Neurobehavioural and molecular mechanisms of social learning in zebrafish

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D. degree in Behavioural Biology, presented at ISPA – Instituto Universitário in the year of 2019Os animais utilizam informação social e não social para tomarem decisões adaptativas que tem impacto no seu fitness. O uso de informação social traz vantagens como escapar a um predador, encontrar fontes de comida ou evitar lutas com indivíduos mais fortes, apenas por observação dos seus conspecíficos ou produtos relacionados com eles. A aprendizagem social ocorre quando os indivíduos observam o comportamento de outros ou as suas consequências para modificar o seu próprio comportamento. Esta estratégia comportamental é conservada entre espécies: os grilos, Nemobius sylvestris, adaptam o seu comportamento para evitar um predador depois de observar o comportamento de outros e mantem essas mudanças comportamentais, duradouramente, mesmo apos os demonstradores não estarem presentes; as abelhas operárias, Apis Mellifera, apresentam uma série de comportamentos motores estereotipados que informam outras operárias da localização precisa de uma fonte de comida. Os mecanismos neuronais da aprendizagem social não estão claramente compreendidos, e são o centro de debate nesta área de investigação. Alguns autores hipotetizam que os mecanismos neurais da aprendizagem social são partilhados, e outros autores defendem que a aprendizagem social é um domínio geral presente até em espécies solitárias. O principal objetivo deste trabalho é clarificar os mecanismos subjacentes a aprendizagem social e não social. Este trabalho subdivide-se em dois capítulos experimentais: o capítulo II, onde procuramos os circuitos neurais do condicionamento observado com um estímulo social ou não social; e capitulo III, no qual a eficácia de estímulos sociais químicos e visuais é testada num paradigma de condicionamento aversivo. Em ambos os capítulos, um gene de ativação imediata são usados como marcadores de atividade neuronal: no capítulo II utilizando a expressão de c-fos, por hibridação insitu, para mapear as regiões do cérebro recrutadas em aprendizagem social e não social; e no capítulo III, a reação quantitativa em cadeia da polimerase foi utilizada numa abordagem com genes e regiões do cérebro candidatas para perceber o envolvimento do sistema olfativo em aprendizagem social olfativa. No capítulo II, nós demonstramos que a aprendizagem social (SL) recruta diferentes regiões do cérebro quando comparada com a aprendizagem não social (AL): SL aumenta a expressão de c-fos nos bulbos olfativos, na zona ventral da área telencefálica ventral, na habénula ventral, no tálamo ventromedial e a AL diminui a expressão de c-fos na habénula dorsal e no núcleo tubercular anterior. Alem disso, conjuntos diferenciais de regiões cerebrais aparecem associados a aprendizagem social e não social depois de uma análise funcional da conectividade entre as regiões do cérebro. No capítulo III, nós mostramos que pistas sociais visuais, como a observação de um conspecífico a exibir uma resposta de alarme, não é eficaz como um estimulo não condicionado (US), mas pistas sociais olfativas, como substância de alarme, foi altamente eficiente como US em aprendizagem aversiva. Além disso, identificamos os bulbos olfativos como uma área do cérebro essencial para condicionamento observado olfativo. Uma análise funcional da coesão e conectividade dos núcleos do cérebro envolvidos em processamento olfativo mostraram uma rede apurada para condicionamento observado olfativo. Em resumo, a presente tese elucida o debate nesta área de investigação sobre os mecanismos da aprendizagem social. Este trabalho clarifica que ao nível comportamental a aprendizagem social requer um domínio geral e ao nível neuronal é necessária uma rede modular que permite a computação em simultâneo de várias informações com diferentes níveis de complexidade.Animals use social and asocial information to take adaptive decisions that impact their fitness. The use of social information brings advantages as to escape a predator, to find a food source or to avoid fights with strongest individuals, only by the observation of conspecifics or their related products. Social learning occurs when individuals observe the behaviour of others, or its consequences, to modify their own behaviour. This behavioural strategy is highly conserved across taxa: the crickets, Nemobius sylvestris, adapt their predator-avoidance behaviour after having observed the behaviour of knowledgeable others, and they maintain these behavioural changes lastingly after demonstrators are gone; the foragers of honeybees, Apis mellifera, display a series of stereotypical motor behaviours which inform other foragers of the precise location of floral food. The neuronal mechanisms of social learning are not clearly understood, and they are in centre of debate in the field. Some authors hypothesized that the neural mechanisms of social learning are shared and others that social learning is a general domain present even in solitary species. The main goal of the present work is to clarify the mechanisms underlying social and asocial learning. This work subdivide in two experimental chapters: the chapter II, where we search for the neuronal circuits of reward observational conditioning with social or asocial stimuli; and the chapter III, in which the effectiveness of a chemical and a visual social stimulus are tested as unconditioned stimulus (US) in an aversive learning paradigm. In both chapters, an immediate early gene is used as a marker of neuronal activity: in chapter II using the expression of c-fos, by in-situ hybridization, to map the brain regions recruited in social and asocial learning; and in chapter III, the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (pPCR) was used in a candidate genes and brain regions approach. In chapter II, we demonstrated that social learning (SL) recruit different brain regions than asocial learning (AL): SL increased the expression of c-fos in olfactory bulbs, in ventral zone of ventral telencephalic area, in ventral habenula, in ventromedial thalamus and AL decreased the expression of c-fos in dorsal habenula and in anterior tubercular nucleus. Moreover, differential sets of brain regions appear associated to social and asocial learning after a functional connectivity analysis. In chapter III, we showed that the social visual cue, the sight of alarmed conspecifics, was not effective as an US; but social olfactory cue, the alarm substance, was highly efficient in aversive learning paradigm. Also, we identified the olfactory bulbs as an essential brain region to olfactory observational conditioning. A functional analysis of the cohesion and connectivity of the brain nuclei involved in olfactory processing were tuned to chemical observational conditioning. In sum, the present thesis elucidated the debate in the field on the mechanisms of social learning. This work clarified that at the behavioural level social learning proved to be a general domain, and at the neuronal level a modular network is needed to allow the computation, at the same time, of high amount information with different levels of complexity

İnvestigating professional identity of English language teachers in the Turkish context

102 pagesThe aim of the study is to explore the professional identity of English language teachers in the Turkish context. The study also aims to find out personal and professional experiences that influence teacher identity of Turkish EFL teachers within the Turkish context. The participants of the study are three Turkish EFL teachers employed by state universities in Istanbul, Turkey. Case study method was chosen for this study since the aim is to gain insight into an in-depth understanding of participants’ own meaning-making. In order to gain insights about the participants own meaning-making, data were collected from three EFL teachers at state universities by means of semi-structured interviews and written tasks i.e., Tree of Life and metaphor activity. The interviews were conducted with each participant individually and in Turkish for a better self-reflection. They were all tape recorded, converted into the verbatim transcript, and translated into English. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, which is a qualitative research methodology, to unveil the teachers’ perceptions towards teachers’ professional identity. The main findings of the research revealed that personal and professional experiences of the participants, especially their prior learning experiences, teaching experiences and significant others in their lives, had a significant influence on their identities as Turkish EFL teachers. The results also indicated that the participants had both common and distinct perception of society, authority and culture depending on their personal and professional backgrounds.Bu çalışma, Türkiye’deki İngilizce öğretmenlerinin mesleki kimliklerini araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Buna ek olarak, kişisel ve mesleki tecrübelerin Türkiye’deki yabancı dil öğretmenlerinin kimliklerine etkisini anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmanın katılımcıları, Türkiye’deki devlet üniversitelerinde görev yapan üç Türk yabancı dil öğretmenidir. Bu çalışmanın amacı katılımcıların kendi yarattıkları anlamları ortaya çıkarmak olduğundan bu çalışma için vaka incelemesi seçilmiştir. Bu amacı gerçekleştirmek için veriler, devlet üniversitelerinde çalışan üç yabancı dil öğretmeninden yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler ve Yaşam Ağacı ve Metafor gibi yazılı ödevler vasıtasıyla toplanmıştır. Görüşmeler, her bir katılımcıyla bireysel olarak ve kendilerini daha iyi ifade etmelerini sağlamak için Türkçe dilinde yapılmıştır. Verilerin tümü kaydedilmiş, yazılı kopyası çıkartılmış ve İngilizce’ye çevrilmiştir. Öğretmenlerin mesleki kimlik algılarını ortaya çıkarmak için veriler, bir nitel araştırma yöntemi olan tematik analiz ile incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın ana bulguları, geçmiş öğrenme tecrübeleri, öğretme tecrübeleri ve hayatlarındaki önemli kişiler başta olmak üzere kişisel ve mesleki tecrübelerin, yabancı dil öğretmeni olarak katılımcıların mesleki kimliklerinde önemli etkileri olduğunu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bunun yanı sıra bulgular, katılımcıların toplum algısı, otorite ve kültür konularında ortak ve farklı görüşlere sahip olduğunu göstermiştir

A Continuum of Intentionality: linking biogenic and anthropogenic approaches to cognition

Biogenic approaches investigate cognition from the standpoint of evolutionary function, asking what cognition does for a living system and then looking for common principles and exhibitions of cognitive strategies in a vast array of living systems – non-neural to neural. One worry which arises for the biogenic approach is that it is overly permissive in terms of what it construes as cognition. In this paper I critically engage with a recent instance of this way of criticising biogenic approaches in order to clarify their theoretical commitments and prospects. In his critique of the biogenic approach, Fred Adams (2018) uses the presence of intentional states with conceptual content as a criterion to demarcate cognition-driven behaviour from mere sensory response. In this paper I agree with Adams that intentionality is the mark of the cognitive, but simultaneously reject his overly restrictive conception of intentionality. I argue that understanding intentionality simpliciter as the mark of the mental is compatible with endorsing the biogenic approach. I argue that because cognitive science is not exclusively interested in behaviour driven by intentional states with the kind of content Adams demands, the biogenic approach’s status as an approach to cognition is not called into question. I then go on to propose a novel view of intentionality whereby it is seen to exist along a continuum which increases in the degree of representational complexity: how far into the future representational content can be directed and drive anticipatory behaviour. Understanding intentionality as existing along a continuum allows biogenic approaches and anthropogenic approaches to investigate the same overarching capacity of cognition as expressed in its different forms positioned along the continuum of intentionality. Even if all organisms engage in some behaviour that is driven by weak intentional dynamics, this does not suggest that every behaviour of all organisms is so driven. As such, the worry that the biogenic approach is overly permissive can be avoided

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis Facilitates Evolutionary Models of Culture Change

The Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) is beginning to fulfill the whole promise of Darwinian insight through its extension of evolutionary understanding from the biological domain to include cultural information evolution. Several decades of important foundation-laying work took a social Darwinist approach and exhibited and ecologically-deterministic elements. This is not the case with more recent developments to the evolutionary study of culture, which emphasize non-Darwinian processes such as self-organization, potentiality, and epigenetic change.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables; in Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution, 9(2), 84-10

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationUsing eye-tracking technology to capture the visual scanpaths of a sample of laypersons (N = 92), the current study employed a 2 (training condition: ABCDE vs. Ugly Duckling Sign) Ã- 2 (visual condition: photorealistic images vs. illustrations) factorial design to assess whether SSE training succeeds or fails in facilitating increases in sensitivity and specificity. Self-efficacy and perceived importance were tested as moderators, and eye-tracking fixation metrics as mediators, within the framework of Visual Skill Acquisition Theory (VSAT). For sensitivity, results indicated a significant main effect for visual condition, F(1,88) = 7.102, p = .009, wherein illustrations (M = .524, SD = .197) resulted in greater sensitivity than photos (M = .425, SD = .159, d = .55). For specificity, the main effect for training was not significant, F(1,88) = 2.120, p = .149; however, results indicated a significant main effect for visual condition, F(1,88) = 4.079, p = .046, wherein photos (M = .821, SD = .108) resulted in greater specificity than illustrations (M = .770, SD = .137, d = .41). The interaction for training Ã- visual condition, F(1,88) = 3.554, p = .063, was significant within a 90% confidence interval, such that those within the UDS Photo condition displayed greater specificity than all other combinations of training and visual condition. No significant moderated mediation manifested for sensitivity, but for specificity, the model was significant, r = .59, R2 = .34, F(9,82) = 4.7783, p =.001, with Percent of Time in Lookzone serving as a significant mediator, and both self-efficacy and visual condition significantly moderating the mediation. For those in the photo condition with very high self-efficacy, UDS increased specificity directly. For those in the photo condition with self-efficacy levels at the mean or lower, there was a conditional indirect effect through Percent of Time in Lookzoneâ€"which is to say that these individuals spent a larger amount of their viewing time on target (observing the atypical nevi)â€"and time on target is positively related to specificity. Findings suggest that existing SSE training techniques may be enhanced by maximizing visual processing efficiency

The Relationship between Theory of Mind and Traits Associated with Autism Spectrum Condition and Pathological Demand Avoidance Presentations

This thesis explores the relationship between theory of mind (ToM) and behaviour in childhood. It is presented in three parts. Part 1 is a systematic literature review examining the relationship between ToM and aggressive behaviour in childhood. The review focuses on studies of typically developing children which report correlation analyses between ToM and aggression. Using a meta-analysis, the review found a weak but significant relationship between better-developed ToM and lower levels of aggressive behaviour. Part 2, the empirical research paper, explores the profile of pathological demand avoidance (PDA) in autism spectrum conditions (ASC), and investigates the relationship between ToM and behaviours and traits associated with (1) ASC and (2) PDA. Quantitative data were collected via parent-report questionnaires and continuous and between-group analyses were conducted. Better parent-reported ToM was associated with lower levels of ASC traits, although no association was found between ToM and PDA traits. In addition, the findings support previous research arguing for the use of the PDA label to describe a set of symptoms within the autism spectrum. The results are discussed with reference to the wider literature and methodological limitations. This was part of a joint project with Anna Goodson, trainee clinical psychologist. Part 3 is a critical appraisal on the research as a whole. The methodological challenges and limitations of the study are discussed. Broader conceptual issues are considered before concluding with further reflections on my own personal experience of the research process

Cross-cultural adaptation as an intergroup phenomenon: antecedents, processes and manifestations

This thesis bridges two scientific fields: cross-cultural adaptation and intergroup relations, by examining the role of intergroup factors as antecedents, moderators and manifestations of crosscultural adaptation. In the first step, the current state of the art was investigated to identify those intergroup factors that are the most relevant to adaptation and those that are understudied. Chapter 2 reports a systematic review of literature covering 217 quantitative studies including social-contextual antecedents of cross-cultural adaptation. Chapter 3 reports a study consisting of 119 different meta-analyses of 213 primary studies showing high relevance of intergroup factos such as perceived discrimination or intergroup contact. In the second step, several studies with adapting populations were conducted to better understand the connections between cross-cultural adaptation and intergroup factors. Chapter 4 reports an online survey of 220 international students suggesting that the role of social identification in the adaptation process is ambivalente and depends on whether the reference group is associated with the culture of origin or not. Chapter 5 reports a set of three studies demonstrating that adaptation is reflected at the level of social cognition, that is, in the valence of representations of the host national outgroup held by newcomers. In Chapter 6, I discuss the main insights from this work and their implications. Overall, this thesis shows that the links between intergroup factors and adaptation are consistente and often strong, which suggests that by supporting immigrant and sojourner adaptation, one contributes to building harmonious intergroup relations in today's multicultural societies.A presente dissertação interliga duas áreas de pesquisa: adaptação intercultural e relações intergrupais, examinando o papel dos fatores intergrupais enquanto antecedentes, moderadores e manifestações de adaptação intercultural. Primeiramente, o estado de arte foi investigado para identificar os fatores intergrupais mais relevantes para a adaptação, tal como os fatores omitidos. O Capítulo 2 relata uma revisão sistemática da literatura incluindo 217 estudos quantitativos sobre adaptação intercultural com antecedentes socio-contextuais de adaptação intercultural. O Capítulo 3 relata um estudo com 119 meta-análises diferentes de 213 estudos primários, demonstrando a alta relevância de fatores intergrupais tais como discriminação percebida ou contato intergrupal. Seguidamente, conduziram-se estudos com populações em adaptação para compreender as associações entre adaptação intercultural e fatores intergrupais. O Capítulo 4 relata um estudo online de 220 estudantes internacionais que sugere que o papel da identificação social no processo de adaptação é ambivalente, dependendo se o grupo de referência está ou não associado com a cultura de origem. O Capítulo 5 relata três estudos demonstrando que o grau de adaptação é refletido ao nível da cognição social, isto é, na valência das representações do exogrupo nacional maioritário. No Capítulo 6, as principais conclusões deste trabalho, tal como as suas implicações, são discutidas. Em geral, esta dissertação demostra que as associações entre os fatores intergrupais e a adaptação são consistentes e muitas vezes fortes, sugerindo que ao apoiar a adaptação dos imigrantes e sojourners, pode-se contribuir para a harmonia das relações intergrupais nas sociedades multiculturais de hoje