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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

A microcomputer technique for the detailed behavioural, and automatic statistical, analysis of animal behaviour.

In view of the intense concentration and time investment required for the detailed assessment of animal behaviour, various strategies have been employed to facilitate the quantitative description of movements and postures of animals. In a recent communication, we outlined a microcomputer technique which enabled individual operators to record frequency and duration of a large number of behavioural elements. However, this method required the manual collation and transcription of summary data in order to effect statistical analysis, an operation which involved avoidable and time-consuming repeated data handling. The present communication details a microcomputer technique which aids the recording of frequency, real-time duration and real-time latency measures. Further, this program automatically collates, transcribes and executes statistical analysis (Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney) without involving manual data manipulation, other than at the initial behavioural analysis level and thus, represents an aid to reducing the total time investment required to effect complete behavioural analysis.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

The principles of collective animal behaviour.

In recent years, the concept of self-organization has been used to understand collective behaviour of animals. The central tenet of self-organization is that simple repeated interactions between individuals can produce complex adaptive patterns at the level of the group. Inspiration comes from patterns seen in physical systems, such as spiralling chemical waves, which arise without complexity at the level of the individual units of which the system is composed. The suggestion is that biological structures such as termite mounds, ant trail networks and even human crowds can be explained in terms of repeated interactions between the animals and their environment, without invoking individual complexity. Here, I review cases in which the self-organization approach has been successful in explaining collective behaviour of animal groups and societies. Ant pheromone trail networks, aggregation of cockroaches, the applause of opera audiences and the migration of fish schools have all been accurately described in terms of individuals following simple sets of rules. Unlike the simple units composing physical systems, however, animals are themselves complex entities, and other examples of collective behaviour, such as honey bee foraging with its myriad of dance signals and behavioural cues, cannot be fully understood in terms of simple individuals alone. I argue that the key to understanding collective behaviour lies in identifying the principles of the behavioural algorithms followed by individual animals and of how information flows between the animals. These principles, such as positive feedback, response thresholds and individual integrity, are repeatedly observed in very different animal societies. The future of collective behaviour research lies in classifying these principles, establishing the properties they produce at a group level and asking why they have evolved in so many different and distinct natural systems. Ultimately, this research could inform not only our understanding of animal societies, but also the principles by which we organize our own society.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

Integrative animal behaviour and sociogenomics.

Integrative animal behaviour is on the rise: some behavioural neuroscientists are increasingly asking 'why', while some behavioural ecologists are starting to ask 'how'. For example, the most recent edition of Krebs and Davies' authoritative Behavioural Ecology: an Evolutionary Approach contains, for the first time, a section on mechanistic analyses of behaviour within an ecological context. This nascent synthesis can be catalysed by molecular genetic analyses of behaviours that occur in a natural context. Recent findings can provide a foundation for increased integration in the study of social behaviour, and provide the basis for an agenda for research on 'sociogenomics'.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Human evolutionary psychology and animal behaviour.

Homo sapiens is increasingly being studied within the evolutionary (adaptationist, selectionist) framework favoured by animal behaviour researchers. There are various labels for such work, including evolutionary psychology, human behavioural ecology and human sociobiology. Collectively, we call these areas 'human evolutionary psychology' (HEP) because their shared objective is an evolutionary understanding of human information processing and decision making. Sexual selection and sex differences have been especially prominent in recent HEP research, but many other topics have been addressed, including parent-offspring relations, reciprocity and exploitation, foraging strategies and spatial cognition. Many HEP researchers began their scientific careers in animal behaviour, and in many ways, HEP research is scarcely distinguishable from other animal behaviour research. Currently controversial issues in HEP, such as the explanation(s) for observed levels of heritable diversity, the kinds of data needed to test adaptationist hypotheses, and the characterization of a species-typical 'environment of evolutionary adaptedness', are issues in animal behaviour as well. What gives HEP a distinct methodological flavour is that the research animal can talk, an ability that has both advantages and pitfalls for researchers. The proper use of self-reports and other verbal data in HEP might usefully become a subject of future research in its own right. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Animal behavioural studies in the evaluation of antidepressant drugs.

Animal behavioural models of psychiatric disorders cannot exactly simulate human psychopathology, but they can be used to evaluate the behavioural changes induced by drugs and to suggest hypotheses about the functions of the CNS and its involvement in psychiatric disorders. This should lead to a more heuristic classification of psychotropic drugs and to clarification of their therapeutic possibilities. The following animal models simulate aspects of depressive disorders and are sensitive to the antidepressant effects of drugs. (i) The forced swimming test: described as 'behavioural despair' on the assumption that the animal has given up hope of escaping. (ii) The 'restraint stress' test: this may indicate a failure to adapt to stress. (iii) The learned-helplessness model: exposed to uncontrollable events, animals exhibit learning performance deficit and behavioural changes, including decreased locomotor activity and loss of appetite. (iv) Waiting behaviour: improvement in the ability to wait for and/or postpone an active response; this could be related to the reported beneficial effects of antidepressants on impulsive behaviour.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

A microcomputer technique for the detailed analysis of animal behaviour.

Movements and postures of animals may be described quantitatively and as such represent measures that may be used to, for example, detect drug-induced alterations in behaviour. However, because of the time-investment needed to generate such data, quantitative assessment of animal behaviour remains a major problem in psychopharmacology. The present communication outlines a microcomputer based method for obtaining frequency, real-time duration and latency measures from a large number of behavioural elements. When used in conjunction with a videotape recorder, this system enables one experimenter to obtain data from situations involving several interacting animals, thus representing an aid to increased data-logging efficiency using only equipment that is commonly found in many psychopharmacology laboratories.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

The effects of low-level radiofrequency and microwave radiation on brain tissue and animal behaviour.

There has been much public interest and controversy about the effects of exposure to low levels of microwave and radiofrequency radiation. Of particular interest are reports of radiation-induced changes in brain tissue and animal behaviour. This review considers the evidence supporting some of these effects. The main conclusions of the review are: The levels of tracer substances in the brain tissue of conscious or anaesthetized animals can be altered by acute exposure to microwave radiation that is sufficient to raise the brain temperature by several degrees Celsius. However, the results of such experiments are difficult to interpret, being in some cases contradictory or influenced by various confounding factors, and the data cannot be considered sufficient to recommend a threshold for human tolerance. The evidence that calcium ion exchange in living nervous tissues is affected by amplitude-modulated radiofrequency and microwave radiation is inconclusive. Exposure sufficient to cause an increase in core temperature of about 1 degree C, corresponding to specific energy absorption rates of about 2-8 W kg-1 may adversely affect animal behaviour.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Neuropeptides: animal behaviour and human psychopathology.

Animal studies have demonstrated that neuropeptides modulate nervous system functions. It has been postulated that disturbances in neuropeptide systems may be aetiological factors in psychiatric and neurological disorders. Neuropeptides related to ACTH/MSH, including ORG 2766, increase motivation and attention and facilitate recovery processes after nerve damage. These peptides may be effective during the early stage of dementia. Vasopressin and related peptides improve memory processes in animals and humans. In addition, these peptides influence social behaviour, mood and addictive behaviour. The non-opioid gamma-type endorphins have neuroleptic-like activities in animals and antipsychotic effects in a category of schizophrenic patients. Peptides related to CCK have also been found to be effective in these patients. Some neuropeptides, e.g. TRH and PLG, have been reported to exert antidepressant effects. Further research may eventually produce neuropeptides with therapeutic action in psychiatric and neurological diseases.

Aging↗
PubMed1998

Modelling quantitative structure-activity relationships between animal behaviour and environmental signal molecules.

Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) between the physicochemical properties of environmental signal molecules and animal behaviour have been determined. Past work has shown that oyster and barnacle larval settlement and mud crab abdominal pumping (for larval dispersal) are stimulated by small peptide cues. In all the peptides examined that were active at ecologically relevant concentrations, arginine or lysine was found at the carboxy terminus, but the amino acids found at preceding positions were highly variable. We used the multivariate partial least squares algorithm to relate composite properties for the hydrophilicity, size and charge of each amino acid and the sequence position to oyster, barnacle and crab behaviour patterns. From the information in these QSAR models, the apparent variability in amino acid sequences eliciting behavioural responses was explained in each case, and more potent peptide analogues are hypothesized on the basis of untested amino acid sequences. Remarkably, these peptide signals are all structurally related to the carboxy-terminal sequence of mammalian C5a anaphylatoxin, a potent white blood cell chemoattractant. Even more striking is the fact that these different animal species should rely on apparently similar environmental signal molecules when residing within a common habitat (southeastern US estuaries). Through the physicochemical properties of amino acids, the current QSAR models clearly differentiate between the optimal sequences for eliciting oyster, barnacle and mud crab behaviour. Thus, QSARs provide a novel and powerful method not only for relating the physicochemical properties of molecules to animal behaviour but also for differentiating responses to chemicals by individuals of different species.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

VIEWER: a program for visualising, recording, and analysing animal behaviour.

In order to determine the influence of environmental interventions, medical substances, drugs, or diseases on an animal, it is a common to observe the behaviour of the animal in the open field or in other environments. Changes in animal behaviour can be the first indicators for an influence of a substance or an intervention on the organism and certain kinds of behavioural changes can permit speculations about the underlying physiological mechanisms. Behavioural properties which are of interest in this respect are movement parameters such as velocity or direction, activity patterns, spatial distribution and occurrence of several types of standard behaviours of an animal. Observation of simple behaviours such as determining the average activity level can help to detect general changes of the internal state of an animal, while changes in complex behaviours may point to specific influences of a substance or an intervention. Our system 'VIEWER' uses a microcomputer (IBM-compatible PC running WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS NT, or WINDOWS 2000), a low budget framegrabber card (e.g. WinTV, Hauppauge) and a standard black-and-white video camera (if necessary with infrared sensitivity). The software records the position of the animal online with a sample rate of up to 25 frames/s. After identification of the animal in the arena, animal location and orientation with respect to time is determined. In addition, movement velocity and direction, general activity level, and several other behavioural parameters which can include complex behavioural patterns are processed online. Data are presented as graphics and/or tables. Results may also be exported into those programs that are capable of importing graphics (wmf or bmp format) or ASCII-files. VIEWER offers an inexpensive, fast and easy way for analysing simple and complex behaviours of many species of animals in a variety of behavioural situations.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Inhibition of brain MAO-A and animal behaviour induced by p-hydroxyamphetamine.

Intra- and extra-synaptosomal activity of monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) and -B (MAO-B), dopamine (DA) and its main metabolites were examined to clarify the mechanism of action(s) of p-hydroxyamphetamine (p-OHA) in animal behaviour mediated by central dopaminergic systems. Intrasynaptosomal DA was oxidized by MAO-A and MAO-B and this oxidation is inhibited by p-OHA. The inhibition is due to two effects: 1) uptake of DA is inhibited by p-OHA, and 2) p-OHA also inhibits intrasynaptosomal oxidation of DA by MAO-A and MAO-B. The inhibition of oxidation by MAO-A is predominant. Administration (ICV) of 80 and 160 micrograms p-OHA to mice, doses that cause various behavioural, significantly reduced striatal DA and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) levels, but greatly increased 3-methoxytyramine, without significantly changing homovanillic acid (HVA). The release of DA and blockade of DA uptake into dopaminergic neurons by p-OHA, together with preferential inhibition of the DA metabolizing enzyme, MAO-A, may contribute to p-OHA-induced behaviour mediated by the central dopaminergic systems.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetic Acid↗
PubMed1975

Effects of domestication on animal behaviour.

Centuries of domestication of animals by civilised man have had many measurable effects on the various species involved, but only in relatively recent history has scientific curiosity been directed to assessing their extent. The process of domestication is analysed and its known effects on animals reviewed through observations of and experiments with various species of domesticated animals conducted by researchers into animal psychology and biology. The known facts on the effects of domestication in animals are extrapolated in an attempt to determine to what extent modern man himself has been domesticated in the urban environment.

Adaptation, Biological↗