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Author Goto, K.; Wills, A.J.; Lea, S.E.G.
Title Global-feature classification can be acquired more rapidly than local-feature classification in both humans and pigeons Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 7 Issue 2 Pages 109-113
Keywords (down) Adult; Animals; Behavior, Animal/physiology; *Classification; Columbidae/*physiology; *Discrimination Learning; Form Perception; Humans; *Mental Processes; *Pattern Recognition, Visual; Species Specificity
Abstract When humans process visual stimuli, global information often takes precedence over local information. In contrast, some recent studies have pointed to a local precedence effect in both pigeons and nonhuman primates. In the experiment reported here, we compared the speed of acquisition of two different categorizations of the same four geometric figures. One categorization was on the basis of a local feature, the other on the basis of a readily apparent global feature. For both humans and pigeons, the global-feature categorization was acquired more rapidly. This result reinforces the conclusion that local information does not always take precedence over global information in nonhuman animals.
Address School of Psychology, Washington Singer Laboratories, University of Exeter, EX4 4QG, Exeter, UK. K.Goto@exeter.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15069610 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2530
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Author Touma, C.; Palme, R.; Sachser, N.
Title Analyzing corticosterone metabolites in fecal samples of mice: a noninvasive technique to monitor stress hormones Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Hormones and Behavior Abbreviated Journal Horm Behav
Volume 45 Issue 1 Pages 10-22
Keywords (down) Adrenal Cortex/drug effects; Adrenal Cortex Function Tests; Adrenocorticotropic Hormone/pharmacology; Analysis of Variance; Animals; Circadian Rhythm; Corticosterone/*analysis/metabolism; Dexamethasone/pharmacology; Feces/*chemistry; Female; Immunoenzyme Techniques/*methods; Male; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Models, Animal; Reproducibility of Results; Stress, Psychological/*metabolism
Abstract In small animals like mice, the monitoring of endocrine functions over time is constrained seriously by the adverse effects of blood sampling. Therefore, noninvasive techniques to monitor, for example, stress hormones in these animals are highly demanded in laboratory as well as in field research. The aim of our study was to evaluate the biological relevance of a recently developed technique to monitor stress hormone metabolites in fecal samples of laboratory mice. In total, six experiments were performed using six male and six female mice each. Two adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) challenge tests, two dexamethasone (Dex) suppression tests and two control experiments [investigating effects of the injection procedure itself and the diurnal variation (DV) of glucocorticoids (GCs), respectively] were conducted. The experiments clearly demonstrated that pharmacological stimulation and suppression of adrenocortical activity was reflected accurately by means of corticosterone metabolite (CM) measurements in the feces of males and females. Furthermore, the technique proved sensitive enough to detect dosage-dependent effects of the ACTH/Dex treatment and facilitated to reveal profound effects of the injection procedure itself. Even the naturally occurring DV of GCs could be monitored reliably. Thus, our results confirm that measurement of fecal CM with the recently established 5alpha-pregnane-3beta,11beta,21-triol-20-one enzyme immunoassay is a very powerful tool to monitor adrenocortical activity in laboratory mice. Since mice represent the vast majority of all rodents used for research worldwide and the number of transgenic and knockout mice utilized as animal models is still increasing, this noninvasive technique can open new perspectives in biomedical and behavioral science.
Address Department of Behavioural Biology, University of Muenster, D-48149 Muenster, Germany. touma@uni-muenster.de
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0018-506X ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:14733887 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4084
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Author Jeong, S.; Han, M.; Lee, H.; Kim, M.; Kim, J.; Nicol, C.J.; Kim, B.H.; Choi, J.H.; Nam, K.-H.; Oh, G.T.; Yoon, M.
Title Effects of fenofibrate on high-fat diet-induced body weight gain and adiposity in female C57BL/6J mice Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Metabolism: clinical and experimental Abbreviated Journal Metabolism
Volume 53 Issue 10 Pages 1284-1289
Keywords (down) Adipose Tissue/*anatomy & histology/drug effects; Animals; Antilipemic Agents/*pharmacology; Body Composition/*drug effects; Body Weight/drug effects; Dietary Fats/*pharmacology; Eating/drug effects; Fatty Acids/metabolism; Female; Gene Expression Regulation/drug effects; Leptin/metabolism; Liver/metabolism; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Ovariectomy; Procetofen/*pharmacology; RNA, Messenger/biosynthesis/genetics; Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear/biosynthesis/genetics/metabolism; Transcription Factors/biosynthesis/genetics/metabolism; Weight Gain/*drug effects
Abstract Our previous study suggested that fenofibrate affects obesity and lipid metabolism in a sexually dimorphic manner in part through the differential activation of hepatic peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) in male and female C57BL/6J mice. To determine whether fenofibrate reduces body weight gain and adiposity in female sham-operated (Sham) and ovariectomized (OVX) C57BL/6J mice, the effects of fenofibrate on not only body weight, white adipose tissue (WAT) mass, and food intake, but also the expression of both leptin and PPARalpha target genes were measured. Compared to their respective low-fat diet-fed controls, both Sham and OVX mice exhibited increases in body weight and WAT mass when fed a high-fat diet. Fenofibrate treatment decreased body weight gain and WAT mass in OVX, but not in Sham mice. Furthermore, fenofibrate increased the mRNA levels of PPARalpha target genes encoding peroxisomal enzymes involved in fatty acid beta-oxidation, and reduced apolipoprotein C-III (apo C-III) mRNA, all of which were expressed at higher levels in OVX compared to Sham mice. However, leptin mRNA levels were found to positively correlate with WAT mass, and food intake was not changed in either OVX or Sham mice following fenofibrate treatment. These results suggest that fenofibrate differentially regulates body weight and adiposity due in part to differences in PPARalpha activation, but not to differences in leptin production, between female OVX and Sham mice.
Address Department of Life Sciences, Mokwon University, Taejon, Korea
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0026-0495 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15375783 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 72
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Author Dall, Sasha R. X; Houston, Alasdair I.; McNamara, John M.
Title The behavioural ecology of personality: consistent individual differences from an adaptive perspective Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Ecology Letters Abbreviated Journal Ecol. Letters
Volume 7 Issue Pages 734-739
Keywords (down) Adaptive individual differences, behavioural ecology, behavioural syndromes, evolutionary game theory, life history strategies, personality differences, state-dependent dynamic programming
Abstract Individual humans, and members of diverse other species, show consistent differences in

aggressiveness, shyness, sociability and activity. Such intraspecific differences in

behaviour have been widely assumed to be non-adaptive variation surrounding

(possibly) adaptive population-average behaviour. Nevertheless, in keeping with recent

calls to apply Darwinian reasoning to ever-finer scales of biological variation, we sketch

the fundamentals of an adaptive theory of consistent individual differences in behaviour.

Our thesis is based on the notion that such .personality differences. can be selected for if

fitness payoffs are dependent on both the frequencies with which competing strategies

are played and an individual`s behavioural history. To this end, we review existing models

that illustrate this and propose a game theoretic approach to analyzing personality

differences that is both dynamic and state-dependent. Our motivation is to provide

insights into the evolution and maintenance of an apparently common animal trait:

personality, which has far reaching ecological and evolutionary implications.
Address
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 494
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Author Whiten, A.; Horner, V.; Litchfield, C.A.; Marshall-Pescini, S.
Title How do apes ape? Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Learning & Behavior Abbreviated Journal Learn. Behav.
Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 36-52
Keywords (down) Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Hominidae/*psychology; *Imitative Behavior; Imprinting (Psychology); *Learning; Psychological Theory; *Social Environment; *Social Facilitation
Abstract In the wake of telling critiques of the foundations on which earlier conclusions were based, the last 15 years have witnessed a renaissance in the study of social learning in apes. As a result, we are able to review 31 experimental studies from this period in which social learning in chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans has been investigated. The principal question framed at the beginning of this era, Do apes ape? has been answered in the affirmative, at least in certain conditions. The more interesting question now is, thus, How do apes ape? Answering this question has engendered richer taxonomies of the range of social-learning processes at work and new methodologies to uncover them. Together, these studies suggest that apes ape by employing a portfolio of alternative social-learning processes in flexibly adaptive ways, in conjunction with nonsocial learning. We conclude by sketching the kind of decision tree that appears to underlie the deployment of these alternatives.
Address Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, Scottish Primate Research Group, School of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland. a.whiten@st-and.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15161139 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 734
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Author Zentall, T.R.
Title Action imitation in birds Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav
Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 15-23
Keywords (down) Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; *Birds; *Imitative Behavior; Imprinting (Psychology); *Learning; Motivation; Psychological Theory; *Social Environment; *Social Facilitation; Vocalization, Animal
Abstract Action imitation, once thought to be a behavior almost exclusively limited to humans and the great apes, surprisingly also has been found in a number of bird species. Because imitation has been viewed by some psychologists as a form of intelligent behavior, there has been interest in how it is distributed among animal species. Although the mechanisms responsible for action imitation are not clear, we are now at least beginning to understand the conditions under which it occurs. In this article, I try to identify and differentiate the various forms of socially influenced behavior (species-typical social reactions, social effects on motivation, social effects on perception, socially influenced learning, and action imitation) and explain why it is important to differentiate imitation from other forms of social influence. I also examine some of the variables that appear to be involved in the occurrence of imitation. Finally, I speculate about why a number of bird species, but few mammal species, appear to imitate.
Address Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA. zentall@uky.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15161137 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 230
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Author Fragaszy, D.; Visalberghi, E.
Title Socially biased learning in monkeys Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav
Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 24-35
Keywords (down) Adaptation, Psychological; Animal Communication; Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Feeding Behavior/psychology; Food Preferences/psychology; Haplorhini/*psychology; *Imitative Behavior; Imprinting (Psychology); *Learning; *Social Environment; *Social Facilitation
Abstract We review socially biased learning about food and problem solving in monkeys, relying especially on studies with tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and callitrichid monkeys. Capuchin monkeys most effectively learn to solve a new problem when they can act jointly with an experienced partner in a socially tolerant setting and when the problem can be solved by direct action on an object or substrate, but they do not learn by imitation. Capuchin monkeys are motivated to eat foods, whether familiar or novel, when they are with others that are eating, regardless of what the others are eating. Thus, social bias in learning about foods is indirect and mediated by facilitation of feeding. In most respects, social biases in learning are similar in capuchins and callitrichids, except that callitrichids provide more specific behavioral cues to others about the availability and palatability of foods. Callitrichids generally are more tolerant toward group members and coordinate their activity in space and time more closely than capuchins do. These characteristics support stronger social biases in learning in callitrichids than in capuchins in some situations. On the other hand, callitrichids' more limited range of manipulative behaviors, greater neophobia, and greater sensitivity to the risk of predation restricts what these monkeys learn in comparison with capuchins. We suggest that socially biased learning is always the collective outcome of interacting physical, social, and individual factors, and that differences across populations and species in social bias in learning reflect variations in all these dimensions. Progress in understanding socially biased learning in nonhuman species will be aided by the development of appropriately detailed models of the richly interconnected processes affecting learning.
Address Psychology Department, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA. doree@uga.edu
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15161138 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 828
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Author Nicol, C.J.
Title Development, direction, and damage limitation: social learning in domestic fowl Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Learning & behavior : a Psychonomic Society publication Abbreviated Journal Learn Behav
Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 72-81
Keywords (down) Adaptation, Psychological; Age Factors; Animals; Behavior, Animal; *Chickens; *Feeding Behavior; *Food Preferences; *Imitative Behavior; Imprinting (Psychology); *Learning; Maternal Behavior; Reinforcement (Psychology); *Social Environment; *Social Facilitation
Abstract This review highlights two areas of particular interest in the study of social learning in fowl. First, the role of social learning in the development of feeding and foraging behavior in young chicks and older birds is described. The role of the hen as a demonstrator and possible teacher is considered, and the subsequent social influence of brood mates and other companions on food avoidance and food preference learning is discussed. Second, the way in which work on domestic fowl has contributed to an understanding of the importance of directed social learning is examined. The well-characterized hierarchical social organization of small chicken flocks has been used to design studies which demonstrate that the probability of social transmission is strongly influenced by social relationships between birds. The practical implications of understanding the role of social learning in the spread of injurious behaviors in this economically important species are briefly considered.
Address Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Langford, Bristol, England. c.j.nicol@bristol.ac.uk
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1543-4494 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15161142 Approved no
Call Number refbase @ user @ Serial 75
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Author Overli, O.; Korzan, W.J.; Hoglund, E.; Winberg, S.; Bollig, H.; Watt, M.; Forster, G.L.; Barton, B.A.; OVerli, E.; Renner, K.J.; Summers, C.H.
Title Stress coping style predicts aggression and social dominance in rainbow trout Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Hormones and Behavior Abbreviated Journal Horm Behav
Volume 45 Issue 4 Pages 235-241
Keywords (down) Adaptation, Psychological/physiology; Aggression/*physiology; Animals; *Dominance-Subordination; Female; *Hierarchy, Social; Hydrocortisone/blood; Individuality; Male; Matched-Pair Analysis; Oncorhynchus mykiss/*physiology; Stress/*physiopathology
Abstract Social stress is frequently used as a model for studying the neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying stress-induced behavioral inhibition, depression, and fear conditioning. It has previously been shown that social subordination may result in increased glucocorticoid release and changes in brain signaling systems. However, it is still an open question which neuroendocrine and behavioral differences are causes, and which are consequences of social status. Using juvenile rainbow trout of similar size and with no apparent differences in social history, we demonstrate that the ability to win fights for social dominance can be predicted from the duration of a behavioral response to stress, in this case appetite inhibition after transfer to a new environment. Moreover, stress responsiveness in terms of confinement-induced changes in plasma cortisol was negatively correlated to aggressive behavior. Fish that exhibited lower cortisol responses to a standardized confinement test were markedly more aggressive when being placed in a dominant social position later in the study. These findings support the view that distinct behavioral-physiological stress coping styles are present in teleost fish, and these coping characteristics influence both social rank and levels of aggression.
Address Biology Department and Neuroscience Group, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069, USA. oyvind.overli@bio.uio.no
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0018-506X ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15053939 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4192
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Author Zhang, T.-Y.; Parent, C.; Weaver, I.; Meaney, M.J.
Title Maternal programming of individual differences in defensive responses in the rat Type Journal Article
Year 2004 Publication Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Abbreviated Journal Ann N Y Acad Sci
Volume 1032 Issue Pages 85-103
Keywords (down) Adaptation, Biological; Aggression/*physiology; Animals; Evolution; Female; Gene Expression/physiology; Humans; Individuality; *Maternal Behavior; Phenotype; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Rats; Stress, Psychological/physiopathology
Abstract This paper describes the results of a series of studies showing that variations in mother-pup interactions program the development of individual differences in behavioral and endocrine stress responses in the rat. These effects are associated with altered expression of genes in brain regions, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus, that regulate the expression of stress responses. Studies from evolutionary biology suggest that such “maternal effects” are common and often associated with variations in the quality of the maternal environment. Together these findings suggest an epigenetic process whereby the experience of the mother alters the nature of the parent-offspring interactions and thus the phenotype of the offspring.
Address McGill Program for the Study of Behavior, Genes and Environment, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, 6875 boul. LaSalle, Montreal (Quebec), Canada H4H 1R3
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 0077-8923 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:15677397 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4132
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