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Biomedical subjects

A Miklósi

Publications and source records attributed to A Miklósi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

A nonverbal test of knowledge attribution: a comparative study on dogs and children.

The sensitivity of eleven pet dogs and eleven 2.5-year-old children to others' past perceptual access was tested for object-specificity in a playful, nonverbal task in which a human Helper's knowledge state regarding the whereabouts of a hidden toy and a stick (a tool necessary for getting the out-of-reach toy) was systematically manipulated. In the four experimental conditions the Helper either participated or was absent during hiding of the toy and the stick and therefore she knew the place(s) of (1) both the toy and the stick, (2) only the toy, (3) only the stick or (4) neither of them. The subjects observed the hiding processes, but they could not reach the objects, so they had to involve the Helper to retrieve the toy. The dogs were more inclined to signal the place of the toy in each condition and indicated the location of the stick only sporadically. However the children signalled both the location of the toy and that of the stick in those situations when the Helper had similar knowledge regarding the whereabouts of them (i.e. knew or ignored both of them), and in those conditions in which the Helper was ignorant of the whereabouts of only one object the children indicated the place of this object more often than that of the known one. At the same time however, both dogs and children signalled the place of the toy more frequently if the Helper had been absent during toy-hiding compared to those conditions when she had participated in the hiding. Although this behaviour appears to correspond with the Helper's knowledge state, even the subtle distinction made by the children can be interpreted without a casual understanding of knowledge-formation in others.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

Detection of temporal patterns in dog-human interaction.

A new time structure model and pattern detection procedures developed by (Magnusson, M.S., 1996. Hidden real-time patterns in intra- and inter-individual behaviour description and detection. Eur. J. Psychol. Assess. 12, 112-123; Magnusson, M.S., 2000. Discovering hidden time patterns in behaviour: T-patterns and their detection. Behav. Res. Methods, Instrum. Comput. 32, 93-110) enables us to detect complex temporal patterns in behaviour. This method has been used successfully in studying human and neuronal interactions (Anolli, L., Duncan, S. Magnusson, M.S., Riva G. (Eds.), 2005. The Hidden Structure of Interaction, IOS Press, Amsterdam). We assume that similarly to interactions between humans, cooperative and communicative interaction between dogs and humans also consist of patterns in time. We coded and analyzed a cooperative situation when the owner instructs the dog to help build a tower and complete the task. In this situation, a cooperative interaction developed spontaneously, and occurrences of hidden time patterns in behaviour can be expected. We have found such complex temporal patterns (T-patterns) in each pair during the task that cannot be detected by "standard" behaviour analysis. During cooperative interactions the dogs' and humans' behaviour becomes organized into interactive temporal patterns and that dog-human interaction is much more regular than yet has been thought. We have found that communicative behaviour units and action units can be detected in the same T-pattern during cooperative interactions. Comparing the T-patterns detected in the dog-human dyads, we have found a typical sequence emerging during the task, which was the outline of the successfully completed task. Such temporal patterns were conspicuously missing from the "randomized data" that gives additional support to the claim that interactive T-patterns do not occur by chance or arbitrarily but play a functional role during the task.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

The effects of the visual environment on responses to colour by domestic chicks.

It is well known that development of vision is affected by experience, but there are few studies of environmental effects on colour vision. Natural scenes contain predominantly a restricted range of reflectance spectra, so such effects might be important, perhaps biasing visual mechanisms towards common colours. We investigated how the visual environment affects colour preferences of domestic chicks ( Gallus gallus), by training week-old birds to select small food containers distinguished from an achromatic alternative either by an orange or by a greenish-blue colour. Chicks that had been raised in control conditions, with long-wavelength-dominated reflectance spectra, responded more readily to orange than to blue. This was not due to avoidance of blue, as increasing saturation enhanced the chicks' preference for the same hue. The advantage of orange was, however, reduced or abolished for chicks raised in an environment dominated by blue objects. This indicates that responses to coloured food are affected by experience of non-food objects. If colours of ordinary objects in the environment do influence responses to specialised visual signals this might help explain why biological signals directed at birds are often coloured yellow, orange or red; long-wavelength-dominated spectra being more prevalent than short-wavelength-dominated spectra.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Does dog-human attachment affect their inter-specific cooperation?

Leading a blind or blindfolded person is a complex cooperative task influenced by many factors. The aim of this study was to determine if quality of attachment affects the performance of dog and owner dyads showed on an Obstacle Course. Modified Ainsworth's Strange Situation Test was used for assessing attachment quality. Only one dimension of the attachment, the 'anxiety' factor was found to correlate with behavioural measures of the Obstacle Course (e.g. number of mistakes, initialisation index that reflects which participant initiates more actions in a dyad). We found significant differences of performance between the three groups of dog-owner pairs (pet dog, guide dog and police dog dyads), but we could not show significant differences in the 'attachment' factor among these groups. We concluded that it is not the attachment type that causes the main differences in the leading behaviour of our three study groups. Dogs have an innate ability for cooperation with humans that was enhanced by selective breeding during domestication and this basic ability can be modified by training but seem to be less affected by the relationship with the owner.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Role of right hemifield in visual control of approach to target in zebrafish.

When a zebrafish has to choose between two identical stimuli (e.g. a conditioned stimulus, CS, for food reward), it tends to respond to the one on its right. Errors are more numerous when reinforced for taking the one on the left rather than the one on the right. When trained to a single medial stimulus, and presented in non-reinforced probe trials with a pair of identical stimuli, the one on the right is chosen. Use by zebrafish of right eye (RE), viewing to control a planned motor response, extends from objects that are to be bitten to a choice of one of two routes. When the CS is visible behind a barrier of vertical bars, so that it can be approached around either end, it is the right end that is chosen. Standing motor bias independent of the nature of the task can be excluded. Other vertebrates show RE control of response. Toads are more likely to take food seen with the RE. The domestic chick uses the RE in visual control of approach to an object that has to be manipulated with the bill. RE control of use of the mouth in a fish shows that that this is an earlier condition than lateralised control of bilateral effectors like hands.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Comprehension of human communicative signs in pet dogs (Canis familiaris).

On the basis of a study by D. J. Povinelli, D. T. Bierschwale, and C. G. Cech (1999), the performance of family dogs (Canis familiaris) was examined in a 2-way food choice task in which 4 types of directional cues were given by the experimenter: pointing and gazing, head-nodding ("at target"), head turning above the correct container ("above target"), and glancing only ("eyes only"). The results showed that the performance of the dogs resembled more closely that of the children in D. J. Povinelli et al.'s study, in contrast to the chimpanzees' performance in the same study. It seems that dogs, like children, interpret the test situation as being a form of communication. The hypothesis is that this similarity is attributable to the social experience and acquired social routines in dogs because they spend more time in close contact with humans than apes do, and as a result dogs are probably more experienced in the recognition of human gestures.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Right eye use associated with decision to bite in zebrafish.

Cerebral lateralisation is revealed in the zebrafish by preferential eye use, which differs according to the visual stimulus that is being fixated. Past findings [Bisazza A, Pignatti R, Vallortigara G. Behav. Brain Res. 1997b;89:237-242; Miklósi A, Andrew RJ, Savage, H. Physiol. Behav. 1998;63:127 135] suggest that the right eye is used when the stimulus (or scene) is such as to require a careful period of examination in order to decide on a response. The left eye is used when the fish has to check whether an identical stimulus has been seen before. We here show that the same association of right eye use with decision to respond holds for biting at small targets (coloured or black and white beads). Biting and right eye use were both high at the first presentation of both types of bead, and fell together over two further trials with the same type of bead. At the fourth trial the appearance of the bead was changed. A change in colour caused both right eye use and biting to return, whereas a change in orientation of the black stripe on the black and white bead had no effect on either (and seemed to be largely ignored). In the case of the coloured beads, habituation of biting was accompanied by continued interest, shown by increased binocular fixation. The reduction in reliance on right eye viewing thus represents a change in the strategy of analysis rather than coming to ignore the stimulus. It would allow a greater involvement of the left eye system.

Aggression↗
PubMed1999

The ethological analysis of imitation.

Theorists and experimental researchers have long debated whether animals are able to imitate. A variety of definitions of imitation have been proposed to describe this complex form of social learning. Experimental research on imitation has often been hampered by either a too loose 'anthropomorphic' approach or by too narrow 'behaviourist' definitions. At present neither associative nor cognitive theories are able to offer an exhaustive explanation of imitation in animals. An ethological approach to imitation offers a different perspective. By integrating questions on function, mechanism, development and evolution one can identify possible directions for future research. At present, however, we are still far from developing a comprehensive theory of imitation. A functional approach to imitation shows that, despite some evidence for imitative learning in food processing in apes, such learning has not been shown to be involved in the social transmission of either tool-use skills or communicative signals. Recently developed procedures offer possible ways of clarifying the role of imitation in tool use and visual communication. The role of imitation in explorative play in apes is also investigated and the available data suggest that copying during play might represent a behavioural homologue of human imitation. It is proposed that the ability to copy the behaviour of a companion is under a strong genetic influence in many social species. Many important factors have not been examined experimentally, e.g. the effect of the demonstrator, the influence of attention and memory and the ability to generalize. The potential importance of reinforcement raises the possibility that copying abilities serving divergent functions might be partly under the control of different mechanisms.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Attachment behavior in dogs (Canis familiaris): a new application of Ainsworth's (1969) Strange Situation Test.

Fifty-one owner-dog pairs were observed in a modified version of M. D. S. Ainsworth's (1969) Strange Situation Test. The results demonstrate that adult dogs (Canis familiaris) show patterns of attachment behavior toward the owner. Although there was considerable variability in dogs' attachment behavior to humans, the authors did not find any effect of gender, age, living conditions, or breed on most of the behavioral variables. The human-dog relationship was described by means of a factor analysis in a 3-dimensional factor space: Anxiety, Acceptance, and Attachment. A cluster analysis revealed 5 substantially different classes of dogs, and dogs could be categorized along the secure-insecure attached dimensions of Ainsworth's original test. A dog's relationship to humans is analogous to child-parent and chimpanzee-human attachment behavior because the observed behavioral phenomena and the classification are similar to those described in mother-infant interactions.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Behavioural lateralisation of the tetrapod type in the zebrafish (Brachydanio rerio).

Visual lateralisation resembling that found in a bird (domestic chick) is here demonstrated in a teleost (zebrafish, Brachydanio rerio). Zebrafish predominantly view objects with the body axis close to facing the object (0-20 degrees on either side of facing). Strange objects were viewed at first exposure chiefly with the right frontal field; so was a complex and unfamiliar scene made up of familiar components. In a second trial, using the same stimulus or scene, left frontal viewing tended to be used instead. A familiar partner (a fish of another species) was viewed left frontally. The domestic chick also uses the left eye to view familiar stimuli, shifting to the right when it has to decide what response is appropriate to the object at which it is looking. An empty scene in which nothing could be concealed (and so no response was called for) was viewed by zebrafish with the left eye from the start. In zebrafish and the chick, the right eye is used when it is necessary to inhibit premature response, in order to sustain viewing until a decision is reached, and the left is used when it is necessary to keep an eye on a familiar or clearly empty scene. The findings suggest homology of cerebral lateralisation in teleost fish and tetrapods.

Aggression↗
PubMed1997

The ontogeny of antipredator behavior in paradise fish larvae (Macropodus opercularis) IV. The effect of exposure to siblings.

Twenty-five-day-old larval paradise fish show less avoidance behavior toward a model predator than 20-day-old fish larvae. Laboratory experiments tested two possible hypotheses: The decrease of avoidance behavior is the result of (a) change in the size ratio of larvae/model, or (b) experience with larval siblings. Larval paradise fish did not show greater avoidance of larger models or models with larger eyespots. However, if isolated for 3 days, the antipredator behavior of 25-day-old larvae became similar to younger ones. In further experiments, we raised the larvae in a larger holding tank in order to decrease the rate of encounters among conspecifics. In line with our assumptions, these larvae also showed enhanced avoidance toward a model predator. In sum, our experiments revealed that the continuous exposure to conspecific larvae was the main cause for the reduced antipredator behavior toward models. To account for our results, we suggest that larvae of nonschooling paradise fish habituate to the continuous presence of larval conspecifics and, as a result, they show decreased avoidance to the model predator. We hypothesize that this habituation process might not work in other fish species that show early schooling behavior in their development. In other words, they would not generalize the experience of conspecifics to potential predators.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Antipredator behavior in paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) larvae: the role of genetic factors and paternal influence.

The paradise fish, a small insectivore, coinhabits marshes of Southeast Asia with several predator fish species. Its ability to recognize and avoid harmful fish may depend upon both genetic factors and experience. Here we demonstrate genetic variability between the 20-day-old larvae of two inbred strains of paradise fish (P and S) in predator exploration and avoidance, using predator models. We show that, in comparison to S larvae, P larvae exhibited an elevated frequency of leaping and backing and an increased approach latency when faced with a predator model with eyespots. Analysis of a classical cross system between the two strains revealed significant departure from an additive-dominance genetic model and suggested the involvement of both epistatic effects of several genes and paternal effects. The effect of the paternal influence during the 5-day postspawning period was found to be strain dependent: later predator avoidance behaviors were influenced by the presence of the father in P larvae but not in S larvae. On the basis of these and previous results, we speculate that the 5 postspawning days may represent a developmentally sensitive period during which specific environmental stimulation, e.g., stimuli associated with the father, is critical for later development of appropriate antipredatory responses. We conclude that developmental aspects of antipredatory behavior in paradise fish are influenced by a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Auditory lateralisation: shifts in ear use during attachment in the domestic chick.

Chicks were imprinted to the sound of a cluck, by differing durations of exposure in the dark on the first day of life. At test, when the chicks were placed centrally in an arena lit only by infra-red, those receiving two or three hours of exposure turned their right ear towards a source of clucks, just before approach to the source, but used their left ear instead after five or six hours exposure; after four hours there was no clear bias. This shift was not due to differences in age nor in time of day, but was a direct consequence of lengthening prior exposure. As learning about (and/or attaching to) the cluck progresses, there thus appears to be a shift from predominant use of the left hemisphere in listening and responding to the cluck. There is other evidence that the left hemisphere may be particularly involved in the chick in initial selection of important cues, while the right hemisphere elaborates relatively unselected records.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1996

Neurotoxicity induced by prenatal aluminum exposure in rats.

Aluminum has been implicated as a neurotoxic agent in a number of experimental laboratories and epidemiological studies. Dementia has been correlated to elevated aluminum levels in Alzheimer's disease and has been related to impaired motor function and to a number of cognitive deficits in both humans and animals. To determine the neurotoxicity of aluminum (Al) lactate exposure in rat pups, postnatal behavioral effects of 0, 2.5, 5, 10 mg/kg daily s.c. treatment during gestation days 7th-15th were investigated. Offspring were tested for motor coordination, stress tolerance in a swimming test, behavioral patterns in an open field, in the acquisition and extinction of an avoidance responding and in a reconditioning task. In the open field test the horizontal activity was diminished at the top dose of Al exposure. The motor coordination and the stress tolerance were not altered by prenatal Al treatment. The main sign of neurotoxicity was diminished performance and lengthened latency in an avoidance responding task in all treated groups. Our findings confirm that postnatal behavioral effects can be induced in offspring prenatally exposed to aluminum lactate.

Aluminum↗
PubMed1994

Is the testing of TFT strategy during predator inspections possible by use of mirror image? A review and some controls of recent studies.

In order to answer some of the questions concerning the "inadequacies" of mirror-images in experiments examining co-operative behaviour during predator inspection, several control experiments were carried out. The average positions (distance from predator's tank) of guppies was influenced by the presence of a preadator, but the effect of previous experience with a predator was manifestated only in the presence of predator. The average position of guppies also depended on the mirror-treatment (changing the length and position) but it was influenced only by the length but not the angle of mirror. The relative independence of the position of the mirror observed in the guppies' behaviour challenges the basic assumption (i.e. closer to the predator by long parallel than short angled mirror) is indeed the result of TFT as interpreted earlier. Instead, the effect of mirror treatment appears superpositioned on the predator inspection as an independent variable. In light of these results we discuss the usefulness of mirror systems in testing predator inspection as TFT-like behaviour.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Development of open-field and social behavior of the paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis L.).

In a series of experiments, we examined the development of some characteristic behavior elements in the paradise fish. It was shown that the behavior in the open field was dependent on the age of the fish. The attraction of fries of paradise fish toward conspecifics undergo some changes between 12 and 25 days of age: Larger groups become more attractive. Social orientation toward individual conspecifics develops by 24 days of age.

Aging↗
PubMed1989

The influence of olfaction on exploratory behaviour in the paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis L.).

We studied the role of olfaction on the exploratory behaviour of the paradise fish. Intact animals showed habituation of exploratory behaviour toward a heterospecific fish after five consecutive encounters. Fish with olfactory nerves destroyed spent significantly longer time with exploration compared to the control even at the fifth encounter. We suggest that olfactory inputs have a strong influence on exploratory behaviour.

Animals↗