PubMed · 9451335
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K Cox. 1997. Looking in the wrong direction.. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1445-2197.1997.tb07606.x
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Genetic variation in behavioral traits allows organisms to respond and adapt to environmental challenges. Genetic variation in behavior is often affected by many genes and thus has a complex genetic basis. Inversions, the reorientation of genes along the chromosome, tightly link genetic variants together because they suppress recombination. Therefore, inversions are believed to have a major impact on phenotypic variation because they combine the effects of multiple genes, which can pleiotropically alter multiple aspects of behavior. This study investigates how the inversion In(2L)t, found in Drosophila melanogaster populations around the world, impacts different aspects of behavior in an environment-sensitive manner. We test the activity, foraging, and startle-induced behavior of flies with different In(2L)t genotypes across sex and temperatures. We observe that Drosophila homozygous for In(2L)t sleep less frequently, spend more time away from a food source, and have a longer duration of startle response. Additionally, the impacts of In(2L)t on aspects of behavior can be sex-specific and are largely consistent across temperatures. Taken together, our research demonstrates that inversions can regulate aspects of behavior, and suggests hypotheses explaining the distribution of In(2L)t across space and time.
By around the age of 4 years, children "can work out what people might know, think or believe" based on what they say or do. This is called "mindreading," which builds upon the human ability to infer the intentions of others. Game theory makes a strong assumption about what individual A can expect about B's intentions and vice versa, viz. that each is a self-interested opponent of the other and will reliably analyze games by using such basic principles as dominance and backward induction, and behave as if the normal form of an extensive form game is equivalent to the latter. But the extensive form allows intentions to be detected from actual sequential play and is therefore not necessarily equivalent psychologically to the normal form. We discuss Baron-Cohen's theory of the mindreading system [Baron-Cohen, S. (1995) Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)] to motivate the comparison of behavior in an extensive form game with its corresponding normal form. As in the work of Rapoport [Rapoport, A. (1997) Int. J. Game Theory 26, 113-136] and Schotter et al. [Schotter, A., Wiegelt, K. & Wilson, C. (1994) Games Econ. Behav. 6, 445-468], we find consistent differences in behavior between the normal and extensive forms. In particular, we observe attempts to cooperate, and in some treatments we observe the achievement of cooperation, occurring more frequently in the extensive form. Cooperation in this context requires reciprocity, which is more difficult to achieve by means of intentionality detection in the normal as opposed to the extensive form games we study.
What is the link, if any, between the patterns of connections in the brain and the behavioural effects of localized brain lesions? We explored this question in four related ways. First, we investigated the distribution of activity decrements that followed simulated damage to elements of the thalamocortical network, using integrative mechanisms that have recently been used to successfully relate connection data to information on the spread of activation, and to account simultaneously for a variety of lesion effects. Second, we examined the consequences of the patterns of decrement seen in the simulation for each type of inference that has been employed to impute function to structure on the basis of the effects of brain lesions. Every variety of conventional inference, including double dissociation, readily misattributed function to structure. Third, we tried to derive a more reliable framework of inference for imputing function to structure, by clarifying concepts of function, and exploring a more formal framework, in which knowledge of connectivity is necessary but insufficient, based on concepts capable of mathematical specification. Fourth, we applied this framework to inferences about function relating to a simple network that reproduces intact, lesioned and paradoxically restored orientating behaviour. Lesion effects could be used to recover detailed and reliable information on which structures contributed to particular functions in this simple network. Finally, we explored how the effects of brain lesions and this formal approach could be used in conjunction with information from multiple neuroscience methodologies to develop a practical and reliable approach to inferring the functional roles of brain structures.