objective scales for intrapsychic processes that should be viewed in terms of the total "organization of personality." Leary's model was described as a systematic and formal set of procedures that are relevant and appropriate to the measurement of behavior within the context of Horney's theory. Additionally, a current study was cited that used Leary's model with significant results pertaining to the statistical implications of Leary's procedures and the adaptation of the model to Horney's theory. It is clear that any theory which presumes to provide therapeutic treatment to clients in an ethical manner must be critiqued and evaluated to safeguard the welfare of its clients. However, it is a common practice to accept therapeutic concepts that are nestled in a defined model without testing them in a relatively objective manner. With the help of Leary's circle matrix and operational procedures, it is crucial that Horney's constructs be further submitted to empirical testing on a formal basis. The procedures have been available since 1957.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1985

Scent marking and mate choice in the golden hamster.

Test groups consisting of three males and one female were adapted to home areas within a 244 X 122 cm enclosure for a 4-day period. Subsequently, agonistic interactions and patterns of scent marking were recorded daily for 30 min over the duration of the female's 4-day estrous cycle. Alpha males flank marked significantly more than the two subordinates. The former accounted for over 95% of flank gland marking by males on the two days prior to the female's period of sexual receptivity. The female showed increased frequencies of both flank gland and vaginal marking over the three nonreceptive days of the cycle with the highest frequency of marking occurring 24 hr prior to sexual receptivity. During the two days prior to receptivity, the female both vaginal marked and flank marked significantly more in and about the home area of the alpha male. We conclude that the female hamster shows mate choice prior to the onset of sexual receptivity and that both vaginal marks and flank marks are employed to facilitate mating with the alpha male.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Constraint and competition in assemblages: a cross-continental and modeling approach for ants.

The mechanisms leading to structure in local assemblages are controversial. On the one hand, assemblage structure is thought to be the outcome of local interactions determined by the properties of species and their responses to the local environment. Alternatively, this structure has been shown to be an emergent property of assemblages of identical individuals or of random sampling of a regional assemblage. In ants at baits, a combination of environmental stress and interspecific competition is widely held to lead to a unimodal relationship between the abundance of dominant ants and species richness. It is thought that in comparatively adverse environments, both abundance and richness are low. As habitats become more favorable, abundance increases until the abundance of dominant ants is so high that they exclude those that are subordinate and so depress richness. Here we demonstrate empirically that this relationship is remarkably similar across three continents. Using a null model approach, we then show that the ascending part of the relationship is largely constrained to take this form not simply as a consequence of stress but also as a result of the shape of abundance frequency distributions. While the form of the species-abundance frequency distribution can also produce the descending part of the relationship, interspecific competition might lead to it too. Scatter about the relationship, which is generally not discussed in the literature, may well be a consequence of resource availability and environmental patchiness. Our results draw attention to the significance of regional processes in structuring ant assemblages.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Knowledge acquired and decisions made: triadic interactions during allogrooming in wild bonnet macaques, Macaca radiata.

The pressures of developing and maintaining intricate social relationships may have led to the evolution of enhanced cognitive abilities in many nonhuman primates. Knowledge of the dominance ranks and social relationships of other individuals, in particular, is important in evaluating one's position in the rank hierarchy and affiliative networks. Triadic interactions offer an excellent opportunity to examine whether decisions are taken by individuals on the basis of such knowledge. Allogrooming supplants among wild female bonnet macaques (macaca radiata) usually involved the subordinate female of a grooming dyad retreating at the approach of a female dominant to both members of the dyad. In a few exceptional cases, however, the dominant member of the dyad retreated; simple non-cognitive hypotheses involving dyadic rank differences and agonistic relationships failed to explain this phenomenon. Instead, retreat by the dominant individual was positively correlated with the social attractiveness of her subordinate companion (as measured by the duration of grooming received by the latter from other females in the troop). This suggests that not only does an individual evaluate relationships among other females, but does so on the basis of the amount of grooming received by them. Similarly, the frequency of approaches received by any female was correlated with her social attractiveness when she was the dominant member of the dyad, but not when she was the subordinate. This indicated that approaching females might be aware of the relative dominance ranks of the two allogrooming individuals. In logistic regression analyses, the probability of any individual retreating was found to be influenced more by her knowledge of her rank difference with both the other interactants, rather than by their absolute ranks. Moreover, information about social attractiveness appeared to be used in terms of correlated dominance ranks. The nature of knowledge acquired by bonnet macaque females may thus be egotistical in that other individuals are evaluated relative to oneself, integrative in that information about all other interactants is used simultaneously, and hierarchical in the ability to preferentially use certain categories of knowledge for the storage of related information from other domains.

Aggression↗
PubMed1992

Environmental and social determinants of sexual function in the male lesser mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus).

Environmental factors that regulate the sexual activity of male lesser mouse lemurs have been studied experimentally with more than 60 captive animals over an 8-year period. In this nocturnal Malagasy prosimian, variation in day length is the primary factor controlling seasonal sexual activity. Plasma testosterone concentrations were low (= 9 ng/ml) during short days and reached 60 ng/ml during long days (> 12-hour day). This cyclic pattern persists unchanged when artificial photoperiodic rhythms are applied and is not altered by ageing. The timing of puberty is also regulated by photoperiodic changes. Nevertheless, the sexual activity of the male lesser mouse lemur can be dramatically modified by the social environment. In heterosexual groups, behavioural and physiological components of sexual activity are depressed in all males except the dominant one, whose aggressive interactions are always successful. Intermale sexual inhibition was shown to be mediated by chemical cues present in the urine of dominant or isolated males but not in urine of subordinate individuals. The inhibitory signals possess lipophilic properties and are not contingent on the gonadal activity of the urine donor but are linked to adrenocortical activity. By contrast, chemical signals stimulating the reproductive function of all males are found in the urine of females, the presence of which is required for the establishment of clear dominance among grouped males. Endocrine mechanisms underlying intermale sexual inhibition by chemical cues were analysed. Variations in prolactin strongly suggest that olfaction interacts with the photoperiodic regulation of reproductive function, leading to changes in the sensitivity of the negative feedback effect of testosterone on gonadotrophin secretion. Inhibitory or stimulatory effects of chemical signals are discussed in the context of their functional significance for wild populations.

Aggression↗
PubMed2001

An interpersonal analysis of Rorschach aggression variables in a normal sample.

This study investigated the relationship between Rorschach aggression variables and a self-report measure of interpersonal control and aggression (Structural Analysis of Social Behavior), rated for best and worst states, with 50 college students using forward stepwise regression analyses. Aggressive Movement (AG) was related to the report of self-attack for the best state ratings. The following findings were significant for the worst state ratings. AG was related to viewing the other as reacting as if attacked but the self as acting more affiliatively to the other. Aggressive Past (AgPast) was related to reacting to the other more submissively. A combined Aggressive Potential (AgPot)/Aggressive Content (AgC) variable was related to viewing the other as reacting less submissively and acting more dominantly. AgC was related to viewing the other as reacting less submissively. Methodological limitations are discussed, including potential problems regarding social desirability for the self-report aggression measure.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Kinematic and electromyographic changes that occur as a function of learning a time-constrained aiming task.

The present study attempted to examine the changes associated with learning two time-constrained aiming movements at the neuromuscular and behavioral levels of analysis. Electromyographic data and movement kinematics were used to assess changes due to practice. Eight right-handed females were required to perform a 45 degrees horizontal forearm extension in either 200 ms or 500 ms for 100 trials on each of four consecutive days. Both groups demonstrated an improvement in performance and a decrease in within-subject variability in the endpoint response measures, movement trajectory, and myoelectric pattern. With practice, there was a decrease in the amount of cocontraction between the agonist and antagonist muscles during movement execution, which indicated an elimination of unwanted neural activity. For the 200 ms task, the acceleration profile became symmetrical and triphasic myoelectric pattern became evident. The deceleratory phase of the 500 ms task was longer than the acceleratory phase, and a biphasic pattern became apparent. The results suggest that two different control strategies were developed in the execution of the two movements examined. In addition, the relative invariance of the spatial-temporal dependent measures, as compared to the variability of the EMG, led us tot he conclusion that the movement planning hierarchy was concerned with the spatial-temporal domain, whereas the amplitude and timing of muscular activity were planned at a lower level and thus played a subordinate role in movement production.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1993

Response to removal from and return to a social group in adult male rhesus monkeys.

The removal of four adult rhesus monkeys from a large social group (n = 85) to peer housing resulted in no significant changes in basal cortisol levels or absolute numbers of T lymphocyte subsets 24 h later. However, the return of these males 1 year later to the same social group resulted in significant increases in cortisol levels (66 +/- 21%) and significant decreases in T-helper (-31.6 +/- 15.8%) and T-suppressor cells (-35.2 +/- 8.7%) 24 h later. Blood samples for immune and cortisol measurements were obtained before and 24 h following both the removal and the return 1 year later. Aggressive and sexual behavioral data were recorded on audiotape for 3.5 h following the reintroduction using an all occurrences of some behaviors sampling technique. Analyses revealed a negative correlation between percent change from baseline in T-helper cells 24 h following the return and the frequency of bites (nonwounding) and chases received during the 3.5 h following the return. The absence of a stress response to separation in adult males is in contrast to the presence of a stress response observed in infants, juveniles, and adult females and possibly is due to sex differences in group attachment in sexually mature males. On the other hand, the return to the social group did induce a psychosocial stress response in the males, and the degrees of the stress, as determined by cortisol and immune cell measures, was related to the agonistic interactions experienced by the individuals.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

'Personality' and anorexia nervosa - the phobic avoidance stance. Its origins and its symptomatology.

Experience and behaviour in anorexia nervosa is subordinate to the need to achieve and maintain a low body weight in the presence of the impulse, generated by starvation, to forage and ingest, and moreover in the presence of abundant food supplies. The stance is a phobic avoidance one. Normal adult body weight and attendant post-pubertal 'fatness' is feared and avoided through the process of pubertal regression, facilitated primarily by dietary carbohydrate (and fat) avoidance, but otherwise and less effectively by the vomiting/purging syndrome. The maintenance of this stance requires a total commitment of self-control and control of the environment - which are experienced by others as a primary narcissism within the 'patient' and as a tyrannical manipulative attitude to those others.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Testosterone, cuckoldry risk and extra-pair opportunities in the Seychelles warbler.

In male birds, testosterone (T) plays an important role in aggressive and mate-attraction behaviour. In the cooperatively breeding Seychelles warbler, Acrocephalus sechellensis, extra-group copulations (EGCs) occur frequently, but are not accompanied by sexual courtship displays as in within-pair copulations. Paternity is nearly always gained by primary males. We investigated whether T levels and sperm storage capability (cloacal protuberance (CP)) in adult primary and subordinate males were related to timing of egg laying, levels of cuckoldry and extra-group paternity (EGP) opportunities. During the sexually active period before egg laying, T levels and CP were only elevated or enlarged (respectively) in primary males, and some suggestion was found that subordinate males do not invest in elevated T levels. The peak in T occurred during the fertile period of the female partner and corresponded to the peak period of male sexual displays and mate guarding, but was independent of cuckoldry risk (density of neighbouring primary males). CP was also enhanced during this period; however, CP but not T remained elevated after egg laying by their mates, and CP but not T was positively related to EGP opportunities (density of neighbouring fertile females). We conclude that T is involved in sexual courtship displays and mate guarding, but not in gaining EGCs. These findings contrast with those in other species where EGP involves elaborate sexual displays.

Age Factors↗