bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition最新文献

{"title":"Odd prey in mixed species groups suffer fewer attacks than lone individuals","authors":"Akanksha Shah, Mike M Webster","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.02.610765","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.02.610765","url":null,"abstract":"Mixed-species groups are common in nature. Such groups are characterised by the presence of one or more majority species, and smaller numbers of minority species. Minority individuals are expected to be subject to oddity effects; by looking or behaving differently to majority members they should be disproportionately targeted by predators. Given this, why might minority species remain in mixed-species groups? To address this question, we used threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as predators and two species of virtual prey presented via videos. We compared predator attacks on solitary prey, and odd and majority grouped prey individuals in groups of different sizes. We found that solitary prey were attacked significantly more than odd and majority grouped prey, while, in fact, odd and majority grouped prey did not differ from each other in terms of attacks received. We also found that prey in smaller groups suffered significantly more attacks than prey in larger groups. These findings provide no evidence for oddity effects but suggest evidence of a confusion effect. Natural mixed-species groups persist for various reasons, for example as foraging guilds, or because some members take advantage of more effective vigilance or alarm calls of others. We suggest, based on these findings, an additional non-mutually exclusive reason; under some circumstances, odd individuals might join larger heterospecific groups because any costs of being odd are greatly outweighed by the predation risk costs of remaining alone.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vision is not olfaction: impact on the insect Mushroom Bodies connectivity","authors":"Florent Le Moël, Antoine Wystrach","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.31.610627","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.31.610627","url":null,"abstract":"The Mushroom Bodies, a prominent and evolutionary conserved structure of the insect brain, are known to be the support of olfactory memory. There is now evidence that this structure is also required for visual learning, but the hypotheses about how the view memories are encoded are still largely based on what is known of the encoding of olfactory information. The different processing steps happening along the several relays before the Mushroom Bodies is still unclear, and how the visual memories actually may allow navigation is entirely unknown. Existing models of visual learning in the Mushroom Bodies quickly fall short when used in a navigational context. We discuss how the visual world differs from the olfactory world and what processing steps are likely needed in order to form memories useful for navigation, and demonstrate it using a computational model of the Mushroom Bodies embedded in an agent moving in through a virtual 3D world.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"114 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142226686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Metacognition in Putative Magno- and Parvocellular Vision","authors":"April Pilipenko, Jason Samaha, Vrishab Nukala, Jessica De La Torre","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.31.610587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.31.610587","url":null,"abstract":"A major distinction in early visual processing is the magnocellular (MC) and parvocellular (PC) pathways. The MC pathway preferentially processes motion, transient events, and low spatial frequencies, while the PC pathway preferentially processes color, sustained events, and high spatial frequencies. Prior work has theorized that the PC pathway more strongly contributes to conscious object recognition via projections to the ventral \"what\" visual pathway, whereas the MC pathway underlies non-conscious, action-oriented motion and localization processing via the dorsal stream \"where/how\" pathway. This invites the question: Are we equally aware of activity in both pathways? And if not, do task demands interact with which pathway is more accessible to awareness? We investigated this question in a set of two studies measuring participant's metacognition for stimuli biased towards MC or PC processing. The \"Steady/Pulsed Paradigm\" presents brief stimuli under two conditions thought to favor either pathway. In the \"pulsed\" condition, the target appears atop a strong luminance pedestal which theoretically saturates the transient MC response and leaves the PC pathway to process the stimulus. In the \"steady\" condition, the stimulus is identical except the luminance pedestal is constant throughout the trial, rather than flashed alongside the target. This theoretically adapts the PC neurons and leaves MC for processing. Experiment 1 was a spatial localization task thought to rely on information relayed from the MC pathway. Using both a model-based and model-free approach to quantify participants' metacognitive sensitivity to their own task performance, we found greater metacognition in the steady (MC-biased) condition. Experiment 2 was a fine-grained orientation-discrimination task more reliant on PC pathway information. Our results show an abolishment of the MC pathway advantage seen in Experiment 1 and suggest that the metacognitive advantage for MC processing may hold for stimulus localization tasks only. More generally, our results highlight the need to consider the possibility of differential access to low-level stimulus properties in studies of visual metacognition.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"256 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Architectural immunity: ants alter their nest networks to prevent epidemics","authors":"Luke Leckie, Mischa Sinha Andon, Katherine Bruce, Nathalie Stroeymeyt","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.30.610481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.30.610481","url":null,"abstract":"In animal groups, spatial heterogeneities shape social contact networks, thereby influencing the transmission of infectious diseases. Active modifications to the spatial environment could thus be a potent tool to mitigate epidemic risk. We tested whether Lasius niger ants modify their nest architecture in response to pathogens by introducing control- or pathogen-treated individuals into nest-digging groups, and monitoring three-dimensional nest morphogenesis over time. Pathogen exposure led to an array of architectural changes including faster nest growth, increased spacing between entrances, transmission-inhibitory changes in overall nest network topology, and reduced chamber centrality. Simulations confirmed that these changes reduced disease spread. These results provide evidence for architectural immunity in a social animal and offer insights into how spatial organisation can be leveraged to decrease epidemic susceptibility.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"58 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Novel method to assess group dynamics in rats reveals deficits in behavioral contagion in KM rats","authors":"Kirill Smirnov, Ilya Starkov, Olga Sysoeva, Inna Midzyanovskaya","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.30.610455","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.30.610455","url":null,"abstract":"Behavioral copying is a key process in group actions, but it is challenging for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We investigated behavioral contagion, or instinctual replication of behaviors, in Krushinky-Molodkina (KM) rats (n=16), a new rodent model for ASD, compared to control Wistar rats (n=15). A randomly chosen healthy Wistar male (\"demonstrator rat\") was introduced to the homecage of experimental rats (\"observers\") 10-14 days before the experiments to become a member of the group. For the implementation of the behavioral contagion experiment, we used the IntelliCage system, where rats can live in a group of 5-6 rats and their water visits can be fully controlled. During the experiment, the demonstrator was taken out of IntelliCage for 24 hours of water deprivation and then placed back. As a result, a drinking behavior of the water-deprived demonstrator rat prompted activated behaviors in the whole group. Unlike the Wistar controls, KM observers showed fewer visits to the drinking bottles, particularly lacking inspection visits. The control group, in contrast, exhibited a dynamic, cascade-like visiting of the water corners. The proportion of activated observers in KM rats was significantly lower, as compared to Wistar ones, and they did not mimic other observer rats. KM rats, therefore, displayed an attenuated pattern of behavioral contagion, highlighting social deficits in this ASD model. This study suggests that measuring group dynamics of behavioral contagion in an automated, non-invasive setup offers valuable insights into social behavior in rodents, particularly for studying social deficits in ASD models.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Behavioral individuality is a consequence of experience, genetics and learning","authors":"Riddha Manna, Johanni Brea, Goncalo Vasconcelos Braga, Alireza Modirshanechi, Ivan Tomic, Ana Marija Jaksic","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.30.610528","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.30.610528","url":null,"abstract":"Genetic determinism of behavior supposes that behaviors are fundamentally defined by genetics. However, behaviors are also modified by development, environment, and learning. It is assumed that if we could control all of these factors, behavior would be genetically predictable. These factors, however, cannot be controlled in humans, and have been impervious to dissection and joint control even in animal models. How genotype and life experience16 interact to shape individual behavior through learning has been lacking experimental evidence, and thus remains only hypothesized. Here, we design an experimental platform which allowed for multi-generational control over genetics, development, environment and experience. We measure learning-dependent individuality and its sources across thousands of genetically diverse Drosophila. We show that genetics plays an essential role in shaping the distributions of individual behaviors. Further, we find that genotype-specific bias shapes individual experience, which in concert with learning, causes dynamic evolution and diversification of individual behavior, even in a uniform environment. We experimentally derive that individual past life experience, genetics, and learning, in this order, shape the momentary individual expression of behavior. Finally, while association studies frequently report the opposite, we show experimentally that life experience severely diminishes the predictive power of genetics for individual learning-dependent behavior.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dance displays in gibbons: Biological and linguistic perspectives on structured, intentional and rhythmic body movement","authors":"Camille Coye, Kai R Caspar, Pritty Patel-Grosz","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.29.610299","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.29.610299","url":null,"abstract":"Female crested gibbons (<em>Nomascus</em> spp.)perform conspicuous sequences of twitching movements involving the rump and extremities. However, these dances have attracted little scientific attention and their structure and meaning remain largely obscure. Here we analyse close-range video recordings of captive crested gibbons, extracting descriptions of dance in four <em>Nomascus</em> species (<em>N. annamensis, N. gabriellae, N. leucogenys</em>, and <em>N. siki</em>). Additionally, we report results from a survey amongst relevant professionals clarifying behavioural contexts of dance in captive and wild crested gibbons. Our results demonstrate that dances in <em>Nomascus</em> represent a common and intentional form of visual communication restricted to sexually mature females. While primarily used as a proceptive signal to solicit copulation, dances occur in a wide range of contexts related to arousal and/or frustration in captivity. A linguistically informed view of this sequential behaviour demonstrates that dances follow a grouping organisation and isochronous rhythm - patterns not described for visual displays in other non-human primates. We argue that applying the concept of dance to gibbons allows us to expand our understanding of the communicative behaviours of non-human apes and develop hypotheses on the rules and regularities characterizing this behaviour. We propose that gibbons dances likely evolved from less elaborate rhythmic proceptive signals, similar to those found in siamangs. Although dance displays in humans and crested gibbons share a number of key characteristics, they cannot be assumed to be homologous. Nevertheless, gibbon dances represent a model behaviour whose investigation could be extended to the study of complex gestural signals in hominoid primates.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Palatability of Insecticides and Protein in Sugar Solutions to Argentine Ants","authors":"Thomas Wagner, Moana Vorjans, Elias Garsi, Cosmina Werneke, Tomer J. Czaczkes","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.29.610285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.29.610285","url":null,"abstract":"Invasive ant species like Linepithema humile cause significant ecological and economic harm, making effective control strategies essential. Insecticide baits are currently the most effective approach for controlling ants. Therefore, quantifying how palatable or unpalatable baits, bait additives, or toxicants are, is critical for developing effective control methods. It has recently been demonstrated that in the comparative evaluation of foods, animals that are aware of both a test food and a comparator food exhibit greatly increased sensitivity when detecting the unpalatability of liquid baits. Here, we deploy a newly developed comparative evaluation methodology to examine the palatability to L. humile workers of three toxicants used in invasive ant control: Fipronil, spinosad, and imidacloprid, as well as egg white protein.\u0000Ants showed no significant preference between pure sucrose and sucrose-toxicant solutions, indicating that they either cannot detect the toxicants or that they do not find them distasteful. Survival tests confirmed that the toxicant concentrations used were lethal, with a survival rate of 50% or below after 72 hours. However, ants found egg protein additive unpalatable, significantly preferring pure sucrose to a sucrose-egg protein mix.\u0000These findings confirm that three major toxicants are suitable for use in baits, and that reported abandonment or avoidance of toxic baits is not due to the unpalatability of these toxicants. However, the addition of egg protein to sucrose baits, even at ratios which optimise colony growth, is likely counterproductive. Future research should investigate the relative preference of invasive ants for various bait matrixes over naturally available food, ensuring more effective pest management strategies.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142226687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"High-throughput unsupervised quantification of patterns in the natural behavior of marmosets","authors":"William Menegas, Erin Corbett, Kimberly Beliard, Haoran Xu, Shivangi Parmar, Robert Desimone, Guoping Feng","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.30.610159","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.30.610159","url":null,"abstract":"Recent advances in genetic engineering have accelerated the production of nonhuman primate models for neuropsychiatric disorders. To use these models for preclinical drug testing, behavioral screening methods will be necessary to determine how the model animals deviate from controls, and whether treatments can restore typical patterns of behavior. In this study, we collected a multimodal dataset from a large cohort of marmoset monkeys and described typical patterns in their natural behavior. We found that these behavioral measurements varied substantially across days, and that behavioral state usage was highly correlated to the behavior of cagemates and to the vocalization rate of other animals in the colony. To elicit acute behavioral responses, we presented animals with a panel of stimuli including novel, appetitive, neutral, aversive, and social stimuli. By comparing these behavioral conditions, we demonstrate that outlier detection can be used to identify atypical responses to a range of stimuli. This data will help guide the study of marmosets as models for neuropsychiatric disorders.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Getting to the bottom of social learning: Chimpanzees copy arbitrary behavior from conspecifics","authors":"Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen, Emile Bryon, Alex Rogers, Aurore Balaran, Peggy Motsch, Jake Stephen Brooker","doi":"10.1101/2024.08.30.607436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.08.30.607436","url":null,"abstract":"Studying animal culture has been crucial for understanding the complexities of knowledge transmission and tracing human culture's evolutionary origins. Defined as the use of tools to provide clear practical benefits to individuals, well-documented examples of material culture include nut-cracking and termite fishing in chimpanzees. Additionally, there is growing interest in animal social traditions, which appear crucial for social interaction and group cohesion. We have previously documented such a tradition, in which chimpanzees copied inserting blades of grass in their ears from one persistent inventor. Now, over a decade later, we have observed an unrelated group of chimpanzees where 5/8 individuals began wearing grass in their ears and 6/8 from their rectums. As of 2024, one newly introduced chimpanzee has adopted the grass-in-ear behavior. Given that the behaviors were not observed in seven other groups in the same sanctuary (<em>N</em>=148), we conclude that social learning of arbitrary behavior occurred and discuss our findings considering the larger scope of animal culture.","PeriodicalId":501210,"journal":{"name":"bioRxiv - Animal Behavior and Cognition","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142211775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}