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Lemasson, A., Koda, H., Kato, A., Oyakawa, C., Blois-Heulin, C., & Masataka, N. (2010). Influence of sound specificity and familiarity on Japanese macaques' (Macaca fuscata) auditory laterality. Behav. Brain. Res., 208(1), 286–289.
Abstract: Despite attempts to generalise the left hemisphere-speech association of humans to animal communication, the debate remains open. More studies on primates are needed to explore the potential effects of sound specificity and familiarity. Familiar and non-familiar nonhuman primate contact calls, bird calls and non-biological sounds were broadcast to Japanese macaques. Macaques turned their heads preferentially towards the left (right hemisphere) when hearing conspecific or familiar primates supporting hemispheric specialisation. Our results support the role of experience in brain organisation and the importance of social factors to understand laterality evolution.
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Jankunis, E. S., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2013). Sucrose Bobs and Quinine Gapes: Horse (Equus caballus) responses to taste support phylogenetic similarity in taste reactivity. Behavioural Brain Research, 256, 284–290.
Abstract: Evidence suggests that behavioural affective reactions to sweet and bitter substances are homologous in humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents. The sweet taste of sucrose elicits facial responses that include rhythmic tongue protrusions whereas the bitter taste of quinine elicits facial responses that include gapes, featuring an opening of the mouth and protrusion of the tongue. The present study using the horse (Equus caballus) was undertaken for three reasons: (1) there is debate about the presence of a sweet receptor gene in the horse, (2) there is a need to expand the examination of facial reactions to taste in lineages other than the closely related lineages of rodents and primates, and (3) the horse provides an opportunity to test the hypothesis that some social signals derive from movements related to taste reaction. The horses were given oral infusions of either sucrose or quinine and their behaviour was examined using frame-by-frame video analysis. Control groups were exposed received water or syringe insertion only. Amongst the many responses made to the infusions, the distinctive response to sucrose was a bob coupled with a slight tongue protrusion and forward movement of the ears; the distinctive response to quinine was a head extension and mouth gape accompanied by a large tongue protrusion and backward movement of the ears. Sucrose Bobs and Quinine Gapes are discussed with respect to: (1) the relevance of facial reactions to both sucrose and quinine to taste receptors in horses, (2) the similarity of features of taste expression in horses to those documented in rodents and primates, and (3) the dissimilarity between facial reactions to taste and other social signals displayed by horses.
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Hoshaw, B. A., Evans, J. C., Mueller, B., Valentino, R. J., & Lucki, I. (2006). Social competition in rats: Cell proliferation and behavior. Behav. Brain. Res., 175(2), 343–351.
Abstract: Behavioral and physiological changes were studied following prolonged exposure to social competition in pairs of non-food-deprived rats competing daily for a limited supply of graham cracker crumbs. Stable dominant-subordinate relationships developed in most pairs, as measured by feeding time, which were maintained over a 5-6-week study period. In other behavioral tests, subordinates demonstrated a decreased latency to immobility in the forced swim test compared with dominants, but no difference in locomotor activity. Subordinates had increased bladder size, decreased adrenal gland size, and a 35% reduction of hippocampus cell proliferation compared with the dominant member. Therefore, prolonged social competition, based on restricted access to palatable substances, produced hierarchies among individuals that were associated with differences in behavior, physiology and hippocampal cell proliferation.
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Gibson, B. M., Shettleworth, S. J., & McDonald, R. J. (2001). Finding a goal on dry land and in the water: differential effects of disorientation on spatial learning. Behav. Brain. Res., 123(1), 103–111.
Abstract: Two previous studies, Martin et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 183) and Dudchenko et al. (J. Exp. Psychol. Anim. Behav. Process. 23 (1997) 194), report that, compared to non-disoriented controls, rats disoriented before testing were disrupted in their ability to learn the location of a goal on a dry radial-arm maze task, but that both groups learned at the same rate in the Morris water maze. However, the radial-arm maze task was much more difficult than the water maze. In the current set of experiments, we examined the performance of control and disoriented rats on more comparable dry land and water maze tasks. Compared to non-disoriented rats, rats that were disoriented before testing were significantly impaired in locating a goal in a circular dry arena, but not a water tank. The results constrain theoretical explanations for the differential effects of disorientation on different spatial tasks.
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Arakawa, H., Arakawa, K., Blanchard, D. C., & Blanchard, R. J. (2008). A new test paradigm for social recognition evidenced by urinary scent marking behavior in C57BL/6J mice. Behav. Brain. Res., 190(1), 97–104.
Abstract: Olfaction is a major sensory element in intraspecies recognition and communication in mice. The present study investigated scent marking behaviors of males of the highly inbred C57BL/6J (C57) strain in order to evaluate the ability of these behaviors to provide clear and consistent measures of social familiarity and response to social signals. C57 males engage in scent marking when placed in a chamber with a wire mesh partition separating them from a conspecific. Male mice (C57 or outbred CD-1 mice) showed rapid habituation of scent marking (decreased marking over trials) with repeated exposure at 24-h intervals, to a stimulus animal of the C57 or CD-1 strains, or to an empty chamber. Subsequent exposure to a genetically different novel mouse (CD-1 after CD-1 exposure, or CD-1 after C57 exposure) or to a novel context (different shaped chamber) produced recovery of marking, while responses to a novel but genetically identical mouse (C57 after C57 exposure) or to the empty chamber did not. This finding demonstrated that male mice differentiate familiar and novel conspecifics as expressed by habituation and recovery of scent marking, but neither C57 or CD-1 mice can differentiate new vs. familiar C57 males; likely due to similarities in their odor patterns. The data also indicate that scent marking can differentiate novel from familiar contexts.
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