Third-party prosocial behavior in adult female rats is impaired after perinatal fluoxetine exposure

SSRIs are commonly used to treat pregnant women with depression. However, SSRIs can cross the placenta and affect the development of the fetus. The effects of perinatal SSRI exposure, and especially the effects on social behavior, are still incompletely documented. This study first aims to investigate whether rats show prosocial behavior in the form of consolation behavior. Secondly, it aims to investigate whether perinatal SSRI exposure affects this prosocial behavior. At last, we investigate whether the behavior changed after the rats had been exposed to an additional white-noise stressor. Rat dams received 10 mg/kg/d fluoxetine (FLX) or vehicle (CTR) via oral gavage from gestational day 1 until postnatal day 21. At adulthood, the rat offspring were housed in four cohorts of 4 females and 4 males in a seminatural environment. As prosocial behaviors are more prominent after stressful situations, we investigated the behavioral response of rats immediately after natural aggressive encounters (fights). Additionally, we studied whether a stressful white-noise exposure would alter this response to the aggressive encounters. Our study indicates that CTR-female rats are able to show third party prosocial behavior in response to witnessing aggressive encounters between conspecifics in a seminatural environment. In addition, we showed that perinatal FLX exposure impairs the display of prosocial behavior in female rats. Moreover, we found no signs of prosocial behavior in CTR- and FLX-males after natural aggressive encounters. After white-noise exposure the effects in third party prosocial behavior of CTR-females ceased to exist. We conclude that female rats are able to show prosocial behavior, possibly in the form of consolation behavior. In addition, the negative effects of perinatal fluoxetine exposure on prosocial behavior could provide additional evidence that SSRI treatment during pregnancy could contribute to the risk for social impairments in the offspring

Effects of perinatal fluoxetine exposure on novelty-induced social and non-social investigation behaviors in a seminatural environment

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are increasingly prescribed as medication for various affective disorders during pregnancy. SSRIs cross the placenta and affect serotonergic neurotransmission in the fetus, but the neurobehavioral consequences for the offspring remain largely unclear. Recent rodent research has linked perinatal SSRI exposure to alterations in both social and non-social aspects of behavior. However, this research has mainly focused on behavior within simplified environments. The current study investigates the effects of perinatal SSRI exposure on social and non-social investigation behaviors of adult rat offspring upon introduction to a novel seminatural environment with unknown conspecifics. During the perinatal period (gestational day 1 until postnatal day 21), rat dams received daily treatment with either an SSRI (fluoxetine, 10 mg/kg) or vehicle. Adult male and female offspring were observed within the first hour after introduction to a seminatural environment. The results showed that perinatal fluoxetine exposure altered aspects of non-social investigation behaviors, while not altering social investigation behaviors. More specifically, both fluoxetine-exposed males and females spent more total time on locomotor activity than controls. Furthermore, fluoxetine-exposed females spent less time exploring objects and specific elements in the environment. The data suggest that perinatal exposure to SSRIs leads to a quicker, less detailed investigation strategy in novel environments and that the alteration is mostly pronounced in females. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-021-05984-8

Dutch Robotics 2011 adult-size team description

This document presents the 2011 edition of the team Dutch Robotics from The Netherlands. Our team gathers three Dutch technical universities, namely Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, and the commercial company Philips. We contribute an adult-size humanoid robot TUlip, which is designed based on theory of the limit cycle walking developed in our earlier research. The key of our theory is that stable periodic walking gaits can be achieved even without high-bandwidth robot position control. Our control approach is based on simultaneous position and force control. For accurate force control, we make use of the Series Elastic Actuation. The control software of TUlip is based on the Darmstadt’s RoboFrame, and it runs on a PC104 computer with Linux Xenomai. The vision system consists of two wide-angle cameras, each interfaced with a dedicated Blackfin processor running vision algorithms, and a wireless networking interface

Dutch Robotics 2010 adult-size team description

This document presents the 2010 edition of the team Dutch Robotics from The Netherlands. Our team gathers three Dutch technical universities, namely Delft University of Technology, Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, and the commercial company Philips. We contribute an adult-size humanoid robot TUlip, which is designed based on theory of the limit cycle walking developed in our earlier research. The key of our theory is that stable periodic walking gaits can be achieved even without high-bandwidth robot position control. Our control approach is based on simultaneous position and force control. For accurate force control, we make use of the Series Elastic Actuation. The control software of TUlip is based on the Darmstadt’s RoboFrame, and it runs on a PC104 computer with Linux Xenomai. The vision system consists of two wide-angle cameras, each interfaced with a dedicated Blackfin processor running vision algorithms, and a wireless networking interface

Hereditary diffuse gastric cancer: updated clinical guidelines with an emphasis on germline CDH1 mutation carriers.

Germline CDH1 mutations confer a high lifetime risk of developing diffuse gastric (DGC) and lobular breast cancer (LBC). A multidisciplinary workshop was organised to discuss genetic testing, surgery, surveillance strategies, pathology reporting and the patient's perspective on multiple aspects, including diet post gastrectomy. The updated guidelines include revised CDH1 testing criteria (taking into account first-degree and second-degree relatives): (1) families with two or more patients with gastric cancer at any age, one confirmed DGC; (2) individuals with DGC before the age of 40 and (3) families with diagnoses of both DGC and LBC (one diagnosis before the age of 50). Additionally, CDH1 testing could be considered in patients with bilateral or familial LBC before the age of 50, patients with DGC and cleft lip/palate, and those with precursor lesions for signet ring cell carcinoma. Given the high mortality associated with invasive disease, prophylactic total gastrectomy at a centre of expertise is advised for individuals with pathogenic CDH1 mutations. Breast cancer surveillance with annual breast MRI starting at age 30 for women with a CDH1 mutation is recommended. Standardised endoscopic surveillance in experienced centres is recommended for those opting not to have gastrectomy at the current time, those with CDH1 variants of uncertain significance and those that fulfil hereditary DGC criteria without germline CDH1 mutations. Expert histopathological confirmation of (early) signet ring cell carcinoma is recommended. The impact of gastrectomy and mastectomy should not be underestimated; these can have severe consequences on a psychological, physiological and metabolic level. Nutritional problems should be carefully monitored

Going That Extra Mile: Individuals Travel Further to Maintain Face-to-Face Contact with Highly Related Kin than with Less Related Kin

The theory of inclusive fitness has transformed our understanding of cooperation and altruism. However, the proximate psychological underpinnings of altruism are less well understood, and it has been argued that emotional closeness mediates the relationship between genetic relatedness and altruism. In this study, we use a real-life costly behaviour (travel time) to dissociate the effects of genetic relatedness from emotional closeness. Participants travelled further to see more closely related kin, as compared to more distantly related kin. For distantly related kin, the level of emotional closeness mediated this relationship - when emotional closeness was controlled for, there was no effect of genetic relatedness on travel time. However, participants were willing to travel further to visit parents, children and siblings as compared to more distantly related kin, even when emotional closeness was controlled for. This suggests that the mediating effect of emotional closeness on altruism varies with levels of genetic relatednes

An Evolutionary Perspective on Parental and Grandparental Investment

Although great effort has been spent on studying the effects of parenting on child development, much less research has focused on factors that predict individual differences in parental investment. In this dissertation, an evolutionary psychological perspective was used to identify characteristics in children that stimulate their parents and grandparents into giving them the care, attention, and emotional support they need. From an evolutionary perspective, parental investment is a means of optimizing the reproductive success of the parent. Parental investment was defined by Trivers (1972) as “any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving (and hence reproductive success) at the cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring”. So defined, parental investment is limited, and parents have to make decisions on how to allocate their resources among their offspring. According to evolutionary theory, parents are not expected to invest equally in each of the children in their household. Instead, parents are expected to favor children on the basis of their genetic relatedness and reproductive value (i.e., the child’s probable future reproductive success). In this dissertation we examined whether possible cues of genetic relatedness (i.e., parent-child resemblance and olfactory recognition) and reproductive value of the child (i.e., child attractiveness and facial symmetry) were related to parental investment in a sample of Dutch parents with school-age children. The results of our study indicate that mothers had a closer bond and spent more time with children who resembled them in personality, whereas fathers had a closer bond and used less punishment with children who resembled them physically. In addition, the ability to recognize one’s children by smell was associated with an increase in time investment for fathers, and an increase in emotional closeness and a decrease in punishment for mothers. Furthermore, both mothers and fathers reported having a closer bond with more attractive children, and fathers punished attractive children less often. Thus, despite the fact that in a contemporary Western society, such as the Netherlands, families are relatively small and emotional and economic resources are more than enough for parents to invest equally in all of the children in their household, our results suggest that parental investment by both mothers and fathers is still influenced by cues of both genetic relatedness and reproductive value of the child. In addition to individual differences in parental investment we examined differential investment by grandparents. Even though grandparental care positively influences the grandchild’s health and well-being, and thus contributes to grandparental lifetime reproductive success, not all grandparents invest equally in their grandchildren. We examined whether these differences in grandparental investment can be explained by certainty of relatedness (as assessed by kinship lines). The quality of the grandparent-grandchild relationship was rated highest with maternal grandmothers (most genetically certain) and lowest with paternal grandfathers (least genetically certain). Relationship quality with both maternal grandfathers and paternal grandmothers was rated as intermediate. These results are consistent with the prediction that discriminative grandparental solicitude varies as a function of certainty of relatedness

Manuscripts in Dutch auction catalogues

Heijkoop F.-M. Manuscripts in Dutch auction catalogues. In: Scriptorium, Tome 48 n°2, 1994. pp. 346-347

Où sont les catalogues d'antan ?

Heijkoop F.-M. Où sont les catalogues d'antan ?. In: Gazette du livre médiéval, n°23. Automne 1993. pp. 12-17