15 research outputs found
A Neuroscientist\u27s Guide to the Vole
Prairie voles have emerged as an important rodent model for understanding the neuroscience of social behavior. Prairie voles are well known for their capacity for pair bonding and alloparental care. These behavioral phenomena overlap with human social behavior but are not commonly observed in traditional rodent models. In this article, we highlight the many benefits of using prairie voles in neuroscience research. We begin by describing the advantages of using diverse and non-traditional study models. We then focus on social behaviors, including pair bonding, alloparental care, and peer interactions, that have brought voles to the forefront of social neuroscience. We describe many additional features of prairie vole biology and behavior that provide researchers with opportunities to address an array of research questions. We also survey neuroethological methods that have been used with prairie voles, from classic to modern techniques. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of other vole species, particularly meadow voles, and their own unique advantages for neuroscience studies. This article provides a foundation for researchers who are new to working with voles, as well as for experienced neuroscientists who want to expand their research scope
Flibanserin and 8âOHâDPAT Implicate Serotonin in Association between Female Marmoset Monkey Sexual Behavior and Changes in PairâBond Quality
Introduction.â Psychopathological origins of personally distressing, hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in women are unknown, but are generally attributed to an inhibitory neural regulator, serotonin (5âHT). Flibanserin, a 5âHT 1A agonist and 5âHT 2A antagonist, shows promise as a treatment for HSDD. Aim.â To test the hypothesis that female marmoset sexual behavior is enhanced by flibanserin and diminished by 8âOHâDPAT, in order to evaluate the efficacy of serotonergic modulation of female sexual behavior in a pairmate social setting comparable to humans. Methods.â Sexual and social behavior were examined in eight female marmoset monkeys receiving daily flibanserin (15âmg/kg), 8âOHâDPAT (0.1âmg/kg), or corresponding vehicle for 15â16 weeks in a counterbalanced, withinâsubject design, while housed in longâterm, stable maleâfemale pairs. Main Outcome Measures.â Marmoset pairmate interactions, including sexual and social behavior, were scored during weeks 5â6 of daily flibanserin, 8âOHâDPAT or vehicle treatment. 24âhour pharmacokinetic profiles of the drugs and their metabolites, as well as drugâinduced acute symptoms of the 5âHT behavioral syndrome were also assessed. Results.â Twoâway analysis of variance reveals that flibanserinâtreated females attract more male sexual interest ( P â=â0.020) and trigger increased grooming ( P â=â0.001) between partners. In contrast, 8âOHâDPATâtreated females show increased rejection of male sexual advances ( P â=â0.024), a tendency for decreased male sexual interest ( P â=â0.080), and increased aggression with their male pairmates ( P â=â0.049). Conclusions.â While 8âOHâDPATâtreated female marmosets display decreased sexual receptivity and increased aggressive interactions with their male pairmates, flibanserinâtreated female marmosets demonstrate increased affiliative behavior with their male pairmates. Such proâaffiliation attributes may underlie flibanserin's effectiveness in treating HSDD in women. Aubert Y, Gustison ML, Gardner LA, Bohl MA, Lange JR, Allers KA, Sommer B, Datson NA, and Abbott DH. Flibanserin and 8âOHâDPAT implicate serotonin in association between female marmoset monkey sexual behavior and changes in pairâbond quality. J Sex Med 2012;9:694â707.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90344/1/j.1743-6109.2011.02616.x.pd
Acoustic sequences in non-human animals: a tutorial review and prospectus.
Animal acoustic communication often takes the form of complex sequences, made up of multiple distinct acoustic units. Apart from the well-known example of birdsong, other animals such as insects, amphibians, and mammals (including bats, rodents, primates, and cetaceans) also generate complex acoustic sequences. Occasionally, such as with birdsong, the adaptive role of these sequences seems clear (e.g. mate attraction and territorial defence). More often however, researchers have only begun to characterise - let alone understand - the significance and meaning of acoustic sequences. Hypotheses abound, but there is little agreement as to how sequences should be defined and analysed. Our review aims to outline suitable methods for testing these hypotheses, and to describe the major limitations to our current and near-future knowledge on questions of acoustic sequences. This review and prospectus is the result of a collaborative effort between 43 scientists from the fields of animal behaviour, ecology and evolution, signal processing, machine learning, quantitative linguistics, and information theory, who gathered for a 2013 workshop entitled, 'Analysing vocal sequences in animals'. Our goal is to present not just a review of the state of the art, but to propose a methodological framework that summarises what we suggest are the best practices for research in this field, across taxa and across disciplines. We also provide a tutorial-style introduction to some of the most promising algorithmic approaches for analysing sequences. We divide our review into three sections: identifying the distinct units of an acoustic sequence, describing the different ways that information can be contained within a sequence, and analysing the structure of that sequence. Each of these sections is further subdivided to address the key questions and approaches in that area. We propose a uniform, systematic, and comprehensive approach to studying sequences, with the goal of clarifying research terms used in different fields, and facilitating collaboration and comparative studies. Allowing greater interdisciplinary collaboration will facilitate the investigation of many important questions in the evolution of communication and sociality.This review was developed at an investigative workshop, âAnalyzing Animal Vocal Communication Sequencesâ that took place on October 21â23 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee, sponsored by the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). NIMBioS is an Institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture through NSF Awards #EF-0832858 and #DBI-1300426, with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition to the authors, Vincent Janik participated in the workshop. D.T.B.âs research is currently supported by NSF DEB-1119660. M.A.B.âs research is currently supported by NSF IOS-0842759 and NIH R01DC009582. M.A.R.âs research is supported by ONR N0001411IP20086 and NOPP (ONR/BOEM) N00014-11-1-0697. S.L.DeR.âs research is supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research. R.F.-i-C.âs research was supported by the grant BASMATI (TIN2011-27479-C04-03) from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. E.C.G.âs research is currently supported by a National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship. E.E.V.âs research is supported by CONACYT, Mexico, award number I010/214/2012.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/brv.1216
A survey of the context and structure of high-and low-amplitude calls in mammals
Quantifying how animal vocalizations vary is central to understanding their function and evolution. One commonly documented feature of mammalian calls is the systematic variation in amplitude across call types. Despite a large body of existing data, there has been little attempt to assess how common calls of varying amplitude are in mammals, how broadly they are distributed at the taxonomic level, and whether similarities in context and structure across species can inform our understanding of the selective pressures promoting the evolution of amplitude variation. Here, we perform a comparative survey of amplitude variation in adult vocal repertoires from 47 species belonging to nine mammalian orders. Our data set demonstrates that low-, medium- and high-amplitude calls are not restricted to certain mammalian groups but occur widely across taxa. Furthermore, contextual analyses indicate that there are consistent differences in the contexts that accompany low-, medium- and high-amplitude calls. Specifically, we found that high-amplitude calls are reported to occur more often in agonistic and alarm-related contexts and less often in affiliative social contexts compared to low- and medium-amplitude calls. In addition, acoustic comparisons indicate that calls of varying amplitude are divergent in terms of underlying call structure. Our findings suggest that low-amplitude calls are shorter in duration and lower in frequency than medium- and high-amplitude calls. We compare and contrast our findings with similar recent approaches investigating amplitude variation in birds and discuss the implications our findings have for unpacking the adaptive significance of amplitude variation in animals more generally
An experimental study of behavioural coping strategies in free-ranging female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)
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A Neuroscientist's Guide to the Vole
Prairie voles have emerged as an important rodent model for understanding the neuroscience of social behavior. Prairie voles are well known for their capacity for pair bonding and alloparental care. These behavioral phenomena overlap with human social behavior but are not commonly observed in traditional rodent models. In this article, we highlight the many benefits of using prairie voles in neuroscience research. We begin by describing the advantages of using diverse and non-traditional study models. We then focus on social behaviors, including pair bonding, alloparental care, and peer interactions, that have brought voles to the forefront of social neuroscience. We describe many additional features of prairie vole biology and behavior that provide researchers with opportunities to address an array of research questions. We also survey neuroethological methods that have been used with prairie voles, from classic to modern techniques. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of other vole species, particularly meadow voles, and their own unique advantages for neuroscience studies. This article provides a foundation for researchers who are new to working with voles, as well as for experienced neuroscientists who want to expand their research scope. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC
Sexual coordination in a whole-brain map of prairie vole pair bonding
Sexual bonds are central to the social lives of many species, including humans, and monogamous prairie voles have become the predominant model for investigating such attachments. We developed an automated whole-brain mapping pipeline to identify brain circuits underlying pair-bonding behavior. We identified bonding-related c-Fos induction in 68 brain regions clustered in seven major brain-wide neuronal circuits. These circuits include known regulators of bonding, such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricular hypothalamus, ventral pallidum, and prefrontal cortex. They also include brain regions previously unknown to shape bonding, such as ventromedial hypothalamus, medial preoptic area, and the medial amygdala, but that play essential roles in bonding-relevant processes, such as sexual behavior, social reward, and territorial aggression. Contrary to some hypotheses, we found that circuits active during mating and bonding were largely sexually monomorphic. Moreover, c-Fos induction across regions was strikingly consistent between members of a pair, with activity best predicted by rates of ejaculation. A novel cluster of regions centered in the amygdala remained coordinated after bonds had formed, suggesting novel substrates for bond maintenance. Our tools and results provide an unprecedented resource for elucidating the networks that translate sexual experience into an enduring bond
Data from: Vocal and locomotor coordination develops in association with the autonomic nervous system
In adult animals, movement and vocalizations are coordinated, sometimes facilitating, and at other times inhibiting, each other. What is missing is how these different domains of motor control become coordinated over the course of development. We investigated how postural-locomotor behaviors may influence vocal development, and the role played by physiological arousal during their interactions. Using infant marmoset monkeys, we densely sampled vocal, postural and locomotor behaviors and estimated arousal fluctuations from electrocardiographic measures of heart rate. We found that vocalizations matured sooner than postural and locomotor skills, and that vocal-locomotor coordination improved with age and during elevated arousal levels. These results suggest that postural-locomotor maturity is not required for vocal development to occur, and that infants gradually improve coordination between vocalizations and body movement through a process that may be facilitated by arousal level changes
Gelada vocal sequences follow Menzerath's linguistic law
Identifying universal principles underpinning diverse natural systems is a key goal of the life sciences. A powerful approach in addressing this goal has been to test whether patterns consistent with linguistic laws are found in nonhuman animals. Menzerath's law is a linguistic law that states that, the larger the construct, the smaller the size of its constituents. Here, to our knowledge, we present the first evidence that Menzerath's law holds in the vocal communication of a nonhuman species. We show that, in vocal sequences of wild male geladas (Theropithecus gelada), construct size (sequence size in number of calls) is negatively correlated with constituent size (duration of calls). Call duration does not vary significantly with position in the sequence, but call sequence composition does change with sequence size and most call types are abbreviated in larger sequences. We also find that intercall intervals follow the same relationship with sequence size as do calls. Finally, we provide formal mathematical support for the idea that Menzerath's law reflects compression-the principle of minimizing the expected length of a code. Our findings suggest that a common principle underpins human and gelada vocal communication, highlighting the value of exploring the applicability of linguistic laws in vocal systems outside the realm of language.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft