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Long term exposure of adult male Sprague Dawley rats to rewarding brain stimulation produced alterations in open field behavior in comparison to nonstimulated controls. Initial activity was increased while movement latency was decreased for the experimental animals. Grooming and defecation were essentially unchanged by stimulation. These findings suggest a selective and tonic influence of brain stimulation upon exploration.
Bilateral medial preoptic-anterior hypothalamic lesions in adult male dogs eliminate or impair copulatory behavior and reduce urine-marking responses but do not affect aggressive behavior. The present study examined the emergence of the adult forms of these same male sociosexual behavioral patterns when the lesions are made prior to puberty. The subjects were allowed to interact with male peers during development. Animals with lesions had reduced frequence of juvenile mounting and an almost total absence of male copulatory activity in adulthood. Urine-marking and aggressive behavior in the juvenile and adult periods were not affected by the lesions. The findings reveal a sparing of function with regard to urine-marking but not sexual behavior.
Adult rat offspring earlier exposed to maternally ingested caffeine during both gestation and lactation were observed in an open field following acute administration of diazepam or cyclohexyladenosine. While both drugs reduced measures of locomotion and emotional reactivity, caffeine-exposed rats showed evidence of greater sensitivity to cyclohexyladenosine (but not diazepam) as determined by its effects on grooming behavior and tendencies to occupy the center squares of the apparatus. This suggested that adenosine (A1) rather than benzodiazepine receptor activity had been affected by the perinatal caffeine experience which also reduced locomotor activity while increasing center occupancy. The acute effects of diazepam and cyclohexyladenosine also depended largely on the sex of the subjects. Diazepam affected locomotor activity more and both drugs affected defecation less in females than in males. No other interaction involving sex was significant.
Several parameters associated with maternal behavior were quantified under laboratory conditions in New Zealand white rabbits. Digging behavior appeared earliest (8-6 days prepartum), its decline preceding the onset of straw carrying (3-1 days prepartum). Hair pulling consummated the construction of the maternal nest. Food intake significantly decreased on days 2 and 1 prepartum. On parturition day, all females spent 300-500 s with the litter while, for the rest of lactation, nursing bouts lasted 199 +/- 7 s. Milk yield increased linearly up to lactation day 19, declining thereafter. Pup weight increased linearly throughout lactation despite the decline in milk yield. Plasma estradiol (E) levels did not significantly vary across pregnancy: 60 +/- 2 pg/ml (days 10-25) and 75 +/- 6 pg/ml (day 30). The testosterone (T) levels at these times were: 200 +/- 10 and 308 +/- 0.03 pg/ml, respectively. Testosterone significantly declined from pregnancy day 30 to lactation day 1 (202 +/- 0.02 pg/ml). Progesterone (P) levels significantly declined from pregnancy day 20 (9 +/- 1 ng/ml) onwards. Progesterone levels were negligible across lactation. Thus, mother rabbits display a sequence of motor patterns and somatic events correlated with changes in plasma levels of T and P against a background of E.
The effect of eating on defecation behaviour was investigated in four 20-30 kg pigs. Rectal distention stimulation was performed pre- and postprandially at 10 cm from the anus with a 5 cm latex balloon. Volume was increased in steps of 10 ml up to 200 ml of air or until balloon defecation. Dependent measures were volume, rectal pressure, determined with a solid state pressure transducer inside the balloon probe, rectal compliance, and an index of distention induced contractile activity. The volume and pressure required to elicit defecation was significantly lower after feeding (p less than 0.01). Distention induced contractile activity was significantly increased near defecation threshold, but pre- and postprandial conditions were not different. There was no difference in rectal compliance pre- and postprandially. These results suggest that eating lowers defecation threshold in terms of distention volume and rectal pressure, and that these changes are not dependent on altered rectal compliance or changes in distention induced motor activity.
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On the basis if an inquiry among Dutch veterinary practitioners, an attempt has been made to obtain an impression of the occurrence, the symptoms and the therapeutic measures used in problem behaviour in dogs. In addition, answers have been obtained to some supplementary questions. The response to the inquiry was limited. Aggression appeared to be the most serious and most frequent behaviour problem. Following this nervousness, unruliness, house-soiling, mounting and destructiveness were found to be serious behaviour problems with a high frequency. Therapeutic measures in unruliness and house-soiling problems consisted mainly of advice and obedience courses. In mounting, however, medical or surgical methods were primarily used. In aggression, nervousness and destructiveness, both the former and the latter methods were used about equally. The vast majority of the respondents was of the opinion that treating problem behaviour is part of the veterinary practitioners task.
Cases involving inappropriate elimination can be treated successfully through careful diagnosis, identification of causative factors, and development of an appropriate treatment plan. Veterinarians can provide a valuable service to their clients through case workups, educational information, and timely referrals. Normal elimination and marking behavior and causative factors involved in inappropriate elimination cases are reviewed. Treatments, including behavior modification techniques and drug therapy suggestions, also are included in this article.
UNLABELLED: Correlations between meal size and inter-meal intervals as a characteristic of ingestive behavior are generally calculated utilizing Pearson's correlation coefficient. However, this commonly used method may exhibit disadvantages and methodological problems when dealing with dependent time series. Alternatively, a modified version of Pearson's r (r(diff)) or a nonparametric procedure, Pfanzagl's T combined with an expanded sampling theorem offer a statistical alternative for correlational analysis, robust to stochastic interdependencies between time series. In two studies, porcine self-initiated feeding behavior was observed in a closed economy setup, and a comparison of all three correlation coefficients was performed. STUDY 1: Twelve Munich mini-pigs were observed for 2 weeks. The rate of food ingestion was a stable characteristic of each individual pig, feeding and defecation behavior were temporally associated and light/dark cycle differences were seen for feeding. STUDY 2: Eight Munich mini-pigs were studied for 4 weeks. Kendall's Tau was utilized to test the stability of feeding behavior across weeks. Stability increased over time and feeding was more stable during the light period. Both correlation measures revealed a strong association between meal size and inter-meal intervals. CONCLUSION: Munich-miniature pigs exhibited a stable pattern of self-initiated ingestive and excretory behaviors. In both studies, Pfanzagl's T-values as well as r(diff)-values revealed a corresponding and consistent association between meal size and inter-meal intervals. In combination with the conventional Pearson's r, all three coefficients characterize different aspects of feeding behavior.
Deafferentation of the vomeronasal system by cutting the vomeronasal nerves severely impaired mating behavior in 44% of male hamsters over a 1--2 month period of postoperative testing, but the remaining males mated normally after the surgery. Damage to the main olfactory bulbs, concomitant to vomeronasal nerve cuts, did not account for this behavioral difference. Subsequent deafferentation of olfactory system by intranasal infusion of zinc sulfate solution (5 g ZnSO4--7H2O in 95 ml 0.5% NaCl) had no effect on intromission or ejaculation latencies of sham vomeronasal cut males but eliminated mating behavior 2 days after treatment in males with bilateral vomeronasal nerve cuts. Some of these males recovered the behavior in 1--3 weeks of post zinc sulfate testing. Histological analyses of the olfactory mucosa in 7 males on day 2 after zinc sulfate showed that 89--97% of the mucosa had been destroyed in 6 out of 7 of the males and 78% in the seventh. We conclude that destruction of the vomeronasal system irreparably reduces arousal necessary for mating in some hamsters but in other males sufficient arousal for this behavior to occur is mediated through the olfactory system, presumably in conjunction with other sensory inputs. Subsequent removal of the olfactory input in these animals eliminates the behavior.
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In a series of experimental studies on rat behavior following reconstructive surgery after gastrectomy the effects of Roux-Y-Pouch-technique (RY-P) as compared to Roux-Y (RY) alone were observed. 12 rats with RY-P and 13 rats with RY were tested on days 100-105 post surgery using the Open-Field-test paradigm. Feeding behavior and weight were additionally controlled. Data analysis of repeated measurement design (ANOVA) revealed significant group x time-interaction between type of reconstruction and exploratory behaviors (p < .01). Moreover, RY-P rats consumed more food (p < .001), had higher weight gain (p < .01), and tended to more normal defecation. Overall, results favour the more physiological type of reconstruction.
Thirty-six cases of feline urine marking problem were collected through the cooperation of veterinary practitioners in the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai areas in Japan, for an assessment of the clinical effect of treatment with a synthetic analogue of a feline cheek gland pheromone-like product. The mean frequency of urine marking was 14.2 times/week (median, 10; range, 1-77) at pre-treatment week (preW), and decreased significantly from the first week of treatment, dropping to 4.2 times/week (median, 2; range, 0-44) at the fourth week of treatment. This effect continued until the fourth week after cessation of treatment. These 36 cases were divided into 3 groups based on the effectiveness of treatment as demonstrated in the fourth week of treatment; 37% was categorized as the totally eliminated group (urine marking was not seen), 40% as the reduced group (the frequency of urine marking was equal to or less than 50% that of the preW), and 23% as the unchanged group (the frequency of urine marking was more than 50% that of the preW). Effectiveness of treatment in these groups was 38%, 24%, and 38% at the fourth week after the cessation of treatment, respectively. The decreasing rate of urine marking was compared between cats with and without intercat aggression, and it was revealed that the frequency of marking was sustained at high level in cats with intercat aggression. These results suggest that this pheromone treatment is as effective in Japan as has been reported in other countries for solving feline urine marking problems.
This study tested the hypothesis that subordination in male mice is directly related to reduced levels of circulating testosterone. Several measures of aggressiveness and submissiveness were quantified during or after daily encounters between pairs of intact males, castrated males, or castrated males bearing testosterone implants that were designed to maintain plasma testosterone titers at levels slightly above those of intact males. Behavioral measures included the total amount of fighting that resulted from daily pairing, the tendency for subordinates to fight back, and the relative frequency of urine marking. In all these regards, pairs of testosterone-implanted, castrated males formed dominant-subordinate relationships that involved apparently normal submissive behavior (compared to intact control pairs). Thus we found no evidence that submissive behavior was directly related to a reduction in circulating testosterone titers.
Previous studies have found that defecation increases in rats exposed to intermittent schedules of food delivery. In the present study, food-deprived pigeons were exposed to fixed-time 30-, 60-, 120-, and 240-s schedules of food delivery. For the subjects as a group, significantly more defecation (indexed by fecal weight) occurred under the fixed-time 60-s schedule than during massed-food control sessions in which an equivalent amount of food was presented. Thus, the present findings suggest that schedule-induced defecation occurs in pigeons.
In this study, the effect of the exposure of male mice to sensory stimuli from rats was assessed on both sucrose intake and the elevated plus-maze tests. CDl male mice were trained in the sucrose intake task (the prestress phase) and, subsequently, distributed into two groups. The stressed group was accommodated in the same room as rats and the control group with mice (the stress phase). After being transferred, animals were tested on sucrose intake and the plus-maze (acute tests) and retested three times a week for sucrose intake and once on plus-maze on the last day (chronic tests). After acute exposure to the predator, the only difference between stressed and control animals was a higher number of fecal boli left on the plus-maze by the former. During the chronic phase, stressed animals showed a lower level of sucrose intake and higher level of anxiety than controls. In conclusion, this study shows that chronic exposure of male mice to stimuli from rats reduces the sensitivity to the rewarding properties of sucrose and prevents the habituation to the plus-maze observed in controls. Thus, this study suggests that exposure of mice to sensory stimuli from rats may provide an animal model of stress, and that these species should not be routinely housed together.
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